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Global Dignity Day

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

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In a day and age when most do not agree on anything, from east and west, to conservative and liberal politics, to issues of race and geography, and amongst differing religions and faiths, I believe, along with the founders of Global Dignity, that dignity is the one thing that everyone in the world wants equally. Dignity can be the unifying force that brings us all together at a time when the world needs this more than ever.

On Monday, October 20th 2008, I, in concert with the co-founders of Global Dignity (www.globaldignity.org), His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, Professor Pekka Himanen and John Hope Bryant, and several other Young Global Leaders (as associated with the World Economic Forum) conducted our first ever GLOBAL DIGNITY DAY 2008 in 30 countries, inclusive of every continent.

In this blog, I am sharing an update on Global Dignity Day in Canada. I have taken part in other Dignity Day events including one in Vancouver and another in Jordan that involved Her Majesty Queen Rania in Jordan. I am pleased to report back on Global Dignity Day in Toronto, Canada on October 20th, 2008! We reached 40 grade 9 students (14 years old) in a Leadership Course at Greenwood College (http://www.greenwoodcollege.com/)

I had about an hour to deliver the course for each of the two classes. We kicked off with having the students write what Dignity means to them on a sheet of paper that I handed out, and then it led into a group discussion and a brief presentation on the Dignity Principles. I found that most of the initial definitions people wrote down on defining dignity related to self-respect. My co-facilitator was a grade 11 student (Celine Caira) from the school who helped me to prepare for the event. Celine shared a story about what dignity means to her based on a recent encounter with a 14 year old girl that she met in a recent trip to India with her family. I shared a few personal stories and gave context on the work of TakingITGlobal.org and how we are growing a global community of youth making a difference. I connected the mandate of our website to the dignity principles. In helping the students further understand the meaning of dignity, I asked them to share their own examples of increasing or even decreasing the dignity of others. They were able to generate many strong examples of what dignity is NOT - which actually transformed the energy in the room to be more supportive (for example after talking about the negative impact of making fun of someone for who they are).

As a process note, it was very helpful to have the students read each of the dignity principles out loud and talk about what that particular principle means to them. There were certain words that they did not understand - such as interdependent - so I took time to explain the meaning behind the word.

The bulk of the interactive time was when I had the students break out into groups of 4-5 and develop their own ABC’s of Dignity. They had about 6-7 minutes and I was amazed to see how our their depth of understanding about dignity had significantly increased since I first entered the class. At first, in doing the ABCs, we started out as a full class discussion, but I quickly realized that it would be better to have them work in teams - and this was a very smart decision. Each of the group then had a representative read out their ABCs of Dignity to the class and they were all eager to hear about the different impressions and interpretations.

At the end of the class, I unveiled the ‘Dignity Flag’ which I prepared (a huge canvas with bright colours) with Celine and Caitlin (another student) prior to Dignity Day. The Flag stated ‘We Pledge to DIGNITY’ and the students were invited to put their name on the flag, along with a word that relates to dignity starting with the first letter of their name (i.e. Jennifer - Justice). They were eager to make their pledge and I noted that many of the words were difficult for the students to spell (which could lead to future vocabulary activities in their studies). The Dignity Flag is now being hung in the school and I am hoping that at the next school wide assembly, it will be shared by some student representatives with the entire school!

Thanks for the opportunity to work together!

Special appreciation goes out to Kim Samuel-Johnson who is part of the World Economic Forum community and was a former Global Leader for Tomorrow. Kim helped bridge the connection with Greenwood College and hosted the Dignity Day planning meetings. I would also like to thank Caitlin Samuel-Johnson and Celine Caira, who are the Grade 11 students that helped me in preparing for Dignity Day. Here is our team photo taken at one of our planning sessions! Also, closing reflection from Celine, “Seeing the way Greenwood students responded to Dignity Day gives me hope that one day we will live peacefully with global dignity”.


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WorldBlu Live

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

I am incredibly energized from my experience at World Blu Live in New York last week – what a dynamic group of thinkers and leaders in the area of organizational democracy.

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While at the conference, I delivered a presentation in the section on ‘NEXT’ – where I was asked to share examples of democratic and inclusive practices at TakingITGlobal. After providing an overview of the mission, vision and programs our organization offers, I talked about the value of the WorldBlu Scorecard process and how it has provided an opportunity for our core team to improve our internal communications and processes as a result of the feedback from the surveys. TakingITGlobal has been recognized in both 2007 and 2008 on the WorldBlu list of Most Democratic Workplaces. Here are a few quotes from staff members who completed the scorecard:
• “TakingITGlobal is a unique organization not only in the work it does that inspires, informs and involves members, but in the way the organization functions, which is equally inspiring for its team.”
• “This is a genuinely democratic organization with an informal yet effective management system in place. Hierarchy is virtually non-existent. It is idea driven and riding the very crest of the tech-wave. Intellectual blossoming is only one of the benefits of working here”

