In previous generations, businesses could thrive on a narrow vision of its place in the world. Today superior management is dependent on an expanded awareness that successfully integrates and implements the traditional facets of business with dimensions that include self, community, and the global enterprise.

Consciousness and Business

The premise for The Center for Business Consciousness is that success in business is dependent on superior management - the key executives who develop and refine business models and drive the organization to achieve its goals. In previous generations, businesses could thrive on a narrow vision of its place in the world. Today superior management is dependent on an expanded awareness that successfully integrates and implements the traditional facets of business, such as supply and demand, markets, and cash-flow, with dimensions that include self, community and the global enterprise.

Built on the Integral Studies programs at The California Institute of Integral Studies, CBC offers unique answers to the new and challenging questions the business community currently faces.

California Institute of Integral Studies
CBC Programs

Center for Business Consciousness at CIIS (CBC/CIIS)

The economic upheaval in the world today has generated worldwide concerns and fears about our personal and global future. Throughout the turmoil there has been a growing popular demand for new approaches to business and for business education and consulting practices that can better address these issues. Indeed, what brings us together in this endeavor is the awareness of the impending change that is upon us – yet we do not seem to know how that change will manifest or what it will be.

In our research to develop the CBC/CIIS program, we have discovered many consultants and programs that heretofore have been on the periphery of mainstream business and management education that claim to address these issues. Many of these programs are now being drawn to the mainstream as standard business education and executive training models are unable to address their clients’ present concerns.

However, we feel that a majority of these programs in their own way are dated. These “alternative” programs, in one form or another, are about self-discovery -- variations on the themes exploring how to become better leaders and managers through compassion, creativity, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, etc.

The CBC/CIIS assumption is that our audience no longer needs programs on self-discovery. Our audience will consist of sophisticated individuals who have already explored the curricula of self. Such programs, at best, provide a few new insights. And as most business people report that once back in the “real-world” of business little, if anything, changes, as the culture in which they operate does not change so easily. The CBC/CIIS programs will not emphasize self-discovery as a primary goal, although certain programs may focus on self-mastery within a broader business consciousness context.

Another recent development has been the call for programs highlighting business ethics. Our audience however is assumed to be made of people of the highest ethical and moral character. Our students are inherently moral people who have found themselves, as we all are, caught in a systemic situation that is unsustainable, if not unethical. The CBC/CIIS programs will not be about teaching or lecturing on ethics.

Thirdly, we are not about business education because teaching business skills is best left to the traditional business schools. The presumption is that our audience already will be sophisticated business people, who have extensive practical experience in business.

Then the question arises: what is unique and meaningful to the CBC/CIIS offering?

The CBC/CIIS audience, by its nature, is self-selected. Our audience will be individuals who are highly-evolved, self-aware people - who have spent the time and energy to understand and develop who they are. Second, they are individuals who strive for and have demonstrated impeccable moral and ethical standards. Thirdly, these individuals are sophisticated, knowledgeable and experienced in the world of business. In summary, our underlying ethos should be one of profound respect for a deservedly accomplished and sophisticated audience.

Yet there is another all important factor at play. Everywhere we go we meet people who sense that we are at the edge of a global change – that we as a global community are coming together in ways never before seen in history, that the underlying economic assumptions that bind us together are fragile, and that there needs to be a new business consciousness to address these issues that confront us. While the changes appear imminent, no one truly knows what that change will be.

CBC/CIIS can offer our sophisticated audience the ideas and tools that will help enlightened business leaders create change. CBC/CIIS will become a catalyst for transformation. It will not preach or proselytize, but rather become the forum where innovative leaders will come together to discover and forge new systems, new cultures, new ideas that will alter forever change in how we conduct our business and our lives. We will draw on the breadth and depth of our East/West educational history as we look for the integration of values, theories, and practices that will have the global impact that we all seek.

The underlying ethos: a deep respect for an audience of our peers. The CBC/CIIS programs will be an invitation for forward-thinking individuals to join together into the inquiry and development of a new business consciousness -- using the resources that are unique to the CIIS curriculum and heritage.

The California Institute of Integral Studies

CENTER FOR BUSINESS CONSCIOUSNESS PROGRAM

The California Institute of Integral Studies is an accredited institution of higher education, granting graduate and undergraduate degrees. . Integral studies respond to the need to synthesize the fragmentary aspects of contemporary thought and culture into a meaningful whole. The integral outlook, envisioned by the founders of CIIS forty years ago, embodies a creative synthesis of the highest values of East and West, and has evolved to encompass the study of traditions and experience from around the globe. Integral studies at CIIS encompass all aspects of learning: the intellectual, the experiential, and the applied .

