ABSTRACT
Positive approaches to developing people and organisations – focusing exclusively on the positives and the strengths of the individual, team or organisation – are very popular today in coaching and organisation development. In coaching individuals and teams, the solutions focused approach developed on the back of Steve de Shazer’s solutions focused therapy is widely used (Berg and Szabo 2005, De Shazer and Dolan 2007). In organisation development Appreciative Enquiry (Cooperrider and Whitney 2005) is an approach that focuses on future vision and best practice to build on what works, rather than focusing on what doesn’t work. These approaches are powerful and have made a significant contribution to the field of people and organisation development. I make appropriate use of these and other positive approaches in the work I do. However, in the context of writing this book, I decided that there was a need to understand what hinders good quality working relationships as well as what increases them. There have been years of best practice advice and the problems of silo working still recur in organisations. As I mentioned in the section on leadership and change in Chapter 13, there is no one size that fits all situations.
