Category Archives: Golden Rule

The Golden Rule Of Payer Marketing

Executive Briefing | by Athena Mandros | August 17, 2017

Greetings from sunny California, where today we kicked off The OPEN MINDS Management Best Practices Institute. Throughout the day, Ive had a lot of interesting conversations with attendees everything from new strategies for combating the opioid epidemic, to new models for integration with primary care, to new technologies to promote better care coordination. Interestingly, all of these conversations came back to one resounding theme: The importance of building relationships between payers and provider organizations.

In a market filled with change, there are many opportunities for innovation, but the reality is that most of these programs and services are not sustainable in the long-term without a payer partner. Because the traditional roles of provider organizations and health plans are shifting as we move to a more value-based reimbursement market, there are more opportunities for innovative partnership models and gainsharing arrangements with payers (see The Business Model Transition To Value-Based Care).

We discussed this theme in more detail in the session, Finding The New Opportunities With Health Plans: How To Market Your Services To Managed Care, led by Steve Ramsland, Ed.D., Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS and featuring Dawn S. Kingsley, MSHA, Vice President, Payer Contracting & Strategy, Centerstone America. Mr. Ramslands one golden rule for success in our current market? Dont treat health plans like adversaries treat them like partners.

Weve discussed the idea of payer and provider organization partnerships before (see What Do You Bring To The Table? and Strategies, Tools & Techniques That Enable PayerProvider Collaborations & Partnerships) but what does this type of partnership look like in practice? A partnership needs to be mutually beneficial to both organizations this means there needs to be some give and take and a genuine interest in working towards the same goals. This requires regular communication; developing relationships with both clinical and network staff; learning about the needs of the health plan in your market, keeping them informed about your organization; and two-way sharing of outcomes, data, and accomplishments.

For an on-the-ground perspective, we heard from Dawn Kingsley at Centerstone, a non-profit behavioral health organization operating in five states with more than 59 open contract discussions with a variety of payers. These contracts run along the full continuum of reimbursement options from fee-for-service, to case rates, to capitation.

Ms. Kingsley discussed the steps that Centerstone utilizes in building new partnerships with health plans in their markets. The first step is mapping the market and trying to understand the payers pain points. Ms. Kingsley explained that their team actually completes a SWOT analysis of each payer to drive their marketing decisions. This gives them a picture of what health plans are looking for and how Centerstone can meet their needs.

The second step is actually finding the right person to talk to and developing that initial relationship. The most important part of this step is being persistent. It may take months to cultivate a positive relationship, and it may require some looking for connections through different avenues with different approaches, but generally this persistence will pay off.

Finally, once you make the connection, dont waste your opportunity. When discussing your organization with the health plan, remember they are not looking only for your organizations merits, they are looking for a proposal of how your organization can help them to meet their goals. This proposal cannot be one size fits all, it needs to address the specific problems that the health plan is looking to solve. Ms. Kingsley noted that its unlikely that an organization will be able to meet all of a payers needs, but you should be able to fill a niche for them.

Moving to value-based contracting is a slow process and often times, provider organizations will be operating in both worlds. The key is working with payers to manage both types of contracts and developing relationships with the goal of becoming an exclusive provider organization.

For more on managed care contracting be sure to join us at The 2017 OPEN MINDS Executive Leadership Retreat for the session, Meta-Leadership In Action: Partnerships With Managed Care, led by OPEN MINDS Senior Associate, Ken Carr. And, be sure to follow our coverage of The 2017 OPEN MINDS Management Best Practices Institute over the next couple days on Twitter @openmindscircle #OMBestPractices.

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The Golden Rule Of Payer Marketing - OPEN MINDS (registration)

By Star Parker

British writer and theologian G.K. Chesterton observed, "It is hatred that unites people while love is always individual."

The use of hatred to mobilize has a long and bloody history. We should understand why it works so well. It taps into human weakness. It exploits the unwillingness of individuals to take responsibility for their own lives, to courageously confront life's ambiguities and inconsistencies, and still move forward constructively. It's so much easier to blame someone else.

