THE PILGRIMAGE TOWARD GLOBAL DIALOGUE:
ERROR MSG A PRACTICAL VISIONARY APPROACH

Gurudev Khalsa is an organizational consultant with the SIGMA program (SocialInnovations in Global Management) at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, where he iscompleting his doctorate in organizational behavior. His topic is "Organizing asPilgrimage," based on the transformative journey of launching the United ReligionsInitiative. He can be reached at gxk14@! po.cwru.edu.

Imagine you are about to embark on a very special pilgrimage. This being the era oftechnology, your mode of travel will be by rocket ship rather than by foot. And this beingthe dawn of a global era, you will be joined in this pilgrimage not by numerous members ofyour own tradition, but by pairs of representatives from all the diverse cultures andfaiths across the world. Your journey will be into the void of outer space and yourultimate destination, the future -- a desired future for the Earth and all living beings.For when you return in the next millennium, it will be the responsibility of your group ofpilgrims to lead us by your example into a new paradigm of global relating acrosscultures, one in which we have learned to honor one another fully and act out of the bestof all our traditions, with reverence for all life.

What wisdom will you pack for this pilgrimage? What ways of being will you choose toleave behind? What! gifts do you have for your fellow travelers? And how will you talk andlive with each other across the boundaries of culture in the limited space you shareaboard the ship?

These are not idle daydreams, for as we hurtle toward the new millennium, there aremany gatherings that will call upon us to address questions such as these, not the leastof which are the UN Global Assemblies--of the Peoples of the World, and of the Governmentsof the World. But how can we attain the aims of learning from the wisdom of all culturesand achieving a genuine dialogue among civilizations?

ERROR MSGThese are big questions and I have only small answers; only together do our answersbecome large enough to address the questions. But I am honored to share with you, from theleading edge of my field of organizational development, a theory and a process that aimsas high as these lofty aspirations, yet provides practical and simple means for movingtoward them. It is called Appreciative Inquiry (AI).

When the Dalai Lama, in partnership with others, convenes a forum where a small groupof leaders of the world's religions gather twice a year in mutual respect and dialogue, AIoriginator David Cooperrider acts as their facilitator, and AI is the means by which theirfirst meeting was guided. When over 200 representatives of the world's faiths andspiritual traditions have gathered each of the last three years in a series of globalsummits to dream and design the United Religions Initiative (a kind of spiritual siblingto the United Nations, whose charter will be signed next year), I and a globalfacilitation team have used AI as the foundation of our conference designs. And when we docapacity-building work to help Northern and Southern nongovernmental organizations worktoward genuine partnership with each other (under a $6 million, 6-year cooperativeagreement with the US Agency for International Development), AI is again at the heart ofthe dialogue-rich planning processes we customize.

Each of these ! efforts has humbled us by its magnitude, filled us with lessons, andyet offered tangible evidence that the dream of deep dialogue across even the mostchallenging of cultural boundaries is possible. So what is this thing called AI all about?More than just a methodology, at its best, it is a "way of being" that drawsupon the twin gifts of appreciation and curiosity through inquiry to uncoverthe "best of what is" in each other and our respective traditions andexperiences. Discovering from the outset (through mutual interviews, introductions, andgroup dialogue) what incredible beings and resources we are surrounded by, whether in asmall group or a huge summit, we then deepen our inquiry to imagine what we can dotogether that builds upon those gifts. Plans and commitments evolve naturally as a resultof a set of relationships that have been grounded in friendship, steeped in authenticcommunication with one another, and leavened with mutual sharing of dreams for the future.As both a way of being and a process for working with change in any human system, here isone definition of AI:

Appreciative Inquiry is an assets-based capacity-building approach to development andchange that selectively seeks to locate, illuminate, and leverage the life-giving forceswithin an organization, group, or community. Seeking out the best of "what is"to help ignite the collective imagination of "what might be," AI aims togenerate new knowledge that expands the "realm of the possible" and helps peopleboth to envision a collectively desired future and to carry forth that vision in ways thatsuccessfully translate possibility into reality, and belief into practice.

