Branding from the Core

Have you heard of Khan Academy? One man has delivered over 135 MILLION learning modules for free to learners all over the world.

The Branding from the Core® team is continually researching innovations in scalable learning and creative content delivery via online platforms. We are eager to see where this emerging approach takes the future of global education.

Bill Gates said: "Salman Khan is a pioneer in an overall movement to use technology to let more and more people learn things and know where they stand. It's the start of a revolution."

Khan Academy website

Bill Gates talks about Sal Khan

A diverse group of thirty-seven community members from the for-profit, non-profit, and public sectors engaged in a full-day workshop on Thursday, hosted by idgroup founder and change expert Mona Amodeo, Ph.D. The branding “bootcamp” introduced participants to a change management process called Branding from the Core, designed to engage diverse stakeholders in a dialogue-based process that ignites innovation and positive change.

Cynthia Williams, Administrator of the Office of Sustainability for the City of Pensacola, commented, “Sustainability is such a broad category, so there is a lot of room for how we approach it. This bootcamp is definitely giving us food for thought to take back on how we approach things, and how we work with other people by recognizing their core values.”

Participants worked to identify their core identity, map their top strengths, and collaborate around aspirational visions for change in our community. Work groups explored innovative ideas in exercises designed to demonstrate the power of Branding from the Core. Work group topics included: nurturing a healthy and sustainable environment, building a strong economy, providing affordable community healthcare, enhancing art and music in schools, and creating a quality and competitive K-12 education system.  Participants explored opportunities for growth in their personal, professional and public lives and made commitments to pursue them moving forward.

Amodeo stated: “It’s exciting to see people come together from such a diverse group of organizations to experience the kind of dynamic collaboration that we achieve with our clients around identity and vision alignment. I am confident that the participants will continue to explore the topics they discussed as advocates for positive change in our community.”

idgroup plans to host additional workshops and community events in 2012 that bring people together to address the challenges facing our community, inspire action, and create lasting change. Find more information at www.idgroupusa.com or contact Aaron Ball at (850) 858-0862.

Attendees from organizations across multiple sectors included:

Robert Montgomery - Montgomery Realty

Cynthia Williams – The City of Pensacola

Rick Outzen and Joani Delezen - Independent News

Terri Gatton - Andrews Institute

Leigh Capps - Cat Country Radio

Jamie McDonald - Navy Federal

Emily Homan - Cox Communications

Lorenzo Aguilar - Anytime Fitness

Teresa Dos Santos - Contract Resources

Brittany Armistead, James Bills, Nickie Cooper, and Billy Hayes - Columbia Southern University

Chelsea Berry, Christy Farish, Amanda Gunter, Jenna Vangieson - Retina Specialty Institute

Chris Kenney and Annie MacCarroll - Coco Design

Sabine Barrett, Mimi Meredith, Josh Sullivan - SETAC

Tonya Laczko and Jennifer Adams - Pensacola Nephrology/The Kidney Group Shelley Ragsdale - Naval Aviation Museum Foundation

Kristen Sylvester, Brianne Perciball, and Julie McDonald from Woodlands Medical Specialists

Kelly Wieczorek from Bay Design Associates Architects

Casey Patterson, Beth Onderdonk from Aaron Oil

Appreciative Inquiry with Mona Amodeo and Interface's Jim Hartzfeld from Sustainable Brands on Vimeo.

Have you begun planning your personal/professional development for 2012? Start the year off right by attending our full-day bootcamp designed to revolutionize your personal brand. Reserve your seat before the end of the year to secure an advanced discount rate.

By Mona Amodeo, Ph.D.

It’s a crazy world.   A time of unprecedented change—where stability has become a dangerous illusion. The information explosion is reaching beyond the human machine’s power to process and integrate.  Technology provides unlimited possibilities…but also equally challenging choices.

Many believe this is an intersection for humanity. The signs that tell us we are in trouble if we continue to do things the way we have always done them—our institutions are failing, our politics in turmoil, even Joe Paterno has disappointed us. 

