Oddly, it isn’t always a good idea to discourage or disallow negative thinking.

In 1952, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale published a very successful book titled, The Power of Positive Thinking. It sold over 5 million copies and has been published in at least 15 languages, and despite being dismissed by a good number of psychologists, the ideas in the book have endured to this day. Central to his philosophy of positive thinking is the idea that any challenge or obstacle should be faced with a positive outlook – that negative thinking and complaints should be avoided. This idea has become a pervasive view of how successful people, companies and institutions should approach challenges.

And yet, despite the incredible success of some people who are optimistic and sunny in their outlook, when innovation is required the need for negative thinking and complaints is overwhelming. As the psychiatrist R. C. Murphy wrote in The Nation in 1955, “Think Right: Reverend Peale’s Panacea”, positive thinking “..is not only inadequate for our needs but even undertakes to drown out the fragile inner voice which is the spur to inner growth.”

If no one complains, there is no reason for change and ultimately innovation stops. Negative thinking is ultimately…a positive force for change.

Fundamentally and paradoxically, complaints are an expression of hope and optimism. In order to complain about something today, one must imagine that it could be better in the future. Without hope of a better option, complaints are not only a waste of time and energy, they are by definition…impossible. When a customer complains, they are implicitly telling a company that they believe it can be better.

A lack of complaints, therefore, should not be seen as a sign that things can not be improved. Rather, it suggests that customers are resigned to the way things are. It can also indicate a hopelessness and ultimately a lack of loyalty. Customers who do not complain have given up on you, even if, for the moment, they keep purchasing a product or using your services. If someone isn’t complaining, there is a good chance that they are no longer truly committed to your company, your product, your mission…they no longer believe in a better future.

Most people, including myself, would rather avoid hearing complaints and understand that complaining can be unpleasant for others. That is why most official communications avoid the negative. The attempt to put a “positive spin” on problems is not only a smart tactic for keeping everyone calm and happy, it is a fundamentally polite thing to do. We avoid complaining because we want to be nice – even if it means witholding the greatest gift we can give: a belief that someone or something can be better.

Listening to complaints can be so unpleasant that it is very difficult to perceive them as gifts. Most companies, instead of asking customers to complain, will conduct elaborate “satisfaction surveys”. Instead of asking, “How can we do a better job?” they ask, “How satisfied are you with us right now?” No matter how a customer answers a satisfaction question, it is very difficult for them to help a company do better in the future.

As an example, if a customer says that they are “somewhat satisfied” with a product or service, (the typical responsed to a multiple choice satisfaction survey), what can a company do with that information? Is there any way for a customer to tell a company, even if they decide to write in some comments, how to better satisfy them? Satisfaction is such a passive and vague concept that it is difficult to imagine any reasonable quantitative measure for more or less satisfaction.

Interestingly, people become more vague the happier they are with something. Ask someone to describe what they love about their sweatheart and they will likely speak in generalities such as, “she is so sweet,” or “he’s the best.”

But if you ask the same person what is wrong with their true love, they start to get very specific, and they start describing exactly how that person could be better. “I love him, but he’s such a sloppy guy. If he would just spend a little time grooming himself, he would be georgeous.”

Baked into that complaint, no matter how annoying it may be to the recipient, is a belief in potential…as well as a blueprint for innovation. The man who listens to that complaint – and to the complainer – will likely learn how to become the more elegant, handsome man he has the potential to become. Ignoring or not listening to that complaint is an implicit decision not to innovate.

Instead of asking a customer how satisfied they are, a company can gain actionable intelligence if they allow their customers to complain. As an example, Apple Computers has some of the most devoted customers in the electronics industry. There are, perhaps, hundreds if not thousands of web sites, blogs, publications and associations devoted to analyzing, criticizing, and prosthletizing for Apple’s products and services, including MacWorld, Apple Insider, Mac Rumors, Cult of Mac, Mac Mojo and countless others. Devoted customers are constantly complaining about their Apple products in these sites…and constantly giving the development teams at Apple Computers their faith, and instructions about how they might improve.

Of course, too much negative thinking and complaining can be just as dangerous as too much positive. There is a difficult balance between the need to nurture something and the need to find out what can be improved. And quite often complaints need to be decoded – when understood in the context of the complainer’s position, many should be ignored. But the next time someone complains, perhaps it would make sense to overcome any discomfort and encourage them to complain even more, understand what is driving the complaint and to find out precisely how to become as good as that customer believes you can be.

Are you ready to accept the gift of complaints?