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Background: Storytelling is an important tool for enacting relational approaches to practice development in care homes. Using storytelling methods can enhance the capacity of care home communities to respond to the emerging needs of people living with dementia. Aim: To explore the potential of the LIFE session storytelling method as a route to innovation in practice. Method: The method described in this article is the Learning and Innovating from Everyday Excellence (LIFE) session method, developed as a culture change initiative by facilitators from the My Home Life care home initiative in Scotland. LIFE sessions aim to take stories from everyday practice and use a structured format of four questions to help people talk collaboratively about ideals and practical ideas that can be taken forward to benefit those who live, work in or visit the care setting. Results: A total of 14 LIFE sessions took place as part of Kinections, a broader study exploring community in care homes. The following reflections were derived using illustrative examples from three of these storytelling sessions, used in this study: the sessions helped move stories from the specific (one resident) to the universal (practice development and culture change that can benefit everyone in the home); the sessions involved a process that could in itself support development of connections among those involved; and they inspired and encouraged people to feel confident to bring their learning and ideas into practice in a timely way. Conclusion: This article illustrates how the LIFE session method can be used to structure a discussion that uses a short everyday story as a route into a generative conversation that can inspire innovation in practice. Implications for practice: • LIFE sessions provide a format for illustrating the significance and potential for learning and development of everyday experiences in care homes. They can be facilitated reasonably quickly, with a wide range of people and across a wide range of topics • LIFE sessions can facilitate generative experiences and encourage generative outcomes through those involved feeling inspired and enabled to take forward small, meaningful ideas and actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Collaboratively exploring what matters to people, their understanding of concepts and their ideas for innovation can be a challenge in practice development, research and education due to potential difficulties in articulating complex issues. Visual inquiry is described as a process that involves the use of generic images to facilitate dynamic dialogue between the inquirer and participants, in order to support shared understanding and co-production of knowledge. Aim: The aim was twofold -- first to describe the visual inquiry method and second to explore the experiences of using it in practice development, research and education. Research design: Qualitative data were generated from a group of academics (n=8) who took part in a cooperative inquiry, exploring their experience of using this visual inquiry in 15 independent studies. Findings: The eight academics (inquirers) drew on their experience of using visual inquiry from 15 independent studies. Analysis of the qualitative data identified eight themes in relation to the process and outcomes of using visual inquiry: evocative participation; playfulness; holding vulnerability; welcoming authenticity; illumination; surfacing depth; unearthing possibilities; and evoking surprise and provocation. Conclusion: Visual inquiry was found to be a useful method for opening up dialogue, allowing the facilitator to adopt a flexible approach and the participant to richly articulate insights into their cognitive, emotional and experiential worlds. Implications for practice: • Visual inquiry is a useful method for practitioners looking to open up dialogue and uncover tacit knowledge in practice development, research and education • It is a particularly useful method for those new to facilitation, practice development and research, and encourages an improvisational approach • Cooperative inquiry enables us to gain insight into our own practice and explore possibilities for the future [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Some uncertainty surrounds both the definition and the application of reflexivity in participatory research and practice development. There is scope for further exploration of what reflexivity might look like in practice, and how the researcher/practice developer and participants might be involved. This paper does this in the context of a study that is using appreciative inquiry to explore the experience of inspection in care homes. Aims: I will explore my personal journey into the use of a relational constructionist approach to reflexivity and suggest that the 7 Cs of caring conversations provide a useful framework to inform reflexive practice. The 7 Cs will be used as a framework for the telling of this story. Implications for practice: • Relational reflexivity has the potential to create the space for all those involved in research/ practice development initiatives to voice their thoughts and feelings about the initiative and their involvement in it • The 7 Cs of caring conversations can provide a framework for developing questions that may serve as a starting point for cultivating reflexive practice [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]