For those interested in some of the tools in the Joy In Work toolkit, brief descriptions are provided below, along with some links for the curious.

Co-Active Coaching

Would you like to work with a coach as an active collaborator? Where the relationship is between equals focused on your needs and agenda? Where you find your own answers and follow through with action? The coactive coach believes that you are naturally creative, resourceful and whole and that your agenda must be the focus. You are encouraged to address your whole life as the context for change and growth (even in your role at work) and work together with your coach in a "designed alliance." Your coach is not an expert--someone who has all the answers in a packaged program--but someone with questions for you.

"But co-active coaching stands on the certainty that clients really do know. when they look inside, with the help of a coach, they'll find they know themselves, their strengths, and their limitations. They'll also discover what they want, what they fear, what motivates them and what holds them back, their purpose and their vision, and where they sell out....years of experience using the co-active coaching model confirm it...clients are more resourceful, more effective, and generally more satisfied when they find their own answers. And because they found the answers themselves, they are more likely to follow through with action." (Co-Active Coaching: New Skills for Coaching People Toward Success in Work and Life. Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House, and Phil Sandahl. Davis-Black Publishing, 1998, p.4)

The Coaches Training Institute
http://www.thecoaches.com

Future Search

Do you find that even though you have more ways to do things than ever before, and more and faster technology to assist you, fewer and fewer of the things that really matter to you get done? Would you like to find a way to make working together BOTH simpler and more effective? Future Search is a simple meeting structure with the capacity to surprise you with its potential to solve the impossible, navigate the insurmountable, and bring diverse individuals and groups together resulting in working coalitions and plans into action.

"If you are responsible for the future of your organization or community, you will find here a structure and process that have helped many others do good planning in problematic situations. If you own or manage a business you will learn how to speed up action and commitment in your firm if you are willing to embrace diverse participation and an open-ended agenda as keys to success." (Future Search: An Action Guide to Finding Common Ground in Organizations & Communities. Marvin Weisbord & Sandra Janoff. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, p. xiii.)

The Future Search Network
http://www.futureseach.net

Dialogue

Do you find that genuine dialogue between people who work together or share common concerns is rare in your organization or community? Are arguments and debates more common than focused conversation that bridges differences and subcultures?

Learning the skill of dialogue and introducing it into the life of your organization and community could be the most powerful way to increase understanding and cooperation. Leadership in business and modern communities depends upon your ability to develop webs of relationships with others, not relying on top-down strategies and rigid, isolating barriers between departments, between organizations, between groups in your community. Dialogue is a process that results in successful relationships.

Dialogue: A Proposal
http://www.muc.de/~heuvel/dialogue/dialogue_proposal.html

Dialogue (by the Co-Intelligence Institute)
http://www.co-intelligence.org/P-dialogue.html

The Dialogue to Action Initiative
http://www.thataway.org/dialogue/res/res_intro.htm

Appreciative Inquiry

Ap-preâci-ate, v., 1. valuing; the act of recognizing the best in people or the world around us; affirming past and present strengths, successes, and potentials; to perceive those things that give life (health, vitality, excellence) to living systems 2. to increase in value, e.g. the economy has appreciated in value. Synonyms: VALUING, PRIZING, ESTEEMING, and HONORING.

In-quireâ (kwir), v., 1. the act of exploration and discovery. 2. To ask questions; to be open to seeing new potentials and possibilities. Synonyms: DISCOVERY, SEARCH, and SYSTEMATIC EXPLORATION, STUDY.

Have you noticed that problem-solving often feels like wading through a mud flat of negativity? Are you looking for new ways to connect to the core of your team or organization's powerful creative core? All groups have a wealth of positive images and capabilities to draw on when they want to support constructive change.

Appreciative Inquiry is a way to tap into the power of your imagination and innovation and achieve the speed of creativity and positive change.

What Is AI? at the Appreciative Inquiry Commons
http://appreciativeinquiry.cwru.edu/intro/whatisai.cfm

Appreciative Inquiry Newsletter
http://www.aradford.co.uk/pagefiles/newsletter.htm

Appreciative Inquiry Newsletter
http://www.aradford.co.uk/pagefiles/newsletter.htm

Appreciative Inquiry with Teams by Gervase Bushe (The Organization Development Journal, 16:3 (1998), pp.41-50.)
http://www.bus.sfu.ca/homes/gervase/AI_Teams.html