Shaping the Future . . . of Change

I’m packing my luggage and laptop . . . I’m off to Bowling Green, Ohio today for the Nexus For Change Conference. This really falls into the category of a bus man’s holiday. Can you imagine what will happen as the advance press explains what we are up to:

Our focus will be on leveraging the power of over 60 approaches being used to transform whole organizations and communities as they tackle 21st Century Challenges. These approaches are broadly referred to as large-group methods/interventions, whole system change, or large-scale change. What make them unique are two foundation assumptions: high involvement and a systemic approach to improvement.

Over 300 people will gather starting today, coming from the US, Canada and abroad. We all share a passion for supporting the processes (Appreciative Inquiry among them) that shift the focus and shape the future. I’ve been fascinated by the introductions posted by nearly half of those who will attend. Their backgrounds are so diverse, rich, broad and deep. They speak of hopes and dreams for our few days together. Listen to their hearts . . .

Perhaps this can be a circumstance whereby each can let go of some tension in their own balloon, little or large, so as we ease into this we may discover that there is more air for all and for the whole…

We need to make sure we include people from around the world in these discussions. Then, we can consider things like shared principles, research possibilities, the role of technology, and our contribution to the challenges facing the world today.

Who would help me build a storybook that tells the journey of “ordinary people” who have made real difference – written for executives and managers?

I’d like to begin serious conversation that includes both practitioners and academic researchers about how to conduct significant academic research on the large group methods’ research that has the capacity both to contribute to academic theorizing and to the methods themselves.

How come the ideas and methods we know work in the best educations, companies, communities and research teams are not known to every single person in the world?

My own passion has long been about opening the dialogue across the organization. That openness encompassing the various people in roles that are diverse in expertise, authority and structure, and at the same time opening the media of expression and communication to include not just verbal and written language, but the arts, technology, and science. From that flows an aspiration for the Nexus conference, that the silos that separate and distinguish the change methodologies lose their significance as we reshape our understanding of models, language and tools. It would be my dream that, like sculptors, we retain the substance of the clay as we give it new shape and life for the work.

BAWB: Imagining . . . and How to Get There

How you phrase the question will depend on where globalization goes. How will we get there is keynote speaker, CK Pralahad’s, focus.

There is evidence that poverty leads to ecological damage. Conflict and poverty are related. Poverty is about dignity. 3 to 5 billion people are underserved by the organized sector. We need to be innovative and entrepreneurial. The public sector has made significant effort within the notion of “one solution”. Civil socieity looks for social justice. Philanthropy has its own role. Business is not going to do it alone where others have failed. Giving up our idealogical stances is what will bring all of these sectors together.

Everyone should have the benefits of the global economy: be able to enjoy world class (high standards of quality) products (example, McDonalds) and services, and create platforms of opportunity for every person as a consumer and as a producer to chose the products they want and have the finances to participate as a micro-producer.

He focuses on 4 industries to show how this will happen :

Connectivity – changes the asymmetry. 3-5 billion people will be connected by PCs or cell phones. See the pictures of a young man taking vegetable orders, another selling family crafts, a tire repairman who gets customer calls. This is the power of information.

Access to money – credit, savings, micro-insurance. At the bottom of the pyramind 20 – 50x. Coin-operated, direct distribtution commerce (shampoo, aspirin, etc.) is possible. becoming locally responsive and use global standards at the same time will lead us to researchable questions about democratizing commerce. Consumption at the bottom of the pyramid leads to livelihood enhancement.
Energy – becoming locally responsive
Good health care – The delivery system in India is an example he uses since there are problems which we all understand. First, the market is large – enormous numbers of diabetes patients. Travel is needed to get medical attention so the cost of care is time and money intensive. The motivation for innovation is large volume so solutions must be scalable. Distribution must allow for local access.
Price minus profit must address the challenge cost (what the consumer can afford). He asks the audience to chose a price point. In the US cataract surgery costs $3000. The target price for cell phones in India is the cheapest per minute in the world.

The innovation sandbox asks us to think about new pricing models. Looking at prosthetics, Jaipur Foot video shows the creation of a new limb for an Indian man at the cost of $25 as compared to $12,000 for a similar item in the US. The approach is different in India for marketing, patient acquisition, pricing. But the quality of the healthcare products and services are world class. There is a method for us to use to participate in this market.

