Part 1
Collaboration through Consultation: a Powerful Tool for Building Community
April 24, 2020 AT 09:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 PM Eastern
Dealing with the coronavirus pandemic is one thing, what comes next another. What do we need to be able to rebuild? Humanity is facing an incredible challenge of collaboration and coordination at all levels and among diverse populations. Consultation is an essential tool for this effort. By aiming to understand the truth of an issue, consultation enables participants to transcend their own points of view and, together, chart a wise course of action. Come join us and learn the basics of this vital approach to problem-solving.
Part 2
In Pursuit of Hope in a Time of Crisis
April 25, 2020 AT 09:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 PM Eastern
As COVID-19 sweeps the world, fear and panic are natural responses. The world was already in a mess, and now mass suffering is impacting everyone. For young people, their future already overshadowed by the climate catastrophe, hope may seem impossible. Yet this cloud does have a silver lining giving hope, which we can explore together. My recent book “In Pursuit of Hope”, suggests ways to arm ourselves for the environmental, social and economic challenges we are now facing and those still to come. At the individual level, all the great spiritual traditions speak of trial and suffering as paths to spiritual growth and refinement of character as we fight our inner battles. From the perspective of systems science, in a globalized world in which human organization has to adapt to a new scale of functioning, a process of rapid and often chaotic change is necessary to sweep away old institutions no longer adapted to the new reality, allowing a new and better system to emerge bringing justice and sustainability. Join us to see if you leave this discussion with more hope in the future.
Part 3
Climate Change, Coronavirus, and One World; The Choice is Clear
May 2, 2020 AT 09:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 PM Eastern
Climate change, the coronavirus, and other global challenges will not be mitigated without a global effort. While the connection between climate change, environmental sustainability, global governance is clear in the Bahá’í Teachings, the idea of global governance is rarely considered in the wider community and is often dismissed outright. The reaction by governments and societies around the world in the face of existential threats is incomplete as global governance is not receiving the attention that is needed to resolve world problems. To the rescue come youth activists around the world who are challenging the status quo. The possibility of engaging in discourse about global governance opens up when people are concerned with solving existential issues like climate change and strategies to deal with pandemics. In this webinar, we will explore how to hold family, neighborhood, and community together in a way that establishes unity and supports youth activists. There is also more reception of meaningful discourses about global coordination in different professions that have unique expertise to support coordinated global actions based on unity. We will explore how to create a unified vision based on guidance from the Bahá’í World Center to adopt a posture of learning and engage in genuine social discourse.
Part 4
From Corporate Social Responsibility to Corporate Moral Excellence
May 9, 2020 AT 09:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 PM Eastern
Many corporations have adopted corporate social responsibility (CSR) to reconcile the profit motive with “doing good”. They saw CSR as an application of enlightened self-interest. However, many CSR applications tend to be stand-alone programs tangential to core business activities that themselves may not be socially responsible. Some have lamented the failure of CSR incrementalism. We will explore an alternative based on elevating organizations to higher moral ground such that all their core activities are motivated by spiritual values. We will contrast assumptions underlying the current business model with those drawn from the Bahá’í Revelation and invite discussion of what each of us can do to support this emerging new paradigm in business.
Part 5
Rethinking Materialism from a Feminine Leadership Perspective
May 26, 2020 AT 05:00 PM Pacific, 08:00 PM Eastern
As the world goes through an unprecedented new phase of economic upheaval, a deeper analysis of materialism as the root cause of the extremes of wealth and poverty has taken on new urgency. Such an analysis involves two fundamental questions. First, what is the difference between “materialism,” which is hazardous, and “material prosperity,” which is a worthy individual and social goal? And, second, what is the most effective mode of leadership for moving society beyond materialism and facilitating the achievement of true material prosperity? It may be argued that the best mode of leadership in pursuit of shared material prosperity would be one that reflects compassion, caring, nurturing, communal behavior, and effective communication, all of which have traditionally been associated with the feminine aspects of the human society. The participants are invited to reimagine new leadership models in the context of the emerging consciousness of the need to balance the feminine and the masculine in all areas of human endeavor, including the creation of a more equitable economic system.
Part 6
The Role of Companies During Crisis
May 30, 2020 AT 09:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 PM Eastern
Can business become the solution instead of being the problem?
