De Soto suggests that two challenges confront a third world country. First, leaders of the country must formally recognize the capital that currently exists in the country. Second, these leaders must discover or invent a mechanism for converting this capital into a sustainable form that is useful to the country and promotes the welfare of the country. Returning to the analogy of the lake, De Soto (2000, p. 45) suggests that:
The challenge for the engineer is finding out how he can create a process that allows him to convert and fix this potential into a form that can be used to do additional work. In the case of the elevated lake, that process is contained in a hydroelectric plant that allows the lake water to move rapidly downward with the force of gravity, thereby transforming the placid lake’s energy potential into the kinetic energy of tumbling water. . . As electricity, the potential energy of the placid lake is now fixed in the form necessary to produce controllable current that can be further transmitted through wire conductors to faraway places to deploy new production.
Similarly, for those who wish to consult with the leaders of an organization to make it more appreciative (engaging Model Two or Three Consultation), the first step is one of helping one’s client to recognize the exceptional competencies that already exist in their organization. The second step is to help the client convert these competencies into fixed and sustainable forms that can further the intentions of the organization. According to De Soto (2000, p. 45):
What was required [in realizing the potential of the mountain lake] was an external man-made process that allowed us, first, to identify the potential of the weight of the water to do additional work and, second, to convert this potential energy into electricity, which can then be used to create surplus value. The additional value we obtain from the lake is not a value of the lake itself (like a precious ore intrinsic to the earth) but rather a value of the man-made process extrinsic to the lake. It is this process that allows us to transform the lake from a fishing and canoeing kind of place into an energy-producing kind of place.
The same holds true in an appreciative organization. It is not the structures, processes or culture of the organization that make it successful. Like the lake, these elements of the organization only hold its potential; they are not, in and of themselves, the realization of this organization’s potential. An appreciative organization is successful in our contemporary world, because the value of these structures, processes and culture is acknowledged. Appreciative consultative strategies enable an organizational client to fully engage these structures, processes and culture in alignment with the organization’s intention.
