Important message from TED's Chris Anderson

Dear friends,

I have just received the following message from Chris Anderson and I am sharing it with you immediately. Please watch the video and read his message; this is really an inspiring new paradigm! Please share your thoughts or any ideas. The message follows now.

Fahri Karakas

Dear Friends of TED,

Now this is exciting. A powerful, 2-minute TED video has just been given star billing at YouTube and I need your help to get it to spread further…The video heralds the launch of Pangea Day, called for by 2006 TED prize winner, Jehane Noujaim. For the next 24 hours, it is being featured on YouTube’s global home-page as well as all nine of YouTube’s international home-pages.Maybe it's just me, but every time I see this trailer, it sets my spine a-tingling. I hope you’ll take a minute to view it, rate it, write a quick comment about it and then blog it, or pass the link along to friends. Each of these actions will have a multiplying effect and will help us reach out to thousands of film-makers around the world who we need to submit content for possible inclusion in Pangea DayThe project is taking off, and its ambition level is spectacular. On May 10, 2008 - Pangea Day - Jehane’s wish will come to fruition as sites in New York City, Rio, London, Dharamsala, Cairo, Jerusalem, and Kigali will be video-conferenced live to produce a 4-hour program of powerful films - supplemented by visionary speakers, and global musicians. The purpose: to use the power of film to promote better understanding of our common humanity. A global audience will watch through the Internet, television, digital cinemas, and mobile phones. A powerful advisory board has come together to support the project. It includes:
JJ Abrams
Lawrence Bender
Nancy Buirski
lan Cumming
Ami Dar
Cameron Diaz
Goldie Hawn
Vik Muniz
Clare Munn
Eboo Patel
Alexander Payne
Meg Ryan
Deborah Scranton
Jeff Skoll
Philippe Starck
Yossi Vardi
Kevin Wall
Will.i.am

If you’re interested learning more and/or helping out, please send an email to Pangea Day executive director Delia Cohen (delia@ted.com). More details are available at the project's beautiful website created for us by Avenue A/Razorfish: pangeaday.org. Now enjoy the film!Very best,
Chris AndersonTED Curator

Videos From Our Last Class

They're finally uploaded, sorry it took so long. Here are the links to the videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx2NCPrr1w0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrcVBoWhYBY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlGFjfAdSaY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFqrBq6YrDs

Interactive game with course material ! :-)

Hi, I though of sharing this game which covers material from the class as well as from all our contributions to the blog including the 100 cencepts for the 21st century.

You can access the game through this link if you have Flash Player 9 installed:
http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~gruiz1/mgcr222/triviagame.html

If it doesn't display properly, you can download it here:
http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~gruiz1/mgcr222/triviagame.exe


It is my final project and it is good for reviewing the course content. Please let me know whether you find any errors or any other feedback.

Cheers,
Gonz

If the World Were a Village of 100 People

I thought I'd share this!

My daughter's junior high school teacher is a wonderful woman who sends out an e-mail every day to her student, in the form of a class paper. Among those messages there was one that so moved me that I want to send it to you. Sorry it's a bit long.

When you woke this morning, did you look forward joyously to the day?
When you go to bed tonight, do you think you will be filled with satisfaction?
Do you think the place you are is precious?

It is to you who cannot say right away, "Yes, of course" that I send this message.
If you read this, the things around you might start to look a little different.

In the world today, 6 billion 300 million people live.
If this world were shrunk to the size of a village,
what would it look like?
If 100 people lived in this village,


52 would be women, 48 would be men.
30 would be children, 70 would be adults.
7 would be aged.

90 would be heterosexual, 10 would be homosexual.
70 would be nonwhite, 30 would be white.
61 would be Asian, 13 African, 13 from North and South America, 12 Europeans, and the remaining one from the South Pacific.

33 would be Christians, 19 believers in Islam, 13 would be Hindus, and 6 would follow Buddhist teachings. 5 would believe that there are spirits in the trees and rocks and in all of nature. 24 would be believe in other religions, or would believe in no religion.

17 would speak Chinese, 9 English, 8 Hindi and Urdu, 6 Spanish, 6 Russian, and 4 would speak Arabic. That would account for half the village. The other half would speak Bengal, Portuguese, Indonesian, Japanese, German, French, or some other language.

In such a village with so many sorts of folks, it would be very important to learn to understand people different from yourself and to accept others as they are. But consider this. Of the 100 people in this village,
20 are undernourished, 1 is dying of starvation, while 15 are overweight.
Of the wealth in this village, 6 people own 59% (all of them from the United States), 74 people own 39%, and 20 people share the remaining 2%.
Of the energy of this village, 20 people consume 80%, and 80 people share the remaining 20%.
75 people have some supply of food and a place to shelter them from the wind and the rain, but 25 do not. 17 have no clean, safe water to drink.

