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International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry
August 2015
Volume 17 Number 3
AI Practitioner
ISBN 978-1-907549-24-3
dx.doi.org/10.12781/978-1-907549-24-3
www.aipractitioner.com/subscriptions
Consultants & Clients Co-authoring
Sustainable Results in Organisations
and Communities
Edited by
Ralph Weickel
Sponsored by
Corporation for Positive Change
Image courtesy: Tamar Harel
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AI Practitioner
International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry
August 2015
Volume 17 Number 3 | ISBN 978-1-907549-24-3
dx.doi.org/10.12781/978-1-907549-24-3
Consultants & Clients Co-authoring Sustainable
Results in Organisations and Communities
Inside this issue
Welcome to August 2015 issue of AI Practitioner
Consultants & Clients Co-authoring
Sustainable Results in Organisations and
Communities reflects the creative and new
ways practitioners are delivering results
while leveraging strengths and engaging
the whole system. The articles show how
clients are using the principles, processes
and methodology of Appreciative Inquiry in
rapidly changing environments.
David Cooperrider and Lindsey Godwin
highlight what we have learned about
4
Consultants & Clients
Co-authoring Sustainable
Results in Organisations and
Communities
non-deficit, life-centric and full-spectrum
strengths-powered change in the Feature
Choice article, “Elevation-and-Change:
An Eight-Step Platform for Leading
P.O.S.I.T.I.V.E. Change”.
AI Resources focuses on resources to
help practitioners improve the impact of
AI processes and research studies that
empirically highlight the impact of AI
processes.
In Research Review & Notes, Ron Fry at
Case Western Reserve University in the
United States summarises recent research
on the generative power of the Appreciative
Inquiry Discovery phase.
We would like to thank Corporation for
Positive Change for sponsoring this issue.
7
Editor: Ralph Weickel
Feature Choice
Elevation-and-Change: An
Eight-Step Platform for Leading
P.O.S.I.T.I.V.E Change
David L. Cooperrider and
Lindsey N. Godwin
Anne Radford
Editor, AI Practitioner
18
Appreciative Inquiry Meets
Positive Psychology
A Dialogue between Diana
Whitney and Barbara Fredrickson
about Organizational Change,
Transformation and Innovation
Diana Whitney and
Barbara L. Fredrickson
27
Tukae Tusemesane – Let’s Sit
Down and Reason Together
Enlivening Strengths and Community
Claire Fialkov, David Haddad,
Nelly Ndirangu and James Karanja
37
Partnerships that Matter –
Results that Count
Colleges and Consultants lifting up
higher education in Canada
Sharon Carry, Denise Henning,
Joan McArthur-Blair and
Jeanie Cockell
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44
Strengthening
Organizational Wings
50
Using Appreciative Inquiry to
Achieve School Excellence
Vince Carbino and Tenny Poole
The City of Amsterdam:
Amazing Results Due to
Incremental Steps and the
Ripple Effects of an
‘Oil Stain’ AI Approach
57
From ‘Best’ to ‘Even Better’
Rapid Relational Results at ARAG
North America
Amanda Trosten-Bloom, Sarah Noll
Wilson and Kevin Real
Sanna Zijlstra and Sjouke Vrijburg
68
Appreciative Inquiry
Research Review & Notes
72
Deepening Our Understanding
of the Power of the Appreciative
Inquiry Discovery Phase
Appreciative Inquiry
Resources
77
Stories and examples of results
using AI
Appreciative & Strengthsbased Lean Thinking: Positive
Engagement with Business
Improvement and Efficiency
Matthew R. Moehle,
Roopa Nandi and Hardik Shah
Ronald Fry
About the November 2015
Issue
Editors: David Shaked and
Nicolas Stampf
78
About the sponsor
of this issue
Corporation for Positive Change
Advertisements
79
The Centre for Appreciative
Inquiry
80
Appreciative Action
84
IAPG Contacts
and AI Practitioner
Subscription Information
William James College
81
David L. Cooperrider
Center for Appreciative Inquiry
82
Appreciate Positive Change
83
AI Practitioner:
Research Review and Notes
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AI Practitioner Volume 17 Number 3 ISBN 978-1-907549-24-3
dx.doi.org/10.12781/978-1-907549-24-3-2
David L. Cooperrider
Lindsey N. Godwin
David Cooperrider is the Fairmount Santrol/David
L. Cooperrider Professor of AI at the Weatherhead
School of Management, Case Western Reserve
University. David is best known for his original theory
and writing on Appreciative Inquiry, with his mentor,
Suresh Srivastva, in 1986.
Contact: dlc6@case.edu
www.DavidCooperrider.com
Lindsey N. Godwin is an associate professor at
Champlain College, where she serves as the Academic
Director for the David L. Cooperrider Center for
Appreciative Inquiry. As an active practitioner-scholar,
she remains active in the global AI community and
has helped organize and facilitate AI processes with a
variety of organizations around the globe.
Contact: godwin@champlain.edu
August 2015
Feature Choice
by David Cooperrider and Lindsey Godwin
Elevation-and-Change: An Eight-Step Platform
for Leading P.O.S.I.T.I.V.E. Change
The task of this article is to
sketch out the essence of an
early articulation of conscious
co-elevation, an affective
theory of social construction
that is to meaning-making
human systems what genetic
change is to biological
systems. It is a uniquely
human evolutionary process
of positive change, and
implications for change are
vast. What have we learned
about non-deficit, life-centric
and full-spectrum strengthspowered change?
“Awe is what moves us forward.” Joseph Campbell
The power of elevated experience to transform – when we consciously co-elevate
the strategic strengths spectrum in a way that creates not “power over” but “power
to” – is enormous. Unlike other change processes that are gradual and cumulative,
a growing implosion of literature shows that positive core affect, when savored,
amplified and used to propel co-creation, can be generative, relationally empowering
and rapid – and even more so when united with the exponential inquiry effect of a
rigorous Appreciative Inquiry (AI) into everything “that gives life” to a living human
system when it is most alive. Consider just a few of these transformations:
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters – When they started using AI, their revenues
were in the neighborhood of $200 million in sales. Their first organization-wide AI,
prophetically, was called “Preparing for an Era of Phenomenal Growth and Positive
World Impact”. Soon they went on to help architect the whole fair trade coffee
movement and by 2014, ten years later, their market value was over $24 billion.
Under the leadership of Robert P. Stiller, Green Mountain became one of the business
successes of our century (stock market and social responsibility). And actions speak
louder: Bob Stiller was so clearly inspired by the contribution that AI made, that
he stepped forward with a $10 million transformational gift to Champlain College,
establishing the first-ever academic center for Appreciative Inquiry. His comment:
“We believe that to redefine business, it is necessary to introduce new thinking into
how business is taught to the next generation of leaders and entrepreneurs, and
Appreciative Inquiry brings out the best in business, in people, and society.”
AI Practitioner August 15 Cooperrider and Godwin: Leading P.O.S.I.TI.V.E. Change
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AI Practitioner Volume 17 Number 3 ISBN 978-1-907549-24-3
August 2015
United Nations Global Compact – When Nobel Prize-winning Secretary General
Kofi Annan called on AI early on nobody knew how rapidly the business for good
movement could be magnified. But the largest strategy meeting in history between
the UN and C-suite business leaders took place on June 24, 2004. It was historic
and game changing, and one of the best AI-inspired projects ever. Within three
years – by the next world summit in Geneva, Switzerland – the Global Compact had
surpassed its plan, and grown from 1,500 firms to over 8,000 of the world’s largest
corporations – a 433% growth rate, averaging 144.4% per year. “I would like to
commend your innovative methodology of Appreciative Inquiry,” said Kofi Annan in a
letter, “and to thank you for introducing it to the United Nations. Without this, it would
have been very difficult, perhaps even impossible…”
Apple is a large company to move – but today it is one of the leading lights in
its progress to become powered 100% by clean, renewable energy and the
advancement of sustainable value. But it wasn’t always this way. A New York Times
article went viral, for example, about working conditions and toxicities across
the supply chain. But way before that the company was architecting systemic
transformation. Today Apple stakeholders are taking the positive core of their system
– for example their DNA for “insanely great products” – and emulating this core
strength, energy and insight to “Apple’s New Green Manifesto” and the analogous
idea of “insanely great supplier responsibility.” It is improving the lives of millions
while simultaneously lifting the success of the business. Is it noticed? The answer
certainly surprises: one of the world’s most notorious “keeping them honest” critics,
Greenpeace, just this past year, selected Apple as the number one leading force,
industry wide, for a sustainable economic system. Said the head of Greenpeace:
“Many companies practice greenwashing while doing little…Apple has put its money
where its mouth is.” How did they do it? We wish we could share more, for the story is
telling: it is about how strengths do more than perform, they transform…but how?
