A group of executives were called into a meeting to discuss budget cuts. Everyone was wary, fearful the cuts might include staff, bonuses, the ending of promising projects, things that hit close to home. The mood was dark and almost surly. It was the sort of atmosphere that was not conducive to achieving tough goals, but it was perfect for producing conflict, heightened tension and demotivation.

The CEO brought in a consultant to start the meeting. He said something like this, “The first thing I’d like to do is have every one of you tell us about something that went exceptionally well during the past week. It might not have occurred in your department, but you heard about it and you observed its impact.”

They looked around at each other wondering what this was about, and then somebody offered something. He was commended for sharing. Someone else offered another example of something that went well in his department. He was thanked for his contribution. Soon everyone was sharing and the mood changed dramatically. The focus was now on what was going right, the positive and not the negative. And it offered an opportunity to not only share examples of the contributions people were making, but to express appreciation to those who were making the contribution.

The work ahead was still going to be hard. Tough decisions would have to be made. But now the positive focus turned the threat into an opportunity to discover efficiencies, become nimbler, and possibly develop new processes and procedures that righted a ship that was listing.

Humans are emotional tuning forks. When a tuning fork is vibrating, other tuning forks pick up this vibration when they come into its proximity. Consultants can help change the tune of an organization, and the impact of this can be dramatic. A relentlessly negative outlook, fear, an inward focus concerned primarily about oneself, rarely produces the results an organization seeks and sometimes desperately needs.

[The above story comes from Professor Dalton Kehoe, York University, in his Effective Communication course found in The Great Courses.]