Positive Psychology and Change

Preface

When meeting an organization interested in commissioning some work, an interesting question to pose is, “Why this now? Why is the now the moment at which you have decided to invest time and money in this?” I thought I might ask the same question to shape this preface. Why this book now?

I have been a psychologist for 30 years, for 10 years as a social worker and for 20 years as an organizational consultant, and it’s all about change. Life is about change. We are expert at change, we are the most adaptable species on the planet and yet it causes endless problems and challenges in organizational life. Many books have been written about how to successfully change things in organizations. Many of them are very good. Fewer have really called on the psychology of people and groups to explain why the plans don’t always work out quite as, well, planned, or to explain how our very humanness is our greatest asset when it comes to working together to influence our own futures.

I am moved to put the time and effort into writing this book now because I believe that positive psychology, combined with co-creative participatory approaches to change such as Appreciative Inquiry, offers very effective ways of helping organizations and people to change. Having said that, all change initiatives take place in a context, and that context is all-important in influencing how any change activity is interpreted by those involved. So this book doesn’t present a “recipe” for achieving more ...