Friends/Links - Friends

Practitioners and Influencers

• Jaimie P. Cloud, The Cloud Institute http://www.sustainabilityed.org/who/about_us/bio_cloud.html
• Laura Scott - Prudential Real Estate
• Juanita Brown - Founder of the World Cafe and has spread this ABT process worldwide to help individuals engage in meaningful and important dialogue about issues and questions that matter. www.theworldcafe.com
• Marcus Buckingham - Former senior researcher for the Gallup Organization. Author of best-selling books: First, Break All the Rules (coauthored with Curt Coffman); Now, Discover Your Strengths (coauthored with Donald O. Clifton); and The One Thing You Need to Know, in which the author gives important insights to maximizing strengths, understanding the crucial differences between leadership and management, and fulfilling the quest for long-lasting personal success. www.simplystrengths.com
• Rob Cross -- Author of The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations. Professor of management at the University of Virginia and Research Director of The Network Roundtable, a consortium of 55 organizations sponsoring research on network applications to critical management issues. www.robcross.org
• Alan Deutschman-- One of America's leading writers on change and innovation. Author of groundbreaking book, Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life, which debunks myths about this crucial topic and reveals what actually inspires and motivates real change. Executive Director of Unboundary, a strategy consulting firm. http://www.alandeutschman.com/
• Chip Heath and Dan Heath Brothers and co-authors of the book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, which has been a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week bestseller. Write a monthly column called "Made To Stick" for Fast Company magazine. Speak and consult on the topic of "making ideas stick." www.madetostick.com
• Joseph Jaworski-- Co-founder of the Centre for Generative Leadership designed to help companies and other organizations develop the leadership required to shape the future. Co-author of Presence and author of Synchronicity, The Inner Path to Leadership. http://www.presence.net/
• Sara Orem, Ph.D. - Adjunct professor of management in the graduate business program at Capella University and principal of Lotus Coaching. Has presented programs in Appreciative Inquiry at OD Network and the Transformative Learning Conference. Co-author of Appreciative Coaching. www.lotus-coaching.com/bio.php
• R. Keith Sawyer -- One of the country's leading experts on the science of creativity. Studies creativity, everyday conversation, children's play and everyday social life, group dynamics and collaboration. The empowering message of most recent book Group Genius is that all of us have the potential to be more creative; we just need to learn the secrets of group genius. http://artsci.wustl.edu/~ksawyer/
• Dov Seidman Founder and CEO of LRN. Author of HOW: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything in Business (and in Life), which posits that success no longer lies in what we do; how we do what we do now matters most. http://www.howsmatter.com/

Positive Psychology Thought Leaders

• David Cooperrider - Founder and practitioner of the concept Appreciative Inquiry; has developed a methodology that assists organizations in shaping their future from the positive core of what already exists and what is already working. www.appreciativeinquiry.case.edu
• Mihaly Cziksentmihalyi - Professor at University of Chicago, the author of several books including Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. He identifies the state of being engaged so fully in what we are doing, with just the right amount of stretch that we are deeply satisfied and literally lose track of time. http://www.cgu.edu/pages/1871.asp
• Malcolm Gladwell - Staff writer with The New Yorker magazine since 1996.; in 2005 was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People; author of two books, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference, (2000) and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005). www.gladwell.com
• Daniel P. Goleman - Psychologist, former reporter for The New York Times. 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence was a breakthrough in the study of EQ. Argues in this and subsequent books, including the recent Social Intelligence, that Emotional Intelligence is as or more important to work success than technical skills or practical knowledge. http://www.danielgoleman.info/blog/
• Dr. John Gottman - Co-founder of the Gottman Institute with his wife, Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman. Executive director of the nonprofit Relationship Research Institute; Dr. Gottman is an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Washington and founded what the media termed, "The Love Lab."  http://www.gottman.com/
• Mel Levine, M.D. - educator and author of A Mind at a Time, an Asset-Basedthinker who has contributed significantly to our understanding of individual differences in children's learning styles, skills, and talents. www.allkindsofminds.org
• Parker Palmer - Author, educator, and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change; founded the Center for Courage & Renewal, which oversees the Courage to Teach program for K-12 educators across the country and parallel programs for people in other professions, including medicine, law, ministry and philanthropy. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/palmer.htm
• Harrison Owen - Founder and creator of Open Space, offers this ABT methodology to organizations who want to present at meetings and conferences. It invites everyone present to teach and learn from each other. http://ho-image.com/
• C. Otto Scharmer - Co-founder of the Leadership Lab for Social Responsibility in Business at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he also lectures. Co-author of Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future, and most recently, the author of Theory U. http://ottoscharmer.com/
• Martin Seligman: professor of psychology at University of Pennsylvania and author of Learned Optimism, and Authentic Happiness, scholar and thought leader in understanding optimism. http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx
• Peter Senge - Co-author of Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future. Pioneer of concept learning organization. Studied at MIT how firms and organizations develop adaptive capabilities. 1990 book The Fifth Discipline brought him firmly into the limelight and popularized the concept of the learning organization.
• William Ury - author of Getting to Yes, Getting Past No, The Power of the Positive No, and Getting to Peace. Each of these books demonstrates ways of finding the common ground among people with differences and tapping into the collective strengths and talents of those present.
• Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff - creators of the Future Search process, and author of Future Search, a methodology to help organizations solve critical problems through this creative and innovative process.