GLOBALIZATION.COM: MOBILIZING HUMAN SPIRIT IN PERSON AND ONLINE

Diana Whitney, Dinesh Chandra, Gurudev Khalsa, Jane Watkins

Global Citizens
As organization development consultants we believe, as Gandhi said, "we must be the change we seek to create." To do great organization development work, we must do our own work, and pursue our own development intellectually, physically, emotionally and spiritually. To work globally we must live globally. We must be global citizens. If we could carry "global passports" we would do so. With deep respect for our countries of origin, the United States and India, all of us live and work globally. Our clients span the globe, as do our lives, our friends and our families. Our personal and professional journeys have led us all to work and learn from colleagues, clients, friends and lovers from countries and cultures other than those of our birth.

For all of us, working globally has been formative. Our sense of self has become a polyphonic medley of voices acquired from our country of origin and supplemented as we worked with people of other faiths, cultures, ethnicities and countries. Each time we deeply and authentically encounter another we discover them in ourselves; and from that time forward, we carry them with us. We have been enriched through our meetings with others of like spirit and heart expressed in different languages, dress, dance and song.

We live and work within the postmodern paradoxes of non-geographical heartlands, technologically connected social alienation, and power in flux. We care about the well being of the whole while at the same time enjoying the uniqueness of cultural localities. We partake in and appreciate the rituals, ceremonies, foods, dress and politics of different countries and cultures while also holding dear to our own values and ways of being. We strive to demonstrate cultural sensitivity while at the same time maintaining a sense of self that gives us something to share with others. We believe in both local self-determination and the well being of our global village. We work to create and sustain local vitality within the global social and economic context.

What is it that makes a global citizen? Dinesh Chandra (1999) suggests the following:
· To live in a country other than where I was born.
· To work in many different countries.
· To learn a language other than my mother tongue.
· To remain open to new belief systems and ideas.
· To search for my purpose and align my life to that purpose.
· To educate myself on the global issues and accept my responsibility to them even if I am not able to do much about them at the moment.
· And intuitively I know there is something more…

Chandra goes on to say, "Global citizens realize that they are part of a whole, one in six billion. They recognize the interconnectedness of all life on the planet and they yearn to serve the well being of the whole. Roger Sant and Dennis Bakke founded a company called Applied Energy Services (AES) in 1981 to create efficient energy while elevating people's behavior at work to a higher moral plane-a somewhat esoteric idea from Wall Street's perspective! The phenomenal success of AES in Arlington, Virginia, the world's largest privately owned generator of electricity, is living proof that it works. A huge financial success (estimated 1998 revenue of $2.6 billion and $297 million earnings, with 11,000 employees around the globe), this company operates on four principles: Create a fun place, put social responsibility ahead of making money, act with integrity, and treat all people with fairness. Many businesses claim to operate with high principles but in reality find it hard to live up to them. But this company translated its values into action. A strong sense of caring for the whole seems to bring about this shift. When people begin to ask the question, "How can I be of help to others?" rather than "What's in it for me?" they take a step toward global citizenship."

Concepts of Globalization
Globalization is first and foremost a consciousness, a way of thinking and being that recognizes the essential interconnectivity of all life on the planet. For us, globalization is embodied in discourse that orients awareness and responsibility to the whole planet. Concern for the whole is not a simple matter. Jan Nederveen Pieterese (1994) suggests that globalization might best be understood as a hybridization of structures, of forms of cooperation and of cultures. In our experience this is certainly the case. Of note organizationally is the Mountain Forum, a global NGO whose purpose is the care and preservation of mountain cultures and ecologies around the world. An organization driven by a truly global mission, the Mountain Forum rises up as a model of global organizing as well. As an alliance among many organizations, it is a unique form of global cooperation. It like so many emerging postmodern organizations is a unique blend of social movement and organization. Work with several such enterprises led Gurudev Khalsa to coin the phrase "organimovement."

For some, globalization means doing business around the world, penetrating global markets and creating global brands. While the drive for market expansion may be the initiating force for business globalization, it can seldom sustain the enterprise. Global organizing once entered into becomes a delicate weave of economic, cultural, political, and social justice concerns. As Arjun Appadurai (1990) describes them, the building blocks of globalization are: ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, financescapes and ideoscapes. Each organization, be it business or community centered must find a balance among the issues, images and possibilities implied in these five dimensions of the global flow.

