When was the last time you told your school what you like about it the most?\u00a0 Or have written a piece of poetry or a love letter to describe your feelings for your school?\u00a0 Whether we realize it or not our schools as a whole are more then just a setting or a stage that we work in.\u00a0 More then just doors, widows, and walls our schools and the communities that envelop them take on a life of their own.\u00a0 This is why life in a school can be so messy and chaotic, and why creating healthy and flexible change seems to elude many of us.<\/p>\n
However, effective change isn\u2019t elusive for all schools, and there are many great and effective change leaders who have helped schools find their right path.\u00a0 Dr. Sherry Miller is one of these people.\u00a0 With a diverse background of experiences working and leading schools in the US and overseas, Sherry currently works with schools and other organizations to create positive change through Empowerment Unlimited, a consulting company she helped found that uses Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as it\u2019s main tool for change.\u00a0 It was with Sherry\u2019s guidance and the use of AI that helped Jakarta International School come together during its Dream Summit in early 2011 to redevelop it\u2019s vision for the school.\u00a0 With 150 representatives from the school including students, parents, faculty, staff, alumni, community members as well as \u201cValentine Cards\u201d to the school written by many other stakeholders who couldn\u2019t attend, the Dream Summit has set a new, bold, and dynamic course for JIS which among other things is to be the best for the world<\/em>.<\/p>\n (If not specifically quoted, Dr. Miller\u2019s responses to these questions have been paraphrased)<\/p>\n Before creating Empowerment Unlimited you worked in schools in the US and overseas in many different positions within the school, what motivated you to step into leadership?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI really wanted to change schools.\u00a0 I was working with kids that didn\u2019t fit in the traditional school setting so that really created in me a direct desire to do something about changing schools.\u00a0 [What I\u2019ve found is] as much as you can change kid\u2019s lives in the classroom I think if you want to change a school culture you really have to be the boss.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n How did Empowerment Unlimited come together?<\/strong><\/p>\n I started it with Jeff Fifield and Maribel Suarez while working at Colegio Maya in Guatemala about 5 years ago\u00a0 \u201cWe had read a lot about AI, and really liked it and tried it at Maya in different ways.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s become a mentor circle for the 3 of us and has expanded from there.\u00a0 \u201c[I don\u2019t really describe it as a business] There\u2019s not really a business model, we\u2019re not really looking for business\u2026but if we can be of service to a school or a board using AI to think of a more positive and productive future then that\u2019s what we enjoy doing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n How does Empowerment Unlimited use AI to help schools and other organizations?<\/strong><\/p>\n Appreciative Inquiry comes out of positive psychology and is \u201cbased on hope and what we can do well, instead of what we can\u2019t do [as a school].\u201d\u00a0 AI isn\u2019t used to help a school discover its strengths and weaknesses; it designed to help a school discover what it does great and dream about what it should and could be.\u00a0 Fixing weaknesses isn\u2019t the right mindset, instead schools rebuild with AI.<\/em><\/p>\n What is it about AI that you believe is so powerful?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI think the thing that captures me the most about AI is that\u2026it looks at possibilities rather than problems.\u00a0 What I love about it is\u2026the one-on-one dialogue [that is a part of the first stage.].\u00a0 Everybody in the school gets a chance one-on-one to talk to somebody about why they\u2019re proud of school what they love most about the school, and if they could do anything in the world to make it a better school what would they do?\u201d\u00a0 In this first stage, which is known as the discovery stage, you really discover what\u2019s great about the school.\u00a0 It\u2019s in the subsequent stages, which include dream, design and deliver where real change can happen, and what I love about it is \u201cits simplicity and that always through the process [people] are talking to one another\u2026and you\u2019re really looking for what a school does best.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n What successes did you see in this process at JIS?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWhat I loved at [JIS] was where the school looked at their values and because of the AI summit seven new values were added\u2026[which included] fun and balance.\u00a0 [I think] for a school to include those two values to their list of respect, integrity, [perseverance], and all those things\u2026is fabulous.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201c[I think the beauty of] Appreciative Inquiry [is it] can invite people to lighten up and be very purposeful, and I think we all hunger for that because we can all be a little too serious and it invites people to a be a part of a little joy\u2026I remember the photographer at JIS that day telling me \u2018Sherry I have never seen people here in Jakarta doing things like this\u2026it\u2019s amazing\u2019.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n So obviously it takes more than a weekend workshop to keep the momentum going, so what did JIS do after the dream summit?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cYou do a lot of things\u2026[First,] if you\u2019re really going to do it, you have to educate people\u2026One of things we did even before the summit was we talked a lot about it [at JIS] and they invited people who thought might want to participate.\u00a0 They invited equal percentage of participants to the mass they represent on the campus [including] kids, teachers, admin, parents certified staff, alumni, etc.\u201d\u00a0 Then we invited everybody to write Valentines to the school, writing what they loved about JIS.\u00a0 This gave everybody the opportunity to at least participate in someway.<\/em><\/p>\n