If you have money in the bank, money in your wallet and spare change somewhere around the house, then you are among the richest 8.
If you have a car, you are among the richest 7.

Among the villages, 1 has a college education. 2 have computers. 14 cannot read.

If you can speak and act according to your faith and your conscience without harassment, imprisonment, torture or death, then you are more fortunate than 48, who can not.

If you do not live in fear of death by bombardment, armed attack, landmines, or of rape or kidnapping by armed groups, then you are more fortunate than 20, who do.

In one year, 1 person in the village will die, but in the same year, 2 babies will be born, so that at the year's end the number of villagers will be 101.

If you can read this site, that means you are thrice-blessed.
First, because someone thought of you and sent you this message.
Second, because you are able to read.
Third, and most important, because you are alive.

Someone once said: "What you send out comes back again".

So sing from the bottom of your heart,
dance with your body waving free,
and live, putting your soul into it.
And when you love,
love as though you have never been wounded,
even if you have.
And love the fact that you and others,
live here in this village.


Perhaps if enough of us learn to love our village,
it may yet be possible to save it from being torn apart.

C. Douglas Lummis

Des Valeurs Négligées; 'Le véritable progrès est celui qui unit l'intelligence et l'âme à la poursuite de nobles objectifs.'

Hi everyone! Here is an article that was publish in the journal La Presse on June 20th 2007. It discusses exactly what we have been discussing in class about values and social progress. It is a speech given by André Desmarais, president of Power Corporation. Off course, you have to be able to read French!!! Have fun reading

Marie-France Chartier :)

Le mercredi 20 juin 2007

Des valeurs négligées


André Desmarais a reçu hier un doctorat honorifique de l'École de gestion John-Molson de l'Université COncordia.Photo Ivanoh Demers, La Presse

André Desmarais
La Presse

L'auteur est président et co-chef de la direction de Power Corporation et président du conseil d'administration de La Presse. Ce texte est extrait de l'allocution que M. Desmarais a prononcée, hier, devant les nouveaux diplômés de l'École de gestion John-Molson de l'Université Concordia, qui lui a remis un doctorat honorifique.

L'université - ses professeurs et enseignants - vous ont transmis des connaissances que vous ne possédiez pas à votre arrivée ici. Et forts de ce nouveau bagage, vous allez vous engager dans un milieu bien différent celui du travail, pour la plupart d'entre vous. Vous avez hâte d'entreprendre une carrière, de fonder une famille ou d'agrandir la vôtre et, en tout cas, d'accéder à un niveau de vie décent et à un bonheur gratifiant pour vous et ceux qui vous sont chers.

Je me plais à penser que, après avoir enrichi vos connaissances, vous voudrez acquérir et défendre des valeurs trop souvent négligées ou bafouées de nos jours, à mon avis. Et les valeurs dont je parle ne sont pas celles que l'on trouve dans un bilan financier.

Je pense plutôt à des valeurs humanistes plus impondérables et nobles, telles que l'amour, l'amitié, la compassion, la bienveillance, la tolérance, la générosité et le goût du partage. Ou, pour m'exprimer en termes plus concrets, de même qu'il vous faut de la nourriture pour vivifier votre corps et des idées pour alimenter votre esprit, je crois que vous avez besoin de valeurs pour nourrir votre coeur et votre âme. Car les valeurs font partie du « régime alimentaire équilibré » dont ne peut se passer un citoyen accompli.

J'ai la conviction heuristique que, depuis quelques décennies, nous privilégions plus l'acquisition de la connaissance que l'accès aux valeurs humanistes.

Progrès spectaculaires

Loin de moi l'idée de déprécier l'apport de la connaissance au bien de la société. La connaissance a été la source de progrès spectaculaires dans les sciences la physique, la médecine, la pharmacologie, les communications et bien d'autres disciplines. Mais elle a souvent été galvaudée, comme l'ont aussi été les valeurs, produisant alors des résultats pervers qui ont déstabilisé de nombreuses collectivités dans le monde. L'homme peut déposer des instruments scientifiques sur la lune, communiquer en millisecondes avec l'autre côté de la planète, guérir des milliers de malades avec de nouveaux médicaments. Mais il peut aussi lancer des missiles à des distances énormes avec une précision mortelle. Et s'il n'a pas accès à des armes aussi coûteuses, il peut convaincre un enfant de lui servir d'agent de destruction. La connaissance pervertie facilite alors l'expression et la promotion de parti pris et de préjugés.

