OvationNet is the result of a close collaboration between David Cooperrider and the founders of iCohere, Pascal Kaplan and Soren Kaplan. The goal of OvationNet is simple: to provide consultants, change agents and organizations with leading edge capabilities in Appreciative Inquiry that advance AI practice in the field.
OvationNet makes available tools and resources that harness the power of online learning and web community technology in ways that support individual, group, organizational and whole system change processes.
OvationNet was created to address a number of important questions, whose answers represent the next generation of Appreciative Inquiry:
- How can we most effectively capture, share and use stories to highlight the core strengths of a system?
- How do we most effectively engage the whole system in AI, even when time constraints exist and part of the system is unable to meet together face-to-face?
- How do we sustain and grow the momentum created through AI Summits so it leads to true innovation and inspired positive change?
- How do we expand the positive impact of Appreciative Inquiry in corporations, non-profits and non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, and the world?
OvationNet represents an effort to address these questions whose answers represent the next generation of Appreciative Inquiry:
- Access a suite of online AI learning modules
- Extend the impact of face-to-face AI summits by engaging hundreds or thousands of virtual participants
- Support project teams following AI summits to help drive and monitor implementation
- Deliver a virtual online summit that draws on the strengths of the whole system
- Create and embed a new capability for AI that connects together social networks and organizational resources in ways that drive innovation and positive change
Organizations like Roadway Express, Green Mountain Coffee, the EPA, the US Navy, the Toronto District School Board, World Vision International and others are transforming their organizational strategies and processes through Appreciative Inquiry (AI).
Established by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastava at Case Western Reserve University, Appreciative Inquiry mobilizes the speed of collective imagination and collaboration, bringing together hundreds – and sometimes thousands – of people in a compelling process that leads to new innovations and actionable projects, all focused on substantially elevating organizational performance and results.
OvationNet's leaders include:
David Cooperrider, Ph.D.
David L. Cooperrider is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. Professor Cooperrider is past President of the National Academy of Management's OD Division and has lectured and taught at Stanford, University of Chicago, Katholieke University in Belgium, MIT, University of Michigan, Cambridge and others.
David has served as researcher and advisor to a wide variety of organizations including, for example, Yellow Roadway Corp., Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, McCann-Erickson, Nutrimental Foods, World Vision, Cleveland Clinic, American Red Cross, and United Way of America. Most of the projects are inspired by the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) methodology for which Professor Cooperrider is best known. His founding work in this area is creating a positive revolution in the leadership of change; it is helping companies all over the world discover the power of the strength-based approaches to planning and multi-stakeholder cooperation. Admiral Clark, the CNO of the Navy, for example recently met with David to bring AI into the Navy for a multiyear project on Bold and Enlightened Naval Leadership. And in June 2004 Cooperrider was asked by the United Nations Global Compact to design and facilitate a historic, unprecedented Summit meeting between Kofi Annan and 500 business leaders to unite the strengths of markets with the authority of universal ideals to make globalization work for everyone. Cooperrider's work is especially important because of its ability to enable positive change in systems of very large and complex scale.
David often serves as meeting speaker and leader of large group, interactive conference events. His dynamic ideas have been published in journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Human Relations, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, The OD Practitioner, and in research series such as Advances in Strategic Management. More popularly, Professor Cooperrider's work has been covered by The New York Times; Forbes Magazine; Science, Fast Company, Fortune, Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco Chronicle and others. He has been recipient of Best Paper of the Year Awards at the Academy of Management and top researcher of the year at Case and numerous clients have received awards for their work with Appreciative Inquiry. Among his highest honors David was invited to design a series of dialogues among 25 of the world's top religious leaders, started by His Holiness the Dalai Lama who said, "If only the world's religious leaders could just know each other, the world will be a better place." Using AI, the group has had meetings in Jerusalem and at the Carter Center with President Jimmy Carter in Atlanta. David was recognized in 2000 as among the top ten visionaries in the field by Training Magazine and in 2004 received a prestigious award in Washington D.C. for distinguished contribution to the field of organizational learning from the American Society for Training and Development.
David has published nine books and authored close to 50 articles. Cooperrider's volumes include Appreciative Inquiry Berrett-Kohler (with Diana Whitney); Organizational Courage and Executive Wisdom and Appreciative Leadership and Management (both with Suresh Srivastva). David is editor of a new academic book series Advances in Appreciative Inquiry (with Michel Avital) published by Elsevier Science. David's wife Nancy is an artist and Hannah and Matt are in high school in Chagrin Falls Ohio with oldest son Daniel in college at University of Chicago.
Pascal Kaplan, Ph.D.
