Accentuate the Positive Eliminate the

“Man, they said we better Accentuate the positive Eliminate the negative Latch on to the affirmative Don’t mess with Mister In-Between No, do not mess with Mister In-Between Do you hear me, hmm?” The music was written by Harold Arlen and the lyrics by Johnny Mercer, and it was published in 1944.

You wonder why it has taken organizations this long to start considering this approach. My podcast guest, Sara Orem, co-author of Appreciative Coaching: A Positive Process for Change (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) expanded on this in the podcast:

Lions and tigers and bears. We lived in caves and there were wild animals and there were maybe not an ever present danger but there was an often present danger so we were wired to look for danger. The worrier in us will look for danger in the fact that we didn’t get a raise or we’ll look for danger in the fact that our significant other didn’t say good morning to us. We are negative beings and to some degree that’s also genetic.

Is that why problem solving is revered? And the feel good approach is not?

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Sara L.Orem, Ph.D. has twenty years of management experience and fifteen years management consulting in and to major financial services companies in the U. S., Britain and Australia. Her current focus is on the development and use of positive methods including Appreciative Inquiry in coaching and group processes. Appreciative Coaching describes in detail the method Sara has developed for her coaching practice which serves women and men looking at self-started transitions.

P.S. My favorite rendition of the song mentioned above is a Bette Midler & Bing Crosby rendition. Don’t miss this! This is my feel good strategy part of the post!

Appreciative Inquiry (sometimes shortened to “AI”) is primarily an organizational development method which seeks to engage all levels of an organization by taking an “asset-based approach.” It starts with the belief that every organization, and every person in that organization, has positive aspects that can be built upon. It asks questions like “What’s working well?”, “What’s good about what you are currently doing?” David Cooperrider is generally credited with coining the term ‘Appreciative Inquiry’.