This is what racism is about.

Speaking to the horrible incident in Charlottesville, President Donald Trump condemned the "egregious display of bigotry and violence" on "many sides" that's "been going on for a long time in our country." The president appealed for the "hate and violence" to stop and that we "come together as Americans."

For these remarks the president is being attacked.

Immediately, former Vice President Biden tweeted out "only one side." Congressional Black Caucus member Maxine Waters followed suit with the same.

But President Trump is right. The use of hate to blame others, the refusal to take personal responsibility for one's life, is going on and has been going on in our nation "for a long time" on "many sides."

Being honest about this does not justify the vile white supremacist violence and murder in Charlottesville. But to claim that these distorted individuals are the exclusive locus of bigotry in America does not help our cause.

The Black Lives Movement, for example, has been going on for a number of years, with rallies laced with threats, blame and violent language.

Eight police officers were murdered by young black men in Dallas and Baton Rouge last year. According to then-Dallas police chief David Brown, during the standoff in Dallas, the young black assailant "said he was upset at white people. The suspect said he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers."

We can't solve our problems if we refuse to be honest about them and if, in trying to solve them, we demonstrate the same behavior that caused them suppression of the truth, blame, absence of personal responsibility.

I am astounded when those on the black left speak out self-righteously about white bigotry.

If not bigotry of the black left, how do we explain the absence of any mention of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas in the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.?

Or the absence of any mention of America's first black secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, who grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, from the Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham?

As the black left moves to whitewash all evidence of the confederacy and the civil war from our history, they also want to whitewash the present and pretend the only blacks in America are liberals. And while they do it, they claim a monopoly on tolerance.

The Charlottesville incident began with a movement from the left to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

In an interview several months ago, Condoleezza Rice was asked about removing statues of individuals who represent history that repels us. She said, "When you start wiping out your history, sanitizing your history to make you feel better, it's a bad thing."

Reality is what it is. Not what those with a political agenda choose it to be.

And in this sense, President Trump told the truth. Bigotry and violence is coming from "many sides" and it has been for a "long time."

How do we ultimately solve the problem? Here are the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from a speech he gave when he was 14 years old:

"We cannot have an enlightened democracy with one great group living in ignorance...We cannot be truly Christian people so long as we flout the central teachings of Jesus: brotherly love and the Golden Rule."

Star Parker is an author and president of CURE, Center for Urban Renewal and Education. Contact her at http://www.urbancure.org. Contact her at http://www.urbancure.org. To find out more about Star Parker and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at http://www.creators.com.

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Opinion: The golden rule - Pocono Record

WRITING on what he saw as the re-emergence of balance of power politics in the world, Waldo Bello in his treatise of August 2003 stated: The last few years and the coming ones have been and will be bad for world peace. They are, however, rich in lessons about international power relations. And the lessons are not all grim.

He added, To be sure, the first lesson is discouraging: That unchallenged superpower status stimulates conflict, not peace. This did not seem so clear in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War.

In the first place, Waldos assertion about how the worlds prospects for peace are and will be grim, is derived from his reading of the unilateralist stance of the United States of America following the demise of the Soviet and demonstrated most aptly in the George W Bush era when America defied the United Nations and attacked Iraq on the basis of fictitious weapons of mass destruction allegedly held by Saddam Husseins Iraq.

The world now knows that it was all a lie and that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. What was at stake was Americas quest for world hegemony.

We are experiencing first-hand the destabilising effect of super power politics with America dictating what is ethical and what is not. What is ethical and acceptable is that which promotes American interests at any cost.

NATO countries are mere lackeys of America and will generally do whatever that country says or wants. The latest example of Americas hegemonic programme is the destruction of Libya for once again concocted reasons.

The real threat from Libya was its economic clout. Some of the countries in the coalition that attacked Libya had a GDP much lower than Libyas, Spain for instance.

