Positivity Strategist

Positivity Strategist Podcast Trailer

The professionals, researchers and authors in this podcast season have shared their specific social constructionist practice in a pre COVID world. In this episode, five of us reflect how social constructionism as an orientation is relevant and meaningful at all times, in all places and communities. More than ever, constructionist approaches that are available to us can help us heal the past and respond to current challenges and societal unrest in relational and collaborative ways. To learn more and find links, please visit https://positivitystrategist.com/social-constructionist-practice

Professor Mary Gergen, passed away on the morning of September 22, 2020. Mary was a lively, courageous, and innovative trail blazer of the Taos Institute. I had the honor and pleasure to interview Mary early in 2020 for the Positivity Strategist podcast season collaboration with the Taos Institute. In this 1 minute recording below, I celebrate Mary's life with her very own poignant words. Mary is quoting herself in her joyful, fun way. These words are timeless, priceless, and so-like-Mary!

Helping people move further away from what produces conflict and closer to the relationships they prefer is what narrative mediation seeks to produce. Conflict resolution through the lens of social construction, and framed as narrative mediation, offers that conflict between individuals is usually constructed within a larger community context. To learn more and find links about this show, please visit https://positivitystrategist.com/narrative-mediation

How do we participate in community building practices in ways that attend to difference? Ways that are genuinely committed to consider power relations and how they play out when working amidst differences? What we encounter in community can shift our perspectives and impact the relationships with ourselves and others. To find out more and access links, please visit https://positivitystrategist.com/community-building-practices

Transmaterial worlding provokes us to pay attention. Once we start to realize that we are merely co-inhabitors of this world, we awaken to the notion we are making it, or breaking it, with each breath we take, each word we utter, and each action we take. The human species as all powerful and in control is a social-cultural construct. Globally right now, we need to listen differently to the distinct parts of the world and understand that other matter is also communicating. Humans need de-centering and de-throning from the illusion of being in control of the world. For more information and links, please visit https://positivitystrategist.com/transmaterial-worlding

Educational evaluation of the entire ecosystem in education can enhance learning processes, students’ engagement and vitality of relationships in classrooms, and in the evaluation of teaching and the school as a whole. Embracing collaborative learning, dialogic pedagogy, and flexible curricula, educational evaluation that comes from a relational perspective truly speaks to the demands of a rapidly changing world. To learn more, please visit https://positivitystrategist.com/educational-evaluation

Relational processes are key to recovering from addiction. Addiction's development, sustainability and finally its ending are embedded in family, community and broader societal contexts. In order to recover an addict needs to establish new bonds based on trust respect and love; and, together with others build unique pathways to a sense of belonging. Interview with Pavel Nepustil, PdD. To find out more and gain access to links, please visit https://positivitystrategist.com/relational-processes

Dr. Lois Holzman explores the topic of social therapeutics as a playful, performatory, philosophical methodology for person and community development. Influenced by three intellectual traditions, social therapeutics seeks to bring meaning to our relational processes in collaborative and appreciative ways to elevate human connection and bridge cultural divides. To access resources and links, please visit https://positivitystrategist.com/social-therapeutics

Transformative community conferencing is an approach to community building or reconciliation. As a narrative practice, it embodies a more reflective orientation to relationships and to systems change. How and when we ask questions helps us think differently. It helps to begin to ask questions such as: “What is the narrative here? What is the story you are telling in relation to that narrative?” It enables people to engage and to flourish. When you look at events as stories you can always unpack them to make the narrative more visible to support flourishing for all. To access resources, please visit, https://positivitystrategist.com/community-conferencing

How we deal with conflict, bullying, rule violation, etc. has crucial implications on how we live together in schools but also in society. Unfortunately, punitive and authoritative approaches are still predominant, despite their negative consequences. It is clear that traditional structures in education clash with young people’s new ways of living in a global and digital world. Any resulting misbehaviors are addressed from the adults’ perspective, leaving out what is important to the children. To find out more, please visit https://positivitystrategist.com/school-harmony