These results are not isolated or atypical achievements. Over the years we have been
struck by the constructive “change power” of emotions such as hope, inspiration
and joy, and especially feelings of awe, when combined with experiences of collective
empowerment. What a contrast all of this is to the contagion effect of scarcity
emotions such as fear, despair, cynicism, depression and out-of control anger, for
example in our American gridlocked and conversationally toxic Congress. In a world
where close to 70 to 80% of all corporate change efforts falter (see the recent
McKinsey 2014 analysis, and the growing cynicism about “the next change program
announcement”) and then in even more personal domains like dieting, where 98%
of the “deficit-based” initiatives fail – we in the field of change theory need to aim
higher, dig deeper conceptually, and better articulate what we mean by the far too
casual term “positive change”, for it is and can be deep and powerful – certainly not
superficial at all.
The task of this article is to sketch out the essence – based on years of research
into successful large scale change efforts – of an early articulation of an affective
theory of social construction that is to meaning-making human systems what genetic
AI Practitioner August 15 Cooperrider and Godwin: Leading P.O.S.I.TI.V.E. Change
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AI Practitioner Volume 17 Number 3 ISBN 978-1-907549-24-3
While evolutionary selection
is genetic and slow,
co-elevationary selection
and co-creation can be
autopoetic and fast.
August 2015
change is to biological systems. We will call this, the uniquely human evolutionary
process of positive change, conscious co-elevation (in distinction to conscious
evolution) to signify the relational dance involved: for example, the co-elevationary
interplay between an artist such as Michelangelo and the experiencing of the David
masterpiece, as it was coming to fruition. While evolutionary selection is genetic and
slow, co-elevationary selection and co-creation can be autopoetic and fast. Yes, it is a
big idea and this is just a tiny start, but implications for change are vast. The question
for practice: can all of this be codified, for example in an eight-step change leadership
platform (not a program), in a way that reflects everything we have learned about
non-deficit, life-centric and full-spectrum strengths-powered change?
It starts with a new equation
Before you read one word further, we want to invite you to pause and experience just
a bit of the new elevation-and-change model of change we’re going to explore, by
clicking on two stories, first J-Mac1 and then Susan.2
The first video scene is the narrative of an autistic boy who, with an extraordinary
coach in a co-elevationary connection, transforms a whole community: together
they change people’s career trajectories, and bring a school-system into a state of
joint attention and synchronous resonance, spontaneous flourishing, celebration of
difference, and lasting achievement.
The second scene is the clip of a transformational moment in the lives of an array of
persons who experienced Susan Boyle on stage: that is, when she astonished critics
with her outer limits and inner beauty. Starved of oxygen at birth, she grew up with
many health issues, was bullied, became medically defined as obese, and never
was kissed or had a date in those 47 years. And yet in spite of sneers, looks and the
negative assumptions nearly everyone makes (you will see it in the respective judges
in the video) the negative assumption tendency of every onlooker is suddenly hurled
away. Minds are opened wide: here is a woman that isn’t perhaps pretty, does not look
the part, and at first glance is easy to dismiss. But then the surprise. Millions have
now seen it. And the change waves, successful far beyond the common programs in
corporate change, continues. Yes there were some ups and downs with the rapid rise,
but the trajectory endures. Consider Boyle’s newest new album on “Hope” and her
growing philanthropic outreach.
What’s crucial, now, as it relates to our more “mundane” organizational lives, is
that we place remarkable stories such as these right alongside everyday business
experiences. For example, how about the epic growth of Apple and the role of
everyday epiphanies?
Entrepreneurs often see what works in the world, what is possible, and what is next
in ways most of us would likely gloss over. The Steve Jobs leadership story has much
nuance in it, but you may remember what he said when he saw “the very flawed work”
1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-nMab6XDNI
2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk
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AI Practitioner Volume 17 Number 3 ISBN 978-1-907549-24-3
We change best when we
are strongest.
August 2015
at Xerox. The work in the Xerox lab was at an early stage viewing and not beautiful at
all. But do you know what? There was a tiny seed that could have propelled Xerox as
industry pioneer; they could have been an Apple. Obviously, that did not happen. The
year was 1979, and Steve Jobs was visiting Xerox’s R&D labs. His host downplayed
and dismissed much of what Steve was about to see: it was some kind of graphical
interface. Where most would see failure and longer term headaches, Jobs had a
complete epiphany. Listen to the hope, inspiration, and hints of sheer joy in his voice,
for he almost sang about it: “I thought it was the very best thing I’d ever seen in my
life,” he said, “it was very flawed yes…still, the germ of the idea was there and within,
you know ten minutes, it was obvious to me that all computers would work like this
someday.”
What’s the relationship between the J-Mac, the Susan Boyle story and Steve Jobs?
Elevation is not just a spiritual term
The word elevation suggests a vertical dimension to life experience and it has an
unusual versatility. On the one hand, it is totally mundane: a huge mechanical crane
elevates the steel crossbeam for a bridge. To elevate, in this sense means to lift up,
and there are tools such as cranes and pulleys to do so. Elevation also, simultaneously
and perhaps originally, points to ways human cultures have ordered social space in
terms of a vertical dimension running from the holy and pure above to the evil and
disgusting below. Can we ask you to hold both images – the steel-and-the-spiritual
sense of physical power and mutual inspiration – together? For that is how we want
to use the term co-elevation – it is a strong, perhaps even mechanical way to lift up all
the strengths and assets in a system (that is the steel part) and it is an experience of
that concentrated core that inspires us beyond our best.
With all this in mind, we want to argue that we change best when we are strongest:
as human beings, we change best and in the most elevated way when we experience
the magnified and resonating power of every relevant resource available to us across
the entire systemic strengths spectrum, outside and inside the system, including
social and cultural assets, technical and economic ones, psychological and spiritual
strengths, ecological strengths of nature, and the strengths of moral models, positive
deviations and collaborative creativity. And if we change best when we are strongest,
or have access to everything needed (encircling the change in a kind of “surround
sound of strengths”), then the reverse is also true. For there is a mean paradox
inherent in situations where change is needed most, for example when a person is in
a dark depression or there is the imminent threat of a company facing bankruptcy. At
precisely that moment when we feel the weakest, we are being asked to change? This
mean paradox should be reversed, shouldn’t it?
The positive change equation
One way of looking at the whole development of this strengths-powered view of
change since William James in 1902 and of the positive human sciences since
Maslow, and now thinkers such as Barbara Fredrickson and Marty Seligman, is that
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AI Practitioner Volume 17 Number 3 ISBN 978-1-907549-24-3
August 2015
it represents a massive detailing and clarification of the idea of being in flourishing
states (Cooperrider and Godwin, 2011.) Certainly, positive states signal optimal
functioning, but this is far from the whole story. In every compelling study available,
we are seeing that positive states also produce optimal change capacities.
Figure 1: Magnifying the ‘power to’ of the
Strategic Strengths Spectrum
This is the unifying insight that stands above all others, whether we are probing
Barbara Fredickson’s broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions or Jonathan
Haight’s great work – where for the first time the concept of “elevation” was defined
conceptually and studied as an up-building force. Optimal states broaden thinking
and action repertoires, they blunt or down-regulate despair and adversity, and
often undo or replace past negative patterns. They build creative resources, in the
moment and for the future; for example, in the establishment of more relational being
(Fredrickson, 2004; Haidt, 2000; Gergen, 2010; Cooperrider and Godwin, 2012).
The second great insight is equally, if not more, important. It is that all of this – the
experience of touching a concentrated version of the systemic strengths spectrum –
can be potentialized (Bryant and Veroff, 2007).
In Figure 1 we want to offer a glimpse of what we are writing about in our next book,
where we are looking at the next phase in the field of organization development.
Successful initiatives, we want to propose, involve a simple positive change equation:
C=cE/D
In every compelling study
available, we are seeing that
positive states also produce
optimal change capacities.
Your change initiative success is predicted by the collective experience of
co-elevation divided by your experiencing of deficit definition. Nutritional excellence
studies, by analogy, have proposed their own equation, H=N/C, where health is
predicted by nutrients divided by calories – the more high nutrients-per-calorie foods
you eat (rather than high-calorie, nutrient-empty foods such as fries or cake) – the
greater your health and the better your weight. The key concept is nutrient density.
In a similar way we are proposing a concept we call the “strengths-density of the
change initiative”. It is made up of three things. The first is wholepower: it is the
state where we experience the magnified and resonating power of every relevant
resource available to us across the entire systemic strengths spectrum, outside and
inside the system. However, far too often this strength spectrum is not leveraged
or even considered. For example, in one of the most counterintuitive organizational
studies we have seen in a long time – it is called “Outsourced Inspiration” – Adam
Grant (2014) noted how people working in call centers are isolated. Stories of rapid
increases in productivity in this domain are virtually nowhere in the literature. Leaders
could grab the loudspeaker, give a motivational speech, and hope for the best in these
call centers.
But Grant had a hunch. He noticed the ways the people working in the call centers
were transforming lives (fundraising for student scholarships). So he asked: why let
those outside stories, truly meaningful ones, stay outside? Hence the study: one
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AI Practitioner Volume 17 Number 3 ISBN 978-1-907549-24-3
For change to happen
there needs to be collective
willpower, certainly,
but perhaps even more
important – is waypower.
