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The Art of Framing Powerful Questions: Conversational Leadership and the World Café

Pre and post Forum tours highlighting the best of Oman; its people, landscape and culture.

April 2008

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These expected concurrent sessions are subject to change.

Flying the Magic Carpet of Multi-Cultural Knowledge and Innovation Networks
Doris Wilhelmer and Petra Wagner-Luptacik
Description
A global player in the crystal business with over 20.000 employees has its manufacturing as well as distribution bases located on four continents. The headquarters of this family-owned company is still located in a small Austrian town and is also the centre of key technical know-how and research. The company is about to enter a process of building global knowledge networks to generate new ideas and innovations as well as of integrating all cultures in a corporate employee network. As a democratic framework of equal sub-companies, locations, functions etc., the network will build bridges of communication and operation between the many existing worlds of competitive differences (across regions, business units, cultures, etc.). The goal is to make existing cultural and disciplinary differences visible as resources and use them for joint development of locally-fitting innovative technologies, services and products. But how to transform the organization’s cooperation culture by “allowing” self-organization in multi-cultural knowledge and innovation networks, based on local needs -without “loosing” managerial control? We will be using a specific type of social simulation, namely systemic constellations, to help clarify the issue by addressing potential opportunities and threats and create a win-win “solution”. With this approach we would like to support our client in “simulating” the potential ramifications of their endeavour. It is as if taking a tour into the future on a magic carpet. Participants of the work-shop will be invited to join us on the magic carpet. They can do so by actively engaging in the process as “representatives” of social systems within the simulation and/or as reflective dialogue partners of the simulation results.

Managing Globalization While Giving Poor People the Opportunity to Escape Poverty and to Improve their Lives: The International Finance Corporation’s Five Year Organizational Learning Journey
Yolanda Hegngi and Frank Sader
Description
“Managing Globalization While Giving Poor People the Opportunity to Escape Poverty and to Improve their Lives”: The International Finance Corporation’s Nine Year Organizational Learning Journey” Spurred by the Argentine financial crisis of 2002, IFC launched an organizational learning journey. It was one of the most difficult times IFC has ever faced: there was widespread withdrawal from private investors in some regions, increased competition in other regions, and our overall bottom line was significantly affected. We needed to change and learn. This session will describe how IFC engaged in an organizational learning process that involved shared vision, collaboration and dialogue that produced outstanding business results and a global brand. In 2002 we were a small organization of 1,637 staff of 130 nationalities operating in 85 countries. We asked ourselves: How do we continue to grow such a diverse organization to serve an evolving global community with increasingly complex needs? Currently, with about twice the staff of 2002, the challenges remain but we think our process is right: we work across sectors and markets, with multi-cultural teams, stakeholders and local and global customers. The organizational learning process created some stand-out successes, helping IFC emerge as a global leader in creating new financial tools and other market-based solutions. The tools address challenges such as climate change and expand our financial investments in sectors such as infrastructure, health and education, agribusiness. In all those projects, it was not enough to invest money in a country, we are also involved in developing capacity and having a development impact in the community. We now stand on the precipice of a whole new level of demand from our customers to take on tougher challenges in a tougher market; to expand our reach beyond the large financial centers and serve smaller communities on the frontier markets. Participants in this session will be engaged in a dialogue about IFC’s current “precipice” and how to meet this greater challenge.

Sustainable Learning Environments: A New Approach to Corporate Strategy
Dipti Sanzgiri, Jasbir Sokhi, Anannya Deb and Srinivas Venkatram
Description
One of the central challenges of globalization will be the “assimilation of world class practices” by economies & cultures that are fast catching up with the western world. These challenges take on three critical dimensions: One, the articulation of practices such that both international & local perspectives are acknowledged; two, the synthesis of practices, into an easily communicable vision that can be transferred across cultures; Three, the creation of a “sustainable environment”, in which these practices are assimilated rapidly & consistently across cultures. The case study that will be shared refers to a fortune 500 oil company based in India. The case study will reflects a 24 month journey of (i) envisioning, (ii) architecture, and (iii) embedment of such environments across hundreds of retail outlets managed in the context of numerous sub-cultures across a network. The session will enable participants to reflect on the (i) approach that has been applied (ii) the underlying methodology & principles entailed and (iii) critical challenges faced during the realization of this vision of sustainable learning in large system It is proposed that the design team for the project - consisting of both the consulting group from Illumine Knowledge Resources and the client-side team from Bharat Petroleum - will present the key learnings from this project. The methodology that will be followed is a process called “vivid visioning” – wherein the participants of the workshop will be invited to visualize both the challenges faced as the journey unfolded, and participate in the assessment / reflection of the responses developed at each stage.

