References David L. Bradford, Allan R. Cohen, Power Up: Transforming Organizations Through Shared Leadership, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998

David Heenan , Warren Bennis, Co-Leaders: The Power of Great Partnerships

ACCORD's Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held on Tuesday, February 26, 2002, at the University of Toronto Faculty Club. On the same evening, a "New Member Welcome and Orientation Session"  was held one hour earlier hosted by incoming ACCORD Co-Chairs Duncan Holmes and Jo Ellen Logan. ACCORD's history, programs and services, and opportunities to contribute were covered at this orientation. The AGM was accompanied by a fascinating presentation by guest speaker, Steven Cross (see description below).

During the AGM, we said goodbye to Hamo Hammond, ACCORD's outgoing Chair, and we welcomed the Board's newest member, Marlene Durrell. We also welcomed the new co-Chairs, Jo Ellen Logan and Duncan Holmes. The News from the Board  section describes more about these distinguished members. Also in this issue, be sure to read the article by Kevin Quinn on co-leadership in which he interviews our new co-chairs about their experience for the first few months of their role.

To obtain the minutes from the AGM, please contact Lee-Anne Skingley, our accomplished ACCORD administrator at (416) 410-3694 or email her at info@accord.org.

Steven Cross: Ethics in Business
AGM Guest Speaker

The guest speaker for the evening was Steven Cross, the executive director of the Canadian Centre for Ethics and Corporate Policy (www.ethicscentre.ca). Steve's resume also includes senior roles with Mountain Equipment Co-op and Timberland. As a result of his work with the Canadian Centre for Ethics and Corporate Policy, Steve is engaged in the application of ethically-based values to business development issues and decision making. Starting with the question, "What does an ethical and socially responsible business strategy look like?"  Steven offered tangible evidence of the economic relationship between ethical behaviour of firms and the economic value they accrued. (A 1999 study of social investment organizations showed that ethical companies gained 5-10% over their rivals. In

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addition, risk management studies conducted in 2000 found a correlation between ethical behaviour and stock values.) He concluded that an imbedded ethical orientation within the business culture is the only way to ensure an organization's reputation and its ethical qualities over time.

Steven highlighted the importance of principled ethical leadership in change management situations and the critical elements for success. Some of the key messages from his presentation were that

1. Ethics is a messy territory-it doesn't equal black and white judgment.
2. Ethics can be a turbo-boosting partner to strategy.
3. Ethics is the result of intent and consistency over time, not just "rightness" or "wrongness"
4. Ethics must be continually adapted and re-defined. What is ethical today may not be ethical tomorrow - the "ethics bar" only goes up across history, never down.
5. Ethics should be defined in terms of capacity, not in terms of judgement.
6. The task of ethics is never complete. When an organization focuses on ethics, its capacity to deal with ethical issues continually strengthens.

Steven made the point that ethics is actually all of these: governance, transparency, disclosure; environmental management; sustainability.

Additional sources of information on ethics in business suggested by Steven include:

• John Della Costa, The Ethical Imperative
• Robert Quinn, Deep Change
• John Elkington, Cannibals With Forks
• SustainAbility-UK
• CAUX Roundtable

During the AGM on February 26, 2002, we said goodbye to Hamo Hammond, ACCORD's outgoing Chair. Hamo served for three years on the board of ACCORD - one year as VP (with Sherrill Burns) and two years as Chair. Significant changes to ACCORD were made during Hamo's watch, including the large group process in the fall of 2000 that ultimately led to the ACCORD of today. Thank you Hamo for your steward-ship during our transition!

We also welcomed our newest board member, Marlene Durrell. Marlene is the principal of the Walmsley Group (www.thewalmsleygroup.com), a coaching and consulting firm committed to assisting clients to achieve the level of success they intend for their business and personal life. One of Marlene's roles on the board is the sponsorship of the Esprit d'ACCORD  newsletter. Welcome Marlene!

Our ACCORD Co-Chairs this year are Duncan Holmes and Jo Ellen Logan. Both are experienced ACCORD board members and have held the portfolios of membership, community building, and programs. The Board usually meets on the first Tuesday of the month.

Lee-Anne Skingley   416-410-3694
ACCORD Administrator

1011 Upper Middle Road E, Ste. 1475,
Oakville, Ontario L6H 4Z9

Newsletter
Our current newsletter team is led by our Editor, Catherine Bradshaw. She is assisted by Gail Aller-stead, Marlene Durrell, Hamo Hammond, Kevin Quinn, Dorothy Aaron, and Peter Catt.

Partnerships
Lou Pike is the Team Leader for Partnerships. In co-ordination with Lee-Anne Skingley our administrator, he has successfully helped ACCORD partner with four organizations: The Centre for Spirituality at Work, GTA Coaches Federation, The Institute of Cultural Affairs Canada, and the Canadian Association of Neural Linguistic Programmers.

Program Planning: Connections and Workshops
Jo Ellen Logan, Karen Bass, Bruce Craig , Duncan Holmes, Michael Zrobach, Kevin Quinn and the individual champions who volunteered at the program planning session last March work together from planning to presentation to provide enjoyable and memorable learning events.

Membership
Current membership is routed through our administrator Lee-Anne Skingley. Jo Ellen Logan and Marlene Durrell are available to answer any questions you may have.

Administration
Lee-Anne Skingley is ACCORD's new administrator. She has learned about the organization in record time and continues to find ways we can better serve our members. Lee's responsibilities include contact management through our web-site, email and voice mail, contract management, desktop publishing, day-to-day accounting, and web-site administration.

As you can see, ACCORD has many varied areas that need your time and energy. You can make a difference at ACCORD! If you would like to learn more about volunteer opportunities at ACCORD, please contact any board member or Lee-Anne at the ACCORD office.