August 2015
group of callers were given letters of thanks from a person they had helped; another
group got nothing; with the third group, the outsider was brought inside to share the
way in which their life had been changed. It was only a five-minute interaction. So
what do you suppose happened?
Those receiving the letter from the outside had no changes in effort or productivity.
But the ones who had the five-minute interaction? Their productivity doubled and
fundraising revenue went up 171%. The study was replicated five times. In one case,
weekly revenue went up more that 400% from about $400 to $2,083.52. How
could such a tiny intervention have such a reverberation? It is called co-elevation, and
union with the systemic strengths spectrum ignites it. The outsourced inspiration
is magical; for example with customers, supply chain partners and communities in
the room. We’ve documented this extensively, with six corporate case studies, in
the article “The Concentration Effect of Strengths: How the Appreciative Inquiry
Summit Brings Out the Best in Human Systems.” Working with all stakeholders is
motivational: this is the way meaning-making happens, it is the way the power of
purpose grows, it is how whypower emerges (Cooperrider, 2013; Fry, Barrett, Seiling
and Whitney (2001).
The second and third elements in the Figure 1 equation involve Snyder’s (1994)
hope theory: for change to happen there needs to be collective willpower, certainly,
but perhaps even more important – in everything from personal dieting to changing
whole industries – is waypower. That is why the positive inspiration of designers in
the mix is so effective: they go beyond words and design rapid prototypes, things you
can touch and see. Prototypes are beacons of hope. They make waypower so potent
that willpower grows. They are inseparable forces. When wholepower + whypower +
and waypower combine, a system can transcend or down-regulate the many deficit
aftereffects that have long been documented in the field of change.
How do you put this into full motion? See Table 1 for a visual summary of the easyto-remember way we are bringing this to organizations, cities, communities, UN
meetings, whole industries and even “individual” change. It’s probably the best guide
we’ve created. CEO Scot Lowry of Fathom, one of the first to make this eight-step
guide the change model for the company said: “I didn’t realize how much I’ve been
waiting for a guide like this; it’s something I’ve been wanting for a very long time.”
What do the most successful change efforts teach? They teach us that the future is in
the hands of methods that can give us valid reasons to hope.
AI Practitioner August 15 Cooperrider and Godwin: Leading P.O.S.I.TI.V.E. Change
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AI Practitioner Volume 17 Number 3 ISBN 978-1-907549-24-3
Table 1: Making it work: Putting the positive
change equation into practice
August 2015
AI P.O.S.I.T.I.V.E. Change Platform: Eight Steps
(The Cooperrider–Godwin Positive Change Model)
P.
Pre-frame: With full situational awareness of the appreciable system, this step is all
about positive re-framing (pre-framing) for an epic opportunity inspired by urgent
optimism. We live in a world our inquiries create, and so to create the best liftoff to
change you need to ask: what do we most want to create? What has our rich history
prepared us for, and what is the world calling for—customers, communities and our
world? What is a situated opportunity so compelling and strategically significant
that the call feels epic, filled with meaning, value and significance, and hence urgent
optimism?
O.
Open-innovate: create an AI co-elevation platform via stakeholder macro magic. A
change catalyst’s core task isn’t to design a change program but a change platform
– one that opens the opportunity to unite with the universe of strengths, the suprastrengths spectrum. An epic opportunity is like an artificial reef metaphor: it is
amazing what happens when biologists place a structure, like an antique sailboat,
on an ocean floor. It is not long before the biodiversity attracted to its potential
fuses into a living, flourishing ecosystem. Positive change moves from mechanistic
to organic, and thrives on wholeness. A good change platform attracts success,
attracts investment, and attracts the best.
S.
Strengthen: you change best when you are strongest – or have access to everything
needed. The hard truth is, at precisely that moment when we feel the weakest, we are
often faced with the most difficult changes. But fortunately the AI tools are there to
consciously co-elevate and intensify the power of every relevant resource available
to you across the entire systemic strengths spectrum, within and universally. Take
your change opportunity and, as in a surround sound theatre, encircle it in the richest
theatre of assets and strategic strengths possible, where the strengths density is at
least 4:1 over the deficit density.
I.
Imagine: strategically create the heroic emotional attractor. Breakthrough change
often requires heroic energy. Positive emotional attractor or magnetic images of
the future call out the hero within and attract everything needed from all around.
Imagination sees a vivid victory that provides the whypower to sustain.
T.
Translate: transform dreams and designs into grounded hope. For change to happen,
there needs to be collective willpower certainly, but perhaps even more important—is
waypower. That’s why the positive inspiration of designers in the mix is so effective:
they go beyond words and they design rapid prototypes. Seeing the future in the
texture of the actual creates the attitude of “we know it’s possible” because we are
living it now, even if only an early prototype.
I.
Improvise: Improvisation (and rapid iteration) is better than “communicating for
buy-in.” Everyone can be invited into prototyping iteration. Substantive engagement
in co-creation is worth a thousand efforts of “communicating at.” Even if the
communication is glitzy or even dialogical, it will fall short. Slightly overstated think
this: “down with dialogue and up with design.” Why? Because people are tired of just
having good conversations or meetings, they want engagement-as-communication.
Improvisation and iteration for trust for all.
V.
Value: During this phase people need to see “progress moments”, and this requires
rigorous valuation. Much like time-lapse photography, we need to see changeprogress moments in full motion toward flourishing. Time-lapse metrics do three
things: (1) they allow for reverse innovation, (2) allow us to put a value on progress
and invest it (pay it) forward in order to (3) scale it.
E.
Eclipse: This is not so much a step as a reality. Positive change happens when you
establish the new and eclipse the old, while carefully extending the vitally needed
continuity threads. As Buckminster Fuller said: “You never change things by fighting
the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing
model obsolete.” In any change initiative where should at least a 4:1 Robson Ratio
of your attention (and your tools) go? Remember the 4Es: Elevation of strengths.
Extension of relationships. Establishing the new. Eclipsing the old. This is what positive
change, in distinction to reverse-ratio, deficit-defined change, is all about.
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AI Practitioner Volume 17 Number 3 ISBN 978-1-907549-24-3
August 2015
The Robson Ratio
David: On March 4, 2015 the room swelled to full capacity; soon it was standing
room only. It was for me, in over 30 years at Case Western Reserve University, the
best-attended Ph.D. dissertation defense I had ever experienced. Linda Robson had
written a great piece of scholarship, and she was touching the lives of hundreds, if not
thousands, at our school. But more telling, most of us could not conceive how this
student had written such a brilliant dissertation.
March 4, 2015, Linda Robson’s dissertation
defense
‘My research and my own
experiences tell me not
to discount challenges or
negative information, but to
pay attention to such things
wisely.’ Linda Robson
At the launch of her ambitious work, Linda was hit by the kind of news that would
strike most to despair. Imagine it, just starting your research: that is when Linda was
informed that she had extensive breast cancer and surgery and chemotherapy had
to take place quickly. Moreover, after the rounds of chemotherapy were completed,
there were grueling side effects that made conducting her research almost
impossible. Almost.
Three years after receiving a life changing, and from her perspective “life giving”
experience here we were, listening to her speak about how her research and her own
elevation (and healing) were intertwined. The crowd was so attentive you could hear a
whisper.
She said:
My research and my own experiences tell me not to discount challenges or
negative information, but to pay attention to such things wisely. Where we let
our attention settle, so too will go our actions and our results. I know many in
the field want to hold onto the deficit-based change theories, even if only in
partial ways, but it’s time to let go of those tired theories. We need to follow
where our science and studies are taking us – what the data is certainly showing
– but I don’t even need the proof of science to convince me. All I need to do is
listen to my own body, to quiet my own cleverness and simply recognize all the
opportunities for upliftment available to me, in each interaction and in every
precious moment. This awareness and practice began with my experience with
breast cancer, but there is real value here for our organizations and human
systems.
Robson’s (2015) dissertation was compelling. She sought out seventeen
organizations involved in system-wide change. All were at the ground floor of
launching into the sustainability revolution and all were part of an industry-wide
initiative. Yes, it was voluntary, but with one caveat: there would need to be rigorous
reporting of results: for example, actual reductions in CO2, waste, energy efficiencies,
organizational goal alignment and the like. Using something like the change
equation in Figure 1, Linda’s research was to track the ratio of what we have called
the experience of co-elevation over deficit. She carefully gathered data. It involved
a rigorous code of positive and negative discourse categories – the way people in
the organizations talked about the change opportunity; the way they wrote about it
AI Practitioner August 15 Cooperrider and Godwin: Leading P.O.S.I.TI.V.E. Change
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AI Practitioner Volume 17 Number 3 ISBN 978-1-907549-24-3
High-success change
efforts, based on all data
combined, had a positively
biased imbalance of over 4:1
in their strengths density
scores.
August 2015
internally; the ways they communicated externally; and the actual strengths density
of their meetings.
