Why the Appreciative Workplace?

Author: Kathy Callahan

I’ll never forget the first phone call I received from EnCompass. It was about 26 years ago, and one of the founders was recruiting me as a consultant. She said, “We’re trying to build a workplace that fits your real life.”

I’m from Philadelphia, so I greeted that comment with a healthy skepticism.
Sure you are, I thought.

That was the beginning of a 25-year relationship with a company like no other.

I still marvel that I stayed all those years; it was never my plan. What kept me there was what we were building—a workplace grounded in Appreciative Inquiry, focused on strengths, inspired by a shared mission, energized by learning, and committed to a flexibility that truly fit my real life—something I had rarely seen, and have spent much of my career helping to build ever since.

At the time, I had experienced Appreciative Inquiry once before and saw it as a powerful methodology for working with communities and with clients. But building the workplace itself around it felt bold.

It meant strengths were the starting point.
It meant the questions we asked every day would shape how people grew.
It meant the way we worked together was designed with intention.

Over time, I became deeply engaged in bringing that approach to life—facilitating it, teaching it, and using it to grow people and teams.

And I saw what happened.

People stepped more fully into their capabilities when their strengths were seen and expanded. Teams built trust and navigated complexity with shared purpose. The organization grew while holding onto what mattered most.

That experience shaped how I practiced leadership.

Workplaces are not just where work happens. They are what make great work possible.

An Appreciative Workplace starts with a clear orientation: build on what is working, ask questions that open possibility, and create conditions where people can grow into their best. This strengthens performance, supports learning, and builds real commitment.

“Why not?” is the question I carry forward.

Why not build workplaces where people do exceptional work and grow into their best?

That is the work of the Studio.

Because once you’ve experienced what’s possible, you don’t just believe in it—you build it..