Research into positive aging delivers findings that run counter to the traditional understanding of aging. The traditional view develops negative expectations. To the contrary, positive aging research and practice puts attention on the value of being optimistic, enjoying the potentials of older age and growing capacities over time. To read a summary and access resources, please visit, https://positivitystrategist.com/positive-aging

This is the introductory episode of season 5 which focuses on social innovations across many domains. We are collaborating with the Taos Institute and supporting a significant publication, The Sage Handbook of Social Constructionist Practice. My guests in this introductory episode are two of the four editors. Our conversation addresses three points: the work of Taos Institute, what social construction is, and the intention of the book. To read more and access links, please visit https://positivitystrategist.com/social-innovation-practices

Save the Date for Season 5. It’s a collaboration with the Taos Institute. Our inquiry: What are the innovations that Social Construction is bringing to our world? If you are new to social constructionist ideas and curious, this season will give you a lovely introduction. You will be exploding with possibilities and ah ah moments, as our guests share over and over, having social construction as a thought partner and guide is liberating. For more information and access resources, please visit https://positivitystrategist.com/podcast

The forests and trees, and rivers and oceans, and deserts, and all creatures have much to teach us about mutuality of purpose, and collaboration, and respect and values. Paying attention to natural phenomena - the ecology of our planet reshapes what being in community and cooperation means. It’s more than connection and belonging that holds us together, it’s entanglement. We are entangled. Please join me in celebrating our entangled relationships. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://positivitystrategist.com/ps125

Mindfulness for chocolate lovers introduces a lighthearted way to stress less and savor more each day, offering a more playful and sweeter life. This is appreciative embodying in a tasteful, olfactory way! And you don't even have to eat the chocolate. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://positivitystrategist.com/ps124

Being still is a precursor to truly listening, paying attention and opening up to possibilities, novelty, creativity and aliveness. What is beckoning you? Racing around may be helpful to get things done. Being still allows things to come. Embodying stillness is a source of creativity. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://positivitystrategist.com/ps123

A most practical conversation on meaningful alignment where we talk about concepts such as the inner game and self regulation. We focus on interpersonal dialogue preferences and the promising outcomes we can aspire to if we learn how to embody meaningful alignment. We reflect on how to invite people to listen to what their bodies and emotions are telling them so they can cultivate caring relationships with themselves and others. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at http://positivitystrategist.com/ps122

If you’re interested in human development at the intersection of community, business, education, leadership, life, and learning stay with us. And, if you have a curiosity about exploring the principle of wholeness and embodied practices that invite one another to show up fully, you’re in the right place. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://positivitystrategist.com/ps121

Neuroscience and Design Thinking offer keys to a mindful, healthy and purposeful life. Dr. Kyra Bobinet author of Well Designed Life offers the science behind why we don’t do what we know we should. We talk about the difference between behaviors and habits and offer practices we can adopt to form new habits. Developing an iterative mindset helps us succeed. The practice of embodying self-compassion is extraordinarily easy; we do it all the time without knowing. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://positivitystrategist.com/ps120

Insights about the embodied brain and why cultivating a conscious relationship with the body matters at all times, and, especially when experiencing times of uncertainty. We touch on these topics and the integration of neuroscience and spirit. We offer three practical activities to develop an embodied consciousness. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at http://positivitystrategist.com/ps119

"To embody" means what? This is a naive exploration. Topics include designing experiences that use the whole body and ways that integrate head, heart and body. We vote with our feet, we make choices through conversations that come from where we are literally standing. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at http://positivitystrategist.com/ps118

This show as an inquiry or a search into the topic of embodying, specifically appreciative embodying. How do you move from acute awareness to deliberate action? This is an exploration of how embracing the wholeness of who we are, we embark on a developmental and generative process.For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://positivitystrategist.com/ps117