Ultimately there were ten participating organizations and the results started
pouring in: there were three base (poor) performers; three moderate; and four highperforming (change-successful) organizations. Her analysis of language and the
positive or negative emotions, unfolded in three ways: first, she conducted oneon-one interviews with leaders (and coded the utterances in all the transcriptions);
second, she tape recorded live meetings of the change-leader group meetings (and
again transcribed and coded positive and negative discourse across all the tape
recordings.)
For example a positive discourse label would be assigned to statements that
articulated, “any mention of strengths” or “hope toward the future” or “active effort
to include others” or “mention of surprise, curiosity or excitement.” Next, she did the
same with website articulations. And with all three sets of data, she compared the
elevational focus with deficit articulations, for example the deficiency statements
having to do with negative valuing or seeing “deficiency in self or others” or
articulations of “unfulfilled expectations” or “predictions of a negative future.”
I share all this because, while studies of this kind have been done with successful
marriages and individuals in states of languishing or flourishing, nothing of its kind
have ever been done with organizations in the midst of systemic change, with ten
simultaneous examples.
Bottom line? Data demonstrated the poorest performing change efforts had a
1:4 deficit-bias and imbalance, for example, in their face-to-face group meetings;
high-success change efforts, based on all data combined, had a positively biased
imbalance of over 4:1 in their strengths density scores. Linda coded over 52,000
words.
In the powerful closing, she returned to “the evidence” in her life. People were in tears.
She spoke about the magic of the 4:1 ratio in ways that spoke to the heart of the
matter:
The most radical form of change any system can experience is to become more
fully whole, more fully who or what it is, with comprehensive acceptance of all
parts of the system, even and especially the alienated ones. This is full spectrum
acceptance, this complete being of what we fully are; I believe is an act of love
and a path to upliftment.
That day, Linda graduated to a standing ovation. I had tears, of joy, for her. She stirred
something special in all of us. She spoke about the “cognitive power of love” and she
brought out the best in our community.
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August 2015
So now, whenever I launch a new change initiative, I am going to savor that day. And
what is going to help me remember it more vividly is what I want to call “the Robson
Ratio” – not as a concept, but as a north star and guide.
References
For the best articulation of human strengths go to the Mayerson Foundation website:
http://www.viacharacter.org/
Apple Leaders the Pack in Greenpeace’s 2015 Clean Tech Update.
http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/12/
apple-leads-the-pack-in-greenpeaces-2015-clean-tech-update/
Apple’s New Green Manifesto, Greenpeace CEO
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/apple-earth-day/
blog/49072/
Bryant, F. and Veroff, J. (2007) Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience. New Jersey:
Laurence Erlbaum Associates.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09534810710831073
Bushe, G. and Marshak, B. (2015) Dialogic Organization Development. San Francisco:
Berrett-Koehler.
Cooperrider, D. and McQuaid, M. (2013) The Positive Arc of Systemic Strengths, Journal of
Corporate Citizenship, 46, Spring.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.9774/gleaf.4700.2012.su.00006
Cooperrider, D. (2013) A Contemporary Commentary on Appreciative Inquiry in
Organizational Life. In Cooperrider, D.L., Zandee, D., Godwin, L., Avital, M. and Boland, B.
(Eds.) Organizational Generativity: The Appreciative Inquiry Summit and a Scholarship of
Transformation. Volume #4 in Advances in Appreciative Inquiry. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group
Publishing Limited.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/s1475-9152(2013)0000004020
Cooperrider, D. (2012) The Concentration Effect of Strengths: How Appreciative Inquiry Brings
Out the Best in Human Systems, Organizational Dynamics, 42 (2), April–May 2012, pp. 21–32.
Cooperrider, D., and Godwin, L. (2011) Positive Organization Development: Innovation Inspired
Change in an Economy and Ecology of Strengths. In Kim Cameron and Gretchen Spreitzer
(Eds.) Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
pp. 737–750.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199734610.001.0001
Cooperrider, D.L. and Sekerka, L. (2003) Toward a Theory of Positive Organizational Change.
In Cameron, K., Dutton, J. and Quinn, R. Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a
New Discipline. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Kohler Publications, Inc.
Fredrickson, B. (2003) Positive Emotions and Upward Spirals in Organizations. In Cameron,
K., Dutton, J. and Quinn, R. (Eds.) Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a New
Discipline. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Kohler Publications, Inc.
Fry, R., Barrett, F., Seiling, J. and Whitney, D. (2001) Appreciative Inquiry and Organizational
Transformation: Reports from the Field. Westport, CT: Quorum Books.
Gergen, K. (2009) Relational Being: Beyond Self and Community. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Grant, A. (2014) Outsource Inspiration. In Dutton, J. and Spreitzer, G (Eds.) How to Be a
Positive Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publications, Inc.
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August 2015
Griffiths. S. and Elfman, E. (2012) Beyond Genius: The 12 Essential Traits of Today’s
Renaissance Men. Authorhouse.
Haidt, J. (2000) “The Positive Emotion of Elevation,” Prevention and Treatment, 3, Article 3.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//1522-3736.3.1.33c
James, W. (1902) The Varieties of Religious Experience. New York, NY: Mentor Books.
McKinsey and Co. “Build and Change Platform, Not a Change Program” by Gary Hamel and
Michele Zanini
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/
build_a_change_platform_not_a_change_program
Robson, L. (2015) The Language Of Life-Giving Connection: The Emotional Tone of Language
That Fosters Flourishing. PhD dissertation, Case Western Reserve University.
Seligman, M. and Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000) Positive Psychology: An Introduction, American
Psychologist, 55, 5–14.
Stiller Story and Appreciative Inquiry.
http://www.champlain.edu/ai-home/about-the-center/robert-p-stiller-school-of-business/
stiller-story-and-appreciative-inquiry
Stiller School of Business and Champlain College’s David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative
Inquiry: The First Academic Center Exclusively Dedicated to Advancing the Theory and Practice
of AI.
http://www.champlain.edu/about-champlain/newsroom/cooperrider-center
UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2004, p. 4: “…the Appreciative Inquiry Summit approach,
as we have seen it here, is the best large group method in the world today.”
https://www.unglobalcompact.org/docs/news_events/9.1_news_archives/2004_06_24/
GC_Summit_Final_Report.pdf
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Enablers of a Positive Strategy: Positively Deviant Leadership
Enablers of a Positive Strategy: Positively Deviant Lead­
ership
Lynn Perry Wooten and Kim S. Cameron
Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology and Work
Edited by Nicola Garcea, Susan Harrington, and P. Alex Linley
Print Publication Date: Nov 2009
Subject: Psychology, Organizational Psychology, Social Psychology
Online Publication Date: Sep 2012 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195335446.013.0005
Abstract and Keywords
Positive organizational scholarship (POS) provides a new lens for analyzing how organiza­
tions conceive, implement, and sustain a strategy. The chapter examines how positively
deviant leadership influences strategy through interpersonal relationships, energizing the
organization, virtuous behavior, positive emotions, and the creation of meaningful work
environments. Positively deviant leadership is grounded in specific processes, techniques,
and practices that leaders use to produce extraordinary results. Using the Competing Val­
ues Framework as a guide, some of the enablers of a positive strategy are identified.
These enablers are represented by contradictory orientations of flexibility and stability
and of internal maintenance and external positioning. These orientations form four quad­
rants representing the organizational capabilities of collaborate, create, compete, and
control. Positively deviant leadership competencies that lead to positive strategy are high­
lighted in each quadrant. The chapter concludes with future research directions and im­
plications for the practice of enabling a positive strategy.
Keywords: strategy, positive organizational scholarship, positively deviant leadership
Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) is an umbrella term that provides an organiz­
ing frame for current and future research on positive states, outcomes, and generative
mechanisms in individuals, dyads, groups, organizations, and societies (Cameron, Dutton,
& Quinn, 2003; Roberts, 2006). POS is an alternative to the problem-solving approach for
understanding the behavior of organizations and its members (Cameron & Lavine, 2006).
Whereas a problem-solving approach focuses on the identification of problems that pre­
vent organizations from reaching optimal functioning, and then generates solutions to ad­
dress these deficits, POS emphasizes understanding the positive enablers of extraordi­
nary successes in organizations and how these dynamics can be sustained. Furthermore,
POS examines positively deviant behavior of organizations that intentionally depart from
the norms of a referent group in an honorable way (Spreitzer & Sonenshein, 2003). Re­
searchers studying POS ask questions such as, “What works in organizations that are
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Enablers of a Positive Strategy: Positively Deviant Leadership
‘positively deviant,’ What can we learn from these organizations, and What are the en­
ablers of positively deviant performance?”
In this chapter, we extend the POS paradigm to the field of strategy. We propose that POS
provides organizational scholars and practitioners with a new lens for exploring how or­
ganizations conceive, implement, and sustain a strategy. This strategy focuses on positive
processes which deviate from industry norms and result in positive outcomes. The tradi­
tional view of strategy describes it as a central, integrated plan for achieving objectives
that define approaches for managing resources, customers, competition, and growth
(Thompson, Strickland, & Gamble, 2007; Hambrick & Fredrickson, 2005). An ideal strate­
gy is internally focused, but also must take into account external (p. 54) opportunities and
threats as it defines criteria of effectiveness.