The next stop after Libya was Syria where Bashar-al-Assad the Syrian President was falsely accused of using chemical weapons against his own people when the facts point elsewhere.

As part of Americas regime change politics the Americans created the now dreaded Islamic States ISIS, (the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) and ISIL (the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant).

The fighters of these two groupings were armed and trained with NATO collusion. Attempts at dislodging the Islamic groups from the areas they occupy are no more than window-dressing only.

They have to be seen to be trying to reign in their Frankenstein monster who is becoming alarmingly more and more independent in thinking and in action. ISIS has wreaked havoc all over Europe as evidenced by the 2016 Brussels and 2015 Paris attacks.

The well-coordinated Brussels attack left 31 dead and 198 wounded while the Paris attacks left up to 140 people dead after attacks at different places including a rock concert.

Significantly, where ISIS fighters blow themselves up in coordinated actions, the real perpetrators go scot free and no one talks about the loss of life in Nigeria at the hands of Boko Haram.

In what Amnesty International described as the deadliest massacre in Boko Haram history the Islamic militants are thought to have killed as many as 2000 people after militants drove into Baga, a Nigerian town near the border with Chad, firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles on fleeing town residents.

The Guantanamo Bay detention centre is an American military prison on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. America imprisons without trial suspects often captured in clandestine operations.

This prison is standing testimony to Americas double standards. Americans hold people without ever charging them or sending them to trial, very often on the basis of the flimsiest evidence and still go to call themselves the worlds greatest democracy.

Quite the opposite is, in fact, true. The detention centre uses torture techniques and detains people indefinitely without trial. Hardly anyone in the West expresses any concern about the goings-on on Guantanamo Bay where horrid torture techniques go under the euphemism enhanced interrogation techniques.

Horrors similar to those of Guantanamo were also recorded at Abu Ghraib military prison in Iraq. At the height of the scandal the facility was said to hold up to 3800 prisoners who mostly lived in tents in the prison yards.

An investigative report called The Taguba Report included among others, the following abuses inside the prison complex:

.Punching, slapping and kicking detainees and jumping on their naked feet; .Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees; .Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing; .Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time; .Forcing naked male detainees to wear womens underwear; .Positioning a naked detainee on a box, with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture

Abu Ghraib caused such an uproar even among the United States and its allies that it was necessary to be seen to be doing something about the outrage.

The acknowledged facts are that during the war in Iraq which began in March 2003 members of the United States army and others committed physical and sexual abuse, torture, rape, sodomy and murder. George W. Bush tried to dismiss Abu Ghraib as an isolated incident but multiple investigations by independent bodies such as The Red Cross, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch showed that these malpractices were common in American overseas detention centres including. Guantanamo, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Some scholars went so far as to classify the crimes as state-sanctioned crimes. In fact, evidence pointed to sanction from high up the military establishment and even to as far as Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld.

In view of the public glare and interest and as a public relations exercise someone had to be seen to be made to pay. Nine US soldiers were court-martialled and convicted of crimes at Abu Ghraib prison.

However, the US armys judicial system has tended to ensure that accountability up the chain of command does not go beyond the rank of staff sergeant, no commanding officer has ever been brought to trial for Abu Ghraib crimes.

American hypocrisy in such matters is stunning to say the least. They have cleverly hedged themselves against prosecution, no matter the crime. Their spin-doctoring is unprecedented anywhere in the world. America and her allies have one single narrative that they stick to: it says that they are the good guys and everyone else is one of the bad guys.

To make sure that they never have to defend themselves in an international court of law, they have conveniently never acceded to the protocols of the ICC (International Criminal Court). The ICC, located in The Hague is described as the court of last resort for the prosecution of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Its founding treaty, the Rome Statute came into force on 1 July 2002.

Interestingly the countries that make the greatest noise around ICC-related issues are still themselves to accede to the Rome Statute. While 139 countries signed the Rome Statute, 32 are yet to ratify it.

