Millennials are an emerging, and very important demographic. One aspect that hasn’t gotten much attention is the different ways that millennials view causes and involvement in community. In order to get millennials engaged and involved in community work, we need to approach them differently than other generations. So what does this look like?
Building Trust in Business - An Overview of Edelman Trust Barometer 2016
Edelman recently released their annual Trust Barometer report. This year was the sixteenth annual report and something we watch every year. It provides critical to insights about the state of business trust in Canada and around the world. This years report was especially interesting, and focused on the inequality of trust around the world.The report begins by introducing three segments of the world’s population:
Job Purposing: Infusing 'WHY' Into Everyday Tasks
Disengaged employees. Every company has them and for a long time, we’ve been lost in terms of motivating them. What if we could infuse purpose and meaning into an individual’s job description?Imagine yourself volunteering for a charity of your choice, and helping them to achieve their goals. Let’s pretend it’s an animal shelter, you love animals and soon you realize that while the work is hard, you are genuinely enjoying it.
The Meaning & Purpose of Community Investment!
Mount Royal University Launches New Community Investment CertificateThis past year I had the privilege of overseeing the development of a new community investment certificate for Calgary-based Mount Royal University. The certificate course will be offered online and will be open to students from any sector and will be available across Canada.Today community investment (CI) is a key business function for corporate Canada.
Shared Value: Business at it's Best!
This year’s Shared Value Leadership Summit theme was acceleration - from Shared Value theory to action. Companies around the world are intentionally designing business models and strategies around shared value that create both business and social value. As a practitioner and member of the affiliated professional network of the Shared Value Initiative, I am pleased to share my top take-aways from this year’s conference, with more to come in subsequent blogs!
The Truth About Employee Engagement
Getting (and keeping!) employees engaged and excited is a huge challenge for most businesses. Traditional tactics for engagement no longer work and people are more inclined to leave their jobs if they feel underappreciated, unchallenged, or dispensable. CEO’s are becoming increasingly worried about how they will replace the boomer generation as they retire, so it is essential that companies have great employee engagement programs in place to attract new talent as well as maintain the talent they already have.
Social Intrapreneurship: Innovate Your Company from the Inside
Intrapreneurs: People working within large companies that spend their time innovating, improving business and thinking like entrepreneurs. They are infectiously creative, passionate about their work and have a strong internal desire to bring corporations along with them. By trying to move away from ‘business as usual’ they can allow corporations to become much more efficient and progressive machines.
Our Goal for 2015: Measuring What Matters!
Here at JS Daw & Associates, we have been inspired by the B Corp movement and are making a New Year's resolution to further our goals of becoming more sustainable and 'measure what matters'! B Corporations are companies that take time to think innovatively and create shared value opportunities for all the stakeholders affected by their business. While traditional businesses tend to value their profits above all else, B Corps act with their social purpose at the core of everything they do.
Articulating a Social Purpose: The YMCA Calgary Takes a Stand to Help our City’s Kids
Every non-profit organization has a mission that is central to its operations. In today’s increasingly sophisticated non-profit sector, most organizations can articulate their mission and what they do bring it to life through programs and services. What many organizations can’t do is describe “why.” Why do they do what they do? What is their social purpose and the reason they exist? In the absence of having a clear purpose, non-profits leave significant value on the table.
Putting People First: Human Centered Design
Engaging the people at the center of an issue is the most crucial element of project design. Unfortunately, project designers often skip this step when trying to implement social change. We recently purchased IDEO’s Human Centered Design Toolkitto learn about the responsibilities of project designers in inspiring the people they work with and we have been employing some of its’ ideas in our work. For social change to be sustainable, effective and innovative, we must give community members responsibility for what is going on in their communities and incorporate their input at every step of the design process.