From a POS perspective, the core of a strategy is a set of processes that enables collec­
tive resourcefulness and generative dynamics that lead to positive states or outcomes
(Barney, 1986; Glynn & Dutton, 2007). Collective resourcefulness refers to the manner in
which organizational members work together to develop and implement strategy (Barney
& Hansen, 1994; Grant, 2002). Through collective resourcefulness, organizational mem­
bers invest time and energy in practices and policies which enhance the organization’s
likelihood of positive outcomes. Generative dynamics refer to an organization’s activities
that create, develop, transform, multiply, and leverage its resources and capabilities (Col­
lis & Montgomery, 1997; Glynn & Dutton, 2007). The creation and development of new
capabilities makes it possible for organizations to respond to changing environments with
value-enhancing strategies (Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000; Zollo & Winters, 2002).
In the following sections of this chapter, we integrate the POS perspective into a strategic
management frame by providing theoretical support and case studies. We begin by advo­
cating that although strategic management is a collective process usually involving all or­
ganizational members, it is the responsibility of leadership to facilitate the implementa­
tion of an organization’s strategy and use it as a generative mechanism for developing
new capabilities (Selznick, 1984; Boal & Hooijberg, 2000). The chapter then explores the
enablers that leaders can use to produce a positive strategy.
Positively Deviant Leaders as Strategic Guides
Magazine covers trumpet both the remarkable achievements of leaders and their failures.
This is because “leadership” is frequently the explanation given when an organization’s
strategy produces successful results or fails. If a strategy succeeds, leaders are given
hero status, but leaders become the scapegoat when the strategy fails. Rationally speak­
ing, most people recognize that there is more to organizational success than the leader’s
behavior (Polodny, Khurana, & Hill-Popper, 2005). Nevertheless, leadership is one of the
most important influences in helping organizations perform well (Whetten & Cameron,
2007; Cameron & Lavine, 2006). Few organizations succeed without capable leadership.
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Enablers of a Positive Strategy: Positively Deviant Leadership
Stated differently, leaders can play an important role in enabling extraordinary perfor­
mance through positively deviant behavior. Positively deviant leadership places an em­
phasis on what elevates individuals and systems (in addition to what diminishes them),
what goes right in organizations (in addition to what goes wrong), what is life-giving (in
addition to what is problematic or life-depleting), what is experienced as good (in addi­
tion to what is bad or arduous), and what is inspiring (in addition to what is depressing).
Positively deviant leadership is associated with the promotion of outcomes such as inter­
personal flourishing, meaningful work, virtuous behaviors, positive emotions, and ener­
gizing networks (Cameron, Dutton, & Quinn, 2003).
The role of positively deviant leadership as an enabler of strategy has been discussed in
several different literatures. For example, the literature on appreciative inquiry high­
lights the role of leaders in working with organizational members to co-create a visionbased strategy. It advocates an open dialogue that clarifies the organization’s purpose,
identifies current progress and future potential of the organization, and employs partner­
ing as a strategy to mitigate threats and weaknesses (Cooperrider & Whiteny, 2005;
Sutherland & Stavros, 2003; Saint & Stavros, 2007).
The corporate social responsibility literature proposes that leaders with a skill set include
thinking strategically about complex problems and to challenge old assumptions are the
most likely to promote social good beyond legal requirements and shareholders’ demands
(Waldman, Siegel, & Javidan, 2006). Research on ethics and virtues designates leaders as
the moral compass for directing strategic actions that not only adhere to ethical rules,
but also foster ethos, values, and a meaningful purpose (Caza, Barker, & Cameron, 2004;
Grojean, Resick, Dickson, & Smith, 2004). Meyerson & Scully’s (1995) research on “tem­
pered radicals” in organizations highlights the significance of leaders who are strongly
committed to a cause, community, or ideology and who create change through incremen­
tal, semi-strategic reforms and spontaneous expressions of authenticity.
However, for the most part, these streams of literature neglect positively deviant leader­
ship as a distinct strategic competency. Figure 5.1 illustrates the distinctiveness of posi­
tively deviant leadership. The continuum depicts a state of normal or expected perfor­
mance in the middle, with a condition of negatively deviant performance on the left and a
state of positively deviant performance on the right. Negative and positive deviance
refers to aberrations from normal functioning, problematic on one end and virtuous on
the other end.
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Enablers of a Positive Strategy: Positively Deviant Leadership
Figure 5.1 A deviance continuum. Source: Cameron,
K. S., Dutton, J. E., and Quinn, R. E. (Eds.) (2003).
Positive organizational scholarship. San Francisco:
Barrett-Koehler.
At the individual level, the figure shows a condition of physiological and psycholog­
ical illness on the left and healthy functioning in the middle (i.e., the absence of illness).
(p. 55)
On the right side is positive deviance, which may be illustrated by olympic levels of physi­
cal fitness or psychological flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Fredrickson, 1998). At the orga­
nizational level, the figure portrays conditions ranging from ineffective, inefficient, and
error-prone performance on the left side, to effective, efficient, and reliable performance
in the middle. On the right side is extraordinarily positive, virtuous, or exceptional organi­
zational performance. The extreme right and left points on the continuum are qualitative­
ly distinct from the center point. They do not merely represent a greater or lesser quanti­
ty of the middle attributes.
For the most part, organizational strategy is designed to foster predictable and non-de­
viant performance (Parsons, 1951; March & Simon, 1958; Porter, 1980). Wall Street is
quick to punish companies that are unpredictable in their performance. Consequently,
leaders create specific strategies to define what is expected of employees, clarify what
the goals are, and specify the procedures to be employed to achieve these goals. A strate­
gy of this type is intended to reduce variation and deviance. Most organizations and most
leaders focus on maintaining performance in the middle of the continuum (Prahalad &
Hamel, 1994).
Positively deviant leadership, on the other hand, is distinct by focusing on enabling per­
formance on the positive end of the continuum. It is oriented toward affirmative, extraor­
dinary, virtuous performance which, by definition, is positively deviant. Systematic stud­
ies of positively deviant leadership enabling affirmative, uplifting, and elevating process­
es and outcomes have not been the norm. These topics have been overwhelmed by inves­
tigations of competitive dynamics, winning in the marketplace, achieving profitability, in­
creasing shareholder value, and satisfying stockholders’ demands (Cameron, Dutton, &
Quinn, 2003).
Positively deviant leadership does not ignore non-positive conditions or situations when
mistakes, crises, difficulties, or problems are present. Most of the time organizations fall
short of achieving the best they can be or fail to fulfill their optimal potential. Many posi­
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Enablers of a Positive Strategy: Positively Deviant Leadership
tive outcomes are stimulated by trials and difficulties. For example, innovation, resilience,
breakthrough thinking, and adaptation are frequently motivated primarily by negative oc­
currences. Moreover, when organizations should fail but survive, when they bounce back
but should not, when they remain flexible and agile but ought to become rigid, they
demonstrate positive deviance (Weick, 2003). Positively deviant leadership focuses on en­
abling such positive dynamics and fostering extraordinary performance in either con­
ducive or challenging circumstances.
The way positively deviant strategic leadership differs from more traditional strategic
leadership can be highlighted by three examples. One is the CEO of Timberland—a manu­
facturer of shoes, boots, and apparel—who decided to increase substantially the percent­
age of organically grown cotton in its clothes in order to reduce exposure to carcinogens
by migrant workers who pick corporately grown cotton. In the absence of any customer
demand or regulatory encouragement, and at a (p. 56) substantial expense to the
company’s bottom line, CEO Mark Schwartz made this decision as a matter of con­
science. The intent of Timberland was to try to benefit a disadvantaged group of individu­
als who would likely never be customers but whose lives could be made better by
Timberland’s change in policy (Schwartz, 2002). Schwartz’s strategy was based on
achieving a virtuous outcome rather than merely obtaining an elevated financial perfor­
mance.
Second, when Roy Vagelos was vice president of research at Merck Corporation, his unit
created a compound originally intended as an animal antibiotic. Scientists accidentally
discovered that it was an effective cure for river blindness, a disease affecting millions of
people in the developing world (Labarre, 1998). Vagelos knew there was no hope of re­
covering the invested capital needed to create a human application, and Merck would in­
crease costs associated with any unanticipated side effects. Despite the protests of his ad­
visers, when Vagelos became CEO, Merck developed the drug and then spent hundreds of
millions of dollars to distribute it to people who were at risk of contracting the disease
(Bollier, 1996). Vagelos’ positively deviant strategic leadership extended beyond the usual
competitive strategy to achieve virtuous outcomes, and it resulted in Merck’s drug for riv­
er blindness helping 19 million people. The company was widely praised for its distribu­
tion of the drug, and unexpectedly Merck’s unique strategy for its use of science became
an asset for attracting star researchers for employees.
A third example is CEO Fred Keller, who founded Cascade, a plastic manufacturing com­
pany. Keller lists the following in order of importance in his organization: #1 people, #2
planet, and #3 profits. At Cascade, the management of human capital is its number-one
priority, and because of this Keller advocates employee education and involvement.