Israel, Sudan and the United States have unsigned the Rome Statute, meaning that they do not intend to become members of the ICC. Yet countries like Botswana have tried to get South Africa to arrest Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir when he visited that country on African Union business in 2015.

Omar Hassan al-Bashir is accused of genocide as are a number of former African Heads of State who are currently held by the ICC. There seems to be an obsession with African leaders given that neither George W. Bush nor Tony Blair, former British premier, have suffered any calls to have them arrested for their crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is time that Africa retaliated in like measure and in retrospect. Europe must be taken to The Hague for partitioning Africa and colonising her people. The genocide in Namibia by the Germans must be brought to the fore and all former Rhodesian operatives and apartheids functionaries too must have a case to answer.

The killers of Eduardo Mondlane, Samora Machel., Patrice Lumumba, Amilcar Cabral. Thomas Sankara, Walter Rodney, Edison Sithole, Steve Biko must be brought to book. There can be no other way in this given that Africans are always turning the other cheek to no avail, and that what we do unto others they do not do unto us.

In the changed circumstances of todays world, Africas agenda 2063 will fail dismally unless the continent asserts itself everywhere: the United Nations Security Council, the ICC (by insisting on the arrest and trial of people past and present) and in such matters as moving away from Americas petrodollar. Gadhafis dream of a strong single African currency must not be allowed to die away. Countries like the DRC with strategic mineral reserves must withhold these until the people can benefit from the extraction of such minerals.

Africa can no longer justifiably do unto others what they do not do unto her.

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Subverting the golden rule in our time - New Zimbabwe.com - New Zimbabwe.com

For sure, theres one Bible verse thats politically correct, no matter the context or situation. It was posted in my first-grade classroom. Parents, no matter the presence or absence of religious affiliation, have depended on it to shape or control behavior. And I suspect its been heard in legislative assemblies as well, at least in the public sphere if not in the back rooms and corridors.

Its entered the culture so thoroughly that it has its own moniker: The Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Its use actually predates the Holy Scriptures, appearing in ancient Egypt as well as in other pre-modern cultures. Sometimes called the maxim of reciprocity, it is touted by many as the hallmark ethic of a civilized society.

Well. If that be the case, friends, we are living in a less-than-civil world.

Perhaps a closer look at its biblical origins may be helpful in these days when civility, especially in public discourse and action, seems to be on a very long sabbatical.

While many might identify the Golden Rule as no more than a familiar proverb, it may be interesting to know that the scriptural roots of this saying first occur in the Hebrew Bible in Leviticus (19: 9-18, the section that addresses moral holiness in an expansion of the Ten Commandments). There one reads the words, Love your neighbor as yourself. It occurs at the conclusion of a passage that emphasizes community life and justice.

In the Greek Bible, Jesus, as reported in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, further expands this foundation of moral law. In each of these writings, the context is what we know as Jesus Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:12) or the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:31).

Both show us a Jesus who has no fear of being called a radical. Here, he talks, not about the religious insiders (as perhaps we hear in Leviticus), but about the excluded ones: the poor, the hungry, the sick, the oppressed, the alien. It is for those marginalized ones that he demands an ethics of compassion that is rooted in justice. Justice that remembers that all are created in the image of God.

No sweet talk about being nice so that someone will be nice back to you, as I was taught.

But a hard commentary on those who would use power and wealth to win, no matter how badly anyone else loses.

With apologies to Thomas Paine, we may be living once again in times that try mens and womens souls. When every day, no, every hour, brings another personal attack, I-have-the-power-so-Ill-use-it-however-I-please moment ... well, these are the times that try all souls. And, by try, I mean in the Lords Prayer sense: do not bring us to the time of trial. Jesus knows, as we do also, that each moment of life tests our commitment to his command to love God and to love neighbor. And that neighbor is everyone, everywhere!

If I want good health care for myself and my family, then I want the same good health care for everyone else. No exceptions. No Cadillac policies for a few and Yugos for the masses.

If I want freedom to worship as I choose, then all must have that same freedom to choose, without my harsh judgment or punishment.