The Cultural Photo Lab: Taking Pictures of What We Can’t See
Stephan Berchtold, Stefan Gueldenberg and Roosevelt Finlayson
Description
Workshop: The Cultural Photo Lab: Taking pictures of what we can’t see. Context: The world in us creates at least to some degree the view of the world around us. When trying to understand other cultures and people acting out of that culture we need more awareness about our own culture. Purpose: The workshop will enhance learning about the breadth and depth of our own worldview (Weltanschauung) and opens a dialogue on consequences regarding the impacts on cultural diversity and cultural change in organizations and societies by large. Approach: Having a large diversity of participants present we will provide a design to perceive the differences between cultures instead of talking about it on a theoretical basis. Participants will discover in an experimental setting how their own cultural background influences how they perceive other cultures. We intend to develop a three-step approach, that stretches over the three core days of the conference. By having presenters covering different cultures, we will be better able to help understand the differences. Learnings: · To make explicit how the own culture influences the perception of other cultures. · To transfer the learnings to the context of managers in international corporations: What do they have to face when leading people in such corporations and when trying to target highly diverse markets. · Reflection on the process: What could help in gaining understanding about other cultures? What could be settings in organizations or communities that foster learning about cultural differences?

Developing Local Talent through Workplace Learning in the Oman
Shabir Hussain and Adam Thurston Lomas
Description
Shell International Exploration & Production is deeply committed to building sustainable solutions through the development of local people. One of the more significant ways in which this is occurring is through Shell’s workplace learning strategy, which has been in place in Oman for some two years and has recently expanded from one successful pilot project to six new projects. Eventually workplace learning will become the norm in Petroleum Development Oman, and indeed throughout the Shell company. Whilst this strategy is, in itself, nothing new, the skills have been lost in today's frenetic workplace and a new approach is needed. A key aspect of this strategy is coaching and mentoring. In Oman, a strong coaching relationship is being developed between more experienced colleagues from the Shell E & P organization based in The Netherlands and younger, less experienced colleagues in Petroleum Development Oman in Muscat. This coaching relationship is aimed at shortening the time needed to bring new graduates from the local Sultan Qaboos University to full and satisfying contribution in the workplace. We believe that learning organisations can only encourage others in successful coaching relationships through setting a personal example. This is particularly important in today's diverse society. In this contribution Adam and Shabir will discuss their own experiences within their personal coaching relationship, and also the results of the workplace learning project in Oman. In addition, some Omani participants in the project will contribute to the presentation by sharing some of their experiences and comment on their perceptions of the impact of the strategy on capacity building within the region. Through these coaching-based learning initiatives, local talent is being more quickly developed, inclusiveness within the company is strengthened, and local, sustainable solutions for the challenges of developing Oil and Gas in the Sultanate of Oman are being successfully nurtured.

Changing Faces: Bridging the Gap between Chinese High Tech Workers and a Western Multi-National Corporation
Nora Hughes
Description
This session is an interactive case study of a greenfield manufacturing start-up by Intel in the Western Chinese city of Chengdu. Chengdu, a tier-two Chinese city is the center of the Chinese Taoist culture. There are 4,000 registered tea houses in Chengdu and every afternoon one can hear the clink of the mahjong tiles as the tea glasses are refilled over and over again. Afternoons chatting in the tea houses are a time-honored practice of building relationships. Maintaining relationships, enjoying life and nature are primary pastimes in this traditional Chinese city. Intel, on the other hand, is part of a hard-driving industry which only rewards today’s results, not relaxing in yesterday’s laurels. Intel had not undertaken a greenfield in more than a decade, and never in a tier-two Chinese city as the first large MNC manufacturing plant. Some of their issues were logistical: how to safely build high tech manufacturing plants with sub-contractors who simply have an algorithm of how many deaths per dollar of cost; or how to get large and delicate machinery in place with no roads or proper shipping methods. Many more complex issues concerned people: hiring mid-level managers from top-down driven state owned enterprises or integrating young people from one-child families directly out of university. Some were around working issues of cultural differences: expatriates came from five different countries; Chengdu is the heartland of Chinese culture. Added to these pressures was the high tech marketplace with its increasing demand requiring a second factory to start building before the first one was completed. Participants will be asked to take a role, provide feedback and recommendations to Intel’s expatriate and local leadership as part of the interactive case study. The role plays will be done fish-bowl style with participant dialogues as to the effectiveness of the various recommendations. The objective of this session is that the participants learning will be a result of the dialogic processes as well as the actual lived experience of Intel. This session will allow participants to think more deeply about the complexities of crossing the cultural divide for both an MNC and highly skilled Chinese workers. The presenter of this session, Dr. Nora Hughes, was the Organization Development Manager of the Chengdu site for two years during the start-up phase. Additionally she did the initial cultural research for the site formulating the management processes required to successfully manage the start-up. Her PhD dissertation research was based on the culture of highly skilled Chinese workers and how they integrate into a foreign MNC.