Cascade’s signature program, Welfare-to-Career (W2C) was inspired by Keller’s desire to
hire homeless people and provide a work environment that helps them achieve economicsufficiency through social support and education. As is the case at Timberland and Mer­
ck, strategic leadership at Cascade focuses on virtuous outcomes which take priority over
the more traditional economic outcomes. Positively deviant strategic leadership, in other
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Enablers of a Positive Strategy: Positively Deviant Leadership
words, enables affirmative, uplifting, and elevating processes and outcomes in addition
to, and in priority over, pursuing economic advantages for the organization.
These brief examples help differentiate positively deviant strategic leadership from the
more common discussions of strategic leadership which appear in the academic literature
—(good reviews have been produced by Boal & Hooijberg, 2001; Yukl, Gordon, & Taber,
2003)—and which focus on task behavior (e.g., planning, clarifying objectives, monitoring
operations), relational behavior (providing support, recognition, development, consulta­
tion, and empowerment), and change behavior (monitoring the environment, proposing
innovations, taking risks).
Enablers of Positive Strategies
Understanding what positively deviant strategic leadership is, of course, is not enough to
achieve positive outcomes. Successful positively deviant strategic leadership is always
grounded in specific “enablers.” Enablers are the processes, techniques, or practices that
leaders use to produce extraordinary results, and a large number of possibilities exist
(Cameron & Lavine, 2006). To identify which enablers are appropriate in which circum­
stances, a framework or lens is often helpful. One well-researched framework that helps
identify appropriate enablers of a positive strategy is the Competing Values Framework
(Rohrbaugh & Quinn, 1983; Cameron & Quinn, 2006; Cameron, Quinn, DeGraff, &
Thakor, 2006).
Originally, the Competing Values Framework was developed as an attempt to explain ef­
fective organizational performance (Cameron, 1986). It was a product of empirical re­
search on the major indicators of effective organizations. It has since been expanded to
include research on a whole host of topics including shareholder value, mergers and ac­
quisitions, approaches to learning, organizational culture, leadership competencies, orga­
nizational designs, communication styles, organizational virtues, creativity, financial in­
vestments, and information processing (Cameron, Quinn, DeGraff, & Thakor, 2006). In
each case, empirical research has confirmed the robustness and applicability of the
framework to a broad array of human and organizational phenomena.
The Competing Values Framework maps organizing mechanisms and sense-making de­
vices for complicated situations by highlighting the competing and seemingly paradoxical
requirements necessary for achieving high levels of excellence. Thus, the Competing Val­
ues Framework serves as a guide for exploring the development and implementation of
enablers of positive strategies.
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Enablers of a Positive Strategy: Positively Deviant Leadership
Figure 5.2 Comparing quadrants in the Competing
Values Framework.
As illustrated in Figure 5.2, the Competing Values Framework organizes elements into
four (p. 57) categories represented in a two-by-two matrix. It consists of two dimensions—
one drawn vertically and the other drawn horizontally—resulting in four quadrants. The
vertical dimension represents the contradictory or competing orientations of flexibility
and stability. That is, some organizations can succeed at implementing a positive strategy
through change and adaptability; whereas other organizations achieve extraordinary re­
sults from a strategy that emphasizes order and stability. The horizontal dimensions of
the Competing Values Framework differentiate internal maintenance and the external po­
sitioning of an organization. This dimension suggests that some organizations can flour­
ish by focusing on efficient internal processes—the ability to organize, reduce variations
and errors, and measure activities; whereas other organizations succeed by maintaining a
competitive external positioning relative to customers and clients—the ability to compete
successfully in the marketplace, create niches, and satisfy external constituencies
(Rohrbaugh & Quinn, 1983; Quinn & Cameron, 1983; Cameron, 1986). The key enablers
explaining positive strategies can be organized on the basis of four quadrants of the Com­
peting Values Framework (refer to Figure 5.2).
When the framework was first developed, labels were borrowed from the organizational
studies literature to define each quadrant—Clan (upper left), Adhocracy (upper right),
Market (lower right), and Hierarchy (lower left). These terms referred to the organization­
al forms that were described in the scholarly literature and formed the basis for many
theories about organizational effectiveness (Quinn & Cameron, 1983). However, the use
of descriptive verbs often helps clarify the primary emphasis of each quadrant—Collabo­
rate (upper left Clan quadrant), Create (upper right Adhocracy quadrant), Compete (lower
right Market quadrant), and Control (lower left Hierarchy quadrant), so they are also
commonly used as quadrant labels.
Past research has discovered that most organizations adopt one or more of these quad­
rants as their dominant pattern of organizational strategy (Cameron & Quinn, 2006). That
is, their values, processes, decisions, and management practices are consistent with one
or more of these quadrants. Each quadrant clarifies enablers that create positive strate­
gies, and in the next section, we apply the framework to elaborate the enablers of a posi­
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Enablers of a Positive Strategy: Positively Deviant Leadership
tive strategy. We use the Competing Values Model, in other words, as a typology to group
enablers of positive strategies. (p. 58) Grouping enablers helps identify the collective re­
sourcefulness and generative dynamics that lead to positive states or outcomes.
The Clan or Collaborate Quadrant
Strategic behavior in the clan or collaborate quadrant centers on enablers focused on the
management of human capital and organizational culture (Ouchi, 1981). In this quadrant,
leadership views human development, empowerment, and the commitment of employees
as a key resource and focuses on building an organizational strategy that capitalizes on
cohesion, consensus, and the satisfaction of group members through involvement (Jack­
son & Schuler, 2003; Bamberger & Meshoulam, 2000). The organization’s strategy suc­
ceeds because investments in human and social capital take priority over financial capi­
tal, and these investments have been found to enhance financial and performance goals
(Pfeffer, 1998).
Enablers in this quadrant relate to how the organization recruits, motivates, develops, re­
wards, and retains its human resource base. This is illustrated by Collin’s (2001) notion of
“getting the right people on the bus.” Recruiting the right people is important to positive­
ly deviant outcomes because if there is a fit between employees’ goals and the
organization’s strategy, it engenders extra mile efforts, support for the vision, and adapt­
ability to change (OʼReilly, Chatman, & Caldwell, 1991; Chatman, 1991). Moreover, em­
ployees are more collaborative with other organizational members when they are en­
gaged in creating something great (Becker & Huselid, 1997; Pfeffer, 1998).
Take the case of Google’s unconventional recruitment culture that permeates the organi­
zation and involves employees at all levels (Human Resources Magazine, 2006). Its re­
cruitment practices include numerous interviews and pre-employment tests—such as the
Google Lab Aptitude Test (GLAT), which tests a job candidate’s likelihood of compatibility
with the Google work environment (Shipman, 2006). Despite the rigor of the recruitment
process, Google receives one million applicants a year and has built an incredible employ­
ee brand (Sullivan, 2007). Google’s pre-employment testing enhances its attractiveness in
the recruitment pool since it suggests the specialness of working at Google. Recruitment
practices allow Google to increase the probability of getting the right people on the bus
by pre-screening candidates for both skills and cultural fit. At Google, cultural fit is just as
important as talent. Thus, Google excels at keeping the right people on the bus. Employee
turnover is less than five percent, resulting in a cost savings for Google and the retention
of knowledge-based assets.
Wegman’s, the grocery story, is another company that uses its human resource manage­
ment practices as a strategic enabler of positively deviant customer service excellence
and corporate social responsibility. Wegman’s strategy is guided by the principle “Em­
ployees first, customers second,” with the promise that every day both employees and
customers will receive the best management has to offer (Edler, 2005). This philosophy
demonstrates Wegman’s understanding of the correlation between committed employees
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Enablers of a Positive Strategy: Positively Deviant Leadership
and customer service. It began with founder Robert Wegman’s practice of providing highend market salaries, healthcare benefits, a retirement plan, college scholarships, and ex­
tensive training for Wegman’s employees. In contrast to the low-wage practice of the su­
permarket industry, and base-line union recommendations, Wegman’s believes it is the
“right thing to do” to provide its employees with generous wages. Even the lowest level
hourly employees can earn up to $23,576 (Ezzedeen, Hyde, & Laurin, 2006). Healthcare
benefits require the minimal employee contribution, and all employees are offered a
401(k) retirement plan (Demby, 2004). The college scholarships provided by Wegman’s to
its employees also are evidence of this approach. For instance, in the Rochester, New
York community, the goal of this program is to reduce the high school dropout rate by
providing high-risk students with employment, mentors, and financial incentives. Notably,
this program reduced Wegman’s employee turnover in the Rochester area by 16%, and
80% of program participants graduate from high school and attend college.
For organizations adopting clan-like strategies, training is an essential enabler because it
builds value-creating human capabilities (Cameron, Quinn, Degraff, & Thakor, 2006). Of­
ten this is accomplished through training programs that directly link educational goals
with strategic outcomes. The appropriate training programs empower employees with the
knowledge to make effective decisions that are aligned with the organization’s mission
(Becker & Huselid, 1997). Wegman’s extensive training programs also include knowledgegathering trips to European cheese makers, French patisseries, and Napa Valley wineries
with the purpose of cultivating employees’ interest and knowledge of food and fine cui­
sine (Edler, 2005).
