Positive Psychology at Work:

Acknowledgements

In 2007, along with my colleagues Jon Passmore and Stefan Cantore, I wrote a book called Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management. I enjoyed the experience so much that when Wiley-Blackwell asked me to write a book about positive psychology and Appreciative Inquiry I leapt at the chance.

From the beginning my ambition was to comb the ever-widening field of positive psychology research and theory for that most relevant to the challenges of leading, or working in, organizations. I wanted to combine that theory with examples of how it is being put into practice across the world, as people ask ‘So what?’ and play with ‘What happens if … ?’ I am blessed that so many colleagues, friends and contacts were kind enough to put pen to paper, and it is the unfailing support of the positive psychology and Appreciative Inquiry community that I wish to acknowledge.

Each contribution is clearly acknowledged in the text and details can be found on page xiii. My contributors have all been unfailingly patient with me as my ideas for the book have developed and so my ideas of what I want from them have changed. The text is immeasurably enriched by the generosity of my contributors who come from the UK, Australia, America, Canada, Italy, Poland, Spain, Holland, Sweden and the Republic of Ireland.

I thank them all.

I wish also to thank my husband, Stewart Smith, who has provided the cartoons that appear in the text. Working to my very inexact briefs he has somehow managed to produce ...