Le professeur Jeffrey Sachs affirme que notre génération est la première à pouvoir détruire notre planète, mais la première aussi à pouvoir bannir la pauvreté. Cette vérité est à la fois profondément perturbante et immensément prometteuse. Car tel est le corollaire immédiat de la connaissance: lorsqu'elle prend le pas sur les valeurs, elle peut favoriser des causes nobles ou néfastes avec la même force.

Il est donc important de ne pas oublier que le véritable progrès est celui qui améliore le destin et le bien-être de l'humanité, celui qui est issu de l'alliance entre la connaissance et les valeurs, celui qui unit l'intelligence et l'âme à la poursuite de nobles objectifs. C'est avec un mélange d'angoisse et d'extase, dit-on, que Michel-Ange a conquis la grandeur. Et c'est avec de la sueur et des larmes que vous avez conquis votre diplôme.

Acceptation de la diversité

Concordia a la réputation d'accueillir beaucoup d'étudiants étrangers. Un corps étudiant si divers est un atout précieux. Il forme un creuset de cultures et de traditions différentes qui enrichit notre université et favorise la compréhension et l'acceptation de la diversité.

Il stimule aussi l'intérêt des étudiants et des professeurs pour ce qui se passe dans le monde. Il y a parmi vous trop de gens informés pour que je doive expliquer pourquoi je pense que notre monde est indûment fragmenté. Et je crois pouvoir dire que l'intolérance, les conflits et les disparités ont gravement augmenté depuis quelques années.

L'on dirait que ces facteurs se combinent pour exacerber les tensions entre les peuples, les cultures et les religions. Les communautés sentent le besoin d'affirmer leur identité, craignant apparemment d'être emportées par la vague uniformisatrice qu'entraîne l'hégémonie économique croissante des pays les plus développés. Cette résistance suscite ce que j'appellerais une " culture des différences ". Elle encourage la discorde plutôt que l'harmonie, elle accentue les divergences au détriment des affinités; elle conduit à la fragmentation plutôt qu'à l'unité; elle affaiblit au lieu de renforcer; elle emprisonne les collectivités dans leurs stéréotypes. L'affirmation de différences au détriment des valeurs humanistes communes cause inévitablement un déséquilibre qui peut susciter des tensions improductives. Des instruments de musique disparates ne créent pas un orchestre.

Plutôt que de cultiver seulement nos différences, nous devrions, je crois, promouvoir nos affinités, simultanément et avec autant de conviction, et nous imprégner des valeurs humanistes qui transcendent les barrières entre les races, les cultures et les religions.() J'ai moi-même reçu mon diplôme en 1978, l'époque de la naissance de ce que certains appellent le néo-conservatisme, dont les principaux ténors - Thatcher, Reagan et d'autres - prônaient un amenuisement de la taille des gouvernements et une nouvelle définition du rôle de l'État dans la plupart des sociétés occidentales. Depuis, bien des aspects de leur doctrine ont été adoptés favorisant, entre autres, la réduction des déficits, la compression des effectifs de la fonction publique, la déréglementation, les privatisations. Ce " passage incontournable " était nécessaire car les gouvernements étaient alors trop lourds et envahissants.

Ce que l'on a moins dit, c'est que la redéfinition du secteur public a entraîné un reciblage correspondant du secteur privé.

Les fonctions délaissées par l'État ont dû être assumées par le secteur privé.Et ce délestage a souvent eu d'heureuses conséquences. Il a permis aux particuliers de participer à la prestation de services publics sans être des employés de l'État. Il a ouvert de nouvelles possibilités au public. Il a encouragé la philanthropie, fait prospérer le bénévolat, favorisé le développement des ONG. Tous, nous avons découvert de nouvelles possibilités de participer au progrès de la société. Il est devenu possible pour les citoyens de satisfaire leur désir d'engagement social à travers un heureux mariage entre l'intérêt individuel et les besoins collectifs. (...)

«Surpassez vos parents»

(...) Permettez-moi une anecdote personnelle. Voici quelques années, en 1997 plus exactement, j'ai eu le privilège exceptionnel d'être reçu à Beijing en audience privée par Bo Yibo, l'un des sept grands immortels de la Chine, une idole d'importance véritablement historique. Il avait alors environ 91 ans. J'étais accompagné de mon fils, d'un ami et de sa fille. En entrant dans la salle, Bo Yibo est allé droit vers les enfants. Il les a couverts de ses bras frêles et leur a dit: « Surpassez vos parents car c'est la seule façon de faire progresser l'humanité. »

Nous avons tous été frappés, bien sûr, par la profondeur et la sagesse de ces paroles. Depuis, j'ai bien souvent réfléchi à leur sens. Bo Yibo voulait dire, je crois, qu'un enfant doit laisser après lui un monde meilleur que celui qui l'a accueilli. Un monde matériellement et intellectuellement, mais aussi moralement meilleur que celui dont il a hérité. Un monde dans lequel connaissance et valeurs s'acquièrent et se pratiquent avec un même zèle et une persévérance égale, avec un équilibre plus juste.

