But after two days at the inaugural greaterthan > conference in the historic, coastal city of Portland, Maine, a powerful sense of optimism and inspiration prevailed. While by no means without recognition for the stark reality of the clock ticking toward confrontation with countless, at times overwhelming, problems, the sense of positive energy, determination and encouragement shone through.
The theme of the urgency of time was ever-present. Quoting Abraham Lincoln, Maine’s former governor, Angus King, brought perspective in his morning address, "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise – with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew."
King, in the spirit of cross-sector collaboration, personally exemplifies leadership across the sectors – as a successful business entrepreneur, a highly popular elected official, an engaged leader on countless nonprofit boards, and as a teacher of leadership at Bowdoin College. He raised the issue of creativity and suggested that perhaps we will look back and see these times as “the Age of Innovation, Creativity and Connection.” King added, “We must create a culture of creativity.”
Brian Dumaine, Fortune magazine’s Global Editor, kicked-off what would be a rich, densely packed, two-day agenda, by introducing four leaders whose organizations – City Year, Comcast, Green For All, and the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs – are answering what was billed as “A Call for a New Era of Partnership and Collaboration.”
Michael Brown, CEO and Co-Founder of City Year said, “It’s time for serious people to come together, to do big things. But we can’t do it alone.”
The Urgency of Time, the Need for Innovation and Collaboration
The urgency of time and the need for innovation and collaboration – these were key themes that ran through greaterthan >. There was a very clear and powerful message, heard over and again throughout the conference: “We can do it – but we can’t do it alone.”
Leaders from all four sectors – business, nonprofit, government and academic – echoed these themes. David Cohen, Executive Vice President at Comcast said, “I see an expansive future for the kind of cross-sectoral partnerships greaterthan is all about.” But directing his words toward corporate leaders he added, "Corporations should come down from the skyboxes and get down on the field."
Citing many inspiring examples of people and organizations committing to public service and working for the common good, Michael Brown suggested, “Americans are ready to answer the call to active citizenship, but scale and impact are the next great challenge.”
As was said in the opening words of the greaterthan > conference, the challenges are too big and too complex for any one sector, let alone any one organization, to address. One who brought numerous organizations together in a time of crisis and disaster is Chuck Banks, former State Director for Rural Development, USDA, (Kansas). In the wake of the May 2007 tornado that destroyed 95% of Greensburg, Kansas, Banks used a model of partnership and collaboration that he contends can be applied to countless challenges.
In the words of Chuck Banks, “We have to be willing to think out of the box. We can’t have blinders on. We have to know how to modify plans, and take risks.” Banks added, “These are key skills for success.” Banks has been called the “architect of the Greensburg Recovery” – a plan that is coming to fruition as Greensburg becomes America’s first, master-planned green city. This inspiring story was shared at greaterthan >.
The scope of opportunities for powerful, innovative new approaches is global, as evidenced in the presentation by Randall Kempner, Executive Director of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE), an affiliate of the Aspen Institute. Dozens of previously disconnected charitable foundations and technical service organizations are now collaborating through the efforts of ANDE. By coordinating and focusing resources, there will be an acceleration of support for the vital contributions of “small and growing businesses (SGBs)” to creating sustainable communities in developing regions around the world.
The difficult work of organizations actually implementing productive and enduring partnerships was a major topic at greaterthan >. Key issues related not only to the motivations for partnership, but such serious impediments as the core values and the cultures of organizations, plus the complexities of multiple owners, varied interests of stakeholder groups, and legal and financial considerations. Over the two days of the conference, each of these concerns emerged, along with numerous case studies and strategies, and “how-tos” for addressing the well-acknowledged difficulties associated with successful collaboration.
Melissa Bradley-Burns, Senior Strategist at Green For All, shared the pressures of balancing the need to work with major, corporate partners, along with the commitment to upholding value systems and principles. She said about an offer of partnership with one of America’s corporate giants, “Don’t just show me the money!”
In reconciling how nonprofits and NGOs can effectively work with corporations with whom they may, perhaps, not fully agree in terms of values or policies, Bradley-Burns’ examples of engagement suggested finding ways of making progress together. Building trust and understanding – step-by-step.
More than once at greaterthan >, Charles Darwin’s famous words were cited, “In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”
The Alignment of Values
The alignment or misalignment of core values in potential partner organizations was a matter of deep discussion at greaterthan >. A group of academic leaders put forth far-reaching perspectives on the evolution of corporate structures, missions and values – all contributing to the motivations for, and ability to succeed with, partnerships to address issues outside of traditional, core business concerns.
