Date: May 31, 2017
Time: 4:00 PM - 6:30 PM EDT
About the Upstate Owners Forum
Family businesses face unique challenges, as well as opportunities. To foster learning, dialog, and growth to address and understand these challenges, the Smith Family Business Initiative at Cornell is pleased to announce the formation of the Upstate Owners Forum for the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier of New York. However, all qualified members of a family business are welcome to attend, regardless of your geographical locale. The Upstate Owners Forum is reserved for owners and members of family businesses only. This on-going series seeks to connect owners of family and privately held enterprises to educate, network and inform.
What is System Thinking?
Concerned that their Ivy League students were lacking in thinking skills like problem solving, creativity, emotional intelligence, and grit, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera of Cabrera Research Lab took their research from the Ivy tower to the trenches. They started doing talks about their research around the country to anyone who would listen. The talks hit a nerve: the same concern they had was shared among business, educational and political leaders, as well as parents, teachers, and students. Energized by the overwhelming response, Laura and Derek founded an innovation and research lab with an audacious vision: 7 Billion Systems Thinkers. Ten years later, the movement they started is changing people, schools, and organizations across the US and internationally.
Drs. Derek & Laura Cabrera, authors of the new book, Systems Thinking Made Simple: New Hope for Solving Wicked Problems will present a synopsis of decades of their research about, and experience teaching systems thinking—in particular how it applies to families, business and personal development. The Cabreras will explain four simple rules that underlie systems thinking and provide an introduction to the field of systems thinking that is both comprehensive and approachable.
The Upstate Owners Forum is made possible by a generous grant from the
Fred L. Emerson Foundation. The Fred L. Emerson Foundation continues the work of Fred L. Emerson, who invested in individuals and the community with such humility that very few people knew of how many lives were impacted by his generosity. Under the leadership of the Emerson family, along with independent directors, the Foundation continues Fred L. Emerson’s legacy as especially vigilant investors in select organizations where it believes it can make a critical and significant difference.
Mark you calendars! Our next Upstate Owners Forum is on July 19th with Ken Blanchard.