Page 168 - Appreciative Leadership

The Courage of Inspiration 141

And even if he were ready to retire, only one of them would
get his job. The competition they felt among themselves was

now explicit and made sense.
As they talked openly about what seemed like an impossible
reality, light bulbs went on. They all had enough experience to

be VPs. They were all competent enough to be VPs. Th ere were
plenty of VP jobs to be had—in other divisions of their company
and even in other companies. What if one of their shared goals
was to all become VPs within the next three years? What if they
supported each other rather than competed with each other?
What if they became the best human resources department in
the pharmaceutical industry—a pool of the best executive lead-

ership talent available? Their personal dreams converged and
became one big collective dream. And so it was that over the
next three years they all supported one other so that one team
member successfully started her own company, while the other
four directors all became HR VPs in other divisions and other
companies.

So what makes a vision compelling? What stimulates visionary
liveliness? In a landmark essay, “Positive Image, Positive Action,” Pro-
fessor David Cooperrider summarizes research in fields from educa-

tion to medicine to athletics to sociology, all indicating that positive
images of the future inspire positive action:

Cancer survivors use . . . [visualization] to enter states that
enable their bodies to perform, like those of athletes, at
levels beyond the ordinary. People in pain use it to manage
and control discomfort. Nicholas Hall, a physician at the
George Washington Medical Center, found that patients
using visualization increased their number of circulating
white blood cells, and also levels of a hormone important to