Pattern #2
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Appreciative Thinking
Credit: vvvita – Shutterstock
Pattern Heart
To appreciate is to understand, value, and increase in value. Appreciation can by itself enliven and empower whatever is appreciated. So practice thinking in appreciative terms and help discern, delve into and develop the wisdom-generating resource-value of people, situations, and the life and living systems in and all around us.
Some related patterns: 6 Capacitance 29 Expanding Situational Curiosity 31 Exuberance 63 Power of Listening 75 Sacredness 80 Story 84 Tackling Cognitive Limitations
Appreciative Thinking – going deeper …
This is an edited version of the video on this page.
Usually you think that to appreciate something is to think how valuable it is, or to voice your appreciation: “I think you’re great!” Understanding is another application of that word, as in “I’ve come to appreciate the complexity of what’s going on here.” And it can also refer to an increase in the value of the thing being appreciated, as in “Certain kinds of landscaping can help a house appreciate in value.” It is a really interesting word – and it is thought-provoking to combine all three of those meanings.
When you combine all those meanings together, you value something because you understand it, and you understand where it fits. And your informed, appreciative relationship to it, your attitude about it, enhances it, making it even more valuable. This combination produces a very potent level appreciation.
We all know that if we are particularly appreciative of a child, if we appreciate whatever the child is doing, they come to life, they feel more powerful and able to function. If you appreciate a kid’s art, they’re more inclined to do art. It’s a validation of them, and they want more of that, so they do it some more.
“We are great!” says the leader, appreciating the people they are leading, thereby enlivening and empowering them. There is more team spirit and energy in that group, if the leaders are appreciative of them.
Appreciative critique is an interesting, seemingly contradictory phrase, but there’s a dynamic tension in it that can be quite powerful. First of all, your appreciative critique is specifically designed to help out, to help the person or thing be better. It’s not a “cutting down” kind of critique. So you are looking at things that could be made better while appreciating the larger effort and the highlights. You could even appreciate the intention: if the thing itself doesn’t seem to be achieving the desired results, you can still appreciate the intention behind it, while you critique the way it goes about trying to do whatever it’s doing, with your intention being to help it ultimately succeed.
Video Introduction (6 min)
After reading the 50-word pattern heart Tom Atlee elaborates on the pattern.
Examples and Resources
- Appreciative Inquiry
Link
Link-Wikipedia - Active Listening
Link - Empathy
Link
Dynamic Facilitation-DF
Nonviolent Communication-NVC - Appreciative Journalism
Sarah Van Gelder interview (video) - Sir Geoffrey Vickers – Appreciative Systems – Link
- Character Strengths – Positivity Project – Link
Appreciative inquiry, active listening and empathy are all manifestations of appreciative thinking. Dynamic Facilitation and Nonviolent Communication both use active listening and empathy.
Hi Jenny and Tom, I am really appreciating the opportunities to engage with you both and the group. I work at the historic heart of AI (Case Western Reserve University) and David is a friend and colleague. Like all practices they develop their social following. With AI it is very “spiritual.” David comes form a line of preachers including one family member who influenced Aldo Leopold. I like the term Appreciate Critique because there are problems in the world. I work in Positive Aging world but resist its efforts to whitewash issues. More later. Got to talk to Tom now! What a joy. Peter
I chose this pattern specifically because I wanted to follow the thread from the previous pattern, Exuberance, since it was the first one listed under related patterns. Thought it would be interesting to look through that lens.
Appreciative Thinking to me brings to mind one of the most powerful ways a person/entity can be acknowledged. I guess what hangs me up is the thinking, since appreciation is so heart based. To me, it lands right next to Feeling Heard which I put way up there as a magnificant quality for humanity to aspire. I never thought this pattern was meant to imply Appreciative Inquiry or it’s facilitative approach. Since Appreciation has such far reaching effect. Being Deeply Heard, Being Appreciated, Feeling Empathy are all such noble qualities to strive for, puts this on a higher level somehow.
Exuberance is intimately related to the kind of appreciative thinking that enthusiastically expresses how very valuable one thinks a person or thing is. This can be different from other types of appreciative thinking, as noted in my reply to Jenny Hegland below. I see appreciative thinking as at least including both head and heart intelligence. Art appreciation can serve as an example. Appreciative Inquiry involves focusing on the value of approaches that have already worked and that might, along with other positively recognized factors, play a positive role in the future – rather than merely critiquing the problematic factors in what’s going on. I see the positivity there as largely a heart stance and the analysis that identifies the positive factors and weaves them into the future as largely a head process. The word “thinking” is in the pattern name intentionally. But at the individual and interpersonal level, I would fully agree with your final sentence.
