center for business as an agent of world benefit rethinking the world economy
TRANSCRIPT
Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
Rethinking the WORLD ECONOMY
Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
At the heart of the work of our center is…
…a World Inquiry into
Business as an Agent of World Benefit.
This World inquiry uses an organizational change theory & method called “Appreciative Inquiry
Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
Appreciative Inquiry Defined
A.I. is a collaborative & highly participative, system-wide approach to seeking, identifying, and enhancing the “life-giving forces” that are present when a system is performing at its best in human, economic, and organizational terms. It is a journey during which profound knowledge of a human system at its moments of wonder is uncovered & used to co-construct the best & highest future of that system.
Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
Why Appreciative Inquiry facilitates a worldwide, web-based inquiry
It’s whole system
It’s dialogic
It’s strength based
Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
Some of the Theory Behind Appreciative Inquiry
The Power of Image
The Placebo Effect: Our images of ourselves
Pygmalion Studies: Others’ images of us
Positive Thinking
Meta-cognition: using our internal dialogue
Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
Some New Research
Barbara Fredrickson
U of Michigan
•“What’s so good about Positive Emotions?”
•A theory called “Broaden & Build”
Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
We live in the Worlds Our Questions Create
“Be patient…and try to love the questions themselves. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
-- Rainer Maria Rilke
Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
The Genius is in Creating the Question
“What would the universe look like if I were riding on the end of a light beam at the speed of light?”
-- Albert Einstein
Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
What kinds of questions will help transform our organizations and the world?
“In today’s trust-starved climate, our market driven system is under attack…large parts of the population feel that business has become detached from society – that business interests are no longer aligned with society interests.”
--Klaus Schwab, president
World Economic Forum
Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
A scholar with a Different Angle – Willis Harman
“Business, the motor of our society, has the opportunity to be the new creative force on the planet, a force which could contribute to the well-being of many…the modern corporation is as adaptive a form as has ever been invented so that in a time of fundamental change it may be expected to be on the cutting edge.”
Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
Here’s the question we are inquiring into:“What does it mean for Business to be an
Agent of World Benefit?”
Business as an Agent of World Benefit is a Worldwide Inquiry into extraordinary Business and Society innovation.
The Purpose: to discover & amplify stories of the best in business & society and link them with the call of these times to create prosperous & sustainable societies.
Housed on the Web www.worldinquiry.org
Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
What are we discovering from this inquiry?
Stories of remarkable people like Bobby Sager, who is applying entrepreneurial principles to societal crises.
…or
Cabbages & Condoms, a popular restaurant in Bangkok that is taking on the rampant spread of HIV/aids
Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
How can we change the story of the world?
“Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting, and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks. Historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks for the river.”
– Will Durant
Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
Thank you
To Join the World Inquiry,go to
www.worldinquiry.org