Ken and Mary Gergen present an account of social constructionist thought that will enable students, colleagues and practitioners - as well as those who are simply curious - to gain a basic understanding and appreciation of the drama and constructionist ideas in action - in organizations, psychotherapy, education, conflict resolution, social research, and everyday life. This book outlines in an easy to read format, the underlying theory for the Taos Institute's work and mission in the world.

Social Construction: Entering the Dialogue

Self-Help

Kenneth Gergen

Mary Gergen

Relationships

Taos Institute Publications

Sociodynamic Counselling: A Practical Approach To Meaning Making

R. Vance

Peavy

In a world of increasing complexity, answers have a short life-span and people have a growing desire to solve their own problems. Sustainable social change is increasingly depending on successful dialogue. This book provides a closer look at transformative dialogue tools and processes for social change. It profiles ten dialogue methods in depth, and another fifteen more briefly. The methods covered conceptually and in case studies include Deep Democracy, Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space Technology, Scenario Planning, World Cafe, the Israeli-Palestinian School for Peace and many more. The book gives insight into the foundations of practical dialogue work, a dictionary to distinguish dialogue from other forms of conversation, and inspiration from traditional African approaches to dialogue. The authors, an international team of Dialogue Practitioners, offer guidelines for assessing what tools to use for which situation on the basis of their experiences. This makes it a unique and indispensable resource for the practitioner of social change.

Mapping Dialogue: Essential Tools for Social Change (Taos Tempo)

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Marianne, Mille Bojer

Heiko, Roehl

Marianne, Knuth

Psychology & Counseling

Positive Family Dynamics is a wonderful resource for parents and families members wanting to bring out the best in their families! The purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to Appreciative Inquiry and its application to families. At the heart of Appreciative Inquiry is the affirmative question. This book contains 56 appreciative questions designed to increase learning, listening and positive dynamics in your family. The questions, stories and activities in this book will help you create relationships within your family which will nurture respect, love, and care. The book's imaginative questions, exercises, and positive spirit creates a simple yet powerful method for helping families discover hidden reserves of strength and inspired opportunities for better living. They also provide powerful tools for helping all families become increasingly more appreciative, collaborative and effective in creating and shaping the futures they desire for themselves and their communities. This book is recommended for all family members -- grandparents, parents, children, and beyond.

Positive Family Dynamics: Appreciative Inquiry Questions to Bring Out the Best in Families

Whitney, Diana

Dole, Dawn Cooperrider

Silbert, Jen Hetzel

Mann, Ada Jo

This is a book for practitioners, for people who, like crafts-persons or sports-people, must continually shape or fashion their conduct both within the immediate allowances or opportunities for action afforded them by their circumstances, whilst at the same time, aiming at an overall goal of 'bettering' those circumstances, and their performances within them, in some way. The overall approach taken in this collection of essays is 'on the edge' of social constructionism in that - rather than emphasizing a "linguistic" or an "interpretative" turn - it emphasizes the spontaneous, expressive-responsiveness of our living bodies as providing the 'background glue' that holds us together in all our relationships, both with all the other people around us and with all the events also occurring in our surroundings. It thus emphasizes how our living, bodily embedding in this previously unnoticed background, and the ways in which events in it both 'call out' expressive responses from us, whilst leading us to 'resist' others, exerts much more of an influence on our actions than previous versions of social constructionism seem to allow.

Social Construction on the Edge: 'Withness'-Thinking and Embodiment

Shotter, Dr John

Healing Conversations Now contains many stories of what happens when people engage in dialogue and conversation with loved ones and elders who are near the end of their lives. The authors wrote this book to share their experiences and hope that you will be inspired to engage in similar explorations. This book is also a handbook that provides the essential elements and tools needed so that you can engage in enriching conversations that enhance relationships. Using the approach and suggestions in this book will prepare you to enter into Healing Conversations. We might be drawn to initiate Healing Conversations for a variety of reasons: Tony recognized the time was now if he was going to know his mom as a whole person before she died of small-cell lung cancer. Crisis compelled Joan to have more meaningful and powerfully intimate conversations with each of her parents before they died. Those interactions moved her to begin years of on-going conversations with her elder aunts. They continue today. As the authors reflected on these life-changing interactions, they realized: no matter what compels us to enter into Healing Conversations, the outcome is the same. Relationships are enhanced. Those who engage in Healing Conversations experience a more satisfying connection and a greater sense of loving and being loved. In this book you'll find stories to inspire you to initiate Healing Conversations with your elders and dying loved ones. Questions and conversation starters are also provided to help you know what to say and do. The handbook section will guide you, step-by-step, as you engage in these new conversations. They will open your heart, give you a better understanding of loved ones, ensure that you have the conversations you need and want to have at an important time of life. You will find peace and have no regrets and so will your loved ones.

