Affirmative Topic Choice

How do you choose

the title of your topic

for your event?

For me

1. The title should provoke curiosity – e.g. 5 ways to … (I’m curious to know what these 5 ways are).

2. There should be transformation

“Transformational topics are possible

in any situation and

will generate more positive change – every time!”

For instance:

1. British Airways reframed their topic from “Reduce Lost & Damaged Baggage Claims” to “Exceptional Arrival Experiences”

2. US Navy – from “Retention” to “Engaged and Empowered Leaders at Every Level”

3. And because questions are the engine of change, they have to be considered as a topic choice, too.

4. The idea is to choose topic that most represent where you hope to lead your audience in the long-term.

5. It is good before that to do research among your audience in order to find out the key to the problem. You should ask a story based questions and questions with “Why”. That’s very important! This will give you a list of possibilities on the topic, too.

6. “What is it that is really important at the end of the day? What is it that we really want to be at the end of the day?”

You have to look for the affirmative topic.

For example – “Customer Complaints” could be reframed to “Revolutionary Customer Experiences”, “High Turnover” to “Magnetic Work Environment”

That is what I have learned from my Appreciative Inquiry course from Case Western Reserve University about the topic of choice. When you read the title of the topic, you should immediately feel positive emotions, just be reading it.

Everything starts with the affirmative topic choice, indeed!