Cross-Boundary Leadership: An Experiential Workshop Exploring Leadership across Boundaries
Pamela Paquin Hall and Alok Singh
Description
Context and Purpose: Diversity in groups, communities and organisations can be a source of tremendous creativity and innovation. However, in practice, it can be difficult to for individuals to harness the value of diversity, by working across boundaries – whether those are boundaries of teams, divisions, organisations, communities, sectors, nations or cultures. This workshop will explore some different ways of exercising ‘cross-boundary leadership’ through practicing in the room with three different approaches, and then reflecting on the impact of these approaches. The purpose (objective) is for all participants (including the hosts) to leave with an enhanced understanding of what cross-boundary leadership means in practice. Format The workshop will be based around three different processes for cross-boundary leadership:

• A systemic mapping of perspectives across boundaries;
• An embodied experience of conflict across boundaries using ‘theatre of the oppressed’; and
• A reflective exercise exploring how to proactively engage across boundaries. Following this, we consider the experience of these processes, and what they tell us about cross-boundary leadership, and also test out some ideas and models.

Struggles of Inclusion: Implementing Participatory Methods in the Hierarchal Workplace
Shahrzad Saderi
Description
This session will discuss the participatory methods that were introduced as a management tool with Iranian companies with a hierarchal culture. These methods helped promote inclusive dialogues and enabled a process of moving from traditional to modern, management practices. Many Iranian companies are experiencing participatory methods for the first time. Company owners are surprised by the amount of employee buy-in these methods generate in a short time, and how they develop professional skills at a minimum cost by sharing knowledge. Many clients who engage in these methods – initially for problem solving or strategic planning – find that they work equally well for team building, leadership development, redefining the corporate mission and philosophy, and for strengthening organizational learning. This session will also explain the communication patterns in our culture and share insights gained from work with multinational companies that have offices in Iran. The interventions that were used helped bridge cultural gaps. The lesson learned can be applied to other cultures in the Middle East region and help practitioners to establish credibility, to obtain information, to give and receive feedback, and to conduct team meetings. When forces of culture are understood, communication and inclusion begins. This session seeks to share:

• How participatory methods are used in hierarchal cultures in Iran
• How inclusion, participation, and communication are all one system
• Understanding of Iranian business and managerial practices

In this session I will specifically share lessons learned from 2004 to 2007 while working with four Iranian companies that used participatory methods with success. This session promises a fun, interactive, relaxed opportunity to share experiences and lessons learned.

Systemic Constellations as a Way of Co-Sensing
Claude Rosselet and Christoph Mandl
Description
To detect or sense new possibilities embedded in the environment of an organization is one of the more challenging issues of today. While Otto Scharmer speaks of sensing and presencing, Richard Lester and Michael Piore speak of interpretation and of finding meaning. It is by now common knowledge that listening to the customer and to customers-to-be and to make sense out of the wishes and desires of the people on a global scale is a prerequisite for finding the future meaning of an organization manifest in profoundly new products or services. While Otto Scharmer suggests dialogue interviews, and Richard Lester and Michael Piore suggest meaningful conversations, we will invite participants of this workshop to experience and explore another possibility: Systemic Constellations. Systemic Constellations have been invented and refined in the last 20 years primarily in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Its roots can be traced back to Jacob Moreno's psychodrama, to Michael Polanyi's concept of tacit knowledge, and to Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory. Its basic premise is that people know more than they can tell. Systemic Constellations is a method to externalize the subtle and thus hidden systemic structure of a situation. It begins by setting up people as representatives of the core elements of the situation under consideration. Within a confined space and time people are guided to sense their own feelings and thoughts regarding their place within the system and to explore different places and the effects of these movements on the perception of the other representatives. Collectively and gradually these representatives - guided by their own intuition - begin to make sense out of their situation and explore possibilities for structural changes out of which new patterns might emerge. Using Systemic Constellations the participants in this workshop will explore new ways to listen to their customers and to find meaning in what they "hear" by making use of the collective intelligence of all the participants.