Voilà ce que je voulais partager avec vous aujourd'hui. Dans la vie qui vous attend, il vous faudra non seulement des compétences et des connaissances, mais aussi de nobles valeurs humanistes (...). Vous devrez cultiver la persévérance et la ténacité. Exiger moins de vous-même serait condamner l'humanité à régresser. N'oubliez pas que, s'il faut être courageux pour mourir pour une cause, il faut l'être plus encore pour vivre pour elle.

C'est pourquoi je vous invite à adopter, alors que vous entreprenez le voyage de la vie, le noble but que nous a proposé Bo Yibo: « Surpassez vos parents car c'est la seule façon de faire progresser l'humanité. »

Here is the actual link for the article : http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070620/CPOPINIONS/706200630/6732/CPOPINIONS

Executive Summary?!

Hey guys,

I don't know if it is just me or not, but I suddenly realized I had no clue what an executive summary was, but here's a link that kind of gave me an idea, so here it is in case you are in the same situation.

There is a sample executive summary attached too so it might be helpful.
Good lucks!

Executive Summary?!

Reflecting on the role of business on society in the 21st Century: THE CORPORATION

After viewing the Canadian documentary "The Corporation" together, I would like to invite you to reflection and brainstorming on the changing role, power, responsibilities of modern corporations on society in the 21st century.

The Corporation documentary, produced by Joel Bakan, Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, has been displayed worldwide, got more than 25 international awards and created great controversy in the world of business.

The film charted the development of the corporation as a legal entity from its origins and analyzed the "personality" of the corporate "person" by using diagnostic criteria from the World Health Organization. The argued result is that the corporation is a psychopath. Do you agree?

Today we will try to come up with a SWOT analysis of corporations and MNCs in the 21st century. What are the strenghts and weaknesses associated with them? What are the opportunities and threats ahead of us in the 21st century?

To reflect more on the issue, I recommend the resources and thinking provided at the film website: http://www.thecorporation.com/ Check the web site for ideas, projects, resources, and educational tools.

Spiral Dynamics

Today we will be touching upon an innovative model called "Spiral Dynamics". Don Beck and Chris Cowan has written up an influential book called "Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change". Spiral dynamics is a transdisciplinary model bridging complexity, values, social change, and diversity. The basic argument is that human nature is not fixed and adaptable to new circumstances. Humans and human societies construct new, more complex, conceptual models of the world that allow them to handle the new problems. Each new model ("meme") includes and extends all previous models. Spiral dynamics is based on the concept of Memes; systems of core values and collective intelligences. Memes are like DNA's of society: They include self-propagating ideas, values, habits, living styles, or cultural practices.

First tier Memes

Beige: Archaic-Instinctive - survivalistic/reflexological meme
Purple: Animistic-Tribalistic - magical meme
Red: Egocentric-Exploitive - dominionist meme
Blue: Absolutistic-Obedience - purposeful/authoritarian meme
Orange: Multiplistic-Achievist - scientific / strategic meme
Green: Relativistic-Personalistic - communitarian/egalitarian meme

Second tier Memes

Yellow: Systemic-integrative meme
Turquoise: Holistic - global meme

To learn more about the "Spiral Dynamics" model please click on the address below and read the article called The Never-ending Upward Quest: Spiral Dynamics.

http://www.wie.org/spiral/content/spiraldynamics.pdf

Understanding complexity, dynamism and transformation in social, human, ecological systems: Panarchy

Panarchy is a conceptual framework to describe evolving hierarchical systems with multiple interrelated elements. The aim is to understand the transformation in social, natural, ecological complex systems. This trans-disciplinary model can be adapted and applied to organizations, nations, and societies.

Panarchy is an innovative transdisciplinary model bridging the new sciences, ecology, biology, ecological economics, environmental policy, management, and complexity. Panarchy is the dynamic structure in which natural and human systems (such as forests, corporations, institutions, civilizations..) are interlinked in continual adaptive cycles of growth, accumulation, restructuring, and renewal. These transformational cycles take place at various scales ranging from micro levels (a drop of water) to macro levels (the biosphere), over periods from days to eras. By understanding these cycles and transformation dynamics, researchers can identify different points and transition phases at which a system is capable of accepting positive change. Panarchy can be used to foster resilience and sustainability within human and natural systems.
Creating institutions to meet the challenge of sustainability is the objective here.

