By Janice Molloy

Many of us consider Thomas Edison's development of the incandescent lightbulb as the breakthrough achievement in electric lighting. But without an infrastructure for delivering electricity and a plan for taking it to scale, the lightbulb might have remained a novelty.

In its quest to reduce the flow of single-use paper cups into landfills, Starbucks and a group of partners have found that a "magic cup"--one sturdy enough to handle piping hot beverages and yet easily biodegradable--isn't a viable solution. Instead, after three years of research, the most promising approach appears to be a systemic one, involving a collaboration of paper mills, retailers, recycling companies, municipalities, and even other beverage companies.

Systems Thinking in Action Conference keynote speaker Peter Senge has been involved in this initiative from its outset. He recently participated in Starbucks' third "Cup Summit," held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One result of these summits is that the Foodservice Packaging Institute announced the formation of a coalition of restaurant and food packaging industry leaders to look at how food packaging could become more recyclable across the retail sector. According to Senge, "[Starbucks'] holistic approach has the potential to make a significant impact on the entire foodservice industry."

Just as the lightbulb was one part of the shift from kerosene lamps to electric lights, the recyclable cup may be merely the most visible element of a systemic shift to sustainability.

All good things must come to an end, including our discounted conference rate.

When you attend the Systems Thinking in Action Conference in Seattle, WA, you'll learn to use systems thinking and related tools to create sustainable success in your organizations and world through:

• thought-provoking keynotes
• practical workshops
• networking opportunities
• evening events
and
• easy access to all that Seattle has to offer

By Russ Gaskin

How do today's leaders create profound innovation in the face of complexity? According to an executive report by the IBM Institute for Business Value, they do it by "embracing dynamic tensions."

In a report released in July, "Cultivating organizational creativity in an age of complexity," Barbara J. Lombardo and Daniel John Roddy assert that "leaders who embrace the dynamic tension between creative disruption and operational efficiency can create new models of extraordinary value. . . . By harnessing the energy of opposites, creative leaders and their organizations can benefit from new assumptions that replace less effective 'either/or' approaches."