2006 Symposium

2006 Symposium: The World is Flat: Implications for Diversity Management

On August 3, 2006, The ALLIANCE (a collaboration between the American Institute for Managing Diversity and the Diversity Collegium) hosted a special symposium on the topic: The World is Flat: Implications for Diversity Management.

The forum brought together approximately 50 diversity practitioners, human resource professionals, business leaders and academicians at the world headquarters of Kraft Foods, Inc. in Glenview, Illinois to explore the relationship of a flattened world and the constructs of fostering diversity and inclusion. 

Informed by a video tutorial of the precepts of Thomas Friedman's seminal work, The World is Flat, participants explored through a series of small group discussions and open space technology processes the following:

• Dynamics of a flattening world,
• Diversity management implications for countries, companies and individuals, and
• Ways to apply the results of the dialogue to build effective relationships across differences.

This event and the report were made possible by the generous sponsorship of Kraft Foods, Weyerhaeuser and Tyson.  The program designers and facilitators wereCollegium members, Kay Iwata, Alan Richter and Ed Hubbard. The report writer for the Symposium was Olivet Jones.

Download your copy of the two reports from this Symposium by clicking on the following links: Proceedings Report, the Executive Summary of the proceedings report.