If you are deeply interested in this issue, I recommend you to read Gunderson and Holling's book: "PANARCHY: Understanding Transformations In Human And Natural Systems".
However, if you want an overall general understanding of Panarchy, I recommend the following web site to learn more about the model:
http://www.sustainablescale.org/ConceptualFramework/UnderstandingScale/MeasuringScale/Panarchy.aspx

The University of the Future

A recent editorial published in Nature argued that the traditional model of the research universities bounded by disciplines and departments needed to be changed and challenged. You can reach it below:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v446/n7139/pdf/446949a.pdf

Globalization for the Common Good 2007 Istanbul Conference: A Non-Violent Path to Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding

Dear colleagues,

Last week, the Globalization for the Common Good Iniative has had a stimulating global conference in Istanbul. The Istanbul Declaration was published at the end of the conference; which highlights so many of what we have covered last week: Global problems, solutions, and common values for humanity. Professor Kamran Mofid has just sent the Istanbul Declaration and I want to share this important declaration with you:

THE ISTANBUL DECLARATION

An Interfaith Perspective on Globalisation for the Common Good: The Sixth Annual International Conference: “A Non-Violent Path to Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding”
Istanbul 2007 • Fatih University

“All roads lead to Istanbul.” Meeting place of two continents and capital of two empires [the Byzantine and the Ottoman], Istanbul has been a crossroads of cultures for nearly 1800 years. The city offers a powerful metaphor for understanding and reconciliation between East and West. We gather here on the beautiful campus of Fatih University, grateful for their warm hospitality and support. We come together from many countries, six faiths, and countless areas of expertise to continue our exploration of pathways to Globalisation for the Common Good. In Turkey we experience the vital bio-diversity of the Earth and the rich cultural diversity of humankind. Our time here has been richly inspiring and profoundly motivating. It has yielded a very fruitful dialogue.

In this sixth international conference we affirm our shared commitment to non-violent conflict
resolution and the building of cultures of peace around the world. The urgency of the challenge is particularly apparent in a region of the world that is so tragically afflicted by violence. The time has come for concrete new democratic and non-violent strategies that reflect global, regional, and local cultural and spiritual realities.

We recognize the deep-seated human desire for harmony in diversity, the source of our strength. We strongly acknowledge the interdependence of peace with justice and ecological sustainability. We recognize the urgent need for dialogue not only among the religions but also between religion and the sciences and between the religious and secular spheres. The strong engagement of these dimensions of human endeavor is vital if we are to address the critical issues that arise in the wake of globalisation.

We believe that education is the key that unlocks the door to globalisation for the common good. We call in particular for approaches to education that nurture interreligious and intercultural understanding, awareness of interdependence, moral values, and global citizenship. These essential elements shape personal decisions of social consequence, concern for the well being of others, and respect for other human beings and for the whole of the planetary community.

The movement from the myth of redemptive violence to the new story of restorative justice has informed our inquiry and inspired our deliberations. We urge the recognition of the spiritual dimension of the global dilemma in the early 21st century and of the spiritual component that must be present in the solutions we attempt.

We believe that enduring change emerges through the cooperative activity of men and women.
Visionary activists must therefore work towards the evolutionary social transformation of fundamental values, especially those bearing on the empowerment of women.

We strongly acknowledge the vital importance of the following critical challenges for the 21st
century. Each is a source of violence. But as we address each urgent issue, we open up a wellspring of peace. The path to that end leads through respectful encounter with the other, open dialogue, and cooperative common action to address the problems that face us all in the 21st century.

• Global poverty, hunger, disease, and unmet human life needs
• International militarization and obscene levels of military spending
• Unsustainable economic, political, cultural, and ecological structures of power
• Social and economic injustice and the systematic violation of universal human rights
• Worldwide gender inequity in the social, economic, political, legal, and religious spheres
• Coercive violence against women and children, including the horror of children forced into
combat
• Rampant ecological degradation and disregard for the sacredness of all life
• Intercultural and interreligious ignorance, mistrust, fear, and hatred

We must strengthen the influence of the majority of humans that wish to live in peace. We strongly endorse efforts to combine our collective intelligence to build globalization from the bottom-up: creating a global consensus of commitment to the common good. In this way, we declare our global sovereignty and claim our global citizenship for the first time.

