Pittsburgh Leadership Conference designed for Zogby’s new generation
September 24, 2012
By Justin Karter
Published on Point Park News Service
A conference, scheduled for late September in Pittsburgh, hopes to reach a new generation of politically independent and internationally connected leaders, termed “globals” by well-known pollster John Zogby.
The second annual Student Empowership Conference, held at Carlow University, is designed for young, engaged leaders, described by Zogby in his new book, “The Way We’ll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream.”
Global Solutions Pittsburgh, a non-profit dedicated to raising awareness of international issues, and “Get Involved!”, a local civic engagement organization, have worked together to create a conference that appeals to a generation who feel a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the increasingly polarized political environment.
In his book, Zogby describes globals as “far more likely than voters age 30 and over to identify themselves as politically “strictly independent,” saying that they are “determined to find a middle ground on the hot-button issues of the day and to decide each one on a case by case basis, not because their party leaders are urging them in one direction or the other.”
During a phone interview, Zogby, founder of polling firm Zogby International and best-selling author, discussed the unique leadership style of the globals generation.
“What impresses me the most is the horizontal orientation of globals decision making,” he said.
“Traditionally, we have been schooled to move issues up a chain of command and, fundamentally, that system doesn’t work for a variety of reasons,” Zogby said. “(The program is) based on a vertical system where every layer involves people trying to sustain themselves; trying to solve problems in a way that protects their job, which leads to disconnect and gridlock.”
Zogby praised the Globals’ ability to “use networking in problem solving, saying, “If there is an issue, they crowd source it. It’s egalitarian and it’s pure” because it “gets right at the source of a resolution.”
As an employer, college, or organization “it’s important not to try to teach [globals] how to function within an existing institution but instead to adjust your institution to a world of people who have no self-interest except to get the job done,” he said.
Tom Baker, president of Baker Leadership and founder and chief program officer of Get Involved!, agreed with Zogby on the non-partisan nature of young leaders.
“It appears to me that getting things done is the top priority for college students and young professionals, more so than party politics or rhetoric.”
The Empowership Conference will be “a terrific mixture of members of different parties coming together and leaving partisan bickering behind in the best interest of worthwhile causes and organizations.”
Dan Giovannelli, executive director of Global Solutions Pittsburgh recognizes that the young people they are hoping to reach have “grown up with nasty politics.” The Empowership Conference aims to give young people “the tools they need to engage the issues they’re passionate about. We want them to make informed decisions but do not tell them what decisions to make. I think young people appreciate that there is not an agenda.”
A major tool in the globals toolkit is social media. Giovannelli hopes that the conference will teach young people “already savvy on Facebook and Twitter” how to use their skills to engage others in the issues, from international issues such as Syria to local issues such as urban education.
Giovanelli said he admits that sometimes those in the non-profit industry do a “lousy job of expressing why the issue is important,” often finding themselves at one of two extremes— “the guilt inducing emotional appeal or statistics and facts with no emotion.”
The keynote speaker, Ali McMutrie, has a story that evinces the characteristics of the globals generation. McMutrie, a Pittsburgh native, spent years working in an orphanage in Haiti and, following the 2010 earthquake, started her own non-profit Haitian Families First. Both the speaker and the workshops are meant to help young people effectively spread their passion across their already well-developed international networks by teaching them how to tell their stories effectively.
By Justin Karter
Published on Point Park News Service
A conference, scheduled for late September in Pittsburgh, hopes to reach a new generation of politically independent and internationally connected leaders, termed “globals” by well-known pollster John Zogby.
The second annual Student Empowership Conference, held at Carlow University, is designed for young, engaged leaders, described by Zogby in his new book, “The Way We’ll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream.”
Global Solutions Pittsburgh, a non-profit dedicated to raising awareness of international issues, and “Get Involved!”, a local civic engagement organization, have worked together to create a conference that appeals to a generation who feel a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the increasingly polarized political environment.
In his book, Zogby describes globals as “far more likely than voters age 30 and over to identify themselves as politically “strictly independent,” saying that they are “determined to find a middle ground on the hot-button issues of the day and to decide each one on a case by case basis, not because their party leaders are urging them in one direction or the other.”
During a phone interview, Zogby, founder of polling firm Zogby International and best-selling author, discussed the unique leadership style of the globals generation.
“What impresses me the most is the horizontal orientation of globals decision making,” he said.
“Traditionally, we have been schooled to move issues up a chain of command and, fundamentally, that system doesn’t work for a variety of reasons,” Zogby said. “(The program is) based on a vertical system where every layer involves people trying to sustain themselves; trying to solve problems in a way that protects their job, which leads to disconnect and gridlock.”
Zogby praised the Globals’ ability to “use networking in problem solving, saying, “If there is an issue, they crowd source it. It’s egalitarian and it’s pure” because it “gets right at the source of a resolution.”
As an employer, college, or organization “it’s important not to try to teach [globals] how to function within an existing institution but instead to adjust your institution to a world of people who have no self-interest except to get the job done,” he said.
Tom Baker, president of Baker Leadership and founder and chief program officer of Get Involved!, agreed with Zogby on the non-partisan nature of young leaders.
“It appears to me that getting things done is the top priority for college students and young professionals, more so than party politics or rhetoric.”
The Empowership Conference will be “a terrific mixture of members of different parties coming together and leaving partisan bickering behind in the best interest of worthwhile causes and organizations.”
Dan Giovannelli, executive director of Global Solutions Pittsburgh recognizes that the young people they are hoping to reach have “grown up with nasty politics.” The Empowership Conference aims to give young people “the tools they need to engage the issues they’re passionate about. We want them to make informed decisions but do not tell them what decisions to make. I think young people appreciate that there is not an agenda.”
A major tool in the globals toolkit is social media. Giovannelli hopes that the conference will teach young people “already savvy on Facebook and Twitter” how to use their skills to engage others in the issues, from international issues such as Syria to local issues such as urban education.
Giovanelli said he admits that sometimes those in the non-profit industry do a “lousy job of expressing why the issue is important,” often finding themselves at one of two extremes— “the guilt inducing emotional appeal or statistics and facts with no emotion.”
The keynote speaker, Ali McMutrie, has a story that evinces the characteristics of the globals generation. McMutrie, a Pittsburgh native, spent years working in an orphanage in Haiti and, following the 2010 earthquake, started her own non-profit Haitian Families First. Both the speaker and the workshops are meant to help young people effectively spread their passion across their already well-developed international networks by teaching them how to tell their stories effectively.
The stories that they create and spread are likely to find a receptive audience. Zogby describes this new generation of leaders as possessing a “global empathy,” saying, “While First Globals might not be more able than other age cohorts to point to Darfur on a map, they at least know there is a Darfur, and they care what’s happening there … this is a group that has been trained by its own segment of popular culture to look outward, beyond America’s borders.”
Anyone interested in attending the Sept. 29 conference can find more information and register online at globalsolutionspgh.org.
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