The affirmative cycle of change that generally provides the structure for any AIprocess is called the 4-D model, which works through four phases before circling back tothe beginning: Discovery, Dream, Design, and Destiny. Imagine now that you are back inthat spaceship, as I illustrate a little of what each phase might look like on yourtransformative journey toward the possibility of global dialogue.

In the Discovery phase, we would begin with diverse pairs interviewing eachother using a protocol that uncovers each other's passions and gifts, starting deep withthe very first question. For example, for the group of religious leaders that included theDalai Lama, the first two questions were these:

- Can you share a story of a moment, or a period of time, where clarity about lifepurposediscount hotels in Strasbourg emerged for you -- for example, a moment where your calling happened, wherethere was an important awakening or teaching, where there was a special experience orevent, or where you received some guiding vision?

- Now, beyond this story, what do you sense you are supposed to do before your life,this life, is over?

Bern Hotel de calidadImagine the power of the stories that were told -- that would be told by anyone, if webegan this personally and this deeply. Moving from the personal toward the institutionallevel with these questions, telling stories that illustrate our capacities at variouslevels, we ground our inquiry in a profound awareness of our own and each other's giftsand experiences. Included might be questions such as: "Tell me a story of your mostmemorable experience of meeting and working successfully across the boundaries of cultureor faith. What was happening? How did you feel? What made it possible?" Not only isthe information rich, but the process of storytelling is healing, uncovering connectionswe did not know existed, generating a practice of curiosity and rapt listening from themoment we embark. From pairs to small groups to the whole gathering in our spaceship,these stories would be the foundation of how we know and introduce each other as we work.

The power of the Dream phase stems from the twin attributes of 1) rooting itdeeply in what we value most and have experience in achieving (as revealed by ourDiscovery phase work) and 2) from this ground, co-creating images of the future that are akind of vivid anticipatory reality. Kenneth Boulding speaks of our images of the futureacting as a field, with our behavior moving in the direction of the most highly valuedpart of that field. Using a variety of approaches to build our images of what we valuemost, from pictures and metaphors to words and symbolic artifacts, small groups containingmaximum diversity may work toward a creative presentation of their dreams. This is oftenan emotional high point of an AI Summit; artwork, skits, poetry, and songs abound. Fromthese shared dreams, we distill the common ground of what we want to work toward,discovering in the process how each of our dreams, say of "Dialogue AmongCivilizations," connects to the wisdom of the whole system represented in ourspaceship.

regeln von omaha hi loThe next step is to Design systems for taking action that are truly aligned withour deepest values and highest visions. This might involve discerning a purpose and set ofgoverning principles that describe the heart of our organization or community. It mightinvolve generating experimental initiatives freely developed from the most heartfeltinterests of those gathered, ensuring that commitments are aligned with passions. We oftenuse a process called "Open Space" here to maximize the likelihood that people ofoverlapping interest will connect in a co-creative effort. Finally, we work toward a trulydemocratic organizing structure, modeled in what we have experienced together, where noone element can dominate, all have the opportunity to be heard, ownership and authorityare widely spread, and creative action initiatives aligned with our vision abound -- allinterconnected within the whole. As we continue our journey, it is the practical plans wedevise toward experiments in global dialogue that will generate the next round ofdevelopment, encompassing an ever wider and deeper group of stakeholders once we return.

The Destiny phase is like the point of transformation and the beginning of thenext cycle, where we return to Earth and can experience how our pilgrimage has transformedus. As we live into the action initiatives, as we involve and share with others in our ownconstituency, we do indeed (like Gandhi) become the change we wish to see in the world,allowing our actions to speak as loudly as our words. At its best, the AI approach hasallowed us to leave behind the "push of the past" and surrender into the"pull of the future," where we no longer experience the world as aproblem-to-be-solved but find our selves living it, truly, as a mystery-to-be-embraced,with wonder, awe and reverence for all life.