(p. 59)
Other Wegman training programs emphasize the importance of making the cus­
tomer happy. An incident that illustrates the level of customer service is an employee
cooking a customer’s Thanksgiving turkey because her oven was too small. This training
investment in “telepathic levels of customer service” has resulted in the Business Week
Customer Service Champs awards and exceptional revenue growth (McGregor, Jes­
persen, Tucker, & Foust, 2007; Prospero, 2004).
Enablers in the clan quadrant not only include formal human resource management
processes—such as recruitment, employee benefits, training, and development—but also
encompass building a high-performing culture. Organizational culture refers to the
shared values, artifacts, and assumptions that define an organization’s ideology for solv­
ing problems, adapting to change, interacting with the external environment, and inte­
grating internal resources (Schein, 1985). Organizational culture develops over time and
is passed through generations of group members. It helps the organization visualize its
purpose and strategic rationale by affirming identity and operating norms (Trice & Beyer,
1993). Thus, organizational culture is another example of a clan enabler that facilitates
the group process for developing and implementing a positive strategy. This unfolds as
the shared assumptions underpinning the culture help members decide where to channel
their energies and consistently repeat successful patterns of behavior.
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Enablers of a Positive Strategy: Positively Deviant Leadership
The organizational culture of the nonprofit organization City Year is an illustration of an
organization culture used as a generative mechanism for its positive strategy. City Year’s
vision is that citizens of all ages and backgrounds will unite to serve their community, na­
tion, and world, and that one day the most commonly asked question of an eighteen-yearold will be, “Where are you going to do your service year” (City Year, 2006). To achieve
this vision, the core of its strategy is the City Year Youth Service Corps, which is a oneyear full-time community service program for youth between the ages of 17 and 24. City
Year is strategic and deliberate about creating a culture of common values (Crutchfield &
Grant, 2008). City Year communicates its values through stories, rituals, and symbols that
inspire at a conscious and unconscious level. An example is the symbolism of the uniform
that volunteers wear. It is colored with red for idealism and multi-colored for diversity,
and the starburst in the logo represents human energy, idealism, and potential with
young people as a catalyst. In addition to the uniform, founding stories and myths empha­
size core values. Linked together, City Year’s symbols, artifacts, and values create a cul­
ture for community impact, where over the last two decades 10,400 Corps members have
completed 16 million hours of service.
As these examples suggest, the strategies generated from clan enablers are intended to
produce positively deviant outcomes by tapping into the human potential of the work­
force. Investing in human resource management, nurturing organizational culture, and
building effective long-term relationships across organizational boundaries are often re­
quirements for long-term success, and the competencies in the Clan or Collaborate quad­
rant are one pathway to achieve those ends.
The Adhocracy or Create Quadrant
The enablers in the adhocracy or create quadrant focus on strategies that enable break­
through change, innovative adaptation, and futuristic positioning by framing opportuni­
ties and challenges in relationship to the external environment (Cameron & Quinn, 2006).
Leadership emphasizes creativity, agility, and constant change. Employees are encour­
aged to innovate, take risks, and envision the future. Organizations that excel in this
quadrant effectively handle discontinuity, change, and risk. Their organizational culture
values freedom of thought and action among employees so that rule breaking and stretch­
ing beyond barriers are common characteristics (DeGraff & Quinn, 2006). Organizational
effectiveness is associated with entrepreneurship, vision, and flexibility. Hence, organiza­
tional members configure value chain activities with the goals of introducing new prod­
ucts or services, altering distribution or logistic systems to redefine industries, and devel­
oping new technologies (Porter, 1991; OʼReilly & Tushman, 2007).
A key enabler of positive strategy in this quadrant is an adhocracy structure. This struc­
ture can be characterized as “tents rather than palaces” which can be reconfigured when
new circumstances arise (Cameron & Quinn, 2006). It is a complex and dynamic form of
organizing that is often centered on temporary teams (Mintzberg & McHugh, 1985). This
organizational form cuts across normal bureaucratic lines to capture opportunities, solve
problems, and get results (Waterman, 1992). Instead of bureaucracy, its constellation of
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Enablers of a Positive Strategy: Positively Deviant Leadership
work groups based on expertise, experience, and execution capabilities join forces to in­
novate (Mintzberg, 1979). Often these work groups are multi-disciplinary and group ex­
perts by both functional and market bases.
For instance, at Google the 20% work rule encourages employees to spend 20% of
their time pursuing projects they dream up that will help the company (Lashinsky, 2007).
The 20% rule is based on three tenets (Vise & Malseed, 2005). First, Google’s leadership
believes that for employees to be innovative, they need free time to explore. Second, em­
ployees are productive when they are working on things they see as important, feel pas­
sionate about, or have invented. Third, the rule creates an opportunity for the sprouting
of bottom-up innovation. When applying the 20% rule, employees can work on projects
across organizational boundaries. Thus, for purposes of innovating, the rule brings to­
gether organizational members from different functional areas and hierarchical levels.
The 20% rule sparks the creativity of Google’s employees and motivates them to come up
with new products and ideas. Since Google takes these projects seriously, employees be­
lieve their proposed projects have a realistic chance of being adopted. Google News,
Gmail, and the Google Finance site all sprouted from the 20% time employees spent
working in adhocracies.
(p. 60)
In addition to an adhocracy organizational structure, organizations that rely on this quad­
rant to produce positive deviance value an entrepreneurial work spirit. These organiza­
tions acknowledge the benefits of extending beyond the entrepreneur as a sole propri­
etor. Instead, entrepreneurial behavior is encouraged in all different types of businesses
and is used to achieve strategic goals by putting organizational members in a position to
detect opportunities, training them to be able to do so, and rewarding them for doing so
(Howard & Jarillo, 1990). The positive energy generated from the entrepreneurial spirit
cascades into innovation that spreads throughout the organization.
Quicken Loans provides another example of an adhocracy. In recent years, Quicken Loans
has experienced record-breaking performance in the home mortgage industry, where
most competitors are fighting for survival. Dan Gilbert, the company’s founder and chair­
man, attributes this success to “the removal of the red tape and bureaucracy that stifle
creativity and innovation and have instead built a strong, entrepreneurial culture that en­
courages people to think big and then rewards them for putting their great ideas, large or
small, into action” (Quicken Loans, 2008).
The entrepreneurial spirit is reinforced by empowering organizational members to take
action when something should be fixed and a unique system for rewarding innovation.
Thus, trusting employees to continually innovate and make the right decisions is a corner­
stone of Quicken Loan’s organizational culture, and this ethos buffered the company from
the sub-prime mortgage crisis while they continued to innovate in the online segment of
the industry (Levering & Moskowitz, 2008).
The collective resourcefulness of the adhocracy/create quadrant produces positively de­
viant outcomes through innovative practices and mindset. The enablers in this quadrant
extend, transform, multiply, and repurpose organizational capabilities into new assets so
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Enablers of a Positive Strategy: Positively Deviant Leadership
that organizations excel at being pioneers or defenders (Glynn & Dutton, 2007). Compa­
nies leapfrog their competitors because the payoff of innovation is high when creating
new value, and they are willing to bear the risk of failure if the new idea or venture does
not work (Cameron, Quinn, DeGraff, & Thakor, 2006). This is a byproduct of strategic ex­
perimentation and the ability to quickly learn from mistakes resulting in pioneers and de­
finers of industry sectors.
The Market or Compete Quadrant
The market/compete quadrant represents the classic conceptualization of competitive
strategy with a focus on external stakeholders (Porter, 1980). Strategic actions in this
quadrant attempt to produce positively deviant outcomes by being aggressive and force­
ful in the pursuit of competitiveness (Cameron & Quinn, 2006). Organizations that excel
in this quadrant emphasize and engender achieving results as the primary objective.
Speed is an essential element in accomplishing goals and maintaining a competitive edge,
so results-right-now is a typical expectation. Organizational members are encouraged to
“compete hard, move fast, and play to win,” and the culture rewards aggressive action,
fast responses to competition, and customer orientation. Visible progress and the pres­
sure to perform energize the culture of organizations that succeed in this quadrant. Thus,
positively deviant organizational behavior is motivated by performance metrics, such as
market share, sales growth, and profitability. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat
help motivate and focus on producing positively deviant outcomes.
Implementing an abundance-based strategy in the market/compete quadrant focuses on
value built around customer relationships and timely actions (Prahalad & Hamel, 1994).
The company 1–800-Got-Junk epitomizes an organization’s strategy that excels in this
quadrant. This junk (p. 61) hauling company was founded in 1989 by Brian Scudamore
(Martin, 2003). He started with one truck, and by 2006 there were over 284 franchisees
across Canada, the United States, and Australia and sales of $66.2 million (Industry
Canada, 2009). Each aspect of the 1–800-Got-Junk’s strategy targets how the company
can win against the typical local hauler.
