Accelerate 2013 - Catalyzing Change Through Shared Purpose: The Human Dimension Of Collaboration

In this session, Bob Willard curated the wisdom of Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt, Bart Houlahan and Kathy Bardswick to explore the question ‘How do we build shared purpose?’ The insurance industry, for example, was born out of the community coming together to find new ways of helping people manage risks. The Co-operators Insurance Group Ltd. use a co-operative business model based in democratic ownership that fosters a shared, long term vision. The B Corp movement was born out of a desire to give business value to environmentally and socially conscious operations, and has the long term goal of ‘redefining success in business.’ Since this isn’t something the 30-person non-profit can do alone, they have curated a collaborative effort involving standards, a legal framework, and financing that has resulted in a B to B community and B Corp legislation passed in 13 states to date. The power of these sector-specific frameworks is amplified through the support of a larger overarching framework that provides the necessary boundary conditions for us to get at the “higher-hanging fruit” up at the level of systems-change across sectors.

Agenda