So, what power do those of us who work in organizations have to impact the future? Do we have the power to make a difference?

I say enormous. If we choose to take on the challenge.

Business and industry are the largest and most powerful forces on earth. One thing all organizations have in common—small, large, multi-national or local, is they must innovate to survive—and thrive. They are dependent upon the acceptance of the marketplace, their performance, and perception of value if they are to sustain growth in today’s economy.

I believe the communications industry has a unique opportunity at this point in history to redefine the identity and the perceived value of our profession. But seizing this opportunity will require us to think beyond the way we are doing things. We need a new conversation. I know the collective “we” has a vital role in impacting the mindset and values of this country through the businesses we work with—and the reality is that we are a very powerful group.

The Branding from the Core Challenge

Several years ago, I challenged the team at idgroup in Pensacola and Cleveland to redefine branding, to reach beyond defining ourselves by what we “do”—Over several years of research and work with our clients, we created a process called Branding from the Core. We coined the name because we believe the real potential of an organization is realized when leaders choose to unleash the power of people by engaging them and connecting them to core purpose and vision…to enlist their intellect, energy and commitment to propel the organization to new levels of performance—thus building perceptions that will ultimately help organizations not only survive but thrive. The process creates deep meaning for people who do the work and ensures lasting results…pretty amazing!

By Mona Amodeo, Ph.D

Help Wanted: Big Thinkers needed to solve big problems. Must be willing to think beyond the limitations of their own assumptions, have extreme faith in the human spirit and be a “can do” thinker.

I would cast my vote for Starbucks CEO and Founder, Howard Schulz as the leading job candidate. Not because he has succeeded in getting a large part of the world to pay $5.00 for a cup of coffee…can you imagine? He did—and then made it happen!  Schulz has recently put his entrepreneurial spirit to work solving America’s growing imagination problem—disguised as a 9% unemployment rate.  Listening to a recent interview with Schultz about his “Americans helping American’s” initiative  ignited an ember of hope. His premise is really quite simple. While government certainly has a role, we can’t wait around for Washington to find all of the answers— as Mississippi governor Haley Barber said during a post-Katrina interview, it’s, time to “hitch up our britches” and do something.  Just as we have always done when faced with huge threats or great opportunities, the American people will respond when called to action--remember WWII or the Space Race? The threats and opportunities facing us today are in some ways our greatest--challenging the very core of who we are. We need a call to action. If our political leaders won’t rally our collective will, maybe business leaders can fill that leadership void.

I applaud Shultz for his willingness to do something. Not just talk or throw stones, but to challenge us to get involved. He has provided a a simple way that each of us can contribute to changing the dialogue.  I believe Americans are ready to respond. It is simply in our DNA.  So I encourage you to take this small action that has a potentially great ROI. Join Schultz in his effort to reignite possibility through individual responsibility. Purchase a bracelet that says it all “indivisible.” Imagine that.

Think about this...

Change requires action.

Action requires a plan.

A plan requires a strategy.

A strategy requires goals and enabling objectives.

Goals and objectives require a mission.

A mission is defined by a vision.

A vision is set by one's values.

Mona Amodeo

Ray Anderson will be remembered by the world as a sustainability pioneer. A man who “got it” before most, a passionate crusader for what he believed. He informed us, charmed us and inspired us through his storytelling to join his cause. He leaves his mark on the world as an entrepreneurial thinker and as a major force in redefining outdated industrial business models.

By Mona Amodeo, Ph.D

As Bob Dylan once wrote...”the times they are a- changin.” Never before in the history of mankind has that simple phrase been so true, as now.

The rising tide of social, environmental and eco- nomic challenge is creating an undeniable impact on every aspect of society fueled by climate change, corporate greed, economic meltdown, is- sues of over-consumption and a plethora of social and environmentally induced health issues.

