GIF is an organization working on raising awareness of the gennocide in Darfur and raising money to fund peacekeeping there. They asked TFC to come in to give it a hand. Despite the organization's growing rapidly in the past ten months (from two volunteers to 25 staff!), its morale has sunk to a low. TFC did a one-day intervention to help the organization re-focus and move through some of its internal morale blocks.

For months they had been trying various things to get the organization to address its concerns -- trying out different things: regular meetings in the morning, trying to add yoga into the morning meetings. As tensions and relationships within the organization were getting worse, they even tried a multiple hour grevience meeting, where people laid out their concerns with each other. When that didn't work and only made things worse, they turned externally.

In I came, trying to see how I could be helpful. They originally asked me to lead them through a "strategic planning"/"healing and reconciliation" process; but in talking with folks more, it sounded as though shifting the culture of the organization was key -- not just surface healing but helping the orgnaization increase its capacity for taking care of itself.

The bottomline of the agenda was this: help the group to recognzie its capacity, not just its problems. Since groups grow by building on their strengths, help this group move from a "problem-based" culture to a "resource-based" culture.

A favorite part of the workshop, and I thought of myself as channeling training associate Amy Steffen (who does appreciative inquiry work), was in the late morning. I had had them create a timeline of their organization -- to track their growth. When they looked at it they felt both excited about all they done and wishing they could do more.

Rather than slip in to "here are all the problems we face," I wanted them to have a chance to see their power. So in groups of four and five I had them identify their resources that enabled them to be as successful as they were being. Although I asked them to think of things unique to their organization, their answers were super-broad -- like "gumption" and "thoughfulness." I thought they could get more specific.

So next I asked them to brainstorm "What are questions we could ask to go deeper in understanding our resources?" People made a good list. In the process they were clearly getting into the positive approach. Then they went into small groups and practiced asking each other those questions -- and it was hugely successful (everyone said they shared something new that they hadn't shared in the organization before). And they were getting specific on resources to rely on.

It was consistent with affirmation inquiry and the direct education approach! What resulted from that and the rest of the day's support, was a shifting of the organization away from only seeing its problems, to also seeing the strength to handle many of those problems. And by naming it and getting clearer about their own strength, they got better at using their strengths to face their hurdles -- by late afternoon we were able to do some strategic planning and even some healing!