We urge the development of consensus for a common global action plan, beginning with a multistakeholder consultation process, and culminating in a common vision for ending poverty, reversing climate change, financing sustainable development and creating structural reforms in global trade, finance, and energy policy.

As committed participants in the Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative [GCGI] we
commit our individual and group support to the following:

• To create a network of organizations whose aims resonate with those of GCGI. This Internetbased network will facilitate the sharing of ideas, information, and courses of constructive action.
• To develop and maintain – on the GCGI web site and in the Journal of Globalization for the
Common Good – a dynamic list of “what’s working”: initiatives, projects, and civil society
organizations that are making a significant contribution to the common good.
• To explore ways to encourage young persons from around the world to become actively engaged with Globalisation for the Common Good. This will include participation in future conferences, international exchange programs, interreligious and intercultural study and dialogue, and other initiatives.

Globalization for the Common Good has come a long way over the past six years. Six successful
conferences and an increasingly influential journal and web site mark our progress. We have cultivated a diverse group of scholars, leaders of civil society, religious and spiritual leaders, and global activists for intense explorations of a value-centered vision of globalisation and the common good. We invite all others who share our vision to join us on the path to a better global future.

Globalisation for the Common Good, at Fatih University, Istanbul, 8 July 2007

You can get more info at:

http://www.globalisationforthecommongood.info/

http://www.globalisationforthecommongood.info/conferences/past-conferences/2007-istanbul-declaration/

A Self-Reflection Tool-kit for Mini-Project 1: Personal Excellence Plan

Dear Colleagues,

I will now attach for you a great resource for your Mini-Project 1, “What Color is Your Parachute?”. Two flagship monthly magazines in leadership development, Personal Excellence and Executive Excellence (edited by Ken Shelton) have developed a toolkit for self-reflection and personal development: “The Personal Excellence Plan”. This toolkit includes a wealth of resources and a family of tools and exercises to help you grow and progress in your career and life in the following areas: Service, Physical, Mental, Professional, Financial, Social/Emotional and Spiritual/Character.

The Personal Excellence Plan has five unique features that makes it really effective:
1. The Personal Excellence Plan honors your dreams, aspirations, faith, intuition, feelings, and emotions.
2. The Personal Excellence Plan integrates your personal life with your family and professional contribution.
3. The Personal Excellence Plan bridges vision and action.
4. The Personal Excellence Plan enables you to find harmony and
synergy among the different roles and dimensions of your life.
5. The Personal Excellence Plan encourages a balanced, holistic,
value-based, principled approach to life.

Thus, I recommend you to go over this great resource and toolkit provided by Executive Excellence; the leading newsletter/magazine in the field of leadership. Feel free to print it and complete the exercises in it. This will help you tremendously in your self-reflection, self-evaluation, job application, and in constructing your own personal strategic plans.

Here is the resource; just click: http://www.eep.com/Merchant//newsite/pep.pdf

Adventures in Complexity

Prof. Holbrook from Columbia University has written excellent article titled "Adventures in Complexity: An Essay on Dynamic Open Complex Adaptive Systems, Butterfly Effects, Self-Organizing Order, Coevolution, the Ecological Perspective, Fitness Landscapes, Market Spaces, Emergent Beauty at the Edge of Chaos, and All That Jazz". I recommend you to skim through the article to gain a better appreciation of the issues of complexity, fractal geometry, chaos theory, butterfly effect, DOCASs (Dynamic Open Complex Adaptive Systems), deep ecology, self-organization, emergence, fitness landscapes, and emergent beauty at the edge of chaos. These issues have significant implications for management and organizations in the 21st century. Click on the address below to access the article:
http://www.amsreview.org/articles/holbrook06-2003.pdf

I hope you enjoy and become immersed in this book-long- article as much as I did. This can be a greatly rewarding intellectual adventure for you this weekend! Best, Fahri

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

An introduction to the world of Web 2.0 and Digital Ethnography

Workshop and Brainstorming Session: Leadership and the Global Agenda in the 21st Century

Here is a summary of some of the key points we have discussed and brainstormed together in our workshop last time.

Global Complex Problems

· Half of the people, nearly 3 billion people live on less than 2$ a day.
· Nearly 1 billion people entered the 21st century illiterate; unable to read a book or sign their names.
· 1.3 billion have no access to clean water. 3 billion have no access to sanitation.
· Every 30 seconds; an African child dies of malaria. More than 800 million people go to bed hungry every day. 300 million are children.
· Every 3.6 seconds, a person dies of starvation.
· Almost 100.000 people die worldwide every day from preventable diseases and because they lack the most essential needs such as water, food, shelter, sanitation and education.
· Recently; there have been bloody conflicts and wars continuing in 56 different places in the world. Afghanistan, Bosnia, India, Indonesia, Kashmir, Kosovo, Macedonia, Middle East, Nigeria, Chechnya, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uganda.. Floods of tears and blood still flowing in many parts of the world.

