AIM2Flourish Videos

"For 35 years, we've been asking... what causes any human system to come alive, more naturally, effectively, and faster than before? The answer... begins with new questions." Jon Berghoff says in his talk that we have control over the meaning we give things, and appreciative inquiry is a good path forward. He asks, what is happening a generation from now, in your image of the future, that you most want to create? Only two things intrigue Jon Berghoff more than the art of asking a beautiful question. The first: possibilities. Possibilities for how questions might cause our human systems to come alive, be at our best, play to our strengths, innovate from everywhere, deepen our sense of purpose or even, dare we say, save the world. The second: science. The data-driven, scientifically informed craft of designing questions in a way that makes what is possible become probable. Early entrepreneurial ventures served as a “way out” for Jon, diagnosed with ADHD and rejected from every college he applied to. Eventually, his insatiable curiosity propelled him to lead the meteoric sales growth for Vitamix Corporation, from $40 million to $175 million in just four years. Today, Jon and his team at Flourishing Leadership Institute are guided by one question: What causes a human system to come alive faster, more effectively, and more naturally than ever before? The answers might surprise you. lead2flourish.com This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

Professor David Cooperrider speaking about AIM2Flourish at the Center for Positive Organizations conference at the Michigan Ross School of Business on April 24 2017. His full keynote presentation can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWQXH2oKgmE AIM2Flourish is an initiative of the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit at the Weatherhead School of Management - Case Western Reserve University. Powered by Appreciative Inquiry, AIM2Flourish is the world's first higher-education curriculum, story platform and prize for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and business' role in achieving them. Be inspired by the 500+ student-written stories of business innovation for good at AIM2Flourish.com. Learn more about the initiative at http://www.AIM2FlourishTeam.com

AACSB International's Dan LeClair talks with AIM2Flourish's executive director Roberta Baskin about the inspiration for AIM2Flourish, a project that aims to "shed a bright light across the planet looking at ways that companies are tackling [the UN's] Sustainable Development Goals," to benefit global society. AIM2Flourish.com is housed at the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit in the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

The Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit's Faculty Executive Director Chris Laszlo, Ph.D., presented a key note at the Leading for Well-being Conference hosted at the OECD headquarters in Paris, France on Feb 23-24. Laszlo’ opening keynote of the two-day OECD workshop on “Measuring Business Impacts on People’s Wellbeing” was titled “How can the business sector become a positive driver of human well-being?” His presentation centered on results and areas of emerging research from the Fowler Center’s AIM2Flourish initiative. The Workshop is organized in collaboration with the OECD and others as part of the Leading for Well-being initiative, an international coalition of organizations, scholars, business people, media experts and policy makers seeking to integrate the emerging practice of well-being with more sustainable practices at the corporate, community and policy levels. The Fowler Center is a founding co-sponsor for the Leading for Well-being initiative. The AIM2Flourish initiative connects students and business leaders worldwide to discover and learn about profitable innovations for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a flourishing world for all. AIM2Flourish is the world’s first higher education curriculum, story platform, and recognition program for SDGs business solutions. Students interview a business leader using Appreciative Inquiry questions (a positive, strengths-based approach created at Case Western Reserve University), and then publish a story (425 as of Feb. 2017) on AIM2Flourish.com. The inaugural Flourish Prizes—one for each SDG—will be awarded at the June 2017 Fourth Global Forum: Discovering Flourishing Enterprise, hosted at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. Learn more at http://www.AIM2FlourishTeam.com. Laszlo is the Char and Chuck Fowler Professor of Business as an Agent of World Benefit and Faculty Executive Director of the Fowler Center at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. To learn more about the Feb. 23-24 workshop, please visit http://www.oecd.org/statistics/Workshop-on-Measuring-Business-Impacts-on-Peoples-Well-being-agenda.pdf. Visit the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit's website at: https://weatherhead.case.edu/centers/fowler/

In this 3-minute video, AIM2Flourish Executive Director Roberta Baskin discusses AIM2Flourish, the innovative global learning project in which business school students use Appreciative Inquiry to highlight businesses that are innovating in ways that meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and benefit global society. Roberta is joined in this video conversation by AACSB Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer Dan Leclair. AIM2Flourish is hosted at the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

AIM2Flourish.com is a UN-supported global learning platform for the Global Goals. Business students around the world in 30+ countries are using Appreciative Inquiry (strength-based interviews) and the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development as a lens to search out and report on world-changing innovations. We’ll celebrate the best-of-the-best in June 2017 at the 4th Global Forum. We are inspiring the next generation of business leaders to build a better world by discovering new ways of doing business that are both profitable and progressive: Business as an Agent of World Benefit. Hosted at the Fowler Center at the Weatherhead School of Management and co-sponsored by UN Global Compact PRME and the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI). Join us at AIM2Flourish.com (Global Platform) and AIM2FlourishTeam.com (Project Site). Directed by Nick Conedera | www.nickconedera.com Music by Sigur Ros, used with permission | http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/

Published on Apr 8, 2016

Hear AIM2Flourish Ambassador Isabel Rimanoczy's March 2016 TEDxNSU talk on living a life with purpose. What if we were tasked with making a difference, so that our time on this planet leaves it better than we found it? This thought launched me into a new career as a Legacy Coach working with people who want to make a difference. I researched leaders who champion initiatives that have made a positive impact on the world, hoping to find ways to actively develop a new generation of responsible, purposeful leaders. I call it the "sustainability mindset in action."