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Global Organizing Agenda
Working globally is an opportunity to work in harmony with the natural creative energies of the planet. Dee Hock reflects on the opportunity of this time when he says, "We are at the very point in time when a 400-year old age is dying and another is struggling to be born, a shifting of culture, science, society, and institutions enormously greater than the world has ever experienced. Ahead, the possibility of the regeneration of relationships, liberty, community, and ethics such as the world has never known, and a harmony with nature, with one another, and with the divine intelligence such as the world has never dreamed."

As we work to create the future of life, communities and organizations on the planet, there are a number of issues that must be addressed.
· Governance: Decision Making, Power and Authority
· Integrity of Monetary Logics
· Social Justice
· Women's Place on the Planet
· Balancing Local with Global
· Spiritual Freedom
· Sustaining Bio Diversity and Ethno Diversity
· Using Technology in the Service of Higher Purpose

As David Korten (1994) points out shifts in the global agenda are taking place. Development ideology is shifting from a focus on economic growth, free markets, and economic globalization to discussions of equity, local self-reliance, social movements, culture, gender, low impact agriculture, sustainable energy use, environmental balance, community economic and social transformation, democracy, accountability and partnership. The movement is from economic centered development to people centered development; and from economic growth to social well-being.
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Technology: Liberation and Limitations
Technology has awakened the global mind. It has brought with it a consciousness of the whole planet as one global village. And it enables meetings among "global villagers" living in distant parts of the globe. The uses of technology can be both liberating and limiting. Early experiments are teaching us much. Gurudev Khalsa describes an experience facilitating the design of a five-day global summit on line: "My role for the past three years in the URI has been to coordinate the design and facilitation of the global summits. We have typically brought together about 200 people from around the world and a myriad of different faiths, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions for each global summit. Each year we engaged a team of people in planning and facilitating the summit. Over the years, the summit leadership team evolved from a team of professional facilitators to one in which the leadership of the nascent URI became the heart of the design team and the visible leaders of the summits.

For the 2000 global summit, our most ambitious to-date, we had a leadership team whose first face-to-face meeting was the day before the summit began! All of the planning work was carried out by a combination of conference calls, small group meetings, and at the center, an elaborate series of e-group conversations that involved 30 people in eight different e-groups. For me as the convener, and for many on the team, the internet-mediated planning was a peak experience. Because of my role as coordinator, I may have been the only one who read (or needed to read) all of the hundreds of messages we collectively generated. Many people contributed ideas and linkages outside their own one or two e-groups, and the whole evolution of the design was transparent to everyone involved. Given the fact that the planning team members spanned five continents and that budgetary restrictions did not allow for face-to-face meetings, the e-groups approach was an essential tool in ensuring the planning would be genuinely global. Though many of the people in the group knew each other already, and therefore had a relational connection, some of the most active members in the conversation were brand new and expressed their profound delight at the sense of community they experienced and contributed to electronically.

On the other hand, the sheer volume of messages was problematic for many, who found themselves overwhelmed and unable effectively to cope. Not everyone, especially in an international group where English is not always one's first language, is equally facile at written communication. Nor, as mentioned earlier, was everyone equally skilled or even familiar with e-conversations. E-groups, like face-to-face groups, must work out their group dynamics around similar issues of inclusion, participation, airtime, drawing out silent voices, etc., but the means and norms of doing so are less developed in e-groups than in real time face-to-face meetings.

Our face-to-face meeting one-day before the summit was one of the more difficult planning meetings we have held, as issues that had not been adequately aired before hand came forward with an urgency fueled by the immediacy of the event we were planning. Still, almost all of the e-groups, each with their own team leader, had quite a powerful sense of identity, purpose, and autonomously and elegantly fulfilled their charge during the week. The work flowed as one group after another took charge of their sessions and/or their coordinating responsibilities. The biggest challenges were in areas affecting more than one e-group, where tensions between the competing agendas of the groups didn't have sufficient time to be worked out smoothly.

