Page 159 - Appreciative Leadership

132 Appreciative Leadership

draw on their strengths, and guide them toward a more life-
affi rming future.

One person’s story is the path to another’s future. This is no more
apparent than with the adoption of technology. iPhone users are a
great example: airports, restaurants, and hotel lobbies are full of
people talking across aisles, sharing stories, and demonstrating how
their favorite applications work. Sharing stories of success readily
leads to the adoption of new practices. In another example, consider
two friends who migrated from PCs to Mac computers at the same
time. Regularly, they shared stories of their new accomplishments.
One researched and learned a series of shortcuts. Now they both

know and use them. The other shared how she was using the cal-
endar function, and her friend adopted the practice. Learning from
another’s stories of success is fun and a whole lot easier than going
it alone.
Hearing other people’s stories enriches our sense of possibility

and builds confidence to face uncertainty. Knowing that someone, or
some other group, has already accomplished something that we desire
gives hope that we too might accomplish it. It inspires bold dreaming
and takes the fear out of risky action. Other people’s stories inspire us
personally as well as at work.
When her doctor told her she had bone cancer, Karen felt as
if someone had drawn a dark curtain over her life. She was only
24 years old and had never felt so helpless. She didn’t know what to
think or what to do. Over the next several weeks, many people shared
the stories of their illnesses with her. Their empathy comforted her. Most

importantly, their stories of how they had regained their health and
gone on to live happy productive lives, inspired her and gave her hope.
Over time, she came to believe this could happen to her too. Stories of
health and healing give hope and inspire well-being. At work, stories of
success, productivity, and collaboration inspire high performance.
Remember: human systems learn, grow, and move in the direc-
tion of what they study—the stories they repeatedly tell themselves
and each other.