Keynotes

 

A New Vision for an Interdependent Planet
Peter Senge in a Special Video Presentation

The ability to recognize interdependencies is crucial to the success of organizations, communities, and people of all nations in the 21st century. Awareness of expanding global connectivity has exposed isolation as an unworkable fiction, while disciplines such as systems thinking have provided methods for understanding and influencing the complex interactions of interdependent variables. The increased recognition of interdependence has brought more opportunities for collaboration, while raising new ethical challenges, especially for consuming/discarding nations and manufacturers with disproportionate environmental impacts.

Peter Senge is a champion of people and organizations that are developing fresh new ways to work, learn, and live together across boundaries to help ensure benefit to all. Drawing on the extraordinary global reach of his experiences with all kinds of organizations, he will discuss how a new vision of an interdependent future is taking form on the planet. In a special video presentation created solely for this conference, Peter will address questions such as:

• What tools and approaches can we use to help us become aware of interdependencies that may not be obvious?
• How can we use an understanding if interdependence to improve our actions?
• How does one “lead” a system?
• What can we learn from our own successes and failures and those of others?

Peter Senge is a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founding chair of the Society for Organizational Learning. He is the author of several books, including The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, which has sold more than a million copies. In 1997, Harvard Business Review identified it as one of the seminal management books of the past 75 years. Peter’s most recent book, Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future, co-authored with C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers, documents a new theory of change and learning. In 1999, the Journal of Business Strategy named Peter one of 24 individuals who have “had the greatest impact on the way we conduct business today.”

Living in Relationship: A 21st-Century Science Paradigm
Rose von Thater-Braan and Leroy Little Bear

In the 21st century, we must embrace different ways of knowing in order to generate sustainable ways to live and work together. A new paradigm is emerging that draws from a dialogue between Native and Western science, in which each maintains its inherent integrity while enriching the other. This science of the whole integrates interrelationship and logic, interdependence and rationality, and sensing and knowing to create transformational possibilities. Rose and Leroy will offer a view of the Native paradigm and its methods of acquiring knowledge that have been refined over thousands of years.

Rose von Thater-Braan (Tuscarora/Cherokee) is cofounder of the Native American Academy, a network of Native and non-Native people engaged in the study of Native science. She served as the director of education at UC Berkeley’s Center for Particle Astrophysics for 11 years.

Leroy Little Bear is a member of the Small Robes Band of the Blood Indian Tribe of the Blackfoot Confederacy. He has a J.D. from the University of Utah. Leroy was a professor in the Native American Studies Department at the University of Lethbridge and director of the Harvard University Native American Program.

Enabling Continuous Innovation in a Complex World: Driving Toward the Adaptive Enterprise
Marv Adams

The strong forces of globalization and technology connect us with each other as never before. In an exponentially expanding web of systems and people, unprecedented interconnection also brings unprecedented complexity. Facing increased volatility and risk, our traditional institutions must adapt or be overwhelmed. Only those institutions that can discard traditional management methods and learn truly new and innovative ways to respond will be able to survive in the long run.

Lessons from the natural world can help us respond to the current challenge. From observing nature, we can derive insights about our current management philosophies, methods, and tools and the imperative for transforming our current approaches. While this realization is energizing, it presents significant challenges to our deeply held mental models about how to respond to crises in our organizations.

Marv will discuss the transformational journey of Ford Motor Company’s IT group as it faces a world where the methods and competencies of the last 50 years are no longer adequate—a world in which it is not the fittest who will survive, but those most willing and able to learn and adapt to change.

Marv Adams is senior vice president, Ford Motor Company, and chief information officer. He is responsible for all aspects of information technology (IT) management across Ford Motor Company. Marv joined Ford in December 2000 as vice president and chief information officer. Presently, he oversees the worldwide IT strategy, development, and infrastructure in support of Ford’s revitalization plan. Marv is laying the foundation for an adaptive business, which will provide Ford with the capability to rapidly sense and respond to marketplace changes. Marv previously held positions with IBM, Xerox, and Bank One.

Intergenerational Alchemy: Turning Obligation into Mutual Aspiration
Mary Catherine Bateson

Through technological and medical advances, people in industrialized societies are living some two decades longer than they were a century ago – the span of a generation. The resulting demographic shift has altered the ancient rhythm of family and community life, which throughout history has consisted of three overlapping generations linked in a cycle of communication and mutual care. Today, grandparents and many great grandparents are active and healthy and the normal mix includes four generations, not just living longer but learning longer—and leading us to look afresh at how people of all ages can support each other, solve problems together, and create a positive legacy for the generations to come.

Longevity is often seen as a problem, particularly in economic terms, and much has been made of the burden on younger generations. This narrow perspective overlooks unique opportunities and critical questions underlying this shift: What will we recognize as wisdom in the future—and how will we gain access to it? What are the patterns of communication and engagement between the generations that will maximize our opportunities for peace and sustainability?

No society has ever had access to the resources of experience and commitment embodied by the today’s healthy, energetic seniors—both in the workplace and beyond. In this presentation, Mary Catherine will explore possible synergies for life-long learning and creative problem-solving.

Mary Catherine Bateson is a writer and cultural anthropologist. She recently completed three years as a Visiting Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Previously, Mary Catherine was the Clarence J. Robinson Professor in Anthropology and English at George Mason University and is now Professor Emerita there. She lectures across the country and abroad, and is president of the Institute for Intercultural Studies in New York City. Mary Catherine has written and co-authored numerous articles and nine books, including Willing to Learn: Passages of Personal Discovery, Composing a Life, and With a Daughter’s Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson (named one of the best books of 1984 by The New York Times).

Declaration of Interdependence: Forging a Sustainable Future Together
Daniel H. Kim

As we continue to transition from the models of the Machine Age and the Industrial Revolution to the emerging models of what some call the Systems Age and the Knowledge Economy, we need to establish a “Declaration of Interdependence” to guide and inspire our work together. Doing so will require us to challenge many of the foundational assumptions on which our modern economy operates, such as “Bigger is always better” and “To optimize the whole, we need to optimize each of the parts.” Establishing such a framework also involves being clear about our own organizational purpose and values so that we can identify what we uniquely bring to our collaborations. Without this kind of clarity, partners spend energy on jockeying for position rather than on pursing their shared vision.

So, what self-evident truths must we articulate that will enable us to forge a sustainable future together? How can groups from very different walks of life come to agree on a common set of purposes and practices? Daniel H. Kim will lead a generative exploration of these questions toward creating a synthesis of the whole conference experience. Come to this session prepared to engage in a reflective dialogue about re-creating our systems and organizations to better connect in an interdependent world.

Daniel H. Kim is an organizational consultant, management thinker, facilitator, teacher, and public speaker committed to helping problem-solving organizations transform into learning organizations. He co-founded the MIT Organizational Learning Center and served on the governing council of the Society for Organizational Learning. Daniel is the founding publisher of The Systems Thinker™ newsletter and author of numerous publications on systems thinking, leadership, and organizational learning. He has worked with a diverse range of organizations and, since 1995, with numerous Singapore government ministries in support of their vision of becoming a “learning nation.” In collaboration with the Civil Service College of Singapore, he and his partner, Diane Cory, have designed and taught an intensive one-year program on organizational learning.