Organizing people for economic benefit is shown through the example of a milk cooperative. 6.4 million kg per day is produced daily by these women. They are co-owners.

Additional examples highlight, the marketplace ecosystem at the micro-level and its relationships with regional and global capacity building. There are 630 thousand self-help groups organized at multiple levels (village and district). Purchasing power for equipment, negotiating services, collaboration at the level needed provides bottom-up decision making and the need for new value propositions from providers. This is a velcro model. It comes together as needed.

Our forgetting curve is larger than the learning curve of those in the emerging markets. Bringing together scholarship and research, passion, humility are the requirement.

How will we answer the question: “Do these children deserve our attention?”

BAWB: Much Is At Stake

David Cooperrider kicks off the conference this largest world-wide event of its kind. Over 1000 people in total are participating in person and online. He reminds us that the work of BAWB is important because of what is at stake for socieity.

David recalls what Peter Drucker said to him just a year ago when he shared the BAWB concept:

1. management is a matter of world affairs

2. every pressing social and global issue of our time is a business opportunity

3. this is the time for management research and practice to come together for world benefit

David tells us that questions are many, the tools and implications are evolving . . . What is the “sweet spot” of sustainable value? What happens to those (schools, businesses) who don’t see it?

The inspiration for this conference came from the 2004 United Nations Global Compact. David shares a video clip featuring Kofi Anaan and participants of that event sharing their views of the compelling need for common interests among buiness, government and NGOs to drive new models.

Georg Kell, Executive Head, UN Global Compact conveys Kofi Anaan’s greetings. The UN is calling for institutional innovation and reform. The Global Compact has already made global markets more sustainable. The academic community can provide the underpinnings for change from research, can teach, can advance the agenda for this important issue.

BAWB: Business & Management Address Triple Bottom Line

Starting on Monday, I will be focusing my attention on Case Western Reserve University and the BAWB Global Forum. In a series of postings, I will consider the goings on of that inspiring gathering. The organizers tell us:

Businesses increasingly realize that corporate citizenship is not a peripheral activity but rather a core element of their business strategy. Global corporate citizenship is the future of business. Business leaders and scholars who attend this Forum are not people who need to be sold on the business case. Many, however, have more questions than answers. They want to learn how corporate citizenship can be leveraged strategically in their business.

Therefore the Forum will seek to (1) answer some of those questions and (2) more importantly create learning laboratories and action groups around the questions so that follow-up work after the Forum can be done to continuously answer those questions. The main reason scholars and business practitioners are coming together in this unique Forum is to combine the strengths of each sector to create a living, learning action network. BAWB Forum Overview

Bringing together multiple focal points came into business use with Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced Scorecard. Rather than just look at the traditional bottom line, they charged companies with finding a more holistic measure of strategic business success — by adding aspects such as customer satisfaction, learning, technology, and employee performance to the metrics. In what has become know as the Triple Bottom Line, corporate responsibility extends to “People, Planet, Profit”. And so David Cooperrider has brought together his own Case Weatherhead School of Management, The Academy of Management, and The United Nations Global Compact to lead this Global Forum.

You can register for and participate in the October 23 – 25 BAWB Virtual Forum. And stay tuned here as I share my birds-eye view of the online proceedings.

The un-Boundaries of Discovery

Attending Tom Munnecke’s Uplift Academy work session in New York City last week was inspiring to say the least.  Dubbed “New Media and Infectious Good”, the conclave brought together social program developers, artists, clergy, video producers, consultants, researchers, communications experts and technology types.  Most impressive among those in attendance were Gavin White – CEO of Video Volunteers , Christine Millen – Co-Founder of The Transition Network who was recently named a Fellow in the Purpose Prize competition, and Ethan Zohn – winner of the Survivor: Africa and Co-Founder of Grassroot Soccer

The tagline of Uplift Academy is “Using the Net to discover what’s working and how to do more of it.”    It made me wonder about what would happen if the positive question was not only answered in words.  What would happen if stories were shown as video clips (caught on cell phones?) or sketches, or shared as song, or expressed in dance?  How would that impact the mind and emotions of the storyteller?  Would there be new insights?  Less constraint?  More transparency?  And how would this be received by others who listen/watch/take in the story? 

A couple of snapshots of the Uplift Academy for you . . .