From the beginning, Scudamore realized the problem with small business fragmentation
in the junk hauling industry and formulated an aggressive strategy that blends old and
new economy (Martin, 2003). 1–800-Got-Junk transformed the traditional junk hauling in­
to a business of clean shiny trucks that act as mobile billboards marketing the company’s
services. Also, its competitive strategy has a strong focus on customer service with sym­
bolic gestures, such as uniformed drivers, on-time services, and up-front rates. This is
supported with a centralized technological infrastructure for booking and dispatching
franchised trucks and benchmarking performance metrics. When franchisees log into the
system, they can calculate revenues per month, the size of the average haul, or which
neighborhoods are producing the most jobs. In addition, franchisees are expected to de­
velop targeted strategies for competing in their local markets. Previous marketing strate­
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Enablers of a Positive Strategy: Positively Deviant Leadership
gies included “waves” in which they stand on busy traffic islands, donning blue clown
wigs, waving to passing motorists, passing out “junk food,” and junk motorcades.
Excelling in the market/compete quadrant is not only limited to for-profit organizations.
Recently nonprofit organizations also have succeeded in implementing the enablers of
this quadrant. The nonprofit organization Kaboom is an example of this. Kaboom’s mis­
sion is to create safe and healthy playgrounds that will encourage development and im­
prove the physical and social well-being of children. However, leadership at Kaboom real­
ized the difficulties of competing for grants and donors in the nonprofit sector. Instead,
90% of Kaboom’s business model is income driven. It generates revenues by charging
project management, supply, and licensing for its playground systems. In addition, Ka­
boom takes advantage of cause marketing programs by partnering with companies. It cocreated a children’s shoe collection that is sold by Stride Rite and the Ben & Jerry’s ice
cream flavor, KaBerry KaBOOM!. KaBerry KaBOOM! was the first flavor named after a
nonprofit, and the proceeds from sale of this product raised enough funds to build four
playgrounds.
The Hierarchy or Control Quadrant
In comparison to the clan/collaborate quadrant which focuses on human capital and inter­
nal dynamics, the competencies for building positive strategies in the hierarchy/control
quadrant also center on internal maintenance, but they emphasize stability, predictability,
and incremental change (Cameron & Quinn, 2006). Strategic actions in this quadrant em­
phasize efficiency and carefully controlled processes. Whereas a philosophy for achieving
positive deviance may employ the motto “refine, reduce, and perfect,” the strategic goals
in this quadrant are associated with capable processes, elimination of waste and redun­
dancies, and perfect (defect free) performance. Examples of activities relating to positive
deviance in this quadrant include quality enhancements such as statistical process con­
trol, cost and productivity improvements, reduction in manufacturing cycle time, and effi­
ciency enhancement measures. These activities help make organizations function more
smoothly and efficiently. A positive strategy emerges in the hierarchy or control quadrant
when failure is not an option—as in industries such as medicine, nuclear power, military
services, and air transportation—or in highly regulated or stable environments. Positive
deviance results primarily from increasing certainty, predictability, and regularity, and by
eliminating anything that inhibits a perfect or error-free outcome.
The clean-up of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Arsenal is an example of positive deviance in this
quadrant. An environmental engineering firm, CH2M Hill, was charged with the first-ever
clean-up and closure of a nuclear weapons production facility in the world, the Rocky
Flats Nuclear Arsenal (Cameron & Lavine, 2006). Leadership confronted a myriad of
seemingly unsolvable issues including unions, ensuing grievances, resistance to change,
environmental concerns, and public attack. An optimistic analysis estimated that the
project would take 70 years and cost $36 billion to complete. Hence, CH2M Hill’s mission
seemed an impossible one to solve. Yet, amazingly, the project was completed in 10 years
at $30 billion under budget. At the closure of Rocky Flats, the site was turned into a
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Enablers of a Positive Strategy: Positively Deviant Leadership
wildlife refuge, and because of the project’s success, relationships were enhanced with
public and governmental stakeholders.
This extraordinary positive outcome can at least partly be explained by strategies imple­
mented in the hierarchy or control quadrant. From the onset of the project, there was
specificity and clarity of the goals. (p. 62) Clear targets were communicated, including in­
cremental timelines for every single task associated with the clean-up. This gave the
workforce identifiable targets for closure and a system for establishing priorities. Com­
plementary to goal setting, detailed planning was an essential enabler of Rocky Flat’s suc­
cess. The planning involved simplification and activity-based cost accounting. For exam­
ple, the list of more than 500 tasks needed to close Rocky Flats were grouped into a
smaller number of key activities with detailed project management descriptions of work
scope, cost estimates, and time lines. This project not only defined the task, but also em­
phasized objective performance measurements with milestones and systems for account­
ability.
The pursuit of high standards of quality in the healthcare industry is another illustration
of using enablers in the hierarchy or control quadrant to achieve positive deviance. The
few healthcare systems that have won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in
Health Care seek positive deviance through the quality of services they provide to pa­
tients and their community (Griffith & White, 2005). Leaders take a disciplined and
process-management approach to ensuring that quality initiatives are encompassed in
every aspect of the organization’s strategy and its systems (Ryan, 2006). Strategy evolves
from a continuous cyclical process of defining, measuring, monitoring, and improving
quality initiatives (Ryan, 2004). This begins with very specific definitions of quality goals
for work processes. Employees are educated on these goals through training sessions and
continuous reminders.
At SSM Health Care for example, employees are provided with a “Passport” document
that reinforces quality goals, and St Luke’s Hospital gives employees a card listing “Very
Important Principles” of quality (Griffith & White, 2005). To monitor progress, bench­
marked scores are maintained on multiple dimensions of performance with frequent re­
porting of the results so that employees and managers know where they stand (Griffith &
White, 2002). Also, the measurement systems enable members to identify areas for im­
provement and to perfect clinical practices, human resource management systems, and
patient services. Furthermore, the learning from control mechanisms empowers these
healthcare systems to contribute to the health of the communities they serve and create
impact-oriented partnership.
For example, SSM Healthcare System uses the data it collects to address the health
needs of the communities its hospital serves. It sponsors multiple community projects,
such as free dental clinics and campaigns to reduce teen drinking and smoking (Baldrige,
2002). Since 1999, SSMHC has exceeded its charity care goal of contributing a minimum
of 25 percent of its operating margin.
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Enablers of a Positive Strategy: Positively Deviant Leadership
Both Rocky Flats and Baldrige National Quality Award healthcare systems demonstrate
the enablers of the hierarchy/control quadrant. In this quadrant, the catalyst for a posi­
tive strategy is structured, planned processes that are constantly monitored and mea­
sured for organizational learning. Moreover, the success of these organizations under­
scores the significance of multiple stakeholders sharing responsibility and accountability
for extraordinary performance.
Conclusion
In this chapter we present a lens for integrating positive organizational scholarship (POS)
with strategic management. We began with the premise that strategic actions are rooted
in a work culture that enables collective resourcefulness and generative dynamics which
result in positive outcomes. We argued that leadership is essential in facilitating process­
es where an organization’s strategy evolves into positive outcomes. Positively deviant
leaders enable extraordinary performance through their strategies and behaviors. Com­
plementary to leadership, we propose that certain types of enablers—processes, tech­
niques, and practices—produce a positive strategy. The Competing Values Framework
helps organize those enablers, highlighting the tensions and trade-offs embedded within
them.
This chapter presents several future directions for research and implications for practice.
There is a need to continue the dialogue between strategy and positive organizational
scholarship. This will help further integrate both streams of literature and develop a theo­
retically grounded conceptualization of positive strategy. In addition, future research
should develop empirical constructs that can be causally modeled to explain the an­
tecedents and outcomes of a positive strategy, which will validate the ideas we present in
this chapter.
In the context of practice, there is a need to expose business students and leadership to
the positive aspect of strategy by requiring them to explore strategy through a POS fram­
ing. This can be accomplished through case studies, exercises, and tools. Moreover, we
encourage leadership to take responsibility for reflecting upon how they enable and em­
power positive deviance in their organizations by evaluating their dominant work culture
and (p. 63) how it creates strategic value. Every organization has strengths it can lever­
age into a positive strategy, but it requires motivated and committed members who can
align their energies with purposeful organizational goals.
Directions for Research
• Future research can develop empirical measures for the relationship between posi­
tively deviant leadership and strategic management behaviors.
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Enablers of a Positive Strategy: Positively Deviant Leadership
• Future research can investigate the relationships between positive strategies in each
of the competing quadrants of the Competing Values Framework and the tradeoffs re­
quired.
• Future research can investigate the enablers of positive strategies and the extent to
which they enable positively deviant performance.
Implications for Practice
• Leaders should create a strategic planning process that encourages the formulation
and implementation of positively deviant strategies.
• The Competing Values framework can provide a foundation for identifying, organiz­
ing, and evaluating a set of comprehensive strategies that enable positively deviant
leadership.
• Positively deviant leadership strategies do not merely focus on successful perfor­
mance, but also enable organizational members to expand their aspirations for achiev­
ing positive deviance.
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