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Positive Power
Transforming Possibilities through Appreciative Leadership

Diana Whitney and Amanda Trosten-Bloom

Much of leadership success depends on working with, not against, natural processes—whether social, as illustrated by Willburn and Campbell, or psychological, as addressed in this essay. In his seminal article on appreciative inquiry, “Positive Image, Positive Action: The Affirmative Basis of Organizing,” David L. Cooperrider (2001) built a scientific case for the power of positive images to inspire energy for change. Examples of this kind of “placebo effect” —that is, a healing immune response—include (1) the Pygmalion effect, whereby people live up to the positive images others have of them; (2) the power of imaging in athletic success; and (3) the phenomenon of learned helpfulness as the antidote to learned helplessness, triggered by images and stories of figures like Mother Teresa. Cooperrider argued that leaders can evoke similar power by providing images that reinforce a desired outcome. Diana Whitney and Amanda Trosten-Bloom have been primary cocreators with Cooperrider of the appreciative inquiry community of practice. In the following essay, they provide a history of the development of positive psychology, the strengths movement, and appreciative inquiry as an organizational intervention, with practical applications for enhancing your capacity for bringing out the best in yourself, other people, and entire organizations.

Research into positive psychology (Fredrickson, 2009) suggests that people flourish and perform at their best when surrounded by positive emotions and positive communication. Teams, departments, and entire organizations thrive in a positive emotional environment. Strengths-based research makes the case for viewing human learning and development in areas of strength rather than weakness (Buckingham & Clifton, 2001). Taken together, these growing fields point to the relational model and innovative practices of Appreciative Leadership (Whitney, Trosten-Bloom, & Rader, 2010). The global success of the affirmative, high-engagement process of Appreciative Inquiry (Whitney & Trosten-Bloom, 2010; Cooperrider & Whitney, 2005) provides a compelling approach that leaders can use for creating large-scale alignment, innovation, and positive change in organizations and communities worldwide.

The Birth of Positive Psychology

In 1996, Dr. Martin Seligman, then the new president of the American Psychological Association, posed a powerful question to the field of psychology. “What,” he asked, “has the field of psychology been studying for the past thirty years?” A review of literature and research answered his question: there had been approximately 45,000 studies of human malaise, neurosis, or distress in some form, and only 300 studies of human well-being, joy, happiness, or success. Believing that the field had gotten off track, he dedicated his tenure as president to leadership in the area of positive psychology. He issued a call for psychological science and practice to be as concerned with strengths as with weaknesses; as interested in building the best things in life as in repairing the worst; and as committed to making the lives of normal people fulfilling as with overcoming pathology.

Among other things, the field of positive psychology explores the sources and benefits of positive emotions (Fredrickson, 2003), the relationship between inner dialogue and performance (Seligman, 1998), and the nature of character strengths and virtues (Peterson & Seligman, 2004).

Peterson and Seligman’s work focuses on the development, measurement, and cultivation of character strengths such as wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. In the development of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) strengths assessment, Peterson and Seligman systematically synthesized philosophical, religious, and scientific discussions of good character and identified the core virtues and specific character strengths that represent virtues in action. The VIA-IS is an online (35-minute) self-administered assessment tool that offers a rank ordering of twenty-four character strengths. Scores from the VIA survey are valid, reliable, and stable (see http://www.viacharacter.org). Those taking the VIA receive a printout of twenty-four character strengths in rank order, as well as a delineation of their top five signature strengths. Peterson and Seligman described signature strengths of character as strengths that a person owns, celebrates, and frequently exercises. Recent research findings suggest that the process of defining and embodying your strengths, or putting your strengths into action, leaves you feeling connected, enlivened, competent, and with a strong sense of being in community (Fialkov & Haddad, 2010).

Fredrickson’s research established what she calls the “broaden and build” theory. It suggests that humans flourish when they are in an environment of positive emotions. Specifically, she finds that when people are surrounded by emotions such as hope, joy, optimism, love, confidence, trust, and happiness, they become more open to and capable of learning. Their capacity for new experiences and knowledge broadens, as does their resiliency to uncertainty and change (Fredrickson, 2009).

Positive emotions support organizational and community success as well as human flourishing. Indeed, many of the organizational qualities that leadership seeks to foster—collaboration, achievement, and innovation—are a natural by-product of positive emotions.

To contribute constructively to human, organizational, and societal well-being, leaders need to develop and enhance vocabularies of joy, hope, optimism, care, compassion, and health along with positive practices that foster human flourishing. Key among these practices is maintaining what Fredrickson calls a 5:1 “positivity ratio.” This means saying and doing five things with positive impact for every one negative, which seems to be the optimal determinant of an overall positive emotional environment and success for couples (Gottman, 1994) and teams (Losada, 1999) as well as in organizations. It can be said that positive emotional environments are created one conversation at a time.