The motivation to initiate partnerships and collaboration need not come only from the C-Suite. In the words of Sandra King, of Bentley University, a respected leader in the field of academic marketing and veteran of numerous cross-sector partnerships suggested, “Motivation for partnership doesn't have to come only from the top. It can come from anywhere in the organization.”
Why are businesses reaching beyond the day-to-day work of making and selling better products and maximizing shareholder wealth? This sort of question was implicit in many presentations, panel discussions and audience questions and comments at greaterthan >.
Raj Sisodia, author of the recent book, Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose, made the assertion that companies whose mission goes beyond shareholder wealth – focusing fully on bringing value to the full spectrum of stakeholders – have actually outperformed the market in financial terms. Companies that exemplify what Sisodia and others are calling the “Conscious Capitalism” movement are defining their missions and values to make their larger purpose for existence very clear. Citing the example of Whole Foods, Sisodia said, “John Mackey wanted to build a company based on love, not on fear.” Such “Firms of Endearment” are actually loved by their customers.
Another example of a successful corporation that has transcended the old model of a single-minded mission focused solely shareholder return was referenced Michael Brown of City Year. “Timerberland, City Year’s longest-term corporate partner,” says Brown, “was built on Boots, Brand and Beliefs.”
As Babson College’s Mark Albion – author of Making a Life, Making a Living – said, “For business, there should be only one bottom line, social and economic value (together).”
The structures, values and missions of corporations were the subject of a presentation on a “Sustainable Enterprise Economy” by Sandra Waddock of Boston College. She suggested that major changes will be required in the way businesses operate to address global challenges, particularly in terms of environmental sustainability. Waddock proclaimed, “The population of world has quadrupled in the past 100 years. We’ll need more than tinkering to achieve sustainability.”
Waddock also mentioned “B-Corporations” as an innovative evolution of the structure, function and commitments of corporations. Later, Bart Houlahan, Co-Founder of B Lab and the B-Corporation designation, led a panel of three innovative B-Corp companies. In defining the essence of those companies seeking a clear identification with a higher purpose Houlahan said, “B-Corp certification is for those whose business and social missions are one in the same.”
At an entertaining and energizing luncheon address, Joe Sibilia, CEO of Meadowbrook Lane Capital and president of CSRwire, summed up one of the key issues that will either forever be the impediment to full corporate engagement in social and environmental issues, or will someday allow and encourage the prioritization and acceleration of the application of corporate resources into efforts for the common good. Point blank, Sibilia said, “The way business accounts for value is outmoded.”
Constructing and Managing Partnerships To Achieve Strategic Goals
Over the two days of the greaterthan > conference, operational partnerships between two, three and multiple organizations, working across sectors, became the focus of discussion. Recognizing the difficulty of organizations coming together, staying together and producing meaningful results, Co-Founder of The Rhythm of Business, Inc., a consultancy in the field of managing complex organizational collaborations, Jeff Shuman said, with a bit of “tongue in cheek,” “If you can do it alone, don’t bother to collaborate. It takes too much time. But it’s clear, some things just can’t be done alone.”
Shuman, who is also a management professor at Bentley University, defined collaboration as, “a purposeful way of working that leverages the resources of each party for the benefit of all.” He suggested that, too often, you hear what he called, “the radio station heard around the world – WIIFM – What’s In It For Me!” Mutual benefit and achieving highly valued, common objectives are essential. Shuman added, “It’s hard enough managing the work of the collaboration, but you also have to manage the collaboration.”
Two experts in the field known as “Cause Marketing,” – Ed Chansky of the international law firm, Greenberg Traurig, and David Hessekiel, Founder of the Cause Marketing Forum – led a discussion of the operational, legal, an ethical issues involved in bringing companies and nonprofits together to engage consumers in fundraising for causes and issues in the public interest.
Building Leadership Capacity and Taking Initiative
As several at greaterthan > cited, “Trust is the glue that holds collaborations together.” And, along with building trust, another core theme that ran through the greaterthan > conference was leadership. In several fascinating presentations and panel discussions, corporate executives and nonprofit executive directors shared approaches to the development of leadership strategies to foster change.
The Institute for Civic Leadership, a Maine-based nonprofit, has been working for 15 years to help build regional leadership capacity by engaging corporate leaders where their personal passions lie. Through an intensive program of skill-building and corporate-civic program matching, companies such as those on a greaterthan > panel – L.L.Bean, Unum and Fairchild Semiconductor – are providing a new echelon of engaged and capable professionals to work in partnership with nonprofit organizations to fulfill communities’ vital needs.