tree In my presentation, I talked about how we have created evolving visualizations of or organizational model including an earlier version of a tree. For those interested in understanding this model, here is a description that I wrote in 2003 as part of a mid-term paper that I wrote as part of my Masters course on Management in Turbulent Times. Through the roots, the organization is grounded in its core vision and values. The trunk is where much of the administrative support and technology development occurs, which all helps to nurture the growth and development of TakingITGlobal’s key program areas which are depicted through the fruit. In the diagram, the red fruit symbolize the core areas of engagement which address the various key gaps. These areas focus on engaging key stakeholders that work to support youth such as international and youth-led organizations, educators, local communities etc. teamThe online community which is placed at the centre of the organizations activities and focus, highlights the nature of its core program. The yellow circles which connect to the online community are nodes which are drawn in a way that illustrates each of the various online community components (Action, Community, Opportunities, Expression, Voice), and how they are organized in a way that transcends the notion of a tree/organism. The research and sourced projects are ‘low-hanging fruit’ which provide support for other program areas. The overall framework is best explained in the context of a living system because it is one that needs to be able to respond and adapt to changes in external environments. In contrast to the purpose of most organizational charts, this structure does not exist to support people at the top of a hierarchy, but rather, to serve and support the growth and development of key program areas (‘fruit’) which are supported, nurtured and grounded in the shared vision (roots). The issue of survival is one of great importance to living systems, as it is to TakingITGlobal. In order for organizational objectives and ideals to be achieved, a sustainable and healthy ‘system’ must be maintained.

IMG_0469 Another important part of our organizational culture includes teambuilding activities which have ranged from bowling and indoor beach volleyball, to taking part in a ropes course. One of the challenges for our organization is the difficulty in having teambuilding activities that are inclusive our staff and volunteers who are based in different parts of the world and often in different time zones. When Philip Rosedale, Founder and Chairman of Linden Lab, spoke at the conference, he talked about how they utilize Second Life to conduct meetings. Here is a photo of their board room and the various personalities that emerge through the avatars developed! Organizational practices that have been inspired by discussions with other WorldBlu Democratic Companies include the As and Os weekly emails that all staff send out to an 'As and Os' mailing list - each focused on objectives for the upcoming week and accomplishments from the past week. Additionally, we have a monthly Above and Beyond Award based on a staff voting system and a 'kudos' tool where you can send comments through an online system to other staff that are archived on our intranet. For ongoing knowledge management and sharing of information, we have developed an intranet and are constantly using collaborative tools such as wiki's.

Here are a few thoughts that stayed with me after listing to the diverse array of presentations (http://www.worldblu.com/live/schedule.php)

- Bill Shannon, Chief Wisdom Officer at DaVita talked about how their company is oriented around a village-like culture. They have regular town hall meetings, the office of the CEO has a 'Mayor' sign on it and executive employees have a 'uniform' which is designed like a superhero style costume. Considering the large size of the organization, they are able to maintain an atmostphere of community.

- Rodney North, Vice Chair and Answer Man of Equal Exchange focused his talk on the importance of governance and how their company entitles each employee to one vote and one share. This shared sense of ownership creates shared accountability. They believe that the role of a company include the aim of training better citizens.

- Alexander Kjerulf, Chief Happiness Officer and Author talked about how everyone can achieve happiness at work and that it starts with the simple act of how you say 'good morning'. He shared the '5 Levels' - starting off with 1 being a mumble, 2 saying good morning with no eye contact, 3 is good morning with eye contact and a smile, 4 is good morning with eye contact, a smile and a question about how they are, and level 5 includes everything in level 4 plus physical contact through a handshake. The best part of this session was being part of a transformation of energy in the room when we tried out each of the levels.

- Mike Ferretti, CEO of Great Harvest Bread Company talked about the high levels of customization and localization in their franchise model and shared a powerful diagram that includes about 6 concentric circles highlighting various spheres of their competition.

- Brett Jackson, CEO of Generation Think Tank shared his experience in being part of the first 10 employees at Crocs and some of the negative impacts of the hyper growth experienced by the company.

- A personal highlight of the WorldBlu experience was outside the conference venue at at Carnegie Hall where we watched an awe inspiring performance of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra who played in absolute harmony without a conductor!

- Other insights included learning about a simple practice of having an anonymous question/suggestion box where the CEO can respond to what is submitted during staff meetings, several comments on the importance of expressing appreciation, and the significance of having a results-focused workplace. Also, there was discussion on the concept of scarcity and how it is in your mind - as as the concept of abundance. It is important to choose your views carefully. On the last day, someone observed me taking notes based on my notes, he called me a 'concrete random' essentially based on a matrix model where the y axis includes concrete + abstract and the x axis includes sequential and random. I thought it was interesting to have my thought process being analyzed on the basis of my notebook!

My final highlight of WorldBlu live was listening to Bill Taylor, Founding Editor of Fast Company Magazine, who talked about how important it is for those of us to stay connected and ‘stay in the game’. A very special thank you goes out to Traci Fenton, Founder and CEO of WorldBlu for putting this event together and for her vision and dedication towards promoting and supporting organizational democracy in the workplace. Here’s a photo with Traci, Bill and I.

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