Page 12 - Appreciative Leadership

Foreword xi

In effect, the present volume stands as a landmark in the theory

and practice of organizational development. Whitney, and her talented
colleagues—Amanda Trosten-Bloom and Kae Rader—expand the
boundaries of understanding and practice. For them, leadership embed-
ded in appreciative philosophy and practices is the key to thriving and
successful organizational performance. Drawing from extensive con-
sulting experiences with Appreciative Inquiry, along with close and
collaborative research with leaders from wide-ranging organizations,
the authors share a rich and compelling account of how an appreciative
approach may function.
Drawing from the appreciative tradition, the authors off er fi ve
major orientations to harnessing the powers of appreciation. Th ere
is first the wisdom of inquiry, in which those in positions of leader-

ship are invited to craft questions that can turn debilitating problems
into opportunities for positive change. By drawing organizational
members into mutual inquiry, bridges are built across functional
domains, and ultimately an organizational culture can emerge in

which all participants are valued. Then, through appreciative practices,
participants are more inspired and engaged in the life of the orga-
nization. Third, there is the importance of bringing people together

to cocreate the future of the organization. In the way such relations
are organized, participants are energized to think and plan creatively.
And fi nally, through these processes the individual-centered (or me-

first) culture, so common in today’s world, is replaced by decisions
that celebrate the good of the whole.
This is rich fare indeed, and should stoke the fires of creative

change in organizations great and small. However, in the longer run
I think there is a deeper wisdom in this volume that may go unrecog-
nized. It is the value—and indeed the profound promise—of under-
standing our world as relational process. We participate in a long
tradition in which individual entities are focal. I am not speaking here
only of individual persons, and the way we understand them in terms
of their thoughts, values, desires, and so on. But we also focus our
attention—both in science and daily life—on singular subject matters,