Positive Psychology at Work:

Transformative Collaboration Approaches

Transformative, collaborative events work through the processes we have just outlined. It is possible to work in transformative ways in organizations using this awareness to help locate useful points of intervention. Patricia Shaw (2002) gives a wonderfully readable account of working as a ‘free-range’ change agent who understands the organization as a complex adaptive system and works to help it purposefully evolve through influencing the processes we have identified. There are also a number of more formal change approaches or methodologies: they understand the organization as a complex adaptive system; work through the organizational patterns; affect the organization at a cultural level; are likely to help the organization evolve towards virtuousness; and give us some tangible starting points for action. Below we outline a few: Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space and World Café.

1) Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider and Whitney, 2001) is an inquiry into some aspect of organizational life. The inquiry is appreciative in nature: focused on the best of the present and past. In this way it identifies a strong base from which to build towards a positive future. Appreciative Inquiry is based on four key processes: discovering the best of the present; co-creating attractive futures; redesigning the organization in the light of the first two processes; and working with the energy generated by the process to make things happen. ...