CTAHR Appreciative Inquiry Interview
April 2013
(15 minutes each)
Discovery: Articulating the Positive Core of CTAHR
Question 1:
High point or positive experience.
The College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) has had a major impact on
the socio-economic well-being of the people of Hawai‘i for over 106 years. CTAHR has
educated thousands of students, helped hundreds of businesses, facilitated informed decisionmaking by government and community leaders, and enhanced the lives of Hawai‘i’s people and
communities. CTAHR faculty and staff have effectively served a broad range of stakeholders
through its tri-partite land-grant mission of education, research and extension.
Each of you has a different relationship with CTAHR that is integrally tied to its success – as
staff, faculty, students, stakeholders, or community/university partners. We would like to hear
from as many of you as possible as we gather information for our strategic planning effort that is
designed to ensure CTAHR’s continued success into the future. To do this, we would like you to
reflect on one positive experience, one high point you have had while working at or with
CTAHR.
Think of an experience that stands out for you – a time when you felt most engaged or really
proud about the difference you were making for or with CTAHR. Tell a story that describes this
experience.
Question 1a: What made it a positive experience / high point for you?
What was it about you and others around you that made it a positive/high point experience for or
with CTAHR? What was it about the situation, the organization, the community, the people
and/or the leadership involved that allowed you to have that positive/high point experience?
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Question 2: Visions of the future: creating “an epidemic of positive change.”
Tonight when you go to sleep, you have a deep, deep sleep and wake up 10 years later. It is
2023. While asleep, major positive changes happened. You notice that CTAHR has become
what you always hoped it could be – the way you believe it ought to be. It is exciting to see.
Describe what you see happening – things that are new, different, or the same but even better.
Talk about what is going on in 2023 that exemplifies the organization you have always hoped
for.
Question 3: Transformations
In summary now: If you could change or transform CTAHR in any way, what three things
would you do to heighten its overall effectiveness, vitality and capacity to fulfill its potential?
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