The Indirect Approach: Building Cross-Sector Connections at the Crossroads of Socio-Economic Development and Security
Sue Higgins and Jean Tully
Description
Context Organizations within the US Department of Defense (DoD) are exploring new systemic approaches to security challenges of this century, through an increasing emphasis on partnering with non-military organizations, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and International Organizations (IOs). Policy documents and changes in organizational structures are emerging from the highest levels of DoD to support this shift, including:

1. Partnering with host nations on humanitarian assistance/disaster relief efforts.
2. Focus on crisis prevention, in addition to crisis reaction.
3. Acknowledgement that “trust and cooperation cannot be surged”.

These policy and organizational changes require new behaviors and shifts in mental models for DoD personnel at all levels; incuding a desire to partner and to create collaborative enterprises. They necessitate building new capacity among military members and potential partners to work toward common goals of regional stability, a pre-requisite for socio-economic development, and vice versa. In 2006/07, the US military’s Special Operations Command, Pacific (SOCPAC) co-hosted several gatherings in support of this “Indirect Approach,” facilitating development in:

• Institution-building - helping countries build healthy institutions of security, governance, rule of law, infrastructure, and economic stability.
• Capacity-building – helping host nation forces build more professional and modernized capacity that respects human rights.
• Outside factors – close cooperation between host nation forces & US country team officials to help eliminate the lifelines of transnational threats, including finance, logistics, equipment, communication networks, etc.

This approach requires a slow and deliberate commitment to building trust and confidence throughout a region and acknowledgement that results will not be immediate. While successes were achieved with measurable results during these initial gatherings, they fall short of what is possible. Goal

• Our desire is to engage a cross-sector group of systems thinkers in exploring what more can be done to bridge this crossroad of socio-economic development and security.
• Objectives
• Expand awareness of alternative strategies for exploring roots of regional instability.
• Engage the wider SoL Community in exploring systemic approaches to creating regional stability.

LEGO(R) Serious Play Workshop: Exploring and Bridging
Per Kristiansen
Description
This, interactive session will introduce LEGO SERIOUS PLAY as a tool for developing new learning opportunities. Participants will experience a hands-on, minds-on approach, which successfully has been used in strategy making and for accelerating change. They will use this to explore new ways of exploring new knowledge in relation to ”The challenge of promoting inclusiveness & exchange in bridging growing cultural and social divides” LEGO SERIOUS PLAY is an innovative, experiential method designed to enhance innovation and business performance. It was developed at LEGO in collaboration with leading researchers in strategy and organizational behaviour, merging the best from those two areas with what LEGO know about learning and development. One of the findings that LEGO had come across in its own as well as in independent research is that hands-on, minds-on learning produces a deeper, more meaningful understanding of the world and its possibilities. Termed “constructionism”, this school of thought was to a large degree pioneered by Seymore Papert of MIT. With LEGO SERIOUS PLAY the intention was to bring the deep understanding from hands-on minds-on learning into the boardroom(s) rather than confining it to the kindergarten. Initially, only inside LEGO, but later it was decided to take it outside the company self. Further more, LEGO SERIOUS PLAY rests on a set of key beliefs including:

• The solution is in the system
• Everyone goes to work to do well and CAN do well
• We live in a dynamic and unpredictable world

LEGO SERIOUS PLAY is today used by certified partners around the world, among these members of the SoL Community Our experience clearly shows us that LEGO SERIOUS PLAY is an efficient, practical and effective process that works for everyone within an organization. We have used it across industries and cultures. The workshop should preferably have maximum number of participants, this could be 30.

Strategy, Learning and Sustainability: Moving Beyond Failed Attempts to Delivering New Levels of Capacity and Success
Sultan Bin Battal
Description
If you have attempted something three times before and it has not succeeded there is not much incentive to try it again – particularly if the challenge is to try and involve more people a process and generate and integrate new learning’s in a business critical context. But that is exactly what they are doing in one of Saudi Arabia’s largest companies, where previous efforts to engage the population in strategy formulation and implementation lead to little change in approach, result or capacity. Some of the underlying questions were ‘How do we approach and achieve something that we have unsuccessfully tried to do a number of times before, but do it in a different way that will work? How do we create a new way of working that helps us learn in a sustainable way while producing quality results? How can we do this in a way that creates greater inclusion, engagement and capacity as we grow into a global company?’ The outcome of this inquiry gave rise to a novel and evolving approach that combined the bringing together of expertise in strategy formulation, organizational learning, and business know-how to forge a process that had never been tried in the Kingdom before. In this participative workshop attendees will be asked to challenge their own assumptions about what it takes to create a dynamic environment which balances engagement and learning with business delivery. They will hear about what it has taken and what has been learned in building a corporate culture where strategic thinking and learning became part of everyone’s job – what worked, and what did not, and where the company is on this journey now.

