Appreciative-Leadership

Chapter 5
The Possibilities: Thinking about where you are as an Appreciative Organisation, Appreciative Leadership and Appreciative Inquiry
Dreaming about the Future
I have always been very ambitious for LCFT, dreaming about the future, of what could be. This is not about
personal ambition, status or achievement, but rather the untapped potential of the people within LCFT. Involving
people in conversations about the culture they want is, again, critical.
Lesson 2: Courage, Patience, Determination
Don’t compromise on your dreams and ambitions for your organisation. Culture change in a system of 7,000
people does not happen overnight. There will always be challenges concerning the political landscape, emerging
situations will occur internally, and the results may not be what you desired. Standing firm requires courage,
patience and determination in equal measure.
Possibilities and Ideas
The following helped to make a real difference at LCFT:
• Board’s understanding of the importance of this work as part of a whole organisational improvement
programme
• Continuing to invest in leadership development over 4 years, despite the financial pressures
• Supporting aspiring leaders to take forward their ideas, regardless of their organisational position
• Board and senior managers consistently adopting an appreciative approach to improvement, even when
significant failures occur rather than resorting to blame and command modes
Designing the Future
It was clear to me that leadership was at the heart of this cultural change and that developing leaders at all levels
would be one of the critical actions in developing the culture. The Board understood that we could not accomplish
this alone and that we needed a development partner.
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