Tällberg Conversations on global issues is a new program, launched by the Foundation with the first event on 26-27 October 2007, outside Stockholm.

What we know about global warming and the wider eco-system crisis increases daily. The message is clear: We are deep into a global emergency. 2007 may well have been a pivotal year. This Tällberg Conversation offered an update on the international policy-making efforts in advance of the Bali meeting to mobilize concerted efforts towards mitigation of emissions and adaptation.

Our main guests for this Conversation were Chief Oren Lyons, Onondaga Council of Chiefs of the Haudensoaunee, Iroquois Confederacy, together with Anders Wijkman (Member of the European Parliament) and Bo Ekman (Tällberg Foundation). Göran Gennvi (Naturakademin) co-facilitated. In total, the group gathered 29 leaders from business and society for an open explorative conversation.

A complex change process has begun – in nature and throughout our grid of interconnected markets and political structures. We are all in the midst of this change which has its own unsteadying impact upon the human psyche. To steady our gait, the participants shared a long reflective morning walk in the nearby woods. With the guidance of Chief Lyons and Göran Gennvi, the pace slowed, deepened, in step with nature’s own assurances.

This broadened the conversation into the wider implications in the strained relationship between human activity and nature, including our moral responsibility in balancing of our short-term ambitions and our long-term, generational survival.

Chief Oren Lyons is Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York and a well-known and appreciated speaker at the UN, World Economic Forum and corporate management forums. Guided by the wisdom of indigenous people, he shared his insights through storytelling on the practical meaning of sustainable leadership.