Thinking Through Positivity

I’m fully invested now in Appreciative Inquiry and the broader spectrum of strengths-based and positive approaches. Still, sometimes it’s a challenge for me to explain the rationale to others without that song coming up way in the back of my mind: Keep on the sunny side, always on the….. There’s far more to it than that. I’m also beginning to think that the power of a positive orientation is not as much of a secret as it sometimes seems.

The fundamental example for me is the artist. Michelangelo was not problem-solving when he made the Pieta; there was a lot more going on. When Picasso painted Les Desmoiselles d’Avignon, I doubt that it was because an accreditation agency identified a deficit of Cubism in the art world.

I see other signs. Recently a finance manager noted that if a company has numerous business units, and some are making money and others are losing money, you should not immediately invest in the weak ones. Invest in the strong ones and raise the worth of the whole much faster. In a recent New York Times article Dr. Tachi Yamada talked about the value in finding the positive attributes in analyses and people, and spending your time on those as opposed to just the shortfalls. In the book Born to Run, they point out that species evolve according to what they’re good at. In Scenarios: The Art of Strategic Conversation Kees Van Der Heijden points out that tomorrow’s core competencies come from today’s.

Sometimes when I feel like flying really low, I’ll claim that “No organization ever advanced itself by focusing on its deficiencies.” I have not a shred of evidence for such bombast, but I really do believe it. At the same time, one mustn’t paint with too wide a brush. As pointed out in Metaphors in Mind there are times when it’s appropriate to pull a few weeds.

I also believe that a positive approach ultimately entails really hard work. It’s really easy to call out what we don’t want, but have you ever found it hard to say what you do want? It can be a little tougher. And when we find our strengths, our abilities when at our best, that knowledge brings with it an obligation to always strive for that level. It’s not work for weenies, but our future depends on it.