Who We’ve Learned From ...

IDEO’s The Ten Faces of Innovation

Are you a Cross-Pollinator? Do you work with a Hurdler? Or a Storyteller? These are just a few of the roles that people can play in an organization to foster innovation and new ideas—and fend off creativity-stifling naysayers. The Ten Faces of Innovation proves that real creativity demands holistic thinking and a truly collaborative approach.

Michael Porter's Shared Value Theory

Shared value declares that a company’s competitiveness depends upon the health of the communities and ecosystems integral to its operations. Recognizing and capitalizing on these connections between societal and economic progress has the power to unleash the next wave of global growth and to redefine capitalism. Michael E. Porter is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard University. He is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and a six-time McKinsey Award winner.

Art of Hosting

The Art of Hosting and Convening Conversations that matter is a powerful leadership practicum as well as a daily pattern and practice for many individuals, communities, families, businesses and organizations. It is a practice retreat for all who aspire to learn and find new ways for working with others to create innovative and comprehensive solutions.

... and we're still learning

Peter Senge’s The Necessary Revolution

Imagine a world in which the excess energy from one business would be used to heat another. Where buildings need less and less energy around the world, and where "regenerative" commercial buildings - ones that create more energy than they use - are being designed. A world in which environmentally sound products and processes would be more cost-effective than wasteful ones. That world is already emerging. A revolution is underway in today's organizations. As Peter Senge and his co-authors reveal in The Necessary Revolution, companies around the world are boldly leading the change from dead-end "business as usual" tactics to transformative strategies that are essential for creating a flourishing, sustainable world.

David Cooperrider’s Appreciative Inquiry - AI Commons

The "AI Commons" is a worldwide portal devoted to the fullest sharing of academic resources and practical tools on Appreciative Inquiry and the rapidly growing discipline of positive change. This site is a resource for you and many of us — leaders of change, scholars, students, and business managers--and it is proudly hosted by Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management

New Ideas Every Day

Business Innovation Factory

The Business Innovation Factory is a platform for transforming our most intractable systems, like healthcare, education, entrepreneurship, and energy, where players -- both private and public -- can design and test new solutions in a real-world environment.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s How Great Companies Think Differently

In Harvard Business Review, November 2011. Institutional logic holds that companies are more than instruments for generating money; they are also vehicles for accomplishing societal purposes and for providing meaningful livelihoods for those who work in them. The value that a company creates should be measured not just in terms of short-term profits or paychecks but also in terms of how it sustains the conditions that allow it to flourish over time.

Jim Clifton’s The Coming Jobs War

What everyone in the world wants is a good job. In a provocative book for business and government leaders, Gallup Chairman Jim Clifton describes how this undeniable fact will affect all leadership decisions as countries wage war to produce the best jobs. Leaders of countries and cities, Clifton says, should focus on creating good jobs because as jobs go, so does the fate of nations. Jobs bring prosperity, peace, and human development -- but long-term unemployment ruins lives, cities, and countries.