In similar fashion, another organization that for 40 years has been helping to increase leaders’ “capacity to collaborate” is Interaction Associates, and their affiliate, the Institute for Social Change. These partner firms presented deep program offerings to help accelerate the development and refinement of personal and professional skills vital for planning and managing effective partnerships and collaborative efforts. In one such program, called the “Accelerator Expedition,” to take place in the rainforest of Ecuador in October of 2009 – offered with first priority to attendees of the greaterthan > conference – will combine (in the words of the program directors), a unique immersion experience that combines accelerated leadership development with deep learning in sustainability, facilitated by experts in both fields: Interaction Associates and the Pachamama Alliance. It promises to be a leadership immersion experience geared to global change.
In an additional demonstration of the rapid expansion of mission and purpose of corporations, and the increasing ease of movement across traditional lines of business and nonprofit realms, a panel of three organizations shared their proactive agendas for change to help achieve environmental sustainability.
Timberland, already cited as a role-model company for its boundary-breaking approach to stakeholder issues, presented a great example of what might be called, “co-opetition” or the willingness to engage cooperatively with competitors in their industry to address complex challenges. Betsey Blaisdell, Manager of Environmental Stewardship at Timberland, talked about a far-reaching initiative related to industry practices in the procurement of leather to solve serious sustainability concerns.
Wood Turner, Executive Director of Climate Counts, and Terry Kellogg, Chief Executive Officer of 1% For The Planet, described the creation of nonprofit organizations to fulfill, and dramatically extend, the deep commitments of their corporate founders and collaborators.
Climate Counts, founded and supported by Stonyfield Farm, “scores” the world's largest companies on their climate impact to “spur corporate climate responsibility and conscious consumption.” And, 1% For The Planet, affiliated with Patagonia, is a growing network of over 1,200 companies that have committed to contributing 1% of their sales to nearly 1,800 environmental organizations worldwide.
Sustainability: The Issue Driving Change
Sustainability was “teed up” as one of the key issues driving new models of partnership and collaboration at greaterthan > because of the inherently interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral nature of the stakeholders and “actors” involved. A number of specific case studies relating to global and regional environmental initiatives involving corporate, nonprofit and government partners were shared by academic leader Jon Fink of Arizona State University, who has served as Director of ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability.
Providing specific insights into the operational issues relating to several recent initiatives and partnerships, Maurice Bechard of JohnsonDiversey and chairman of the Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI), and Jason Mathers of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), presented “lessons learned” from case studies contained in the Guide to Successful Corporate-NGO Partnerships, recently published by EDF and GEMI.
Living Locally, Acting Globally
As an added feature at greaterthan >, a spotlight was pointed upon several small, but inspiring, social enterprises either started by, or actively engaging, young adults working to make a difference in the world. Three such locally based, but globally focused organizations receiving special attention were, Working Villages International, with headquarters in Topsham, Maine, building a sustainable village in the Democratic Republic of Congo; the Tanzanian Children’s Fund, based in Portland, Maine, operating an orphanage, an organic farm, and a microfinance program in the Rift Valley region of northern Tanzania; and also, Safe Passage, a Yarmouth, Maine, based nonprofit that works with the poorest children and families who have been living off of the Guatemala City garbage dump.
Finally, a special preview presentation by Bangor Savings Bank, featuring a soon-to-be-released, feature-length documentary about the heartwarming and inspiring work of the “troop greeters” who welcome soldiers and marines back from Iraq and Afghanistan – often in the middle of the night – when their transport flights first touch down on U.S. soil at Bangor International Airport. The film is called, The Way We Get By.
The brief presentations and displays by these organizations, along with the documentary preview, helped bring to life the interconnectedness of our local, national and regional actions and concerns. And, they illustrated what individuals and smaller organizations can do by reaching out to partner with others, sometimes across continents and oceans.
Activating the greaterthan > Community
In a closing presentation, followed by a roundtable and conference-wide, open discussion, talk was of “activating” the greaterthan > community. Many expressed hope that this forum for bringing representatives of the four sectors together will continue and grow. A preview was made of a new web-based facility that will soon help connect organizations and individuals with offers of resources, descriptions of shared needs, and indications of willingness and commitment to be a resource to others, to work in common purpose.
Based on feedback from numerous conference attendees and speakers, greaterthan > was a timely, inspiring and important gathering. With such powerful and positive feedback, it is very likely that greaterthan > will schedule one or more events over the year ahead and dates are being explored for the second, annual greaterthan > conference, quite possibly returning to the beautiful Coast of Maine.
Visit www.greaterthanconference.com
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment