GEM Initiative/United States Agency for International Development

Challenge

Build excellence in leadership in non-governmental international-development organizations, government ministries and private-sector entities around the world and enable them to live up to their potential as creative forces of positive change.

Solution

The Global Excellence in Management Initiative (GEM), was a program of the Weatherhead School of Management of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development from 1994-2001.

Using GEM, an AI-based approach that includes state-of the art organizational effectiveness, leadership and change solutions, IPI consultants worked with over 70 non-governmental international development organizations (NGOs), government ministries and private-sector entities to affect change. This approach was a major shift away from the dominant development paradigm embedded in traditional problem-solving and helped unleash possibilities for human cooperation that supported breakthroughs in the development of organizational strategies, renewal and cooperation.

Results

The use of Appreciative Inquiry as an approach to capacity building of non-governmental organizations demonstrated that the process of organizational learning, strategic planning and leadership, and partnership development can be accelerated. By focusing on the “best of what is” and valuing the assets resident in each individual, community or organization, GEM participants found themselves much better equipped to break the cycle of dependency inherent in traditional approaches to relief and development and move more effectively toward the future they desire.

Evaluations of the learning process employed in GEM programs concluded that the innovative program design stimulated a learning environment that inspired, sharpened and accelerated strategic learning, planning and teamwork among NGO, government and private sector leaders. The AI approach employed throughout GEM programs proved to be as effective at the grassroots level with local communities, as well as with NGO leaders and government ministers. Program participants have reported that not only have they gained effective tools for leading positive change, but they have been transformed in the way they view the potential for growth and change in the world, their communities and their families.

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