Volume 30 of Research in Organizational Change and Development includes seven contributions from leading colleagues around the globe. Taken together they address some key questions for our field: Who do we need to be as OD&C to help create a better world and under what relational conditions can we do such work? What research and theorizing do we have available, and what thought-action repertoires need further development? What robust OD&C methods do we have, and which new methods are needed to be truly helpful in the creation of a better world together? The chapters for this volume are written by senior scholars in the field of OD&C who share their insights from a long-lived, continuous engagement with both theory and practice. This shows in their expansive time horizon when reflecting on the field and how they personally navigated through it. Their seniority also shows in their commitment to help bring the field forward whilst trusting that others may appreciate and continue their legacy. Most of all, and especially endearing in current times, the authors show the joy and strength of collaboration with kindred spirits in inquiry, learning and writing.

Appreciative Inquiry has touched and inspired the work of thousands who apply its development principles in a wide range of settings including industry, government, spiritual and not-for-profit organizations. The Advances in Appreciative Inquiry series facilitates an emergent dialogue within the social sciences and supports innovative and challenging scholarly work. It is dedicated to the advancement of Appreciative Inquiry as an approach to organizational and human development, and as an interdisciplinary, non-deficit theory of positive change processes in human systems. Guided by the ethos of Appreciative Inquiry, the book series supports an ongoing, distributed inquiry into the true, the good, the better and the possible. It is dedicated to advancing a "scholarship of the positive" and "positive scholarship." This volume aims to push the frontiers and solicit new tools and insights for expanding the state-of-the-art applications of Appreciative Inquiry. It revolves around three fundamental aspects of organizational generativity, namely: generative knowledge and organizational life, collective action and the appreciative inquiry summit, and sustainable inter-generative dynamics.

This volume is focused on sustainable value which has become a widespread aspiration in all walks of life. By taking a generative approach and by building on positive design principles inherent in the appreciative inquiry methodology, it proposes moving from sustainable development to sustainable value. Chapters focus on three thematic areas for sustainable value: positive design, appreciative intelligence and social innovation, and social entrepreneurship. Contributions respond to questions such as: How can the design approach help enhance the sustainable value over profit value? And what needs to happen to create a vibrant community of practice among design practitioners, scientists, business and political leaders? Case studies show that by reframing global problems with an appreciative lens, organizations of all sorts can indeed create social innovation and even establish a business case for sustainable value. It provides lessons learned from high impact social entrepreneurship and conceptualizes how this nascent movement with unbridled potential may contribute to the radical shift necessary for moving from sustainable development to sustainable value.