At its best, Best Practice Two is all about people being creative. It is also assumed that all people are inclined toward leading a life of care and compassion for other people. As such, all people have the ability to make opportunities for collaboration and Innovation. They create settings in which judgment is suspended, trust encouraged, and disagreement is approached in humility, with a heart to reach others. Real innovation comes only with this shared commitment to an appreciative perspective regarding the innate talent in all people.

Establishing Respect, Discovering Strengths, Fulfilling Aspirations

We have already identified one of the major components of appreciation: leaning into the future. There are several other components. Appreciation is founded not just on a compelling image of the future but also a sustained willingness to engage with another person from an assumption of mutual respect, in a mutual search for discovery of distinctive competencies and strengths, with a view to helping them fulfill their aspirations and their potential.

 Understanding Another Person: The term appreciation itself has several different meanings that tend to build on one another; however, as a foundation, we can state that appreciation refers first to a clearer understanding of another person’s perspective. We come to appreciate the point of view being offered by our colleague or the challenges which the other person faces. This appreciation, in turn, comes not from some detached observation, but rather from direct engagement. One gains knowledge from an appreciative perspective by “identifying with the observed.” (Harmon, 1990, p. 43)

Empathy is critical. One cares about the matter being studied and about those people one is assisting. Neutrality is inappropriate in such a setting, though compassion implies neither a loss of discipline nor a loss of boundaries between one’s own problems and perspectives and those of the other person. Appreciation, in other words, is about fuller understanding, not merging, with another person’s problems or identity.

Valuing Another Person: Appreciation also refers to an increase in worth or value. A painting or stock portfolio appreciates in value. Van Gogh looked at a vase of sunflowers and in appreciating (painting) these flowers, he increased their value for everyone. Van Gogh similarly appreciated and brought new value to his friends through his friendship: “Van Gogh did not merely articulate admiration for his friend: He created new values and new ways of seeing the world through the very act of valuing.” (Cooperrider, 1990, p. 123)

Peter Vaill recounts a scene from the movie Lawrence of Arabia in which Lawrence tells a British colonel that his job at the Arab camp was to “appreciate the situation.” (Vaill, 1990, p. 323) By appreciating the situation, Lawrence assessed and helped add credibility to the Arab cause, much as a knowledgeable jeweler or art appraiser can increase the value of a diamond or painting through nothing more than thoughtful appraisal. Lawrence’s appreciation of the Arab situation, in turn, helped to produce a new level of courage and ambition on the part of the Arab communities with which Lawrence was associated. The spiritual leader who fully appreciates those with whom the leader works has raised this person’s value by seeing them in ways that neither this person nor their associates in the organization or community might have seen before, thus opening up new vistas for this person’s growth.