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202 Appreciative Leadership

structures so they become living values and the inevitable ways of
doing things.
Frances Perkins, sometimes described as “the woman behind the
New Deal,” dedicated her life to designing life-affi rming structures.
With her upper-middle-class values and education, she was an unlikely
champion for the downtrodden and disadvantaged; yet from the begin-
ning, she directed her tremendous intelligence, intuition, and political
savvy to further progressive economic and social programs that today
are considered commonplace. Eventually appointed secretary of labor

under Franklin Delano Roosevelt (the first woman to hold a U.S. Cab-
inet-level position), she conceived of and shepherded into law some of

the first minimum wage, industrial safety, and child labor laws in the
country, the institution of the Social Security and Unemployment Insur-
ance programs, and the establishment of the National Labor Relations
Board. Despite inevitable public criticism and political attack, she con-

tinued to work tirelessly until her death to fulfill her dreams of America
as an exemplar of justice, compassion, and opportunity for all.
In order to design innovative social structures, you must also
cultivate your character, liberate other people’s creative potential, and
foster collaboration across divided lines. High-engagement practices
presented throughout this book—such as the Appreciative Inquiry
Summit and accounting for the triple bottom line—will help you do
just this.

Facilitate Positive Change

Finally, by practicing Appreciative Leadership, you will make a posi-
tive difference as you facilitate positive change. Everything that Appre-

ciative Leadership does focuses on positive change: from personal
development to coaching to large-scale transformation. Appreciative
leaders make a positive difference by using Appreciative Inquiry. AI is

the leading process for effecting positive change at all levels of human
interaction and organization; for strategic planning and culture trans-
formation; for management development and executive team devel-
opment; for union/management partnerships; and for building and

community planning. Whitney and Trosten-Bloom’s The Power of