Gain Appreciative Intelligence

A brief introduction to Appreciative Intelligence through excerpts from the book.

Appreciative Intelligence is the ability to perceive the positive inherent generative potential within the present.  It has three major components.  They are:

1 Reframing, the psychological process whereby a person is able to see one’s view of the world as “a view.” In any act of perception or reframing, a person is faced with a series of choices.  He or she chooses to pay attention to one stimulus or at least for the time being, to ignore the remaining stimuli.  That decision is… value-based, in the sense that what gets focused on must have more value than what does not… When a person reframes, he or she shifts to a new view of reality that leads to a new outcome

2 Being able to see positive possibility in every person and situation.  .… Viewing everyday reality- events, situations, obstacles, products, people with appreciation… reframing to see the positive… see talents or potential that others might miss.

3 Having the capacity to see the “future-ideal” interwoven in the texture of the actual, that is, seeing how the future unfolds from the present.  People with high Appreciative Intelligence connect the generative aspects of the present with a desirable end goal… see the concrete ways the possibilities of the present moment could be channeled.

Developing and enhancing your Appreciative Intelligence could mean that you learn how to reframe situations for better negotiating or solving problems in a creative way.  You may begin to lead more effectively or to see innovative solutions.  You might find that you are less often involved in situations of blaming or finger pointing and more often involved in getting what you want and where you want to go.  You may find yourself bringing out the best in others; finding happiness, appreciation or fulfillment where you hadn’t before; or seeing connections you had never noticed.

* Persistence Behavioral in which concrete, visible actions are sustained over a period of time to accomplish a stated or implied goal and Cognitive in which a person continues to think about a goal long after the behavior to accomplish it has stopped…  Evidence that if a goal-directed behavior is interrupted, a state of psychological tension persists, keeping the goal and goal-related activated in memory.  High Appreciative Intelligence people pay better attention to cues in the environment and know that persevering for a goal is more important than persevering for a particular approach or task.

* The conviction that one’s actions matter: How a person behaves is more dependent on the beliefs he or she holds about his/her capabilities than by what they are actually capable of accomplishing… Involves “reciprocal determinism,” the notion that thoughts, feelings and environmental factors influence one another, creating an independent system…  people evaluate their experiences through self reflection.

* Possessing a tolerance for uncertainty: Ability to successfully reach toward the unknown, to take risks, to grapple with the discomfort of uncertainty or ambiguity, to even feel comfortable with it… While ambiguity and uncertainty can lead to conflict and discomfort, there are benefits that arise from the process of resolving or making use of contradictory ideas

* Irrepressible resilience: the ability to bounce back from a difficult situation… Different from persistence, a quality present in a person which allows him or her to maintain a certain strength against adversity….

by Tojo Thatchenkery & Carol Metzker, 2005.