Resnick Aspen Action Forum

Topical Dialogues are created for participants, by participants. There are 3 rotations of interactive roundtable sessions each offering up to 12 session topics to select from.  These dialogues are different from typical “panel” discussions: featured individuals are there to set the stage for a full dialogue involving 25 participants. Each featured speaker has no more than 5 minutes to speak on the topic at hand, leaving a full hour for a wide ranging, highly interactive, moderated dialogue.  Review the descriptions of topics below.
 

Rotation 1: Wednesday, July 20 - 9:00am - 10:30am

Arm in Arm: From foes to allies in addressing racial tensions
Whether in India, South Africa, the United States or beyond, many of us see racial tensions in our communities and don’t know how to be part of the solution.  How can we lead towards a more just and peaceful society?  What lessons can we learn from approaches taken in other countries?

Bridging Divides: Overcoming mistrust
Where do divides exist in our society because of mistrust?  Have you been able to lead across these divides?  Were you ultimately able to establish trust?  How?

Eyes Wide Open: Unconscious bias and race
What are the underlying issues around race and bias?  What unconscious biases are well-intentioned people holding due to society's conditioning?  What are your own biases?  Have you been able to change them?  How?  Is there more you need to do – personally and as a leader?

The Future of Talent & Work: Is technology leveling the playing field?
As businesses like Uber, Handy, and Care.com create new contract worker opportunities, what is their responsibility to these workers?  Are these new technologies helping people get ahead or are they unraveling our social fabric?  Does the application of technology always lead towards a better society?  As leaders, what responsibilities do we have to our communities to provide meaningful work and at least a basic safety net?

The Garden of Your Life: Self-tending
A good gardener has to constantly nourish, care for and prune their plants.  How do you apply this same concept to your own life?  How do you take care of yourself?   What seeds are you sowing?  What have you pruned? 

Gender Equality: What will it look like for the next generation of leaders?
Within the last two to three generations, rights and opportunities for women in most countries have improved.  Progress has ranged from voting and the sports field, to business leadership and the role of women within our families.  Despite these advances, what inequities remain for women now?  As we look to future generations, what hurdles will they face and how can we best support them now?  What more can you do to create a more equal society for our daughters, our nieces, our granddaughters and beyond?

Generational Leadership: Standing on shoulders
Our opportunities are often built by the generation before us.  Whose shoulders do you stand on?  As you lead your business or organization, how do you honor the past while leading into the future?  When is it time to hand over to the next generation?  Where are you in that continuum?  What opportunities are you creating for those who too often are overlooked?

Healing Injustice: Islamophobia
Anti-Muslim sentiments have increased over the last fifteen years.  How can we move beyond fears and stereotypes prompted by a minority of religious extremists?  There’s a role for Muslim leaders themselves as well as for the media.  But what is our role as values-based leaders?  As parents? 

Health & Wellness: Who’s responsible?
Whose responsibility is a person’s health and wellness?  Do businesses and governments have a role in “nudging” individuals to taking better care of themselves?  What do you see that’s working?  Are there steps you can take in your own business or organization to support health and wellness?

Immigration: Opportunity or threat?
Around the world, refugees are flooding countries to escape violence and despair.  Should we open our doors?  What are the risks?  What are the benefits?  How is your country responding?  Is it doing the right thing?  Are you?

Leadership Lessons: The education reform movement
Not long ago, forty-eight U.S. states seemed to be on the verge of educating their students to significantly more rigorous academic standards.  Then, the Common Core coalition unraveled.  Why?  How did this happen?  What can leaders lean from this reform movement?

The Slippery Slope: Righting wrongs by erasing history?
Over the last twelve months, activists around the world have demanded that monuments and institutions honoring the memory of prominent leaders – from Cecil Rhodes to Woodrow Wilson – who were tied to slavery and injustice be removed.  Many support this effort.  Others call it “political correctness run amok”.  What’s the right thing to do? 

System Reboot: Do less harm
Some feel that many business leaders focus on “giving back” after creating wealth regardless of how the wealth was created.  Can wealth be generated more responsibly?  How explicitly do you consider issues like fair wages, gender equity, environmental impact, and the like in your business?   Could you do more?
 

Rotation 2: Thursday, July 21 - 9:30am - 11:00am

Building Bridges: Millennials and Baby Boomers in the workplace
Do Baby Boomers and Millennials think differently?  How so?  How do we create a workplace where both can coexist and thrive? 

Call of Duty: Reentering private life
Reentering society is difficult after serving in the military or leaving public service.  What was your reentry like?  What lessons did you learn?  Did your values or perspective change?  What would you advise others about to face the same? 

Comfortably Numb
Mass shootings. Refugees. Homelessness.  What have you become numb to?  How do you regain feeling?  

Courage
Have you ever taken a stand when it wasn’t popular?  How did it feel?  What happened?  Have you ever remained silent when you know you shouldn’t have?  Where does courage come from?  What is calling you to be courageous now?

Dueling Sides: Improving the dialogue around guns
Concern around gun violence is on the rise in the United States.  Yet the country is deadlocked on what to do about it. How can a constructive national dialogue on such a critical yet sensitive issue be begun?  What's the perception outside the United States on this issue?  What can American leaders learn from other countries?

