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***Apologies for cross-posting***

Friends,

We invite you to participate in the All-Academy Themed (AAT) PDW on "In Search of Sustainability Metaphors: The Power of Words to Mobilize Collective Action" on Sunday, August 3rd from 2:30 PM to 5:00 PM. You can find the session details at: http://program.aom.org/2014/submission.asp?mode=ShowSession&SessionID=1128.

From global warming challenge to income inequality – how issues get framed has become more important in the discourse, and those in favor of the status quo have managed to frame the issues successfully in their favor (Lakoff, 2010). It is clear that we are limited by the default language to express complex ideas to others and to rally them behind the most important cause in our times. In the 1960s, "earth as a spaceship" metaphor helped create wide-spread awareness that we live in a resource-constrained planet, and spur the environmental movement. Now more than ever, we need equally powerful metaphors to translate this understanding of our planet, as not illimitable, to action towards a sustainable earth.

The objectives of this PDW are to:

·  provide participants with the opportunity to work together with practitioners to examine ways to communicate the key sustainability issues to spur collective action;

·  focus on addressing the design challenge of "How might we develop new metaphors that present a compelling rationale for sustainability within and beyond the business world?";

·  generate new research ideas based on linguistics, cognitive science and social sciences; and,

·  provide evidence-based methods for communicating today's realities and pressing challenges.

We don't intend to conduct a panel discussion of experts; instead, we will facilitate an all-hands in workshop focusing on developing new metaphors to describe the challenges of today and how we can reimagine our world functioning. Using the Design Thinking for Scholars framework developed by the Network of Leadership Scholars, participants will work on addressing the challenge of developing new metaphors that present a compelling rationale for sustainability within and beyond the business world. 

Resource experts, video and other multimedia information will be available to participants to work through the design challenge and identify new solutions to the design challenge. The PDW will conclude with a summary of design outcomes. The participants will leave with a set of new research ideas and a working knowledge of the Design Thinking for Scholars.

Even though All-Academy sessions do not require pre-registration, we encourage you to email us (sivasubr@duq.edu or kdembek@gmail.com) in advance if you are interested in attending, so we can share some essential readings and information prior to the meeting.

Looking forward to seeing many of you at our session in Philadelphia,

Best wishes,

--Nagaraj

On behalf of AAT-PDW Co-organizers

Chris Dembek, University of Melbourne (kdembek@gmail.com)

Andrew Marshall, Primed Associates, LLC (drew@thinkprimed.com) (our design thinking facilitator)

Nagaraj Sivasubramaniam, Duquesne University (sivasubr@duq.edu)  

Nagaraj Sivasubramaniam

Associate Professor of Leadership

Management Department

454 Rockwell Hall

Palumbo-Donahue Schools of Business

Duquesne University

600 Forbes Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15282

(412) 396 6251

http://mba.sustainability.duq.edu/