Reflecting on all the delicious diversity of perspectives on the topic of Appreciative Leading including stories on the significance of the relational process, connection, collaboration, love. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at http://positivitystrategist.com/ps116

Going meta on the topic of Appreciative Leading, Sheila McNamee offers us the social constructionist's perspective: what leading means as a relational process rather than as an individual's characteristics, traits or skills. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at http://positivitystrategist.com/ps115

A well-connected, social entrepreneur, committed to bringing a positive impact to his city is convening an Appreciative Inquiry Summit, calling all interested stakeholders to come together to imagine the future of their city. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at http://positivitystrategist.com/ps114

Applying Appreciative Inquiry in framing conversations to build the partnerships and strengthen collaboration in healthcare. Storytelling is a way to pull forward the positive from the past to envision more positive futures. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at http://positivitystrategist.com/ps113

When leading in challenging times, what if we asked questions about what is going right rather than what is going wrong? Where would people's energy go? For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at http://positivitystrategist.com/ps112

Searching for the soul of leading requires that you love people. You can never be a good leader if you don't have a good follower and you can never be a good follower if you don't have a good leader. So you really need each other. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at http://positivitystrategist.com/ps111

J. Kim Wright: "Lawyers, in general, have much higher rates of addiction and suicide. Yet, people who were practicing these new holistic ways were much healthier. I took that on. My mission was to learn about this and then to actually bring this message to the mainstream." For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at http://positivitystrategist.com/ps110

Creating a community conversation for input into our strategic plan to tap into the energy, passion, excitement and good ideas across our community, thereby helping us to navigate these very interesting times in higher education. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at http://positivitystrategist.com/ps109

Creating a culture to bring extraordinary health and happiness inside and outside the organization to become a truly flourishing enterprise in all ways. The Appreciative Inquiry summit is a really powerful event my guest describes as just magical. For links and resources mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps108  

On the topic of Appreciative Leading, Peter Pula was the first and obvious choice in the profession of journalism as he is at the forefront of generative journalism. I wanted him to share with us his craft and art as a journalist and his vision and practice to transform journalism. For links and resources mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps107

Leading is much more than having the title of leader or being engaged in the process of leadership. Leading can be a deliberate and conscious act, and it can come from spontaneity and impulse. It's about innovation and making a difference. Excerpts from inspirational stories show the way. For links and resources mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps106

It's time to do something different again.  Change is good. This episode closes out Season 2, co-hosted with Sallie Lee. If you missed any of those 10 episodes, I urge you to listen: seven literacies are explained for living and leading in our times. In this show find out about our next new Season, entitled Appreciative Leading - conversations with leaders across all sectors who are agents of positive change. For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps105

To close this Season, we reflect on Appreciative Voice and how the seven literacies are impacting our thinking and relationships. You'll hear examples of others working to build capacity for increased well-being in life and in leadership roles. They talk about what more they can do on a daily basis to build voice.  And, we introduce our new thinking and learning about human capacity: four assumptions of changing beliefs about what we're all capable of and how that might reframe our realities. For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps104

Anticipating what is possible and how we fuel it is the topic of this literacy: Finding the Future.  It helps to envision a better future if we shift what's going on that isn't serving to that which is serving in any given situation because all futures are shared futures. We shape the future through the images we hold and the conversations we participate in.  For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps103  

Connecting the collective is the work of hearts and minds.  This literacy focuses us on living into the "we." Connecting and belonging are the life-blood of human organizing and relationships. Starting conversations that are real and inclusive lifts up our appreciative voice. When we acknowledge the wisdom available to us and put greater value on that which the collective offers us, we open up to new insights about dynamics, dialogue and decisions.For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps102  

We need one another to make sense of all that is going on around us. Finding our personal and collective wholeness contributes to our sense of belonging. In coming together, our combined intelligence, and intent for wholeness and belonging enables new wisdom and solutions to surface. For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps101  

