Similarly, for the entrepreneur in a closely-held enterprise, the first step is one of recognizing the exceptional competencies that already exist in his or her enterprise. The second step is to convert these competencies into fixed and sustainable forms that can further the intentions of the enterprise. 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 regarding Theory E². It is not the structures, processes or culture of the organization that make an enterprise successful. Like the lake, these elements of the enterprise only hold its potential; they are not, in and of themselves, the realization of this organization’s potential. An enterprise is successful in our contemporary world, because the value of these structures, processes and culture is acknowledged. Appreciative strategies enable the entrepreneurs in a closely-held enterprise to fully engage these structures, processes and culture in alignment with their enterprise’s intention.
De Soto (2000, p. 45) has something more to say about capital. His wisdom is directly applicable to our understanding of appreciative organizations. Like the potential energy of the mountain lake, capital is dormant until such time as it is put to use: “Bringing [capital] to life requires us to go beyond looking at our assets as they are to actively thinking about them as they could be. It requires a process for fixing an asset’s economic potential into a form that can be used to initiate additional production.” Similarly, it is not enough to identify and enumerate the sources of strength in an organization. It is not enough to appreciate the contributions already made, or to be made in the future, by members of an organization. An E² organization has embraced a way of “actively thinking about” these strengths as they might be fully engaged by the organization.