Team Academy Network: Creating Team Entrepreneurs for Bringing Social and Cultural Divide
Johannes Partanen, Hanna Heikkinen, Jukka Hassinen, Ulla Luukas, Sanna Tossavainen, Ville Keränen, Etienne Collignon, Pauline van der Pas, Laurent Marbacher, Pascal Bastien, Charles van der Haegen, Robert Collart, Carolin Gebel, Javier Ruiz and Nieves Peña
Description
In 1993, a group of 24 students lead and coached by Johannes Partanen created Team Academy in Jyväskyla, Finland. At the moment, a network over 1000 people live and work in that country inspired by the same values. Nowadays the Team Academy community is expanding in Europe through networking and additional local nodes starting up new initiatives inspired by the same leading thoughts and approach to learning and creating team entrepreneurs. From November 2006 eighteen people from six different countries (France, Germany, Belgium, UK, Netherlands and Spain) have been working and learning together to develop their own “Team Academy style” coaching skills. Every local initiative has its own flavour, addressing different target groups (A level scholars, postgraduate environments, research based entrepreneurship, new or established companies…), and has reached different degrees of development, also facing a wide range of challenges. During the learning exploration session, we will start celebrating the shared values of Team Academy: true human relations as a basis for team entrepreneurship, continuous experimenting and creating new innovations in networks. After that, leaders of the local initiatives will tell their own stories in smaller groups, sharing also the difficulties they face in their projects. The unfinished experiences will flow through some questions proposed for co-creation among the participants. As a result of the conversations new and deeper questions and key issues are expected to emerge. A final conversation within the whole group will re-start the celebrating atmosphere and renewed commitment within an expanded network.

Towards Integral Transition Management: The Case of the Sustainable Materials Usage Transition in Belgium
Erik Mathijs
Description
Transition management is a whole systems change methodology based on experimentation and learning in a multistakeholder context and aims to achieve sustainable transitions in society. Its multistakeholder and whole system character specifically acknowledges the role of the corporation in transition, while its ambition towards sustainability necessitates bridging cultural and social divides. The paper introduces the SOL community to this relatively new methodology which is widely used in the Netherlands and some other Western European countries and adds to the knowledge of whole system change towards sustainability. While social learning is at the heart of the transition management approach, this paper to link it to Theory U, which may result in fruitful cross-fertilisation. The transition management approach has the ambition to be applied in various cultural contexts and should therefore be in the general interest of the SOL community. While a full paper will be provided, the session itself will contain a short presentation introducing the approach and relaying the personal experience of the author in the concrete case of the sustainable materials usage arena in Belgium (established in 2006). Next, guided by some key questions an interactive exchange will follow that aims (1) to increase the participants understanding of the approach, (2) to exchange experiences with whole systems change and (3) to generate recommendations to adopt a more integral approach to the transition management methodology.

Archetypical Energy in Complex Living Systems! A Learning Journey
Rik Berbé and Mario Brouwer
Description
We are looking forward to organise an interactive workshops with SOL participants based on the Energy8 concept. The Energy8 tool is a practical method for developing complex living systems in a very practical way (see: www.energy8.eu). During the workshop people will learn:

• a method for analysing personal and organisational drives in complex living systems
• to recognise different energies in teams, organisations and communities based on archetypes
• to understand that the fundament for development of people and organisations is already there (AI)
• to experience the collective drives in the group of participants and how these drives relate to SOL

Approach:

• short movie about 'energy in organisations'
• practical exercise based on archetypical constellations
• collective thinking about personal drives and SOL identity
• sharing collective and personal insights about the experience
• give people some reference material and articles

Goals:

• to create a learning experience in collective analyses and thinking
• to provide participants with new insights about complex living systems
• to show people everything is already there