Isabel Rimanoczy's life purpose is to develop change accelerators. Aware of the complex challenges we and our planet are facing, she works alongside those who can make a large-scale impact. Rimanoczy, Ed.D., developed the Sustainability Mindset, a concept she researched by studying business leaders who champion corporate initiatives with a positive impact on the environment and the community. She is a member of the AIM2Flourish Core Team and Ambassador for our global professor community. She is also the author of several books, including Big Bang Being: Developing the Sustainability Mindset, and has published over 140 articles and book chapters. Rimanoczy is a blogger for the Huffington Post and is currently working on a book about teaching and learning for responsible management education. She is a partner with Leadership in Motion and co-founder of the nonprofit organization Minervas: Women Changing the World. Rimanoczy holds a doctorate from Columbia University, an M.B.A. from Universidad de Palermo, and a B.A. in Psychology from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, and is a Scholar in Residence at Nova Southeastern University, South Florida.

Welcome to Appreciative Inquiry. This short video will give you an introduction and some suggestions for conducting your AIM2Flourish interview with a business leader. Appreciative Inquiry brings out the best in people and organizations. So in addition to lifting up an inspiring story about business, you and the person you interview are going to have a positive experience. These interviews are fun for both you and your interviewee. It might seem a bit daunting to contact a business leader and ask for an interview. But what you don’t realize, until you conduct one of these interviews, is that you are providing the business leader an opportunity to shine a light on something they are passionate about. And by the end of the conversation, they will most likely be thanking you for helping them tell a story about something they are proud of in their company. Many thanks to Lindsey N. Godwin, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Management, Stiller School of Business and Director for the David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry at Champlain College.

In her insightful October 2015 TEDxUrsulineCollege talk, Dr. Nurete Brenner, Director of the MBA Program at Ursuline College, describes the ways that business can be operated in a socially conscious manner that benefits all of society. Dr. Brenner is a member of the AIM2Flourish Core Team, is an AIM2Flourish Professor and is co-leading the AIM2Flouish Business for Peace initiative.

Lindsey N. Godwin, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Management at the Robert. P. Stiller School of Business at Champlain College and the Academic Director for the Cooperrider Center, introduces us to Appreciative Inquiry.

On June 23, 2015 business students and professors from 19 countries gathered in New York City for the wildly successful--and unexpectedly emotional--launch of AIM2Flourish. Join us at AIM2Flourish.com, follow us @AIM2Flourish, learn more at AIM2Flourish.com. We introduced our new global learning platform and prizing initiative for business innovations at the UN Global Compact’s 15th anniversary events in New York City. AIM2Flourish is a student-driven initiative at management schools globally using the UN's new Sustainable Development Goals as a lens to discover and report on radical innovations. The stories will become nominations for the inaugural prizes to be awarded in June 2017. AIM2Flourish’s Spring 2015 pilot project of 24 professors and over 100 students generated some 60 stories about business innovators, all of which can be seen on the new AIM2Flourish.com platform. AIM2Flourish team members David Cooperrider, Roger Saillant, Roberta Baskin, Joe Kane, and Claire Sommer attended, as well as Chuck Fowler, Chairman, Case Western Reserve University Board of Trustees, and technology partner Kristine Sturgeon, President, Purposeful Networks.

Highlights from the 2015 Global Forum for Responsible Management Education - 6th PRME Assembly where AIM2Flourish launched our online platform and Spring 2015 pilot results. June 23-24, 2015, New York, NY.

A pilot project designing a global platform for business innovation stories that uplift humanity. 24 professors and 100+ students from 19 different countries have submitted 55 incredible stories.

Flourishing enterprise: how it's different from business-as-usual and why it will help you and your organization thrive

Hear Kofi Annan, David Cooperrider and business leaders discuss the role of business and the UN Global Compact in solving the world's greatest challenges

On February 2, a group of 50 wildly creative game-design students, business leaders, and management school professors met in Burlington, Vermont for a one-day brainstorming session to co-create the Flourish Prizes' online platform. The group was hosted by Champlain College’s Emergent Media Center and David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry, and convened by the Case Western Reserve University's Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit. Watch Dr. David Cooperrider, Fairmount Santrol - David L. Cooperrider Professor in Appreciative Inquiry and Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management explain why we need Nobel-level prizes to recognize business as an agent of world benefit, and why now is the time to create them.

On February 2, a group of 50 wildly creative game-design students, business leaders, and management school professors met in Burlington, Vermont for a one-day brainstorming session to co-create the Flourish Prizes' online platform. The group was hosted by Champlain College’s Emergent Media Center and David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry, and convened by the Case Western Reserve University's Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit. Hear Joshua Miller, a Champlain College Creative Media Major, talk about the effect that a prize for business could have on the world.

On February 2, a group of 50 wildly creative game-design students, business leaders, and management school professors met in Burlington, Vermont for a one-day brainstorming session to co-create the Flourish Prizes' online platform. The group was hosted by Champlain College’s Emergent Media Center and David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry, and convened by the Case Western Reserve University's Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit. Watch Dr. Steven Shepard, founder of the Shepard Communications Group in Williston, Vermont and Emeritus member of the Board of Trustees of Champlain College, share why education is the critical catalyst for empowering knowledge, insight, creativity, innovation and change.

Date July 6, 2015.
Watch Dr. David Cooperrider's plenary address to the Fourth World Congress on Positive Psychology called "P2: Mirror Flourishing: Appreciative Inquiry and the Designing of Positive Institutions." In this plenary, David Cooperrider explores the proposition that the quest for a flourishing earth is the most significant positive psychology and organization development opportunity of the 21st century. When people in organizations work toward building a sustainable and flourishing world, he says, they too are poised to flourish in ways that elevate innovation, personal excellence, and work-place well being. July 6, 2015, Johannesburg, South Africa.