Pascal Kaplan leads the product design and technical strategy teams for OvationNet and iCohere, including software development, support and implementation services. Pascal possesses a unique background that blends education, business and technology. Before starting OvationNet, he founded The Kaplan Consulting Group, a software and consulting services firm that works with Fortune 500 companies, designing and building software to support enterprise business processes. Prior to becoming involved in technology, he served for ten years as professor of Consciousness Studies and Dean of the School of Liberal Arts at John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, California. Pascal also spent two years consulting with the Leadership Communications Department at Bank of America, working with the bank's Executive Committee to develop and implementation a mission and values initiative for the organization's 90,000 employees. Pascal serves on the Board of Directors of several non-profit organizations. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Soren Kaplan, Ph.D.
Soren Kaplan's passion for strategic change and innovation is exemplified through his diverse experience – from managing Hewlett-Packard's internal strategy consulting group, to co-founding a collaboration software company, to consulting to start-ups and Global 1000 companies.
Soren is a co-founder of OvationNet and iCohere, and currently Managing Principal of InnovationPoint (www.innovation-point.com) where he works with leading Global 1000 companies including Visa, Philips, Grundfos, JPMorgan Chase, Kimberly-Clark, Colgate-Palmolive, Disney, Hewlett-Packard, Levi Strauss, SK Telecom, and numerous others. Prior to founding InnovationPoint, Soren started iCohere (www.icohere.com), an enterprise software and consulting firm that supports web-based collaboration for online communities of practice, virtual teams and e-learning. As part of his role at iCohere, Soren established a strategic partnership with David Cooperrider, founder of Appreciative Inquiry. In close partnership, they have co-led numerous large scale change initiatives and currently co-lead a six week foundational Appreciative Inquiry workshop.
Prior to founding iCohere, Soren served as Manager of Business Strategy Consulting at Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto, CA, where he led an internal consulting group that assisted leadership teams across HP with strategic planning, product and service innovation, and organizational change management. Soren also led HP's Process Innovation Lab, an action research R&D group focused on developing leading edge business processes and tools for strategic innovation and organizational design and development.
Soren has presented and lectured at numerous conferences and institutions, including the American Society of Training & Development, the National Organizational Development Network, Case Western Reserve University and the Harvard Business School. Quotes and articles from Soren have appeared in publications including Fast Company, Strategy & Leadership, the Journal of Creativity and Innovation Management, and the Journal of Strategic Change among others. Soren has also authored several book chapters including the first-ever chapter on technology and Organizational Development in the book Practicing Organizational Development (Wiley, 2005) and a chapter titled Whole System Engagement through Collaborative Technology at World Vision, which appears in The Handbook of Large Group Methods (Jossey-Bass, 2006). He holds Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Organizational Psychology.
Lindsey N. Godwin
Lindsey Godwin is an Assistant Professor of Management in the College of Business, Morehead State University and received her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. She holds a master's in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University and a double BA in psychology and sociology from Ohio Wesleyan University. Her research interests include leadership development, morality and social responsibility in business, and the role of collaborative technologies in creating positive organizational development and whole-system's change. Her work has been published in Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Information & Organization, Advances in Interdisciplinary Studies of Work Teams, and presented at the Annual Academy of Management Meetings, the Babson-Kauffman Entrepreneurship Research Conference, the Institute for Behavioral and Applied Management Conference, and the International Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change in Organizations.
During her time at Case Western Reserve, she worked as a research associate for the Center for Business as Agent of World Benefit (BAWB). In collaboration with iCohere she helped organize and lead three international online conferences for the Center, which each brought together hundreds of individuals from countries all over the globe to explore how business can be a force for positive social change. She continues to serve as the co-editor of the Interactive Working Paper Series for BAWB. Building on her experiences working with iCohere and her work with David Cooperrider, the leading thought leader on Appreciative Inquiry (AI), she has been a partner in the development and facilitation of OvationNet's online experiential workshops that focus on teaching the foundations of AI.
Kristin Bodiford
Kristin Bodiford brings 20 years of strategic marketing and communications experience to her work with communities, offering skills and expertise in working with groups of people, organizations, communities and systems to create a positive future. Kristin's background in working with communities using dialogue models and other transformative strategies brings a unique blend of expertise to her work supporting community and systems planning for positive change.
Kristin is Principal of Community Strengths and a leader in OvationNet. Community Strengths helps communities solve complex issues and capture emerging opportunities using transformative theories and practices based upon non-violent social change, dialogue and connection, and collective learning to support our work with communities. Community Strength's partners use strategies that help community members create real change in their communities that work towards meeting everyone's needs.
Kristin is the co-creator and host of Creating Aging-Friendly Communities. The Creating Aging-Friendly Communities online community brings together top experts in aging and community development with individuals and organizations working to make their communities more aging-friendly. It also provides a place for people and communities to share their learning, inquire into best practices, and develop innovative solutions to support their efforts.
Kristin is also currently working with America's Promise Alliance, the nation's largest mutli-sector collaborative dedicated to the well-being of children and youth, to create a national Community of Practice to help youth succeed and reduce high school drop out rates. In addition, Kristin provides ongoing support to the Global Summit on Social Responsibility, a large-scale Appreciative Inquiry project developed by ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership and OvationNet that has brought participants in the association sector together from around the world to advance the work of Associations and Social Responsibility.