Healing Injustice: Structural racism
Structural racism is everywhere in our societies.  In the United States, some would say white advantage exists in our schools, our banks, our hospitals and in our criminal courts.  Does it or something similar exist in your community?  What could you be doing to expose and address this problem?

Iran: The Leadership Challenge of our time
Concern From Rumi to Rohani, the Iranian culture, people, economy and politics make for a complex and colorful tapestry that Persian carpets best represent. What are the leadership challenges and promises on both sides of the equation as Iran embarks on reintegrating with the world community with nothing less than the stability of the Middle East and the world at stake?

Know Thy Neighbor: Strengthening communities
How well do you know your neighbors?  What divides – racial, cultural, economic, social – exist in your immediate proximity?  Does it matter?  What can you do to bridge these divides?  Are you doing enough?  What more will you do?

Leadership Lessons: Moving between sectors
Many of us have built careers in the for-profit sector and then transitioned into government or non-profit leadership positions.  What lessons did you learn from your transition?  What would you do differently?  What advice would you give to others considering a similar move? 

Leadership Lessons: The LGBT movement
In most countries, albeit not all, public opinion around Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) matters has shifted dramatically.  Protection of the LGBT community went from taboo fifty years ago to a human right today.  How was the LGBT movement able to swing the pendulum so successfully?  What can leaders in other causes learn from the success of the LGBT movement? 

Re-Connecting Finance and Society
Are the leaders of our financial institutions too isolated from the realities of their consumers?  How do we create financial institutions that perform well and serve everyone's best interest? How can we make them more inclusive for everyone in our society?  How do we test the innovations of the finance industry to assess their potential to do good versus do harm?

Rethinking Schools: Preparing Students for Higher Education and Beyond
At the 2015 Action Forum, we discussed how K-12 schools and colleges should adapt to prepare their students more effectively.  But do better prepared students all have equal access to higher education opportunities?  How do our school cultures and environments impact students?  What more should we be doing?

True or False: Youth + Education + Technology = New Societal Solutions
Can educators use technology to engage young people in solving community challenges?  Where are we seeing success with this approach?  (The description for this dialogue will be expanded upon shortly).
 

Rotation 3: Friday, July 22 - 9:00am - 10:30am

China and the U.S.: Divided we fall
China and the United States seem inextricably linked.  China’s capital is keeping the United States afloat.  American consumers love their cheap phones, computers and TVs.  There’s so much to be gained from a positive partnership.  Yet tensions are rising as the United States pivots to the East and China begins to flex its military muscles.   Is a clash inevitable?  What can we do to lower the tension?  How can these two countries work with leaders in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, India, and elsewhere to build a better world?

Climate Justice
We all breathe the same air, but rising oceans don’t affect us all equally.  Are some countries developing at the expense of others?  Does the industrialized world have an obligation to those most impacted by climate change?  Is there an equal obligation to share the fruits of scientific advance – clean energies, water and soil purification technologies?  Why?  Who pays?

Cultural Divides: Taking my leadership and family abroad
Advancing as a business leader often means relocating overseas.   For families, this can be both an opportunity and a challenge.  Have you relocated with your family to another country?  What were the tradeoffs you had to consider?  How did you make the decision?  What did you learn from the experience?  What would you advise others considering a possible relocation?

The Future of Talent and Work: Gender equality in the C-Suite and the board room
How many women are in the C-Suite or on the board of your company?  Is this the right number?  If yes, how’d you get there and what lessons can you share with others?  If no, what’s getting in the way?  How diverse is the pipeline into your organization?  Is there more you could be doing? 

Leading Across Divides: Reconciliation
Lebanon.  Nicaragua.  Rwanda.  South Africa.  India.  How were leaders in post-conflict situations able to reconcile?  What traits did these leaders exhibit?  What did the process of reconciliation look like?  Ultimately, did reconciliation work?  Where did it fall short?  What more do you and other leaders need to do?

MOOCs: Education for all?
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) were created to be the great equalizer in education.  Nearly ten years since they first debuted, have they lived up to their promise?  Can a generation really be educated online?  As an employer, do you place the same value on an online degree as you would one from a more traditional school?  As a parent, if your child told you they wanted to get an online college degree, would you be okay?  What is the best use of technology in broad-based higher education?  (The description for this dialogue will be expanded upon shortly.)

The New Philanthropists
Twenty-five years ago philanthropy was the domain of the Rockefellers, Carnegies, and Fords.  Today, we see names like Gates, Omidyar, and Zuckerberg Chan.  How do the two generations of philanthropy differ?  What can you learn from the new philanthropists?  What pitfalls do we all need to avoid in our philanthropy?

Race and Justice
Justice is blind… or is it?  Tensions are mounting across the United States between the police, the courts, and local communities.  The repercussions extend beyond American borders.  After all, many are watching closely to see how the country responds.  What’s the role of leaders to restore faith in the American judicial system? 

Teaching Our Kids to Push Back
How can we teach young people that it’s okay to ask why – and as Robert Kennedy said, to ask why not?  What lessons can we share with them?  What tools can we provide?  How do we structure education to encourage curiosity, innovation, and ingenuity from kids?  What challenges are ripe for intergenerational solutions?

Values in Science: Just because we can, should we?
Scientists and businesses continue to push the envelope in what’s possible.  Genetic screening.  Synthetic biology.  Artificial intelligence.  Are there limits to what we should do?  What should those limits be?  Who gets to decide?  Can you truly innovate cautiously?