Conversations Worth Having, Second Edition

Using Appreciative Inquiry to Fuel Productive and Meaningful Engagement

By: Jackie Stavros, Cheri Torres

Narrated by: Tiffany Williams

Now in a second edition, this classic book shows how to make conversations generative and productive rather than critical and destructive so people, organizations, and communities flourish.

We know that conversations influence us, but we rarely stop to think about how much impact they have on our well-being and ability to thrive. This book is the first to show how Appreciative Inquiry - a widely used change method that focuses on identifying what's working and building on it rather than just trying to fix what's broken - can help us communicate more effectively and flourish in all areas of our lives.

By focusing on what we want to happen instead of what we want to avoid and asking questions to deepen understanding and increase possibilities, we expand creativity, improve productivity, and unleash potential at work and home. Jackie Stavros and Cheri Torres use real-life examples to illustrate how these two practices and the principles that underlie them foster connection, innovation, and success.

This edition has been revised throughout with new examples; updates on the latest supporting research in neuroscience, positive science, and positive psychology; and a discussion guide. It also features a new chapter on what the authors call tuning in: cultivating awareness of how our physical and mental state affect our perceptions, emotions, and thoughts as we engage in conversation.

This book teaches you how to use the practices and principles of Appreciative Inquiry to strengthen relationships, build effective teams, and generate possibilities for a future that works for everyone.

©2018, 2022 Jackie Stavros, Cheri Torres (P)2021 Jackie Stavros, Cheri Torres

Great leadership practices!

I loved this book! It reminded me of a lot of what we did when I was a principal, and made me think of many other specific strategies I could have used at other times. Now that I get to coach, I find this book a very useful resource to help create the positive win win environments in which I believe we should all get to work.

Content is great, Reading put me to sleep

I am getting the ebook to get the content from this. The audio version was a bit too lacking in enthusiasm, so my attention often drifted. It felt like someone reading a textbook.

Definitely recommended for people new to Appreciative Inquiry (AI)

Book filled with concrete examples how to use the positive communication with individuals, teams and organizations, when being honest. Beside examples useful in personal life as well as at work I like also the research behind notably in relation to ratio positive / negative communication ( for best teams 6/1).

Not worth buying

Says the same old stories about talking nicely and being soft and it’s full of bla bla bla . Wasted money.

Content is Decent, Narrator Ruins It

The tone and way the book is written is very preachy and carries a particular tone that is incredibly off-putting. The content could have been written in a straightforward manner rather than trying to continuously lead the reader in a patronizing way. The narrator only adds insult to injury, emphasizing the patronizing tone. The examples which plague the book are also longer than needed. At the end of it all, I'm not sure exactly how much is actual helpful content since the author keeps hammering at the same idea again and again and again. My recommendation is to buy the book and read it yourself, skipping over all the redundancy.