I find myself both very drawn to this pattern, and also wanting more specific language around what it really means. This may be a particular pattern where it’s even more important to describe what IT IS NOT, as much as what it is.
I’ve been an appreciative inquiry practitioner/student for many years, and one of the things I learned quickly is that “appreciative” approaches are often met with a tremendous amount of resistance and skepticism. I have my theories as to why this is, and our cultural obsession (in the U.S.) with deficit-based thinking and approaches to change is among the reasons. We’ve been conditioned to believe that in order to change something, the single most important step is analyzing the problem. More importantly, I often run into common misunderstandings about what is meant by “appreciative.” I’ve observed a common association between appreciative and positive (which is often interpreted as irrationally Pollyannaish). I’ve never seen it go well when trying to intentionally generate or apply appreciative thinking when a group associates this meaning, especially in times of deep pain or group/interpersonal conflict. Instead it can cause even more pain and frustration.
Here’s a bit more of my evolving learning/thinking:
– The most generative and helpful type of “appreciation” I’ve observed comes when we simply honor what is, notice it for the truth of what it is, and tend to our own relationship to/with it, rather than judge the focus itself as something to either be appreciated or not (good or bad).
– In appreciative inquiry work, it’s the inquiry part of the equation that holds most of the power and opens possibility. The word generative tends to elicit less defensiveness than appreciative. Life-giving inquiry, for example, or honoring the human experience for exactly what it is without trying to change it, can be done even amidst the most painful human experiences (i.e. grief from loss of life, but it’s extremely important to honor and invite in ALL that a person or group feels and experiences, not just what is perceived to be appreciable. Inviting in and honoring the whole of an emotional experience makes the space for that which is generative/appreciative, but if we try to intentionally exclude parts of the human experience that we perceive to be “negative” those energies will inevitably find their way in anyway, and usually in more destructive ways). It may be helpful to elevate what’s appreciative, but it can’t be at the exclusion of honoring wholeness and fullness of the human experience/perception.
Lastly, based on these comments, I’d love to see a photo for this pattern that reinforces the association with “generative perspective/relationship and honoring what is” more — and with “positivity” less (especially the Pollyannish positivity, which I fear a picture of a young girl with thumbs up reinforces strongly). I’m hoping this is an example of appreciative critique…☺
Thank you for a very thoughtful reflection, Jenny! I’m really interested to see what image you might find that would reflect the full potential of this pattern! 🙂 It is a complex pattern, with many dimensions. A lot of what you wrote about is contained in that one word in the description – “understand” (even as in “It is important for all of us to appreciate the level of suffering people go through when they are marginalized and disrespected for aspects of themselves that they have no control over.”) But there IS a positive bias to the pattern. There’s a sense that once a difficult reality is well appreciated, attention will turn to deeper lessons, new possibilities, etc., related to that reality. And there is a sense that the fuller the appreciation (of all types), the more positive possibilities and energies will be called forth. Although shallow, denial-based, or merely polite “appreciation” is common, Appreciative THINKING is different. I hear you might like a sentence in the description that says something like “We’re not talking Pollyanna here. We’re talking about a discerning, evocatively positive slant in our engagement with the world that calls forth the vital creative energies of those around us.” Nor not. What short sentence or phrase would do it – or how would you write the new description to fit your sense of it? (“We” will be doing a version 3.0 sometime in the future, after all…)
I appreciate this response so much, thank you! I will be on the lookout for an image….one that does embody the positive bias, as you say, and that also conveys more of what you’ve emphasized about “understanding.” This also brings it closer to Deep Empathy. I agree with you that when fully appreciated/honored, both the human spirit that is understood in a deeper way and the human spirit that understands in a deeper way can open to greater possibilities. Ah, the power of seeing, and being seen. Witnessing and being witnessed. And with an appreciative eye, all the better. Lastly, the short phrase you’ve offered adds something for me, but I recognize every single person is going to prefer different words and language, so it’s not my intention to nitpick on words. Mostly, I’m thinking out loud about my own experiences, and especially challenges, with inviting others into this as a practice. I’m thinking to myself: when I run into the perceptions of positivity I described in my earlier comment, what questions can serve? What invitations can serve? I also think this pattern, as do many of the others, confronts us with our own freedom and there’s something there in terms of honoring that in ourselves and others, and being gentle with it…Thanks, Tom, for your thoughtful reply; it helped further my thinking.
You are of course welcome, Jenny. And your response brings to my mind the pattern “Feeling Heard” which includes feeling seen and witnessed, as well, and describes a bit of what is so special about these feelings. I’m also intrigued by the added dimensionality offered by integrating Deep Empathy with “Big Empathy”…..