Appreciating Appreciation

This article, The Problem with Problems in BusinessWeek caught my attention. It makes the case that an alternative to "deficit thinking" is "appreciative inquiry".

That is to say, if you always look at the glass as half empty, you'll forget that it's also half full. And it's the half full side that's going to carry you forwards.

Of course looking at the news business in the United States the glass is looking a lot less than half full. But there's still something in there, and we should be careful not to cut whatever little we have in the glass in an attempt to save the news. If there's nothing left in the glass, there'll be nothing to save.