Permaculture Stories – Appreciative Inquiry In A Nutshell with Sherry Fuller

Next month we begin our third Creating A Positive Revolution in Southend course at METAL Art School in Chalkwell Park, Westcliff. This 6 week series of evening sessions combines Permaculture and Appreciative Inquiry thinking tools and processes with the aim of inspiring and empowering ordinary people to make a difference in their own communities. But what exactly is ‘Appreciative Inquiry’? In this episode of Design 4 ACTION Permaculture Stories Graham Burnett catches up with his co-tutor Sherry Fuller to find out…
“Appreciative Inquiry helps with getting some order out of the chaos, permaculture gives you even more concrete tools to help you plot your project and get some kind of measurable, tangible outcome”- Sherry Fuller

The 6 principles of Appreciative Inquiry:
Wholeness: Hearing from as many perspectives as possible, joining together diverse experiences, putting aside dichotomous thinking. Good and bad, positive and negative are all subjective positions.
Social Construction: Collectively we build reality through the conversations we have. The stories we share shape what we believe to be true of our society and world. What we believe then shapes how we behave and the stories we perpetuate. Connecting diverse voices helps break socially constructed perceptions.
Poetic: Learning through stories. Humans have been sharing stories since developing language. It’s an effective way for us to understand one another and make sense of our world.
Anticipatory: We project ahead of us our expectations of what’s going to happen. This expectation affects how we behave now – for good or ill – which can lead to those self-fullfilling prophecies.
Simultaneity: things change the moment we ask the first question. The questions we ask are fateful. In AI conversations, we want people to move in a generative direction. Hence…
Heliotropic: Growing towards the sun. The focus of our inquiry needs to be positive. We want to learn, grow and ultimately move to a place that benefits everyone involved.

Places are available on our next course that begins on Thursday October 11th at the METAL School, Chalkwell Hall – What difference will YOU make when you Create A Positive Revolution In Southend???


