"the eyes of a child"

As the title of my blog states "the eyes of a child" I am using this notion as a new lens to guide me on a journey of exploring insights within an organization.  Appreciative inquiry really threw a wrench into my way of interpreting what it means to be a researcher and my modes and means of collecting data on the organization I have chosen to diagnosis.  This prior sentence uses the terminology I would have previously used to describe this type of action research but now I understand from a different angle that I as the researcher am not their to diagnosis or collect data in order to find a truth.  Instead I am there to help all individuals within an organization get their juices flowing and come up with a collective and attainable vision of what a better future could look like by illuminating the best of what is happening and/or what has happened.  I have always understood intervention of an organization to be one of finding a “problem” and making suggestions on how to solve it.  I now know I want to approach an organization by first illuminating what is positive about what is already going on and building upon those components to create a sense of shared meaning amongst individuals in the organization about what excellence looks like to them and how it can be emulated and greater than ever.