Introduction to Play A Bigger Game, with Richard Warren and Reed Waller

January 18, 2012
Touchstone Consulting, 1920 N St. NW, 1st Floor Roosevelt Room
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for light dinner and schmoozing. Program begins at 7 p.m.
$20 at the door (includes free parking under the building for those arriving before 7 p.m.)

Do you long to lead a more meaningful life? To make a positive impact on the world? The Bigger Game is an innovation model for personal and professional success that uses the metaphor of a game board. Like Appreciative Inquiry, the Bigger Game builds on the strengths and resources that are already or potentially available to you. Bigger Game players create meaning, act with conviction, face challenges with courage, and sustain growth—in service to achieving bold goals.

In this introduction to the Bigger Game, participants will learn the basic concepts behind the Bigger Game, and learn how to coach themselves and others using the Bigger Game’s kinesthetic wisdom and spirit of fun. We will be up on our feet, walking the game board laid out on the floor, tapping into the wisdom of our bodies and our intuitions. You will walk away with a sense of how trainers, coaches, OD consultants, and individuals might use the Bigger Game to get “unstuck” and to propel life purpose into reality.

About the Presenters

Richard Warren, LCSW-C, CPCC, is a life coach, psychotherapist and workshop creator/leader with degrees in theology, counseling, and education. He brings to his Bigger Game his life experience as a minister, psychotherapist, and businessman.  www.richardwarren.net

Reed Waller, MA, is a project and program manager and life coach. He has led workshops for non-profits and the U.S. Government, as well as the Bigger Game. He is dedicated to creating consciousness and connection in the world, through mind, body, and spirit.  www.reedwaller.com

We are AI practitioners, federal staff, OD students, nonprofit leaders, government and corporate change agents and anyone interested in making positive change. We are a gathering of diverse individuals who endorse Appreciative Inquiry as an informing philosophy and methodology that supports positive, strength-based change in any number of settings. We come together to share information on topics like knowledge management, storytelling, strategic planning, conflict resolution, whole systems change, etc.

The philosophy and the methodology are scalable and applicable to families, communities, workplaces, and day to day living. It offers a new way of thinking that reframes questions from ”What’s Wrong?” to “What’s Right?” and then asks how can we do more of what’s working. We move from problem solving to solution finding. This shift in paradigm is essential when thinking about new ways of seeing the world and engaging in possibility thinking that leads to new actions and different outcomes.

We are a gathering of people interested in finding new ways to imagine and mobilize possibilities that will have a positive impact on our families, communities, governments and organizations. If you are interested in learning more about Appreciative Inquiry (AI) - whether you have had training or not - you are welcome to our Appreciative Inquiry Learning Community!

from A Positive Revolution in Change: Appreciative Inquiry by David L. Cooperrider and Diana Whitney.

Ap-pre’ci-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-quire’ (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.

A shift in thinking is required to re-frame questions from those that seek to  problem-solve to those that find solutions. Instead of asking “What is wrong with this situation?” ask “What is right in this situation?”   As we look for the root causes of success, we can build on the things that are working.

This shift does not deny that problems exist, but it does shift the way one looks at problems.  What may be seen as a problem from one perspective may offer an opportunity when seen from a different perspective.