All in all, we are very excited by what e-groups enabled us to do that could not have happened otherwise, making global organizing a reality. It was inspiring and surprising to feel a sense of group cohesion in this new medium, albeit not equally shared by everyone. We are encouraged that upon further reflection and better implementation--including a timeline that allows for less rushed decision-making at the tail end--we will discover how to make electronic organizing provide an even stronger contribution to the work of the URI in the coming years. Finally, the experience supports for me the irreplaceable value of face-to-face time, when things not communicated otherwise have a chance to be aired and worked in real time with everyone present."

Globalization: An Opening to Spirit
Working with the creation of the United Religions Initiative, a global interfaith organization has been a learning opportunity of a lifetime. We were on such uncharted ground that all we could do was learn and create and then learn from our own creations. Diana Whitney describes it as a learning laboratory in global cooperation and organizing, "I used to imagine traveling around the world and meeting great spiritual teachers. I wanted to learn about their spiritual traditions and about the organizations that grew up around them. I was curious about spiritually based organizing. And then the opportunity to facilitate the founding and design of the United Religions Initiative came along. It seems like a dream come true. The only difference is that we are all traveling to meet each other; and we are all working together to design a unique global organization based on our most cherished spiritual values. It has been a great experiment, a learning laboratory, in global cooperation and global organizing."

The United Religions Initiative, like all global organizing efforts, requires that we come face to face with "the other" - people who have previously existed only in stories, images and travel guide books. These meetings, when facilitated with Appreciative Inquiry, have led to profound personal transformations, close friendships dedicated to the service of global good and to innovative and practical ideas for organizing and action. Meeting "the other" creates an opening for personal transformation. Over and over again, people have said that as they got to know others who are different from them, they also got to know themselves. And as they came to understand the faith, traditions and religions of others, they came to understand their own traditions and religions better. Journeys into globalization, when traversed relationally, provide an opening to the self that is not otherwise accessible. The surprise of discovering oneself in conversation with "the other" creates a sense of awe and compassion that can only be described as spiritual.

OD Professionals in the Service of the Global Good

In closing, we would like to reflect upon the implications of our experiences for OD Professions working globally. First, take care for the whole. We are in a time when the seeds we plant will grow the future we live. The phrase, "think global act local" has never been more meaningful. Awareness of global possibilities and concerns is essential to a local community or business as it seeks to define its place in the new global order. It is not a time to be an ostrich and bury one's head in the sands of one's locality. It is a time to be an eagle and soar above the whole, seeing the patterns of possibility, opportunity and change that are emerging.

Second, attend to relational meaning making and relationship building. Globalization brings an awareness of interconnectivity. Working globally means working relationally, building alliances, partnerships, and new forms of cooperation. It means giving time and space to processes of co-creation and authentic participation. The lone ranger will not be the hero of he twenty first century. Recognition will go to improbable pairs, people, communities and nations who transcend boundaries and build new relational realities.

Third, focus on the triple bottom line: economic, social and environmental prosperity. No longer can any organization be single minded in purpose. Corporations, NGOs and governments are all being challenged to balance the triple bottom line. They are being asked by stakeholders to attend to the social needs, environmental needs and the economics needs of the planet. Equity, balance and diversity are as important results as profit and return on investment.

Fourth, deal with issues of power and authority. We will not change the fabric of organizational life unless we, and our clients are willing to let go of power as an object of possession and share it as a resource of the whole. Questions of governance and decision-making are at the heart of globalization.

Fifth, work for product diversity as well as social diversity. It does no good to conduct diversity trainings and then produce products that homogenize the world. Organizations committed to the global good must find ways to adapt their products to the local needs of communities around the world rather than pitch a one size fits all product. Working globally means supporting the success and sustainability of local communities and cultures.

And sixth, pay attention to energy and spirit - focus on what gives life. Use a positive approach to change management; one that recognizes what works in the organization or community. Share bestpractices in learning forums and innovation teams. Focus on people and socialresponsibility before profit. Enjoy what you are doing, or don't do it. Seek tobring out the best in others, and don't be surprised if it brings out your besttoo.