Paying attention to and magnifying the positive in people, communities, and networks help us flourish. Among the benefits of knowing our strengths include finding more flow and meaning in work, feeling more energized than drained and seeing our relationships improve by coming from a place of greater ease. For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps100  

In cultivating compassion, we grow empathy and positive regard for self and others. It encourages us to train our hearts and minds to stay open and offer our best to others.  Growing our understanding of difference, attending to small ways to connect with other, developing our own inner resource to be of service are some of the habits of this literacy. For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps99  

This literacy opens us up to our own frames (perspectives) on the world. As we widen our frames, we begin to understand and appreciate the frames of others. Having this literacy to frame and reframe enables us to shift perspective and opens us to possibilities and solutions we may never have even considered if we stayed comfortable with our blinkers on within our existing frames, which may be keeping us very small. For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps98  

The literacy we talk about in this episode is Inviting Inquiry. It is central to all the Literacies,  and it's central to Appreciative Voice. The principles of Appreciative Inquiry inform us that we move in the direction of our inquiries; questions we ask of ourselves and others. Inquiry stimulates curiosity. Inquiry starts movements. Inquiry questions keep us open to possibilities and enable us to engage in further dialogue. How curious are you about others and the world? What information and stories might you seek? For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps97  

We set the scene in this episode for what's to come.  We talk about the origins of Appreciative Voice and how the seven literacies evolved. The intention of these literacies is to enable us to bring all voices into conversations.  There are many choices to be made. They include inviting all perspectives, focusing on the collective and the relational world we are responsible for co-creating. They include our need for belonging and connection, and you will make your own connections with the content. For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps96  

Excited to introduce Season 2 of Positivity Strategist. This new season addresses a significant topic for these times, finding and using our individual and collective appreciative voice. What excites and inspires us particularly about Season 2 is that we introduce seven literacies for living and leading in our times. The literacies are grounded in the Principles of Appreciative Inquiry. They provide a brand new way to find and increase our choices every moment of every day to help us lift up and use our appreciative voice. The literacies provide a pathway to raising and elevating our appreciative voice.  For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps95  

This may be the last time you will hear this music and this introduction.  Over the last four years, I've experimented with a number of different configurations - solo formats to single guest and multiple guests.  It's time to do something different again. I hope you'll be as excited as I am when you hear about the new show format. For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps94  

In this episode, co-authors Dr. Jackie Stavros and Cheri Torres weave memorable stories throughout their latest book that bring to life to the two practices that underpin conversations worth having: positive framing and generative questions. The stories cross a range of contexts, from healthcare to banking, education, family, technology, manufacturing.  They all illustrate very clearly how these two simple principles can shift a conversation that may be stuck or spiraling downwards towards a conversation that is depreciative to one that spirals upward and is appreciative, productive and meaningful. For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps93  

An episode that will awaken your heart and mind and have you want to adopt practices to build your resilience. Resilience increases your ability to weather the storms and come out stronger in your formal and informal leadership roles. My guests talk specifically about appreciative resilience and leadership and how to traverse the ever-changing landscapes of hope, despair, and forgiveness which overlap to build our appreciative resilience. For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps92  

Imagine what's possible when vast numbers of inter-disciplinary groups are engaging in a dialogue regarding learning and leadership and growth and positive evolution. There's no glass ceiling in this type of curious exploration and discovery and arguably, what the world needs now. Find out more about this special issue of the International Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner Journal. For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps91  

My Digital Strategist suggests focusing on developing cornerstone content as a way to help you increase visibility on the web. It's not so difficult, and it's a skill that you can learn and get better at over time, just like developing any new skill or practice - learn the basics and get stronger with diligent practice, or supportive resources. For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps90  

This episode offers positivity strategies of a highly commercial and very different kind.  I'm focusing on strategies for marketing and increasing visibility on the web. In this episode, my personal digital strategist shares high-level strategies about how to do just that. For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps89