+ Models ORGDYN-419; No. of Pages 12 Organizational Dynamics (2012) xxx, xxx—xxx Available online at www.sciencedirect.com jo urnal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/orgdyn The concentration effect of strengths: How the whole system ‘‘AI’’ summit brings out the best in human enterprise David L. Cooperrrider Appreciative Inquiry, or ‘‘AI’’ is taking the strengths When is it that the best in human beings arises most easily, revolution to a new level, far beyond today’s common productively, and naturally? Our answer, from several dec- talent-management focus. Introducing the next genera- ades of fieldwork and hundreds of interviews with successful tion AI Design Summit — something that a recent CEO managers, is unequivocal: the best in human organization report singles out as ‘‘the best large group method in the happens when people collectively experience the wholeness world today’’ of their system — when strength touches strength — across whole systems of relevant and engaged stakeholders, inter- TALKING ABOUT ‘‘POSITIVE STRENGTHS’’ gets people nal and external, and top to bottom. Sounds complicated? excited. It’s thrilling to think that a new wave of manage- Surprisingly, it is exactly the opposite. In fact, because of the ment innovation and positive organizational scholarship natural positivity that’s unleashed when we collaborate might revolutionize the way we engage the workforce, trans- beyond silos and artificial separations keeping us apart, it form business strategy, and prepare our organizations for a is often profoundly easy. The use of large group methods for world of open innovation with customers, suppliers, and doing the work of management, once a rare practice, is other key stakeholders. It’s more that just talk. Millions of soaring in business, but this is the first article to focus on managers have been introduced to principles of appreciative the positive human and organizational dynamic involved — inquiry and the positive psychology of human strengths. what this article calls the concentration effect of strengths. Nearly two million people have taken, for example, the VIA survey of human strengths, while another several million A SPOTLIGHT ON JENNIFER’S STORY: THE managers have leveraged strengths-finder tools for their own and others’ leadership development. COURAGE TO LEAD LIKE A MULTIPLIER In this article I seek to take the positive-strengths perspective to a new octave. While people are often drawn When expectations are high, and all eyes are on you, that can to strengths management because of its positive bias (it be the time when the potential of leadership can be truly feels good studying optimism and the best in life) there is so momentous. Jennifer’s story is telling. much more. This article focuses on organizational perfor- On June 24th 2005, Jennifer Deckard, the young chief mance and results — game changing business results, some financial office (CFO) of Fairmount Minerals, opened her first in very complex situations. Indeed, the positive-strengths ‘‘whole-system-in-the room’’ large-group and company-wide perspective has implications for every aspect of a business summit. The idea started when she wondered how to take the once managers are able to advance from micro-manage- organization’s strengths-based management philosophy to a ment techniques to macro-management applications, new level, beyond the individually focused talent manage- focusing not so much on individual strengths as on config- ment system. Looking at a marketplace of unprecedented urations and chemistries of strengths. The question of how complexity, Jennifer felt that ultimate speed, dexterity, and to connect and combine enterprise-wide strengths for collaborative capacity could not be found in older models of advancing strategic opportunities is what this article is management, for example engaging one small group at a about. time. It was critical, decided Jennifer, to reach way beyond 0090-2616/$ — see front matter # 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.orgdyn.2012.01.004 Please cite this article in press as: D.L. Cooperrrider, The concentration effect of strengths, Organ Dyn (2012), doi:10.1016/ j.orgdyn.2012.01.004 + Models ORGDYN-419; No. of Pages 12 2 D.L. Cooperrrider silos, fiefdoms, and specialties and to create a ‘‘one firm’’ alignment of strengths. Jennifer found solid support from Chuck Fowler, the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Fairmount Minerals. Their initiative, with hundreds of stakeholders in the room, proved successful beyond aspirations. Between 2005 and 2007, revenues almost doubled, while earnings took a gigantic leap to more than 40 percent per year. Post summit research documented a workforce on fire. And plans from the initiative — including prototypes of new products, the dis- covery of new markets, and the design of renewable energy facilities — were put into practice with focus and speed. In addition, Fairmount Minerals would soon receive the nation’s ‘‘top corporate citizen’’ award from the United States Cham- ber of Commerce. Figure 1 The Appreciative Inquiry 4-D Cycle for Collaborative All of this was surprisingly easy, recounted the CFO. Designing in Large Groups of 300—2,000 People. ‘‘Today’s customers, partners, and employees want to be engaged in radically new ways’’ Jennifer recalls, ‘‘and now I realize that it is not a pipedream to manage important CFO’s welcome, people are into deep exploration, sharing, targets as a whole system — in fact it’s fast. I call it my and listening, The Grand Ballroom is buzzing. management macro-moment.’’ The moderator, after almost an hour, calls people to reconvene and describes the AI Summit’s 4-D cycle of Dis- covery; Dream; Design; and Deployment that will unfold over Imagine Yourself as a Customer the three days (see Fig. 1). Soon you find yourself, one of the To get a feel for the strengths-based macro process, imagine company’s treasured customers, being selected as the plen- that you are one of Fairmount Minerals’ customers. You are ary spokesperson to share your roundtable’s analysis of the sourcing manager at John Deere, and you purchase Fair- trends and the five sustainable value opportunities for new mount’s sand for making castings for engine blocks. You product advances. The call is for disruptive innovation. receive an unexpected invitation letter from the CFO. You An appreciative inquiry summit is a large group planning, are invited not to be an observer, but to engage as full designing, or implementation meeting that brings a whole collaborator in Fairmount’s strategic planning. So here you system of 300 to 1,000 or more internal and external stake- are now at the start of the three-day summit: holders together in a concentrated way to work on a task of You enter a Grand Ballroom. It is teeming with 350 people strategic, and especially creative, value. Moreover, it is a from the sand company. There is no central podium or meeting where everyone is engaged as a designer, across all microphone. As many as 50 round tables fill the room — each relevant and resource-rich boundaries, to share leadership has a microphone, a flip-chart, and packets of materials and take ownership for making the future of some big league including the summit’s purpose, three-day agenda, and a opportunity successful. The meeting appears bold at first, pre-summit strategy analysis and fact base. As an external but is based on a simple notion: when it comes to enterprise stakeholder of the company, you’ve been invited to roll up innovation and integration, there is nothing that brings out your sleeves and participate in a real-time strategy session the best in human systems — faster, more consistently, and devoted to the future. more effectively — than the power of ‘‘the whole.’’ Flowing You sit down at your assigned roundtable and you are from the tradition of strengths-based management, the AI struck by the complex configuration of individuals: the CEO of Summit says that in a multi-stakeholder world it is not about the company; a sand loader operator; a marketing specialist; (isolated) strengths per se, but about configurations, combi- a potential solar energy supplier (external); a product nations, and interfaces. designer; a corporate lawyer, an information technology While at first it seems incomprehensible that large groups (IT) professional, and a middle manager from operations. of hundreds of people in the room can be effective in Soon the ‘‘whole-system-in-the-room’’ summit begins. unleashing system-wide strategies, making organizational The CFO of the company stands up from one of the 50 decisions, and designing rapid prototypes, this is exactly tables and speaks to the ‘‘state of the business’’ and the task what is happening in organizations around the world. Fair- of this strategic session. The focus: harnessing the innovation mount Mineral’s experience was not an isolated or atypical capacity of sustainability. She speaks about the difference triumph. For Fairmount’s customers, the experience was eye between being a sustainability leader versus a sustainability opening. First, they saw the integrity, energy, and collabora- laggard — and vows that this company will not be caught flat- tive capacity of the high-engagement company. Then, across footed by the future. An external moderator then calls every silo, they saw one new business idea after another attention to the key questions for the appreciative inquiry being discovered. The one that amazed them most was the summit, each one designed to elicit discovery into strategic new multi-million dollar business opportunity designed to strengths, hidden opportunities, aspirations, and valued take old, spent sand — the stuff that is discarded after its use future scenarios — all with a focus on game-changing industry in factories — and turn that into clean bio-fuel for powering possibilities. People use the questions in the form of an the company’s heavy trucks.