Conversational Leadership--Methods to Bridge the Understanding Gulf
Ray Jorgensen and Brian McElyea
Description
Conversational Leadership- Methods to Bridge the Understanding Gulf The Oxford English Dictionary defines "gulf" as a substantial difference between two people, concepts, or situations". The 2008 SoL Global Forum theme, "Bridging the Gulf" asks questions containing the terms "promote inclusiveness", "sustainable local solutions", "problems of globalization", and "engage our collective intelligence". The applicability of "Conversational Leadership" to the discussion of the SoL Global Forum questions gains clarity through observing the multi-level success of Conversational Leadership Protocols in actual practice. Conversational Leadership is the applied theory and practice of disciplined learning protocols that support personal and team change. This seminar invites you to consider "Conversational Leadership" as a mosaic for exploring alignment and engagement in the system. Unlike usual mosaics, this concept is part of a living, evolving portrait. The protocols utilized in engagements which follow "Conversational Leadership" principles produce shared meaning and clarity for achieving focused and unified action. Participation in the process of Conversational Leadership has been shown to engender in the participants a degree of bonding and desire to continue to collaborate. This collaboration is the byproduct of "Conversational Leadership" and can satisfy the desire to "Bridge the Gulf." The philosophical foundations of "Conversational Leadership" lie in Malcolm Knowles' Adult Learning Models, the Total Quality work of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Dr. Peter Senge's Learning Organizations, Dr. Edgar Schein's ideas of process consulting, Robert K. Greenleaf's concept of servant-leadership and modern communication theory. During this interactive session, the learning conversation protocols will be modeled and transferred to the audience. At the end of the session each participant will develop a common understanding about how to use Conversational Leadership and transfer the theory, methods and tools their personal practice.

Cultivating Transformative Leadership in Civil Society and the Co-creation of the Energy Field for Democratization in Asia
Chaiwat Thirapantu
Description
In this exciting and inspiring session, Chaiwat Thirapantu, a leader in the democracy movement in Thailand, will share his discoveries from four decades of non-violent cross-sector engagement on behalf democratic and equitable futures in his nation and globally. Chaiwat will also reflect on his own lived experience, as a Buddhist, with cultivating the inner practices and mindfullness required to retain ones "center" while in the fire of dramatic and unpredictable social and political change. The world is changing rapidly and dramatically, posing fundamental problems for human being and society. The fabric of social life is being woven increasingly complex and globally inter-connected ways. We are presented with daily barrage of news attesting to the immensity and overwhelming character of the tasks with which we are confronted. This is the context within which civil society struggling everywhere, but in particular in Southeast Asia. Civil society organizations (CSOs) are failing to respond adequately and consequently the problems are growing. It is clear that the main challenge is to find new more powerful and effective ways of dealing with the problems to help ensure a better more reliable and robust future. A paradigm shift is required in the way we think about our surrounding, from mechanistic worldview to a holistic worldview, from downloading and debating to reflective and generative dialogue, and from command control leadership-or heroic leadership-to collective leadership. Most important, we must transform ourselves as a prerequisite to transforming our world. As Gandhi famously said “Be the change you want to see in the world”. Good leadership may or may not be inborn. It can be acquire and taught. A swathe of institutions around the world has been addressing the personal mastery process, that of fostering transformative leadership, the result being a range of somewhat contrasting educational approaches, techniques and programs. Various non-profit organizations around East Asia, including Japan, Philippines and Thailand, have produced leadership training programs which suit their respective local circumstances. However, leadership training appears to fall short of delivering the necessary leadership qualities in practice, reflecting the way in which it is not conducted with the necessary support of appropriate learning communities. Individual learning, or self cultivation, is an important process of acquiring transformative leadership and possessing the effective skills to convene collaborative meetings. Ultimately, leadership is about creating new realities.

