When I was about 20 years old I spent a contemplative day with a friend who told me later that the entire day I’d said three words, “life, death, friend.”  Four decades later the significance of those words still sticks with me.  I shared them recently with the same friend who had just emerged from a coma after a serious bicycle accident and went through a remarkable recovery resuming his teaching.   I now add one word: family.  I think those four words pretty much sum up everything of importance, perhaps with “empathy” thrown in for good measure.  Just last week, another friend, John Payton, President of NAACP Legal Defense Fund and a giant in human rights law, died unexpectedly.  With... more

On June 24 I gave the closing remarks at the UN Global Learning Managers Forum (LMF) in Turin, Italy on the social responsibility of learning, training and staff development in global organizations.  It was an absolutely stellar learning platform: the calibre of content and structure was at the very highest standards to allow for a truly great knowledge exchange among 39 Learning Managers from 35 UN Agencies globally. Before I facilitated a discussion on how they each might best engage their respective internal and external stakeholders, I observed as they shared with each other in various modules on a broad spectrum of important topics.  They are at the cutting edge of utilizing new technologies to reach staff throughout the  world. While the politics... more

As Executive-in-Residence at IMD, I am building on my decades of experience facilitating for clients from all sectors globally my trademark process of stategic relational engagement (SRE™) of stakeholders. I am focusing on the strategic position of value creation and competitiveness through SRE. I am distilling and synthesizing key teachable lessons for leaders who participate in IMD executive education programs . I am developing essential guidelines for practical applications in various contexts. These include internal stakeholder applications for boards and senior management whether horizontal across function or vertically in direct reports; external stakeholders whether customers, suppliers or willing partners; and more complex potentially adversarial external stakeholders (i.e.: activist shareholders, government regulators, NGOs and other civic groups, etc). Companies know they... more

I’m finding my niche, seven weeks into Executive-in-Residence at IMD: master bridge-builder; a role that has applicability in much of the executive education knowledge exchange being done here.  I‘ve begun to focus on why businesses should engage with non-market, non-traditional stakeholders for current brand value as a basis for long term value creation with Paul Strebel who leads the High Performance Boards program.  I’ll continue to develop this further with Didier Cossin who next year will take over this program.  I’m writing about creating and sustaining mutually beneficial cross-sector partnerships to support an exciting body of research by Tom Malnight and Kees van der Graaf.  And I’m finding my stride in my local village where the butcher, baker, winemaker and most... more

In my first week as Executive-in-Residence at IMD I observed and commented on executive education programs.  One was led by Dan Denison whose focus includes organizational culture, leadership and the impact they have on performance and effectiveness, and Tom Malnight whose focus includes global strategy, evolutionary organizational change, internal growth and renewal.  They guided participating executives through exercises designed to help them effectively tackle a changing and uncertain future.  Another group of executives interacted with James Henderson  whose focus includes helping companies achieve and sustain their competitive advantage, through a comparable exercise in developing strategies under times of uncertainty.  And in my first gathering of faculty and senior staff with IMD president Dominique Turpin we as an internal team explored many of... more

In these final weeks before relocating to Switzerland for up to two years, I’ve been feted by US-based friends and colleagues before departing.  And my Geneva-based as well as wider circle of European friends are planning welcome celebrations  for me upon arrival.  In recent years as many I’ve loved and admired have moved on, I’ve come to have an ever deeping appreciation for treasuring each moment I get to spend with those I cherish.  So, I’ll stay connected wherever I live/work.  My next post may come from Lausanne: voyez-vous bientôt; tout a l’heure!

Today my husband Jerry Dunfey and I visited Arlington Cemetary to pay our respects at the graveside of Senator Edward M “Ted” Kennedy and his brothers US President John F. Kennedy and US Senator Robert F Kennedy.  Having been at Ted’s funeral Aug 29, we wanted to say good sailing to our friend.  I was struck  when we went to Walter Cronkite’s memorial this Wednesday how at the respective services Teddy and Walter’s love of sailing was a metaphor for what they each had done with their remarkable lives.  As many spoke about leadership, I thought about how the sea – particularly when it gets rough – can either knock you around or you can navigate it with skill and patience and respect.

Akash Kapur’s New York Times article describes through his personal experiential lens, “creative destruction,” a concept Joseph Alois Schumpeter popularized in his 1942 book Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy.  Kapur describes how innovative entrepreneurial development that can sustain long-term economic growth bringing wealth to some in previously impoverished areas, simultaneously often destroys the values of a culture, fabric of a community and the natural beauty of an environment.  The July 2009 issue of the Chicago Journals Economic Development and Cultural Change’s articles address this phenomenon from different perspectives in various countries’ initiatives.  Since I’ve long supported sustainable development initiatives in the US and throughout the world, I continue to explore with all types of leaders – from local communities to national governments... more

I gave the Graduation Commencement Speaker at Southern New Hampshire University’s International Program of their Graduate School of Community Economic Development today. The students are practitioners from around the world who already have made significant contributions to development efforts in many nations. With the Masters of Science in International Community Economic Development they received at this degree ceremony, they will leverage their ability to achieve even greater accomplishments. After an excerpt of my remarks, also watch video clips of graduate speeches.  Also post your comments about successful economic development efforts, whether by corporations, governments or NGOs. Keeping with the spirit of international cooperation fostered in this graduate program, rather than choosing a single student to make commencement remarks, a group did a... more