What More Would You Like To Know About Learning Leaders – PS91
My guest is Louis Alloro. There are so many cool subjects Louis and I can talk about, however, we contain our focus on two topics, one of which is learning leaders.
Louis served as a guest co-editor along with globally acclaimed Appreciative Inquiry researchers, practitioners and teachers, Marge Schiller, Cecile Betit, and Jacquie Stavros on the May 2018 issue of The International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry, (AIP).
The other topic is in response to my own curiosity about some of the exciting work that Louis is doing in his specialized field of positive psychology.
Louis earned his Masters of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) at Pennsylvania State University. He is also a co-founder of The Flourishing Center’s Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology (CAPP) program and a senior fellow at the Center for the Advancement of Wellbeing.
Louis’s and my path have been crossing increasingly frequently. In 2017 at the Fourth Global Forum and we are both steering committee members of The World Positive education Accelerator (WPEA).
This Work Calls Us
I invite Louis to talk about his entree into the field of positive psychology and what might have been in his background that gave a clue that he would pursue such studies and do the work he is currently doing. As with many of my colleagues and others in this field of human, organization and community development, this work calls us. We want to be agents of positive change and we want to help people to find their own calling and think expansively flexibility and openly.
His first career as a high school teacher, Louis learned the issues he struggled with as a kid, and maturing into a young man were not unlike the issues his own students faced 10 and 15 years later.
His perspective shifted as it became clear we experience similar issues and many family systems continue to struggle. There are ways to do so much better and understanding the value of positive psychology is part of that.
The city-wide work Louis and Kathy Snyder are doing in Midland MI is very interesting. I invite you to listen to the episode to learn more about that. Forty of the movers and shakers of the city are participating in a 6-month training course on applied positive psychology, and the transformations that the participants are experiencing are profound. The impact is far-reaching and the model is replicable. It can be applied to any large-scale system.
Need for Connection
I invited Louis to share one big ah-ha! What came up for him was the need for “connection.” We long for connection in our communities. What we discover is that when there is meaningful connection, the conversations become richer, deeper; collaborations are more effective and generous; people are more curious and real listening takes place.
Learning Leaders – AIP Journal
We transition to our main topic of the conversation which is about “learning leaders.” You will be able to download this May 2018 issue of the Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner Journal on the home page of Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner (AIP) after May 1st.
AIP as a publication has been around for approximately 20 years. It was started by Ann Radford in the UK. A couple of years ago, Ann retired and Wick van der Vaart from the Netherlands jumped in to ensure the continuity of the publication in partnership with the David L Cooperrider Center for AI, out of Champlain, college VT.
I’ve referred to AIP in many of my podcast episodes. In July last year, I had the greatest honor to chat with Wick on this podcast about his life and work, The episode title is Say Yes to Everything Results in Fun and Meaning – PS70 . Incredibly sadly, Wick passed away in October from a brain tumor. The May issue of AIP is special as Wick was one of the conceivers of the topic at the Fourth Global Forum in Cleveland, OH 2017.
Diverse Stories of Learning Leaders
Learning leaders is a construct combining two words we use often but usually separately. The editors asked themselves the question:
“What might happen when we fuse these words together? What and who are learning leaders? And then so what? Why does it matter?”
In a nutshell, what came through from a variety of contributions to this issue of the AIP is that:
Learning leaders are lifelong learners- Learning Leaders are open communicators, promoting dialogue
- Learning Leaders are collaborative, leveraging strengths, opportunities, and aspirations of all those involved
- Learning Leaders are results driven and process oriented
- Learning Leaders come from all market and industry segments, from government agencies and community development
- Learning Leaders are change agents who do not exempt themselves from learning.
Louis words of encouragement are to download the May 2018 issue of the AIP and see decide what stories resonate with you. What speaks to you as a learning leader.
Connect to Louis Alloro
Louis' Website
Louis on Twitter
Louis on LinkedIn
Louis on Facebook
Special Event in Italy: PERM-V in Italy – Join Louis to learn about positive psychology!
Publications
International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry – AIP
Posts by Louis
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