Reading Reflection: The Necessity of Wonder
“It is precisely this boundless wonder and awe on a collective level that allows an organization to learn.” Johnson and Ludema, p. 72
I am constantly in awe of the people that I meet. I have to admit that it’s easy enough to chat briefly with people in a grocery store, at church, in a classroom, and never get a sense of who they are, the skills they possess, the things they’ve done, and the stories they could tell. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to pay attention, because humans are amazing creatures, smarter and more compassionate than we usually realize, able to do greater things than we tend to think possible. And all of those abilities and characteristics accumulate and are magnified within groups that are made of of people who want to work together to do good and to do it well. Perhaps it is this sense of wonder that makes appreciative inquiry such an obvious and natural process for me. Yes, there will always be needs and deficiencies that must be addressed. But there is always something good — some strength or capacity — that can be utilized to make a real difference in the work an organization is doing. I’ve found this to be the case just in our cohort, especially after the past couple of months of working on a group research project. My teammates have experience and ways of thinking that are so different from mine, yet that add such value and breadth of knowledge to our work, changing the way we look at questions and data. And that’s on a very small scale, with only five people who are still fairly early in their careers. I can only imagine what we’d be able to do if we worked together five, ten, twenty or thirty years from now.
Reference:
Johnson, S., & Ludema, J. D. (1997). Partnering to build and measure organizational capacity: Lessons from NGOs around the world. Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, 169.