We are swimming in the waters of uncertainty and the powerful currents of change. Traditional ways of thinking, acting and doing are simply not sufficient to grapple with the challenges we are facing as a global society. What is needed is a new paradigm that rejects segmented thinking in favor of a more systemic perspective, offering hope for creating innovative solutions to sustain our quality of life, while ensuring our children and future generations inherit a viable world.

A variety of factors including societal shifts, an increasingly compelling business case for sustain- ability and the growing chorus of people calling for change, has moved sustainability from the fringe to forefront of discussions. It has become a major topic of conversation in boardrooms and executive suites in organizations of every shape and size. In every corner of the globe leaders seem to be wrestling with what sustainability means to their organization, its viability and how to effectively engage people in “walking the talk.”

A comment from an executive in a recent conver- sation we had about sustainability offers a snap shot of the current situation, “ if you and I had talked about this subject a couple of years ago, I would have politely listened, but really would not have thought much about the conversation after you walked out the door. Today, I am still not sure exactly what sustainability means to our organization, but I know I need to find out.” This short segment of conversation is symbolic of the increasing interest in sustainability, but also reflects the need for guidance about what sus- tainability means and how to bring these values into institutional cultures.

Institutions of Higher Education have a unique opportunity to fill this need through research and influence and perhaps most importantly by be- coming living laboratories that can help us learn how to develop sustainability-focused cultures. The University of Southern Mississippi is one of the 600 institutions of higher education thathave embraced this challenge through their com- mitment to the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment.

We are proud of our work with University of Southern Mississippi and invite you to explore the vital transformation they have undergone. 

What is sustainability? Is it a process, a concept, a strategy? All of these combined? The United Nations’ Brundtland Report broadly defined sustainability as ensuring that humanity meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

From our perspective, sustainability derives it greatest power and potential in organizations when it is embraced as a set of core values that uplift and integrate economic prosperity, environmental stewardship and social responsibility, sometimes referred to as people, profit and planet. When an organization embraces these sustainability values and weaves them into the fabric of the social architecture it becomes definitional – manifesting itself in everything the company says, feels and does. Each organization must arrive at its own shared understanding of what sustainability means and create its own unique path to bring those ideals to life. So what makes that possible?

Perhaps what’s most daunting about this journey to sustainability is the realization that our traditional ways of thinking, acting and running a business are simply no longer sufficient. What’s required is whole-system change of an unprecedented magnitude – at the individual, organizational and societal level. However, what research shows us is that traditional change approaches – that is, linear step-by-step methods – are ill suited to address such complex challenges unfolding in an uncertain, ever-changing future. As Paul Hawken stated in his book Blessed Unrest, ‘The current state of the world reflects a problem-solving methodology never seen in nature: remedies from above imposed upon the excluded’ (p. 179). What’s needed is a new change in approach.

More specifically, we have discovered that to successfully make sustainability an organizational reality, leadership must put forth bold visions while engaging their organization in different, deeper conversations about the purpose and responsibility of business. Moreover, there must be conscious intent to engage the whole system in dialogue and synergistic relationships in such a way that: mental models are surfaced; new knowledge, structures, processes, practices and stories are collaboratively created and shared; and diverse stakeholder voices and perspectives are heard. The bottom line is that there simply must be a willingness to go far beyond surface-level change to challenging assumptions and some long-held beliefs.

As such, the clarion call is for transformative conversations around sustainability, spawning innovation, marketplace recognition, employee engagement, pride and customer loyalty – all key factors in driving bottom line profitability. We know from our experience with Appreciative Inquiry (AI) that it is designed for these conversations.

AI works because it:

Engages the whole system

Educates by accelerating learning across the organization and

Energizes high performance

All unleash the creativity and innovation residing in the system. It is for these reasons that we believe that AI can be one of the leading change approaches underpinning the sustainability journey.

[Excerpt from a previously published article by Mona Amodeo, Ph.D, C. Keith Cox, Daniel K. Saint and Jacqueline M. Stavros. Based upon the ground-breaking work of David Cooperrider]