HOLIDAY SPECIAL!

In celebration of the release of the DVD version of our video series, Leverage Points for Change, we're offering significant discounts, for a limited time only, on videos and DVDs from this series and our One on One series:

• DVDs or VHS cassettes from Leverage Points for Change are $175/each or $249/set (regularly $295/$499) (Order Leading in a Complex World or Teams That Work)

• DVDs or VHS cassettes from One on One with Peter Senge are $259/each or $399/set (regularly $395/$595) (Order)

Offer good through December 31, 2003—simply use Priority Code DVDLEV03 when you place your order.

PEGASUS CONFERENCE CORNER
Announcing the 14th Annual Pegasus Conference and a Special Conference Registration Offer

LEARNING LINKS
Ways to Talk and Listen That Solve Tough Problems

FACE TO FACE
Integrating Corporate Responsibility into Day-to-Day Operations: An Interview with Steve Rochlin
by Kali Saposnick

Steven Rochlin is director of research and policy development at the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College. In that capacity, he supervises the Center's research initiatives, including leading various research projects and coauthoring reports on corporate citizenship. Steve will be a keynote speaker at Reshaping Corporations: Adding Value Through Responsible Business Practices, a hands-on, two-day workshop in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 25–27, 2004 (learn more about the workshop), where he will discuss the practical challenges for a company trying to implement responsible practices. In the following interview, Steve shares some of the trends he sees in the field of corporate citizenship.

In today's market economy, in which most corporations' foremost obligation is to their shareholders, making the business case for corporate citizenship is often a Herculean effort. Part of the reason is that many companies don't yet recognize the value for themselves in institutionalizing and integrating responsible practices throughout the business. But an emerging perspective on responsibility, based on three decades of research, might help them see the potential opportunities. This new view argues that large companies have obligations to a broad web of stakeholders—and that investing in social and environmental health may be the best thing for business performance.

"We're living in a fascinating time," says Steve Rochlin, "in which we can clearly see the powerful force a market capitalist system is for social and economic development—and the extent to which large corporations have become the main global entity for delivering on the promise of that system. Yet also apparent are the changing expectations of a variety of interested parties, such as governments, interest groups, activists, and the public, around what roles these companies should and could perform to help meet a wider set of social and economic justice objectives."

According to Rochlin, in response to these shifting expectations around the relationship of business to society, many companies are starting to recognize the need to devote greater attention to managing their affairs with important external stakeholders. But unfortunately, their commitment is still mostly limited to complying with government regulations and standards. "While compliance is an entirely legitimate practice," Steve says, "it often reflects leaders' resistance to fully upholding responsible business practices. To become corporate citizens, they must shift from viewing responsibility as an afterthought or imposition to embracing it as a core strategy for adding value to the business as a whole."

Read the complete interview.

Learn more about or register for the workshop,Reshaping Corporations: Adding Value Through Responsible Business Practices, or call Pegasus at 1-781-398-9700.

PEGASUS CONFERENCE CORNER
Announcing the 14th Annual Pegasus Conference and a Special Conference Registration Offer

The 2004 Pegasus Conference, Building Collaborations to Change Our Organizations and the World: Systems Thinking in Action®, will be held on December 1–3, 2004, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA

One of the most critical realizations of the 21st century is that a "go-it-alone" approach to dealing with complex problems is not only ineffective, but also often outright destructive. The success of our efforts depends more and more on our ability to collaborate with others based on a shared understanding of the system from which both our problems and our aspirations emerge.

Whether applied in a family seeking to improve household harmony, in an organization struggling for survival in turbulent economic times, or among nations working together to halt the depletion of fish in our oceans, collaborative skills are fundamental to reaching our desired outcomes. By forming effective relationships, not only do we develop our own personal capacities, but we improve the quality of our collective thinking, and, through aligning purpose and effort with our partners, create breakthrough results.

Join us at the 2004 Pegasus Conference as our worldwide learning community gathers once again in Boston to explore the vital role of building collaborations in creating better futures for ourselves, our organizations, and the world.

Register now, through December 15th, 2003, for only $950. If you attended the 2003 conference, you can register for only $895 through December 15th. Go to our web site at www.pegasuscom.com/stapage.html, or call 1-781-398-9700.

Special Conference Registration Offer: For the first time ever, Pegasus will give you 10% off Pegasus products purchased on the web site—from the day you register for the 2004 conference until the conference starts on December 1, 2004. (This offer is not applicable to other conferences or newsletters and cannot be combined with volume discounts.) This offer makes you eligible up to a year for the special 10% discount. Register now, and start saving on your Pegasus purchases immediately!

LEARNING LINKS
Ways to Talk and Listen That Solve Tough Problems

Why is it that, despite our best intentions, our talking so often fails, and we end up trying to solve our tough problems by authority or force—in our families, in our organizations, and on a global level? This is the provocative question that Adam Kahane posed in his keynote presentation at the 2003 Pegasus Conference. Through dramatic examples from his work with groups devoted to national reconciliation in South Africa and Guatemala, he illustrated that, in order to solve our toughest problems, we must cultivate new ways of talking and listening together.

Adam shared a chart developed by MIT's Otto Scharmer that illustrates four different ways in which we can talk and listen: downloading, debate, reflective dialogue, and generative dialogue (view the chart in PDF). Downloading entails saying what we always say or what we think is appropriate. In this mode, listening rarely happens; instead we hear what we already expect to hear. In debate, a clash of arguments occurs; ideas are put forward and judged objectively, as in a courtroom. These first two modes can work for simple problems, but they don't create anything new.

In reflective dialogue, we don't just listen objectively; I both listen to you from within you and listen to myself knowing where I'm coming from. Because we can glimpse what's possible, this type of talking and listening offers the potential for change and creativity. To solve complex problems, however, we need to use an extraordinary approach, in which the people who are part of the problem—the stakeholders—look together at the system as a whole and work through an emerging solution. In generative dialogue, or presencing, the boundaries between people disappear, and participants can see what really matters to them and what they have to do together.

The process of moving from downloading and debate to dialogue and presencing can be described as one of opening, of developing the capacity to hear what is trying to come through. As we practice using these modes together, we can find powerful new ways of communicating that lead to breakthroughs in solving our most difficult challenges.
—JM

The live recording of Adam's session is now available in video and audio format. Learn more