The pre-eminent approach to creating change is to look for what isn't working and change it. For example, if my car breaks down and I call someone out to look at it, I expect them to find what's wrong and fix it so that I can get on my way as soon as possible. When an organisation seeks to create change it does so by deciding how it would like things to be and then deciding what has to be changed to get there. This problem-based approach to improvement has proved hugely successful and has underpinned the scientific revolution, which over the past few centuries has driven the development of the sophisticated, technology based society we live in.

So, when faced with helping people to develop, this problem-based approach has often been the chosen approach. And the approach does work with people, at least in the short term. But it has two dangers:

1. it plays to people's weaknesses - they are being asked to change by getting better at something they are not good at
2. it devalues people - it treats people as half empty glasses rather than half full ones - it gives them tacit feedback that they are inadequate rather than able.

But there is another approach. Rather than focussing on what's not working and finding ways to make it work, this approach focuses on finding what is already working and encouraging more of it. This principle is beautifully demonstrated by the story of Elliot Coleman's Gift and it is also something every parent knows how to do. With babies and young children, we effortlessly use this "appreciative" approach, praising their every attempt to walk, energising what they are doing well. And then at some point we switch to helping them learn by telling them what they're doing wrong, not what they're doing right. Used with adults, the appreciative effect has much the same effect as it does with children - it builds their confidence, motivates them, encourages them to learn, and helps them find and express their uniqueness. We should do more of it!