Case Professor Works with World Leaders to Advance U.N. Secretary-General's Vision for Sustainable Global Economy 6/22/2004
From: Susan Griffith of Case Western Reserve University, 216-368-1004 or susan.griffith@case.edu, Web site: http://www.case.edu CLEVELAND, June 22 -- When 500 world leaders meet at the United Nations for the Global Compact Leaders Summit on June 24 in New York City, David Cooperrider -- Case Western Reserve University professor of organizational behavior -- will use Appreciative Inquiry techniques to advance U.N. Secretary- General Kofi Annan's vision of a more sustainable and inclusive global economy. Cooperrider, the founder of Appreciative Inquiry, is part of a movement from the Case Centers for Business as Agent of World Benefit to rethink the world's economy by using the Centers as a launching pad for innovative business initiatives and action plans. Among the Centers' initiatives is the Center for Appreciative Inquiry, housed is at the Case Weatherhead School of Management. The U. N. sought out Cooperrider's expertise for his ability to use Appreciative Inquiry in bringing about consensus among large groups of people over their ideas of how to build on the group's strengths to come to a consensus in areas that they can work and benefit each other. The Global Compact meeting will focus on how to promote responsible global corporate citizenship. At the invitation of the U. N. Secretary-General, company CEOs, heads of international labor and civil society organizations, heads of U.N. agencies and selected government ministers will attend the summit. Global Compact is an agent for change that promotes nine principles in business that center around respecting and protecting human rights, providing decent working conditions and protecting the environment. These standards were derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labour Organization's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. Nearly 1,000 businesses around the world participate in Global Compact initiatives. The Secretary-General is expected to give welcoming and closing remarks at the summit attended by world leaders like Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom; Sir John Browne, chief executive of BP; Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International; Sam Jonah, CEO of Ashanti Goldfields; President of Brazil Luis Inacio Lula da Silva; Henry A. McKinnell, chair and CEO of Pfizer; and Daniel Vasella, chair and CEO of Novartis International. Appreciative Inquiry is a method for leveraging a group or organization's core strengths for positive change. "The premise is that organizations grow in the direction of what they repeatedly ask questions about and focus their attention on," said Cooperrider, who discovered the powerful force of positive change when he studied the innovations of the physician groups at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in the 1980s for his dissertation work at Case. The Appreciative Inquiry process has facilitated transformation for major corporations like Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Verizon, Nutrimental Foods, the American Red Cross and Yellow Roadway. It also is used by the U.S. Navy. Appreciative Inquiry takes participants through the four phases of discovery, dream, design and destiny. Among the Appreciative Inquiry facilitators, in addition to Cooperrider, will be Cindi Frick, a vice president at Roadway Express, who has participated in the AI process; Judy Rodgers, executive director of the new Center for Business as Agent for World Benefit; and six Case doctoral students, who will put to work experiential learning, a component of Case's powerful learning environment. One of the benefits of Appreciative Inquiry, Cooperrider noted, is that the process can immediately engage thousands of people, who participate in a four-step process that builds upon extraordinary moments of effectiveness or commitment within an organization or body of people, instead of focusing upon what has gone wrong in the past, said Cooperrider. "Language is a power tool," according to Cooperrider, who recently was recognized for distinguished leadership by the 70,000-member American Society for Development and Training during their annual meeting in May. "I have found the more we study the true, good and better that make things possible and that give life to the system, the more those elements begin to grow and produce a momentum for change," says Cooperrider. ------ Case Western Reserve University is among the nation's leading research institutions. Founded in 1826 and shaped by the unique merger of the Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University, Case is distinguished by its strengths in education, research, service, and experiential learning. Located in Cleveland, Case offers nationally recognized programs in the Arts and Sciences, Dental Medicine, Engineering, Law, Management, Medicine, Nursing, and Social Sciences. The Commission on Presidential Debates selected Case to host the U.S. vice presidential debate on Oct. 5, 2004. http://www.case.edu. |