The power of positive change

As we are looking at how we can make our organizations better it is time to think about some basics. It is rather well documented that if you look for problems you will find problems (Lorenc, 2005). Okay, but what does this mean? We as consultants are constantly looking for things we can do to help businesses improve. To improve means finding ways to do away with problems, doesn’t it? Well, yes and no.

There is something called positive change. Positive change does not look to solve problems or issues rather it looks to find ways to improve that using things like dreams, goals, and desires. Appreciative Inquiry is a great way to harness the power of positive change. There are other ways of harnessing this power as well. If you consider that if you look to improve upon the things you are already doing right you will find that the things you are having problems with will go away. This is not to say you ignore those problems, you concentrate on what you are doing right. Again, Appreciative Inquiry is a great way of harnessing this concentration on what you are doing right. Improving moral, achieving better production, increasing your bottom line, and more.

One of the great ways of utilizing Appreciative Inquiry is through a process known as double-looped-learning (Whitney, Trosten-Bloom, 2010). By taking what is working, checking to make sure it is still working, and building upon those positive things a company will decrease absenteeism, decrease employee turnover, and ultimately increase its brand image, its reputation. Board members, stockholders, and stakeholders pride in the organization will increase and that is something that every company wants.

References

Lorenc, Z. P., & Hall, T. (2005). Less Really Is More. Newsweek, 145(3), 55.

Whitney, D., & Trosten-Bloom, A. (2010). The power of appreciative inquiry: A practical guide to positive change (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.