In the 21st century, our world is facing complex global scale problems: War, religious intolerance, conflict, violence, hunger, poverty, illiteracy, pollution, crime, theft, fraud, murder, corruption, immortality, child abuse, human rights violation, oppression, inequality, injustice, nuclear weapons, and global terror among others.

At the Global Compact Leaders Summit on 24th of June, 2004, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said: “Let us be true global citizens. Let us not rest until we have truly succeeded in bringing positive change into the lives of people, and laid the foundations for peaceful, well-functioning, sustainable societies throughout the world… Rarely has there been a moment in recent history when it has been so critical for all of us to protect our common space, building on what unites us. Again, I ask, if not us, then who?”…

A Global Agenda for Positive Universal Values for the 21st Century

The need for universal common values such as peace, dialog, cooperation, compassion is recurring themes in not only in educational and non-profit organizations but also for corporations and businesses. Today’s organizations are faced with more complexities, competition, and change than at any other time in history. To effectively cope, leaders in today’s organizations need to focus on ethics, social responsibility, collaboration, chaos, innovation, creativity, adaptation, flexibility, system thinking, relationships, and leadership.

An Emerging Paradigm based on Global Consciousness

Towards the 21st century, humanity is moving in the direction of global consciousness based on shared values. This emerging paradigm is crucial in forming a world of peace, democracy, human rights, ethics, multiculturalism and dialog. Below is a list of common global values that affirm the unity of all being; affirm the interconnectedness of all, and affirm a new bottom line of love, caring, and compassion. This list indicates an emerging global consciousness based on a set of shared values:

Economic and social justice
Golden rule: Treating others as we wish them to treat us
Respect for life, freedom and human rights
Nature-friendly ways of life and ecological consciousness
Honesty and integrity
Peace and non-violence
Multiculturalism, democracy and civic education
Tolerance, dialog and respect for diversity
Cross-cultural understanding and interfaith dialog
Cooperation, compassion and charity
Global citizenship and planetary stewardship
Self-discipline
Treating people equally without bias
Sincerity, friendship, love and sharing
Self-sacrifice, devotion and idealism
Serving humanity at large
Universal ethics, and global concern
Arts, conscious communication, reflection and conscious education,
The power of the human spirit and prayer
Spiritual practices, inner work, transcendence
Community service and social responsibility,
Inner happiness & place of the individual in the world

Academic World and Scholarship: Towards a Common Set of Values and Consciousness?

The organizational literature or scholarship has also been keeping up with this emerging trend. A literature review and a preliminary analysis reveal the emergence of a set of new approaches, models, theories, schools, and movements pointing toward an emerging global paradigm. This global paradigm is represented by the following value based approaches, movements and models:

Corporate Social Responsibility http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/csr-rse.nsf/en/Home
Organizational Citizenship Behavior http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_citizenship_behavior
Business Ethics research http://www.businessethics.ca/
Conscious Business Movement, Stakeholder Movement, research on values in management
Social Innovation research http://www.ssireview.org/
Spiritual leadership http://www.spirit4greatness.com/
Management by virtues, principle centered leadership, management by values
Service leadership, servant leadership http://www.greenleaf.org/
Human relations movement and Humanistic psychology http://www.ahpweb.org/index.html
The art of leadership http://membership.acs.org/c/cda/cufaudefinal.pdf
Business as an agent of world benefit (BAWB) http://worldbenefit.case.edu/
Positive Organizational Scholarship http://www.bus.umich.edu/Positive/
Positive Psychology http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/
Appreciative Inquiry http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/
Integral theory perspective http://www.integralworld.net/

Check these web sites and resources above. They offer tremendous amount of knowledge that will open up your horizons.

Although there are many terms used; it is possible to draw on the commonalities and to point out to an emerging paradigm in organizational scholarship. The most critical research frontiers for the twenty-first century revolve around values, ethics, morality, social responsibility, global sustainability, and spirituality. These organizational theories and concepts emphasize a set of universal values centered on sincerity, integrity, morality, respect, compassion, authenticity, intuition, and service to community.

