Establishing a Positive Image of the Future

Appreciation can refer to establishing a positive image of the future. We grow to appreciate our life and/or the life of our organization by investing them with optimism. We invest our life and our institution with a sense of hope about the future and the valuable role potentially engaged in furthering the common good. We come to appreciate our role and that of other people in an organization or community concerning the contributions made jointly in helping our organization or community realize these images, purposes, and values. An appreciative perspective is always leaning into the future. While we appreciate that which has been successful in the past, we don’t dwell with nostalgia on the past, but instead continually trace the implications of acquired wisdom and past successes regarding our vision of the future.

Recognizing Distinctive Strengths and Competencies

Appreciation also refers to recognizing distinctive strengths and potentials. 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. Individuals and organizations do not need to be fixed. They need to be appreciated and affirmed. Paradoxically, when someone is fully appreciated and reaffirmed, they tend to live up to their newly acclaimed talents and drive, just as they will live down to their depreciated sense of self if constantly criticized and undervalued. Carl Rogers suggested many years ago that people are least likely to change if pushed to change and are most likely to change when they have received positive regard—what we would identify as appreciation.

Acknowledging the Value of Diversity

A final mode of appreciation is evident when efforts are made to form complementary relationships and recognize the mutual benefits that can be derived from the cooperation of differing constituencies. A culture of appreciating differences provides integration (the glue that holds an organization or community together) while the organization or community is growing and differentiating into many distinctive units of responsibility (division of labor) and geography. An appreciative perspective is particularly important in the era of globalization, when there are significant differences in vision, values, or culture among global residents.