Ashley Welch of Interaction Associates conducted a timely conversation with her colleague from the Interaction Institute for Social Change, Melinda Weekes (pictured below left). They discussed Strategies for Designing Social Change, exploring ways leaders in any sector can succeed when leading change.

Becoming and Belonging: the Underpinnings of Sustainable Change

In June, Ashley Welch spoke with Danny Martin: thought leader, environmentalist, facilitator, and inspirational speaker. Ashley and Danny discussed how to deepen and widen understanding within a group or organization so that change can take place.

December 15th we enjoyed a dynamic conversation with Christine Arena, author of the High Purpose Company and CEO of SparkUp, a new technology for engaging stakeholders.  Christine explored what it means to be living in the "Participation Economy," how leading edge companies are developing non-traditional relationships with their consumers and employees, and what questions leaders should be asking themselves and their companie

A recent Psychology Today article on workplace kindness examines a number of views and demonstrates how the word kindness itself can seem soft to many people in business. Perhaps with a precise definition and some important context, more people would agree that there's strategic value in workplace kindness. Let’s take a closer look.

This is the year — 2009 — that Interaction Associates celebrates its 40th anniversary as an innovator of solutions grounded in the discipline of collaboration that helps drive organizational performance. That's 40 years of helping clients use collaboration for strategic ends — including developing leaders, navigating change, developing powerful teams, and achieving critical growth goals.

Interaction Associates works with leaders globally to develop inclusive, facilitative, and collaborative leadership practices. Facilitative Leaders have the ability to build agreements among deeply entrenched factions with differing interests. This is as badly-needed in the global business organization as it is on the world stage.

On Saturday, we met for the morning only, to conclude the proceedings and deliver the Charter for a World Without Violence, which is the output of this 8th World Summit.

Today, Thursday, the Summit opened in the heart of Rome. The proceedings are happening in the Capitol, known as the Compidoglio in Italian. This area, reached by a zig-zag path from the Forum, was once the centre of the Roman world. The hill itself and the temples here in ancient times came to symbolize Rome’s authority as caput mundi or "head of the world" and thus the concept of a capital city is derived from the Capitol.

I am here in Rome with my husband Tony. We are here for the 8th Nobel Peace Laureate World Summit, hosted by Mikhail Gorbachev.

In my role as Chairman of World Centers of Compassion for Children International (WCCCI), I'm accompanying Ms. Betty Williams, the founder of WCCCI and Nobel Peace Prize recipient in 1976 for her work in Northern Ireland, to the conference. She is a keynote speaker, along with His Holiness The Dalai Lama (HHDL), Lech Walesa, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev, and Walter Veltroni, the Mayor of Roma.

We’re excited that Interaction Associates will be a sponsor for the The Give US Your Poor Concert for Boston's Homeless, Friday, November 16, 2007, at 8 p.m., at the Strand Theatre in Boston, MA. This concert, along with a CD featuring many of the same artists, is designed to benefit the Boston-based nonprofit policy research organization, Give US Your Poor, and a variety of advocacy and helping organizations. The endeavor is an extraordinary example of collaboration in action, in service of a noble aspiration.