1 December 2004

Facilitators: Claudia Liebler and Boru Douthwaite

Participants

Members of the Learning to Innovate (LTI) Group, which is a community of practice of researchers who work at CIAT, whether at Palmira or other places in the world, and who also share an interest in research to understand and foster innovation and change. The LTI Group has 50 members from Africa, Asia, Central America and Cali representing eight of CIAT’s fifteen projects.

Background

The Workshop on Appreciative Inquiry entitled "Creating the future of the Learning to Innovate Group" was held on 1 December 2004, within the framework of the Knowledge Sharing Week (KSW), and sponsored by the Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) initiative. The KSW took place between 29 November and 4 December at CIAT's headquarters in Palmira, Colombia.

The Workshop's principal objective was to create a vision for the LTI Group.

Consultant Claudia Liebler led the Workshop, applying the methodology of appreciative inquiry, developed by David Cooperrider at the Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. The participants supported each other in their strengths, positive aspects, successful moments, and shared values. Thus, they could project into the future and thereby jointly design the LTI Group’s vision.

Vision

After almost 9 hours of intense work in a workshop that normally would require 3 days, the Group reconfirmed itself as a community of practice with the following vision:

To support CIAT and its partners to forment rural innovation by:

• Promoting good practices between partners, especially regarding the idea of "losing control of the agenda".
  
• Facilitating common understanding of the terminology and approaches used to encourage innovation.
  
• Promoting a culture that rewards teamwork, reflection, and learning, as well as sharing ideas, resources, and recognition.
  
• Creating an environment where all members feel ownership of ideas and products, and feel that their interests are well represented.
  
• Catalyzing the conceptualization and implementation of significant innovations.
  
• Actively facilitating the generation of new communities of the practice of innovation.
  
• Leading discussions with much larger groups on themes of strategic importance to the goal of encouraging rural innovation.
  
• Carrying out an internal function of "think tank", including the publication of documents on embryonic and innovative subjects.

Contact: Boru Douthwaite