Exploring Sustainable Solutions for the Limits to Growth Archetype
Junko Edahiro and Rich Oda
Description
Human activities emit over 7 billion tons-Carbon per year into the atmosphere, about twice as fast as the rate of removal by ecosystems. Global oil production may have peaked in 2006. Some 36 countries worldwide face serious food shortages. By the middle of this century, no fewer than 7 billion in 60 countries may be faced with water scarcity. Overshoot and collapse patterns are rampant throughout the Earth’s ecosystems as the growth of the human population and economic activities have gone beyond the planet’s limits. Sustainability has become a critical issue for governments, corporations and citizens, and we need more leverage for this than ever before. Some companies are pursuing environmental efficiency, which is only buying time. More integrated companies are deliberately slowing the growth and curbing the environmental impacts in absolute terms. A company in Japan declares that its “Tree Rings” form of management has given it 49 consecutive years of financial growth despite being in a volatile industry. The secret of success is that even when it had developed new products, it timed the product launches with the capacity growth of its employees. The company believes that the growth of people and organizations should be just like tree rings: slow and steady. "Slow" are increasingly becoming the key concepts for many grass-root organizations and local governments. Another example is a candle night campaign that asks people to turn off the light and to spend time under candle lights on the night of a solstice. Initiated by a handful of people, it has grown into an event with 10 million people participating just in 5 years. With more time on our hands, we can stop and step back to reflect upon what is important in our lives and what is not. Drawing examples from local initiatives and activities, two systems facilitators from Japan illustrate places to intervene in the economic and social systems, which were originally described by Dana Meadows. Participants will be encouraged to find many possible ideas to intervene in their own local systems that may be seemingly distant but interconnected.

Community Action Research and Cultural Theory for Effective Decision Making and Implementation in Complex Environments: Bridging the gulf between plural voices and solidarities
Michael Thompson, Dipak Gyawali and Charles van der Haegen
Description
Context: In a complex world, well-intended attempts to alleviate pressing social and/or ecological ills (who appear almost always combined) too often derail. The question hence becomes: How can efficient and broadly accepted solutions to these combined social and ecological problems be found? To answer such questions one should start from the idea that our endlessly changing and complex social worlds consist of ceaseless interactions between four organizing, justifying and perceiving social relations. Each time one of these perspectives is excluded from collective decision-making, governance failure inevitably results. Successful solutions are therefore creative combinations of four opposing ways of organizing and thinking. The session will briefly introduce Cultural Theory, some stories of failed solutions will be analyzed. The audience will than be invited to discuss how Community Action Research can be applied to ensuring the success of Projects. Dr Michael Thompson, an anthropologist, is a Fellow at the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization, University of Oxford, an Institute Scholar at IIASA , Laxenburg, Austria, and a Senior Researcher at the Stein Rokkan Centre for Social Research, University of Bergen, Norway. He will draw from two of his recent books "Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World" and "Uncertainty on a Himalayan Scale" which analyses why all efforts at solving a “Real World Class Problem” have consistently failed to deliver the hoped for solutions. Dipak Gyawali: A hydropower engineer and political economist, member of the Nepal Academy of Sciences, Gyawali has strong beliefs about renewable energy and resource conservation. He has been active in the campaigns against bad water projects. Former minister of water resources he is very active in the international research realm. Charles van der Haegen, a societal entrepreneur, will suggest new ways for SOL of using Community Action Research as a method to develop practical solutions to micro, macro and World Problems, thereby bridging the Gulf and learning between all sectors and solidarities composing societies, cultures and organizations. Some concrete examples of on-going work will be presented.

Drivers of Resilience and Sustainability – Lessons from the Long-Living Organizations and Institutions
Ivo Wenzler, Gideon Shimshon and Elyssebeth Leigh
Description
Rapid growth and change characterizes many aspects of modern business. However it is still true that many important institutions and organizations cannot be acquired, sold or go bankrupt and automatic response to the workings of their marketplace is not their preferred method for allocating resources. An economy of only young companies would be grossly inefficient and ineffective. Longevity and continuity of core practices enable development of long living institutions and organizations whose existence constitute a legacy of our collective, purposeful selves. Such continuity requires organizations to be both resilient and adaptive to continuously changing circumstances. At a conference focused on ‘building bridges’ this interactive presentation will employ a learning activity to explore and co-create insights into differences and similarities among key elements contributing to resilience and longevity in an assemblage of organizations, that have proved particularly adept at responding to changing cultural and socio-economic circumstances. Our approach is multidimensional, providing a space to explore aspects of financial, organizational, operational, and cultural aspects contributing to longevity and resilience. Key questions to be explored in our scenario-based simulation activity include: Is there a cluster of particular ingredients contributing to organizational resilience and longevity? Why would these be the vital ingredients? Are there culture-driven differences that influence such ingredients? Does their importance change as socio-economic circumstances change? What are the relationships among different ingredients? Is there a ‘right mix’ of ingredients to ensure longevity? Are these ingredients culture specific, or do they transfer across cultures in similar or different ways? We are hopeful that the insights resulting from the collective experience of the activity contribute to validating some initial assumptions emerging from our current research, and contribute to an emerging pattern starting to manifest itself.