CIIS proposes to establish a Center for Business Consciousness to offer business leaders more effective responses to globalization and sustainability challenges. CIIS is uniquely positioned to address these areas, given its tradition of East-West studies and multi-cultural synthesis, its track record with integral studies and transformative leadership, and its longstanding focus on health, wellness, and self-discovery. CIIS believes it can fill a gap in traditional business education by providing corporate leaders with invaluable tools related to self-awareness, authentic communication, leading transformation, self-expression, collaborative creativity, personal discovery and well-being. With these avenues available, corporations can better serve our interconnected world of commerce and community while increasing internal and external sustainability.

CIIS believes that its integration of the wisdom traditions presents an evolution of consciousness that has never been more relevant and crucial than it is today, particularly for business leaders who have much influence over the sustainability of our planet and its peoples. CIIS values cultural diversity, multiple ways of knowing, spirituality, a sense of community, emancipatory ideals, and ecological sustainability. In exploring the interplay of mind, body, and spirit, integral education connects the spiritual and practical dimensions of life. CIIS is committed to translating its successful academic approaches for corporate and business people in service to our collective future.

CIIS proposes to create a slate of offerings to meet high priority corporate needs. While we plan extensive dialogue with corporate leaders in coming months, initial conversations reveal at least three challenging trends that illuminate CIIS’ potential role in equipping business leaders for effective response.

The increasing economic and environmental influence of Asia calls for expanded understanding of Asian culture and tradition as it is expressed in business. CIIS is uniquely positioned to offer such a bridge since that was its founding purpose and continues to be a mainstay of its academic focus. (Note: should we specifically mention India?)

The urgent need for corporate reform leading to more ethical conduct calls for business leaders who authentically connect to their highest potential and can paint a “big picture” that includes the larger context of business operation, the sustainability of the corporation and the planet, the well-being of workforces and communities, and a longer temporal view of effects of decisions. CIIS will create learning experiences to meet these needs.

The burden of health care costs on corporations calls for workforce wellness programs that teach individuals to access their emotions and their bodies to apprehend distress before it manifests as injury, severe stress or disease. CIIS programs will positively influence workplace relationships, team function, and individual performance..

CIIS envisions designing a series of stand-alone offerings in the form of mini-courses and workshops, a small number of certificate programs related to Transformational Leadership, and a Global New Leaders Program to provide learning and support to high potential, values-driven corporate talent. In addition, an ongoing corporate coaching program is anticipated to provide ongoing support to program participants.

Initial pilot offerings to be available in Fall 2009. CIIS anticipates a mixture of formats: primarily on campus, primarily at corporate sites, and web-based with meetings at corporate sites or on campus.

What is Integral Studies?

Integral studies are a response to the growing need to synthesize the fragmentary aspects of contemporary thought and culture into a meaningful whole. The integral outlook, envisioned by the founders of The California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) as embodying a creative synthesis of the highest values of East and West, has grown to encompass the study of traditions and experience from around the globe. Integral studies at CIIS encompass all aspects of learning: the intellectual, the experiential, and the applied.

Providing an integral education for a changing world, the Institute creates and integrates knowledge beyond the confines of traditional academic and traditional corporate business disciplines. CIIS values cultural diversity, multiple ways of knowing, spirituality, a sense of community, emancipatory ideals, and ecological sustainability, developing a reflective and innovative learning community. In exploring the interplay of mind, body, and spirit in terms of business, integral education connects the study of consciousness and practical dimensions of intellectual life. The integration of the wisdom traditions presents an evolution of consciousness that has never been more relevant and crucial than it is today.

CIIS's Center for Corporate Education and Consciousness Program is not restricted to an ivory tower perspective. It tackles directly global issues, supporting business leaders to confront their challenges in new ways, integrating ideas and methodologies from diverse cultures, forging new approaches to business, where the synthesis of profit and global sustainability are the only options to success.

Why CIIS?

While MBA and other management programs speak of "out-of-the box" thinking - innovation, sustainability, East-West integration - CIIS has been walking that walk from its inception more than 50 years ago.

Arguably, the idea of East-West dialogue and cross-cultural integration found its roots at CIIS. Originally called the Institute of Asian Studies, the organization was founded by Haridas Chaudhuri, a philosopher, educator, and humanist from Bengal. The organization’s primary purpose was stated as the integration of Eastern and Western philosophy and culture.

In 1968 the institute was reorganized as an accredited college and renamed as the California of Institute of Integral Studies. Throughout its history, CIIS has been at the center-point of groundbreaking thought that has reverberated throughout the world. With globalization and the need to integrate business communities throughout the world, the ability to think differently and from multiple perspectives in ways that can transform how business is done has never been more important. There are few other schools better suited to reinvent how we view and encourage these radical changes than CIIS.