The Flourishing Enterprise Institute (FEI) invites you to join a special keynote presentation featuring Dr. David Cooperrider, world-renowned author, academic, practitioner and co-creator of Appreciative Inquiry. 

In most organizations the practice of corporate sustainability is mainly focused on reducing harm by incrementally improving performance across social and environmental indicators. It is common for actions to be taken that increase energy efficiency, eliminate waste and improve how employees, customers and other stakeholders are treated, without addressing what is fundamentally unsustainable about business as usual. After many years of progress it is evident that even leading organizations are rarely engaging in the kind of deep, systemic change that generating meaningful progress demands. 

Through this inspiring and interactive talk, Dr. Cooperrider will explore the concept of flourishing and how organizations, as an expression of the best of humanity, can practically contribute to a thriving planet, while generating tremendous potential to innovate and enhance performance within.

David L. Cooperrider, PhD, is a Distinguished University Professor at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. He holds two chaired professorships: Char and Chuck Fowler Professor of Business as an Agent of World Benefit and the Covia - David L. Cooperrider Professorship in Appreciative Inquiry, both at the Weatherhead School of Management. David is the Founder and Faculty Director of the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit and is also the Honorary Chairman of Champlain College's David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry at the Robert P. Stiller School of Business. Recently David received "The Lifetime Achievement Award" -- the highest honor in his field of Organization Development — for his work on Appreciative Inquiry and his advancement the concept of full-spectrum flourishing as the field’s North Star.

Nobel Laureate Kofi Annan wrote these words after calling upon David Cooperrider as an advisor and using Dr. Cooperrider’s Appreciative Inquiry to bring over 500 CEO's into a world summit at the United Nations: “Without your innovative methodology of Appreciative Inquiry, it would have been very difficult, perhaps even impossible, to constructively engage so many leaders of business, civil society, and government [to co-create a positive future for all].” A UN Leaders report for the Global Compact's 8,000 corporations said “Appreciative Inquiry is the best large group method in the world today.”

The Flourishing Enterprise Institute (FEI) aims to be a planetary network of applied research nodes dedicated to accelerating the development and mobilization of practical knowledge and innovative solutions that will enable all organizations and their stakeholders to accelerate progress toward a flourishing future. The FEI has adopted the term and idea of flourishing, in place of sustainability, as a more ambitious, scientifically-based and ethically grounded possibility for all life on our planet to thrive. Organizations that deeply understand and effectively pursue the possibility of flourishing will create the potential to be significantly more innovative, adaptive and resilient; the Institute will serve to enable organizations to realize this possibility at scale. Flourishing Enterprise Institute hosted by the Viessmann Centre for Engagement & Research in Sustainability (VERiS) at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada.

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RandySad@FlourishingEnterpriseInstitute.org

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