Knowledge Interventions as a Solution to the Challenges of Integration
Srinivas Venkatram, Ranganath R and Rebecca Ittyerah
Description
The biggest barrier to rapid globalization is the resistance to integration among communities even within the context of narrow purpose. This resistance to integration needs to be viewed, not as a cultural or mental model divide alone, but also as a series of “knowledge-market failures”. "Knowledge-market failures" prevent one part of an interconnected system from sharing key “knowledge forms” such as vision, capacity, visibility, and engagement protocols, into other parts of the same interconnected system. This workshop will (i) enable participants to explore and appreciate “knowledge failures” that typically take place in large systems (ii) engage the participants in a discovery of the tools and approaches available (particularly in the context of the large corporation) These learnings will enable participants to appreciate the value of a new approach to change called "Precision Knowledge Interventions"(TM).

Local Development: A Process Supported by the Investment in Social Capital
Carlos Alberto Lopes da Silva
Description
When we talk about local development we refer, essentially, to a better life and a better social conviviality in geographically identified communities. The promotion of development involves creating and favoring conditions that allow people and communities to enhance their skills, knowledge, and experience so that they can “take profit of the coming opportunities, satisfy their needs and solve their problems”. That is why we believe that development is a political and not an economical process. Political because it relies upon dialogue, consensus and commitment between individuals and organizations. The body of accomplishments carried out through partnerships increases the social capital, energizes relationships, heats economy, exalts culture, promotes learning and stimulates looking ahead to the future. Such practice creates a most favorable environment for development, or rather, for the social pact that must take place between the players within a community, in order to promote the definition of actions and projects that should lead them towards the desired future, towards the coming true of their dreams, towards a better life. We are an educational organization and develop methodologies to foment such relationships and partnerships that generate groups we denominate social nets, which are social capital. We conceive a net as a system that gathers people and organizations in an equalitarian and democratic way, with a view to build new commitments that benefit communities. Our methodology comprehends six fundamental steps: 1. The Meeting – to create a common space in order to favor the exchange and sharing of information and knowledge. 2. The Identification – people introduce themselves and their organizations, talk about their projects – what they do, how they do it, why they do it, their strengths and the needed improvements. 3. The Proposals – net components expose their visions of the world and propose agendas to be discussed as well as actions to improve the life quality of their communities. 4. The Composition – the moment to find consensus in the identification of opportunities and solutions for common problems. 5. The New Commitment – identifies and defines priorities regarding the actions and projects that will be carried out. 6. The Actions – a moment to practice the actions that have been consented within the net. There are numberless possibilities of articulation and partnership between people and organizations. The practice and the deepening of such relationships will play a fundamental role in the construction of development and of a fairer society.

RWS Renews: 5 Generations of Innovation in a Civil Service Organization
Hank Kune, Edwin Kuil and Ton Van der Wiel
Description
The Dutch Department of Public Works & Water Management (RWS) is a large civil service organisation responsible for the Dutch highway and waterway infrastructure. This organization of practical, implementation-driven engineers and civil servants is dedicated to producing excellent engineering solutions to perceived infrastructure problems. It is also an extremely innovative organization, which has been consciously moving away from its engineer-dominated culture towards achieving its ambition of becoming a highly respected public-oriented service provider. For the past 15 years, succeeding generations of programmes in five areas have contributed to continually renewing the organization, its products and its working methods, creating a culture of innovation and learning from innovation in the areas of:

• public participation in planning and implementation processes;
• innovative working methods and facilitation;
• future-oriented technical innovation;
• organization-wide impulses enhancing innovation culture and capacity;
• exploring the future through scenarios.

Each generation of programmes, lasting two or three years, has brought this process further: managing knowledge, building capacity, learning from what has gone before and applying the knowledge to address the next challenges. The renewal process is part evolution, part revolution, a mix of explicit decision-making, emerging opportunity and fortuitous design. The programmes have worked to bridge technical and cultural divides within the organization, to bridge the gulf between government and its stakeholders in society and, most importantly, between the civil service and the citizens it works for. During this session we will outline how RWS continues to renew itself: how choices are made, opportunities enriched, and people enabled. Important lessons learned in the five areas will be used to exemplify this story of organizational development powered by the passion of people to do their work better. Looking forward to 2008, we will explore how the process continues. In each area the current programme has found a new form to build on the past and to work on the issues at hand. By marshalling the collective intelligence of the organization, the sector and its end-users, RWS provides an example of how civil service – and other large knowledge-intensive organizations – can work on continuous renewal.