Preflection13Introduction15PART ZEROGATEWAYAn Invitation Before the Journey19The Word Nobody Uses Correctly20Three Frames, One Practice22Why This, Why Now23How to Navigate This Book - A Reader's Map24PART ONEA FRAME CALLED GENERATIVITYGenerativity - What Does It Actually Mean?29The Most Important Word You Are Using Incorrectly29The Trifold Definition30The User Manual31A Quick Test38Backstage39The Long Road to a Simple Question39In Dialogue with Sources40The Kafkaesque Detour41The Framework Finds Its Form42What the Research Story Means for the User Manual43PART TWOFRAMING A GENERATIVE PROCESSGenerativity, How Do We Recognize It in Action?47Why Processes Are Where the Action Is47The Seven Manifestations of a Generative Process48How to Assess a Generative Process?54The Genarrator's Role in the Processual Frame56A Brief Moment for Your Own Journaling57Backstage59Finding Celeste59The Drill60The JABS Years61The Letter from Viladrau63What the JABS Journey Means for This Frame63PART THREEA FUTURE FORMING FRAMEGenerativity - Can Organizations Live it?67From Processes to the Whole67The Five Factors68The Three Degrees: A Practical Instrument74An Invitation to Become a Knowledgeable Cocreator76Backstage78The Night of the Unexpected Intermezzo78Five Factors, Five Natures79What the Research Showed - and What Remains Open81PART FOURFROM FINDINGS TO PRACTICEGENARRATIVITY IS NOT A FRAMEGenarrativity - How to become a Genarrator?85The Gap Between Understanding and Practice85What the Three Frames Ask of You86The Craft of Generative Inquiry87A Daily Inquiry for Whom it may Concern88The Five-Step Interview with a Co-worker89Are you the next Knowledgeable Cocreator?90Care for Case Studies?97Can you draw me a process?97On the Word Itself98Translating a poem99Bang & Olufsen in survival mode100Owls and Storks Co-creating in Leiden Living Lab101To Frame or Not to Frame104The Practice of Not Finishing106PART FIVEA FIELD RESEARCH INSTRUMENTThe Organizational Generativity Interview109Before You Begin110Opening the Conversation110The Five Questions112The Closing Question115After the Conversation116PART SIXAN ARCHIVE OF VALUABLE VOICESWhat a Wonderful Words119Genarrative Inspirators121Reflections by my Co-Makers128When a different AI meets the author155Endnote & Andnote161Curated Reading List163Summary of Key Concepts170The Genarrative Retreat175In unexpected new ways, based on scientific research, Genarrative makes you understand and promote generativity as future forming capacity of organizations and other communities.Some words do more than describe. They generate.Generativity is such a word. It names the capacity of an organization to create its own future — and to care for what comes after it. Not as a strategy. As a way of being.Cees Hoogendijk spent five years in formal research on this question. And a lifetime in practice. In this book he brings both together through three clear frames: the Word, the Process, the Organization. He introduces five factors of organizational generativity — Intentionality, Processuality, Performativity, Serendipity and Procreativity — and offers instruments to recognize, assess and strengthen them.But Genarrative is more than a framework. It is a pragademic memoir: personal, processual, and occasionally surprising. A book that does what it describes.The real question it asks is not whether your organization is generative. The question is: what kind of Genarrator do you want to become?On Becoming a Genarrator is more than an instruction. It is a genuine invitation.“Countless times on back covers I’ve read: 'Every manager should read this book.' This book is one of only a few where I believe this to be true. If you’re looking to proactively and intentionally create your organization’s future, instead of only passively preparing for whatever future may arrive, this book can be your guide.” Jeffrey Hicks, Ph.D. is a University of Texas Dallas, Assistant Professor, Organizations, Strategy and International Management; Academic Director, The Leadership Center“So much to appreciate in this work; the head spins with ideas. The work thus performs that which it attempts to describe. Deep appreciation for your efforts, Cees, stimulating as ever…” Kenneth J. Gergen, Ph.D. is a founding member, President of the Taos Institute and Chair of the Board, and the Mustin Professor of Psychology at Swarthmore College."The way you, Cees, have been uncovering the depths of generativity in the previous chapters might actually demotivate, challenge some of us to explore this concept as a potential way to make our organizations more human as your story must be read as a living document. A cathedral to which you constantly add new elements and/or ornaments to make it even more beautiful." Joep C. de Jong is one of the early adopters of Appreciative Inquiry, and fulfilled various senior leadership roles in corporate high tech business and global ngos."This book comprises a quest to new human approaches to the flourishing continuation of existing human systems. If I myself could give out a PhD, Cees would have obtained it already!" Prof. Dr. Celeste P.M. Wilderom, full professor of Change Management & Organizational Behavior, Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences at University of Twente.