The Strengths Movement

In their book Now Discover Your Strengths, Buckingham and Clifton (2001) describe the term “strength” as “consistent near perfect performance in an activity” (p. 25). They suggest that strengths—which are a composite of talents, knowledge, skills, and use—are things we do with ease. When we work from our strengths there is a sense of joy, flow, energy, and fulfillment; and operating from strengths increases people’s success, productivity, and performance.

The strengths-based assumptions about learning and performance challenge the very foundation of more traditional leadership development and human resources (HR) practices, which assume that growth stems from improvement in areas of weakness. Thus, traditional leadership development identifies competencies for a position or a role; assesses people in relation to the competencies; identifies weaknesses; and puts together a plan to develop people in their area of weakness. The same process is followed for much organizational development: conduct a survey; identify areas of weakness; and hold managers accountable for planning improvements and measurable change.

Strengths-based change and development is based upon the following ideas:

• Each person’s greatest room for growth is in his or her greatest areas of strength—not weakness.

• Excellent performers are rarely well rounded. They capitalize on their strengths and avoid or minimize their weaknesses.

• To help people capitalize on strengths, give people opportunities to identify and understand them—then reinforce them with practice and learning, and find roles (jobs, projects, classes) that draw on them (Buckingham & Clifton, 2001, pp. 25–35).

The notions of strengths-based learning and performance have tremendous implications for leadership, HR processes, and team building. Success in these endeavors comes through articulating and organizing around what people are good at, finding ways to enable each and every person to shine.

What Is Appreciative Inquiry?

Appreciative Inquiry is both a philosophy and methodology for positive change. It is founded on the simple assumption that human systems—teams, organizations, and people—move in the direction of what they study, what they focus on, and what they talk about with regularity. Appreciative Inquiry focuses on what “gives life” to organizations, teams, and people when they are at their best.

Appreciative Inquiry does not assume that any person or organization is always at its best. It does posit, and both research and experience confirm, that people learn, and organizations change, most readily when they focus on, study, and engage in dialogue about strengths, patterns of success, and who and what they are at their best.

For this reason, the Appreciative Inquiry process engages large numbers of people in dialogue and deliberations about their individual and collective strengths and their hopes and dreams for the future, as well as opportunities and plans for collaborative action.

The process generally follows what is called the Appreciative Inquiry 4-D Cycle (Figure 4.1).

Lessons about Leadership Using Appreciative Inquiry

We have worked with dozens of leadership teams to help them introduce Appreciative Inquiry to their organizations and communities and to use it successfully for significant transformation. We have noticed that the leaders who chose Appreciative Inquiry as their vehicle for positive change have the following four things in common (Whitney et al., 2010):

• First, they were willing to engage with other members of their organization or community to create a better way of doing business or living.

• Second, they were willing to learn and to change. They did not simply expect it of others. They were all open to learning from employees and stakeholders and to changing themselves as well as their organizations in the process.

Figure 4.1 Discovery, Dream, Design, and Destiny (Whitney & Trosten-Bloom, 2010, p. 6).

• Third, these leaders truly believed in the power of the positive. When faced with low levels of employee morale and engagement, they chose positive approaches to change. They understood that by studying what was successful and promising in their organizations, people would gain confidence and hope, but also that morale and performance would improve.

• And fourth, these leaders cared about people, often describing the work of their organization or business in terms of helping people learn, grow, and develop. Carolyn Miller, executive director of the Community Development Institute, is an exemplar of this kind of leadership. Leading from a stance of coach and mentor, she actively solicits people’s hopes and dreams for their future, and then supports them in taking on work that is consistent with those dreams. Her commitment to personal development is also reflected in the company’s robust training budget, as well as the regular, ongoing coaching that she and her fellow leaders engage in with their staffs.

Peter Drucker has been quoted as saying that the primary task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths toward a goal, in such a way that weaknesses are irrelevant. In many ways these leaders live this philosophy and practice. They seek to understand and learn what works well and to build the future upon it.

Appreciative Leadership: Putting Appreciative Inquiry into Practice

Appreciative Leadership articulates and organizes around what people are good at, finding ways to enable each and every person to shine. Appreciative HR processes such as performance management systems, succession planning, and career development are designed so that people can learn and leverage their personal strengths and high-performance patterns. And finally, appreciative team building ensures that the diverse strengths of team members are aligned and complementary (Whitney, Trosten-Bloom, Cherney, & Fry, 2004, pp. 9–15).

Appreciative Leadership is: “The relational capacity to mobilize creative potential and turn it into positive power—to set in motion positive ripples of confidence, energy, enthusiasm, and performance—to make a positive difference in the world” (Whitney et al., 2004, p. 3).

Embedded in this definition are four formative ideas about appreciative leadership: (1) it is relational; (2) it is positive; (3) it is about turning potential into positive power; and (4) it has rippling effects. Each of these four ideas represents a paradigm shift, a clear movement away from the habitual, traditional, individualistic, command-and-control practices of leadership toward a “new normal”: the positive, socially generative principles, strategies, and practices of Appreciative Leadership.