Many companies are addressing current crises, trying to mitigate risks to the business and to its reputation. What could be another way and attitude that allows companies to go from being the problem to becoming the solution that we expect from them? We will share the extraordinary success that the best companies in the world are achieving during these weeks of economic crises. We will see how they manage to motivate, engage their staff and connect with their communities in a sincere spirit of service, by marshaling innovation and moral values required to lead the necessary change without limiting themselves to just “managing risks”.Part 7
Building Economically Cohesive Communities in the Time of the Corona Pandemic
June 6, 2020 AT 09:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 PM Eastern
At this time of uncertainty, humanity is experiencing both horror and opportunity. At the center of it all, are pre-existing economic disparities which are being amplified by current deficits in leadership and planning, and newly created economic inequalities that are expanding due to current questionable institutional responses. This session will highlight the ways communities are building cohesion through their response to the crisis with ingenuity, creativity, mutualism and solidarity. We will briefly discuss the economic factors that threaten community cohesion then explore significant current trends that are enabling communities to innovate and transform economic vulnerability into economic cohesion. There will be plenty of time for discussion.
Part 8
Climate Change and Materialism—Challenges for an Ever-Advancing Civilization
June 13, 2020 AT 09:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 PM Eastern
Even before the devastating effects of the coronavirus on human daily life, the emergence of a global civilization has been characterized by the twin processes of integration and disintegration. Interwoven global threats such as ecological degradation, uneconomic growth that overshoots the Earth’s biocapacity, income and wealth inequality, consumerism, and the rapid erosion of agri-food resources contribute to the breakdown of the world’s social and ecological order. This session will explore how to reduce anxieties about the future through discourse by individuals and communities. Technical solutions that mitigate such problems exist but must be administered within a new world order animated by the spirit of unity that reflects the vision of Bahá’u’lláh. This session aims at understanding the current issues and their cultural roots so that individuals and humanity as a whole may gain greater capacity to contribute in effective ways to social discourse and social action leading to transformation on an unprecedented scale.
Part 9
Rethinking Society and Our Role During and After Pandemics
June 20, 2020 AT 09:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 PM Eastern
We cannot forget the times we are living in. This is a special moment in the history of humankind whose consequences were impossible to predict. No one could have imagined how coronavirus could change the daily lives of people, force a rethink of business activities nor for how long we will have to cohabit with this pandemic. But this and other unforeseen events surrounding us now, also offer us an important moment for us to redefine our way of living both at the individual and at the collective level.
Part 10
Impact Experience: Creating Justice & Building Bridges in Marginalized Communities
June 27, 2020 AT 09:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 PM Eastern
With inequality plaguing communities around the globe, there’s fierce urgency to invest in change from the ground up. How can we build bridges and deep relationships between impact investors, foundations, entrepreneurs, artists and local leaders to co-create solutions with marginalized communities? How can you tap into the expertise of each individual in minority areas to generate innovative solutions that accelerate a community’s transformation and create concrete action plans that get partnership commitments? Impact Investments is a fresh new way to create a more just, racially balanced flow of finance towards projects and companies that are good for the environment and for the people. But how can these elements be embedded in a much wider sense in the financial systems of today and tomorrow? What are the key elements of successful impact investing? What can wealth create and what can it destroy?
Part 11
Successfully Bridging the Intergenerational Gap
July 11, 2020 AT 09:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 PM Eastern
What are the views of a 16 year old and of her mother on how we can achieve it together?
How can we progress from a dualistic and often conflicting vision of whose responsibility it is to create a better future, Avah will share her insights into a new way to integrate experience, passion, joy and effectiveness to create new models of exploration, learning and action. Moving from divided and divisive assignment of blames and responsibility to a new model of integrated action and reflection.Part 12
Managing Global Organizations In a World of Justice
July 18, 2020 AT 09:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 PM Eastern
Douglas Henck shares and compares his decades of experience in the corporate world with the ideas and principles of his position as CFO at the Bahá’í World Center. When bringing together the Principles of the Faith and Corporate reality, what would he suggest shape the successful global organizations of the future – a future where corporations fulfill their inherent responsibility to contribute to a more just society? What is the kind of leadership that allows such a values-drive organization to prosper? What did he discover to be the obstacles with doing business ethically in different countries around the world? What is the best approach to create a global unified culture of values in a multinational organization?
Part 13
Transforming Companies Into Communities
July 25, 2020 AT 09:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 PM Eastern
How can we foster unity in diversity, collective action, social justice and liberating structures? What are the Teachings that can guide our present and future? What is the evolution of companies and human-centered leadership? Sharing the fundamental concepts of Learning organizations, organizations where people continually expand their capacities, new thinking is nurtured, collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together.
Part 14
How Humanitarian Organizations Navigate New Global Realities in 2020
August 1, 2020 AT 09:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 PM Eastern
Specialized agencies of the United Nations together with international NGOs recognize the need to change what some have labelled paternalistic and outdated approaches to aid and humanitarian assistance. New approaches reflect an evolution in thinking about locally led response, the need for external experts, people as protagonists in the recovery of their communities and recognition of the capacities and resilience inherent in every person to respond in crisis. Working in various emergency response situations, Rhonda brings knowledge of how this aspect of the UN is driving new ways of working.