Establishing a Positive Organizational Image of the Future
This fourth use of the term appreciation relates both to individual attitudes and organizational climate. Appreciative organizations lean into the future. We grow to appreciate a closely-held enterprise by investing it with optimism. In an appreciative enterprise there is a pervasive sense of hope about the future for this organization and the valuable role it can play in society. “Organization wide affirmation of the positive future is the single most important act that a system can engage in if its real aim is to bring to fruition a new and better future.”
Effective entrepreneurial leaders, in such a setting, will be “not only concerned with what is but also with what might be.” Employees come to appreciate their own role and that played by other members of the organization with regard to contributions that enable the organization to realize its purposes and values. Tim Russert, the former moderator of Meet the Press, disclosed a phrase used by his father: “fail forwards.”—that is learn from our mistakes and trace out the implications of the lessons learned from our failures for our future actions.
Recognizing Distinctive Strengths and Competencies
Appreciation in an intimate organizational setting—such as is found in closely-held enterprises—also refers to recognition of the distinct strengths and potentials of individuals working within the organization. An appreciative culture is forged when an emphasis is placed on the realization of inherent potential and the uncovering of latent strengths, rather than on the identification of weaknesses or deficits. This is a critical attitudinal variable. People and organizations “do not need to be fixed. They need constant reaffirmation.”
Even in a context of competition, appreciative attitude transforms envy into learning and transforms personal achievement into a sense of overall purpose and value. The essayist, Roger Rosenblatt, reveals just such a process in candidly describing his sense of competition with other writers. He suggests that his sense of admiration for the work of other writers serve a critical function in his own life:
