By David Cooperrider

How do you engage thousands of people and institutions or organizations in the common cause of turning sustainability into an innovation engine—strengthening our economy, our ecology, and our life as a thriving community?

Our pre‐summit research of successful change efforts—whether in business, society, or across industries—shows that one simple but overarching success ingredient is the formulation or articulation of the “shared body of beliefs” that serves to unite people and groups in common cause. For example, the United Nations Global Compact was founded with 50 companies who worked together to create a set of 10 guiding principles, which has indeed become the “backbone” of everything it does. Initially only 50 companies “signed on,” but then things spread: today over 5,000 of the world’s largest companies are part of the Global Compact—and thousands of projects or initiatives to create a more sustainable world have been born directly from application of the principles.

Likewise, businesses everywhere—especially those “built to last”—have one thing in common: almost all have drafted a powerful statement of “purpose and principles” that serves to unite diverse stakeholders. For example, one widely respected CEO, Dee Hock, the founder of the VISA corporation, told us that the single most important thing that can unify complex systems without killing creative freedom and innovation is to articulate the statement of purpose and principles (and then get out of the way) “where everyone part of an effort is encouraged to do anything he or she wants, at any level or in any way, especially as long as it helps live and advance the community’s deepest level purpose and principles.” By the term “powerful purpose” we mean a statement of mission that is so strong that participants, perhaps at the end of their life, would say: “my life had real meaning, purpose, and significance by being part of that effort.”

By the term “principles” we mean the deepest level body of beliefs that bind a community and define a community. That is principles as in, "We hold these truths to be self‐evident: that all men are created equal.... " Again, this isn't a bunch of platitudes, but a manifesto, or constitution‐like set of beliefs of what the people in the organization or community believe in and care about in their gut.

So the question for our community: what are our beliefs for a “green city on a blue lake”? If anything imaginable were possible, how might we design an inspiring charter or statement of powerful purpose and principles for this growing initiative? How might this statement of purpose and principles be used—to invite individuals, companies, schools, non‐profits, government entities, and associations into common cause? How might it be used to spotlight purposedriven innovations and successes? How might this “body of belief” be used to create a city‐wide culture; a context that draws in like‐minded companies, for example, or becomes a “way of life” in our community? How might this be used to design communication materials, inspire innovation, and ignite the speed and spread of positive developments?

Through our research we believe that one of the most powerful, long‐term things that could come out of our summit is a draft of a statement of purpose and principles for this entire effort. Coupled with a portfolio of other more action‐oriented initiatives, we believe this might well become a backbone for years to come, much like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are for our nation.

We can do this for Cleveland.

David Cooperrider is the Faculty Director of the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value and is the Fairmount Minerals Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. He is the co‐creator of the Appreciative Inquiry method and was the facilitator of the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 Summit.