Five Core Strategies of Appreciative Leadership

The five core strategies of Appreciative Leadership point to key areas of relational practice. Each is a means by which Appreciative Leadership successfully unleashes potential and elevates positive performance.

The Wisdom of Inquiry: Asking Positively Powerful Questions

Positive questions are Appreciative Leadership’s most powerful tools. Inquiry lets people know that you value them and their contributions. When you ask people to share their thoughts and feelings—their stories of success or ideas for the future—and you sincerely listen to what they have to say, you are telling them, “I value you and your thinking.” Such inquiry requires daily practice: to ask more and tell less; to study the root causes of success rather than the root causes of failure; and to wonder why people do what they do rather than judge and berate them.

The Art of Illumination: Bringing Out the Best of People and Situations

The art of illumination requires the willingness and ability to see what works rather than what doesn’t, the interest and capacity to discover peoples’ strengths, and the appreciative intelligence to sense the positive potential in every person and situation.

Success breeds success. Stories of strengths, high performance, and success create momentum and pave paths forward for ongoing high performance and success. When leaders discover and pass along stories of success, they are implicitly saying, “this is the way to do things around here if you too want to be successful.” Through the practices of illumination you can help people learn about their strengths and the strengths of others. You give them confidence and encouragement to express themselves, take risks, and support others in working from their strengths.

The Genius Inclusion: Engaging with Others to Cocreate the Future

The practice of inclusion gives people a sense of belonging, which in turn opens the door for collaboration and cocreation. When people feel they are a part of something, they care for it. Imagine you are planning for the future of a school. Who would you include on the invitation list? Faculty, administrators, parents, students, and who else? One school included cooks, janitors, board members, bus drivers, and graduates in their strategic planning process. Or imagine a meeting to consider alternatives for community health care. Who would you include? Yes, physicians, nurses, administrators, politicians, and patients are among the many voices that need to be invited and engaged. How about pharmaceutical companies, social workers, educators, laboratory technicians, and local media? In every situation there is a myriad of people, groups, and organizations with a stake in the outcome, all of whom can make a valuable contribution, whose voice matters, and who will be enlivened through participation.

The Courage of Inspiration: Awakening the Creative Spirit

Appreciative Leadership unleashes latent potential—great ideas, strengths, capabilities, and skills—by inspiring creativity, confidence, and hope for the future. Through inspiration, people get a sense of direction. When you put into place a vision and path forward, you give hope and unleash energy and the action needed to realize the vision. Inspiration gives people hope and courage to shed habitual ways of living and working and move in new, innovative, and more life-affirming directions. Inspiration, hope, and creativity—three essential ingredients for personal and collective transformation—go hand in hand.

Do you know what inspires the people around you? It’s easy to find out. Just ask them: “Tell me about a time when you were at your best. What inspired you?” Or watch them. When people feel inspired, they show excitement, enthusiasm, and high energy. Or listen to them. When people say things like, “I don’t know where this idea comes from but what if we …” or “I have a creative idea that I need your help thinking through” or “I would love to …” they are expressing their creative spirit. An inspired workplace hums with the sounds of creative collaboration, synergy, and the surprise of collective wisdom unfolding.

The Path of Integrity: Making Choices for the Good of the Whole

Appreciative Leadership begins and ends with integrity. When you are on the path of integrity, people know it. They follow your ideas and ideals, model their ways of working after yours, and contribute their best to the ideals you put forth. When you practice integrity, you let people know that they are expected to give their best for the greater good, and that they can trust others to do the same.

When you are off the path of integrity, people sense it. They see it in your actions: when the way you relate to people minimizes them, belittles them, or even harms them. They hear it in your words and the tone of your voice when you make promises you cannot deliver upon. They feel it when you are short on emotional intelligence, avoid conflict, blame others, or express anger inappropriately. When you are off the path of integrity, people move away from your ideas and your way of working.

Conclusion: Appreciative Leadership for Today’s World

The world has changed. We have crossed a threshold to a new era: one that demands a radical shift in leadership strategies and practices. With the help of technology, we have discovered, as if for the first time, that we are all related. Acknowledgment of this interdependence leads us to profoundly shift what we wish for and expect from leadership. To meet this challenge, leadership must be aware of and respond to trends currently defining the social milieu of organizations and communities.

Today, people want to be engaged and heard. They want to be involved in decisions that affect them and to be acknowledged for a job well done. Diversity is the norm. Whether local or global, small town or corporate, organizations and communities are composed of people with a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, of differing ages and preferences. People in today’s organizations need leadership that is collaborative and just. The most pressing social, economic, environmental, and political challenges of our time are global in nature. They cannot be resolved by one person, one country, or one business. They require unprecedented appreciation of differences and collaboration. In short, they call for Appreciative Leadership.