Articles, Audios, and More . . .CAN BIG BUSINESS SAVE THE WORLD?Discover how people are transforming big business in order to transform the world.Big business has changed the world. The global growth of corporate culture has brought with it the spread of democratic systems, increased wealth and education, and diversified local economies. But it has also created extreme degrees of exploitation, greed, and environmental destruction. What if these potent forms of human organization and ingenuity contain the seeds of profound and positive social change? We believe some do. Driven by an interest in the spiritual—as well as material—welfare of human society, some forward-thinking agents of change are infusing their organizations with ethical principles, social responsibility, and a sincere interest in unleashing the creative potential of their employees and the societies they live in. (See listings below.)
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 What Is Enlightenment? is the Wired magazine of the spiritual world.
Yasuhiko Kimura |
Corporate Social Responsibility and Organizational Change
Get acquainted with the inspired lives of the new corporate change-makers who are unleashing the creativity of capitalism to serve the planet and its people.
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Innovative organizational change makers—and their corporate counterparts—are tackling one of the most complex problems facing humanity: the urgent need for big business to evolve from being a profit–driven machine to a living system working for the future of the planet. |
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An interview with Tex Gunning, president of Unilever Bestfoods Asia and point man in the war on blind corporate culture, whose passionate care for the well-being of Asian children is transforming the way international aid dollars are being spent. |
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Consultant Sonia Stojanovic created a program that took more than 21,000 bank employees through personal development workshops, catalyzing a dramatic overhaul of the company's internal organization. |
Authentic Business Leadership and Sustainable Development
Read about the bold and idealistic businesspeople who stake their careers and their fortunes on the premise that doing the right thing will pay off in more ways than one.
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Given the opportunity to write the rules from scratch, Rob Glaser imbued his start-up company with a philosophy of giving—writing a clause into his original business plan dedicating 5% of profit to charity. |
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Mats worked at McDonald's since his father opened the first branch in Sweden in 1973. By the age of 35, he was head of McDonald's in all of Sweden. Inspired to make a difference, Mats used his influence freely to create environmentally friendly and socially conscious business practices. |
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Robb and his partners built the stunning success of Whole Foods Market on the notion of a management and employee culture based on principles of inclusion, responsibility, and co-creation of the future. |
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Greg Steltenpohl had to learn the hard way that corporate culture isn't easily changed, and in response, he created a new capital venture, Interra Project, formally based around core principles of sustainability and cooperative inter-activity. |
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This successful entrepreneur and lawyer, along with his colleagues at Generon, formed the Global Leadership Initiative, committed to creating and implementing innovative solutions to ten of the most intractable problems facing humanity—beginning with the world food supply and child malnutrition. |
Social Visionaries and the Future of Business
These organizational wizards view large corporations as microcosms of society: dynamic, creative, and capable of producing not only goods and services, but of tending to the health and well-being of the whole.
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Best-selling authors Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline) and Jon Kabat-Zinn (Full Catastrophe Living) dialogue on the emerging integration of spirituality and business. |
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Join author, cultural scientist, and raconteur extraordinaire Howard Bloom as he radically redefines the significance of consumer culture. |
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One of today's most imaginative minds plays cosmic (and comic) tour guide through the formative moments of the universe, hinting at wild surprises yet to come. |
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Founder of Visa International and self-made philosopher Dee Hock invokes the new science of complexity theory to show how human organizations can become powerful agents for evolutionary transformation. |
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Join Otto Scharmer, corporate consultant and MIT visiting professor, for a presentation on “presencing,” a truly innovative social technology for accessing our deepest capacity to sense and shape the future. |
The Real Gurus Behind the Business Gurus
It seems that behind every cutting-edge organizational guru, there stands a spiritual guru. Find out who the real gurus-to-the-gurus are and why these intrepid business pioneers pay so much attention to what they have to say.
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WIE founder Andrew Cohen spoke with Brahma Kumari world director Dadi Janki at the 2004 Parliament of the World's Religions. |
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This former professor of environmental studies takes high-powered business consultants on vision quests, leading them far into the wilderness in order to connect with the unity we share with each other and with the planet that sustains us. He has been a guide to Brian Arthur, Joseph Jaworski, Otto Scharmer, Peter Senge, and others. |
Whole Systems Change: White Papers
We are pleased to present this growing collection of white papers, submitted to us by prominent change leaders, business theorists, and organizational innovators. They represent the state-of-the-art on the theory and practice of organizational evolution and on the implications of our increasingly interconnected global economy. Please note that the ideas and opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect the editorial position or opinion of WIE.
Professor Prabhu Guptara
Executive Director, Wolfsberg Executive Development Center (a subsidiary of UBS AG)
Spirituality at Work: A Comparative Perspective, December 2001
Richard Barrett
Managing Partner of Richard Barrett and Associates
A Whole Systems Approach
to Cultural Transformation, January 2005
Steve Trevino
Consultant to Booz Allen Hamilton
An Overview
on Resilience and Adaptive Capacity Building, January 2005
Resilience:
Pathways to a Sustainable Civilization, PowerPoint presentation, February 2005
Frank Dixon
Managing Director, Innovest, Inc.
Gross National
Happiness: Improving Unsustainable Western Economic Systems, February 2004
Total Corporate
Responsibility: Achieving Sustainability and Real Prosperity, December 2003
Total Corporate
Responsibility Funds: Maximizing Financial and Sustainability Performance, January 2005
Friends and Associates
The Association for Spirit at Work
Helping to Envision and Create the Enlightened Workplace
ASAW is a membership organization that provides community for those who are
integrating work and spirituality and those who are called to support societal
transformation through a shift in organizational consciousness.
spiritatwork.org