Healing Conversations Now: Enhance Relationships with Elders and Dying Loved Ones

Chadbourne, Joan

Silbert, Tony

Parenting & Relationships

Gerald Monk and John Winslade have written a series of books and articles on narrative conflict resolution. This one is intended to give practitioners an accessible window into the skills of narrative practice. In the stories that people tell about conflict, the relationship narrative is commonly shaped to fit the conflict story. But there are always other relationship stories that can be told. This book shows how to find and grow a counter story to the conflict story and to help people make choices about which story they want to perform. Inviting people to shift from a fraught relationship story to one that is more just, peaceful or cooperative is at the heart of narrative mediation. As you might expect, this is a book of engaging stories as well as robust concepts. It shows, it instructs, and it guides. Designed to be able to be read in one sitting, it is, in the end, a book that begs to be used.

When Stories Clash: Addressing Conflict with Narrative Mediation (Focus Book)

Winslade, John

Monk, Gerald

The focus of this book is on how the vitality and viability of the organization rely on communicative practices. In contemporary world conditions-where rapid flows of information, ambiguity, and risk prevail-relational process becomes pivotal. New practices of leadership are required, most significantly, skills in dialogue. After sketching the emergence of relational leading and key concepts in dialogue analysis, the book provides a rich range of practical dialogic challenges. The authors work with the reader in deliberating on "best practices," thus sharpening the reader's consciousness and preparing him or her for efficacy in relational leading.

Relational Leading

Business & Money

Gergen, Kenneth J.

Hersted, Lone

Management & Leadership

New and Revised! Chapter on multicultural moments that matter; Handling political differences with family or friends; Simplified approach; Updated findings from brain research. Are you as happy as you you'd like to be? Feeling satisfied with your job? Getting along well with family members? Experiencing serenity, at least some of the time? Do you think your life situation is contributing to your longevity or pushing you toward an early grave? Nothing is more critical to the quality of our lives than our relationships, and nothing is more critical to our relationships than how we communicate. U&amp;ME: Communicating in Moments that Matter shows how to improve the quality of your life by improving your everyday communicating. In the first 2 chapters, you'll learn the connection between effectively communicating and The Big Question, "What does it mean to be human?" You'll find a simple model that shows how to make your communicating as personal as possible. Then eight chapters show how to improve your texting, Skyping, meeting management, mentoring, your dating and parenting, your relationship with your spouse, your work projects, your contacts with people who identify with different cultures, and your spiritual and religious life. The concepts in U&amp;ME are research-based, and the dozens of practical skills have been tested by hundreds of thousands of spouses, parents, students, managers, multiculturalists, teachers, and spiritual and religious practitioners.

U&me: Communicating in Moments that Matter

Stewart Bsc(hons) PhD, Captain John

Stan and The Four Fantastic Powers is a book made for kids by kids. The book was written and co-constructed by a special team of inter-generational collaborators: An AI expert and grandmother (Marge Schiller), in collaboration with her two grandchildren (Sarah and Max Schiller), a school psychologist and positive psychology practitioner (Shira Levy), and an artist (Stefanie Rudolph) to share the concepts and practice of Appreciative Inquiry with children. For more than a decade, Appreciative Inquiry has been used in schools, often resulting in increased curiosity, creativity, questioning, collaboration, and an increased voice for students, families, educators, and stakeholders. Well-being benefits have also been documented, including increased self-esteem, confidence, sense of identity, hope, relationships, social skills, and community connectedness. Join Stan, Mr. Gladstone's class, and the Lincoln Elementary School community, as they embark on their adventure!"Crash! Swings swinging, rain pouring, monkey bars twirling! And just like that, a huge lightning bolt thundered down on the oldest tree standing next to the Lincoln Elementary School playground. The school that once won first place in Dreamer School District for best playground was now playground-less." Join Stan and the Playground Team on an adventure focused on strengths, imagination, teamwork, and goal setting, as they discover their own Fantastic Powers to bring the community together to dream and design the school playground's future.  Stan and The Four Fantastic Powers presents readers with a new way of looking at their world and the possibility of becoming change agents. Appreciative Inquiry encourages the use of positive questioning, collaboration, curiosity, and creativity, using the AI 4-D cycle represented through Stan's Four Fantastic Powers: - ME Power: discovering strengths - SEE Power: dreaming future possibilities - WE Power: working as a team to develop goals and a plan - DO Power: delivering the planA companion guide for educators and family members, free resources, and additional activities are located on Stan's website: stanandthefourfantasticpowers.com

Stan and The Four Fantastic Powers: The First Ever Appreciative Inquiry Book for Kids

Children's Books

Levy, Shira

Schiller, Marge

Growing Up & Facts of Life

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