Changing Paradigms of Management and Leadership

OLD PARADIGM to NEW PARADIGM

SELF CENTERED to COMMUNITY CENTERED
ethnocentric to community oriented
individualistic to communitarian
authoritative to democratic
self-interest to service to community

OLD SCIENCES to NEW SCIENCES
Newtonian to Quantum
linear to non-linear
one truth to multiple truths
reductive to emergent

MATERIALISM to SPIRITUALITY
modernist to post-modernist
"mind" to "integration of mind, heart, soul"
positivist to interpretive
materialist to spiritual

UNIFORMITY to DIVERSITY
hierarchical to lateral
absolute perspective to contextualism
selective to inclusive
simplicity to complexity

RATIONALITY to INTUITION
actuality to potentiality
intellectual stimulation to emotional arousal
problems to opportunities
conservative to creative

PARTIAL to IMPARTIAL
atomistic to holistic
exclusionary to synergistic
analysis to synthesis
partial to integral

PROFIT ORIENTATION to PEOPLE ORIENTATION
Theory X to Theory Z
competition to cooperation
economic to social
profit oriented to triple bottom-line

CERTAINTY to UNCERTAINTY
clarity to ambiguity
order to chaos
determinate to indeterminate
stability to change

COMMAND & CONTROL to FLEXIBILITY & EMPOWERMENT
top down to egalitarian
controlling to inspiring
doubtful to trusting
domination to collaboration

CHARISMATIC to SERVANT
arrogant to humble
impressive to authentic
self-worth to modesty
extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation

OLD METAPHORS to NEW METAPHORS
clockwork/machine to brain/living ecosystem
static box to dynamic flow
solid ice to emergent cloud
building to web/network

A Welcome Note!

Welcome to MGCR 222 at McGill University!

Welcome to Intensive Organizational Behavior and Management Trainee Program at your dream company. During the course of seven weeks, we will have intensive brainstorming sessions, professional development workshops and executive training programs to help you and your colleagues to develop and apply OB knowledge as well as management and leadership skills for your career in the 21st century. This is not a traditional course, but more a rich global learning platform and a rewarding dynamic learning network. The course draws from a new and exciting paradigm called Positive Organizational Scholarship, the core premise of which is(http://www.bus.umich.edu/Positive/) that management and leadership excellence is fundamentally tied to creating/enabling organizational contexts that build human strengths and unlock the positive and generative dynamics of vibrant human communities. We will not limit ourselves within a traditional discipline; instead we will have transdisciplinary and futuristic perspectives on human behavior, organizations and management.

This is an integrative, innovative, and interdisciplinary course. It is meant to be a transformational, positive, enriching and rewarding experience for all of us. But this all depends on our assumptions, attitudes and collective effort. If you want to gain the maximum from this experience, focus on your independent learning for your career. Be engaged and involved. Make this course useful and helpful for your own goals and life. Go beyond this class and this course. Be creative and innovative. Create breakthrough projects and ideas for the future. Sharpen your skills. Challenge yourself. Bring your best contribution to the table. Let us learn from each other. What you get from this program all depends on what you put into this.

In today’s global, rapidly changing knowledge based economy, learning about human systems and organizational behavior is one of the smartest investments you can make for your future. In this course, I am seeking professionals who are bright, passionate, willing to take initiative, care about developing themselves and yet also care about their colleagues, community, and the world. We will work on real-life projects to enhance the mutually beneficial partnership between the world and McGill.

Open platforms, open minds, open hearts

There are a lot of interesting developments around the concept of web 2.0; revolutionizing the Internet. Think of the examples of Youtube, Linux, Craigslist, Napster, Kazaa, Skype, Flickr, MySpace, Technorati, Delicious, Facebook, Blogger, and others. The new innovators and thought leaders operating on the web are called network idealists (Lowy, Hood & Singer, 2005) who develop organic, cellular, distributed network structures for innovation. In this course, we will synthesize the emerging power of web 2.0, open source revolution, and collective intelligence with strategic thinking, leadership, and organizational behavior. Many companies today use blogs as part of their corporate and marketing strategies. Welcome to the blog of our class MGCR 222. We will use this blog as our collective journal and our collaborative innovative platform. You are all contributors and visionaries who will create knowledge to better understand the world in the 21st century.

A learning organization harnessing collective intelligence

We will utilize this blog as an open platform for our learning and knowledge creation. You will be co-authors and create a collective journal. Think of it as if we are writing a book together. You will learn greatly from each other. This will be a valuable opportunity to create knowledge together. Together as a class; we will truly be a learning organization. Our class blog will hopefully be a long term learning platform for us. We will maintain it after the class is over. We will create high quality knowledge together. We will harness the power of collective intelligence, creativity, imagination, and innovation. The biggest learning and knowledge will come from your peers.

Our motto is creating and developing together. Welcome to our global learning network! I wish you all the best in your future careers.