If I wish my children to have the best opportunities for education, then I must work so that all children have the same chances for a good and prosperous life.

And if I want to be spared political oppression and suffering, then I must welcome those who are fleeing torture and sure death.

Its right there in the Holy Scriptures. Jesus says it. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Isabel F. Steilberg is a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia. She can be reached by email at isabel.steilberg@gmail.com.

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Religion column: Follow the 'Golden Rule' - Daily Press

The alt-right: a declining number of angry, sad white supremacists who want to return to Americas past with its glories, prejudices and evils. They have ignored the Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you), crave publicity for their cause, and are extremely fortunate that they live in this rare country that allows freedom of speech (otherwise, they would be dead).

The best way to deal with this is to ignore them. Give them no publicity or attention. They dry up and disappear.

But, no, enter the alt-left: an increasing number of equally angry, sad Americans of all colors, some of whom want to eliminate everything about America, including its presence.

Some of the alt-left are thrilled to have the alt-right provide them an excuse to justify their own hateful agenda. They also ignore the Golden Rule, crave publicity for their cause of destruction, and are extremely fortunate that they currently live in this rare country that allows freedom of speech (otherwise, they would be dead).

A pox on both their houses.

Donald R. Richardson, Albemarle County

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Opinion/Letter: Alt-left helps fuel strength of alt-right - The Daily Progress

SANTA CRUZ Just a few hours after an 18-hour trip from Redwood City that included a jaunt under the Bay Bridge, the Golden Rule docked in Santa Cruz Small Yacht Harbor for a two-week rest.

The sailboat, a 34-foot, two-mast ketch, is in town as part of a worldwide tour to protest nuclear proliferation, an all-encompassing mission that includes nuclear power, but focuses on weapons.

The tour, which is sponsored by Veterans for Peace, comes as the United Nations pushes a first-ever multilateral treaty to ban nuclear weapons. More than 120 countries signed the legally binding treaty on July 7, a group that did not include the United States, Russia and 48 other countries.

The treaty will become international law once it is ratified by 50 countries.

The crew of the Golden Rule hopes among other things to focus on those holdout nations, said project manager Helen Jaccard.

Jaccard said the ship will also travel along the southern states and the eastern seaboard, as well as up the Mississippi River.

After traveling through the U.S., the crew plans to go through the Panama Canal and on to Asia, she said.

The overall mission is to educate people about the overall danger of radiation, stop war and protect the environment, she said. If we reach out to a broad audience, we have a much better chance of ending the nuclear era.

The Santa Cruz stop on Thursday also came just before Hiroshima Day, the Aug. 6 anniversary of the day the U.S. dropped a nuclear bomb on that Japanese city in 1945.

Veterans for Peace Santa Cruz chapter president Henry Meserve called the ships arrival, a sign of the possibility of peace, and the possibility of doing away with nuclear weapons.

Meserve, who served in the U.S. Marines from 1960-65, said his father was a pacifist who knew the Golden Rules original crew. He said the ships mission is particularly relevant at a time of increasing hostility between the U.S. and North Korea, which is ramping up its nuclear weapons program.

We dont want any more veterans, he said.

In 1958, the Golden Rule became one of the first environmental activism vessels to go to sea, manned by a crew that planned to sail to the Marshall Islands. There, they wanted to stop the U.S. government from conducting aboveground nuclear weapons tests.

The ship sailed from San Pedro toward the U.S. nuclear test zone, but the trip was sidelined after a crewmember got sick and a storm damaged the boat.

On March 25 they sailed again, but the crew was arrested and jailed in Honolulu.

But that incident, coupled with growing concern and skepticism from a public against its government, resulted in the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963.

The story set the stage for such environmental crusaders as Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherds.

Still, the Golden Rule languished for years in Humboldt Bay, eventually sinking thanks to two holes in its stern, Jaccard said.

The ship was removed by a salvage company and was narrowly saved from being turned into firewood by a call by its previous owner, extolling its historical virtues, Jaccard said.

After that, a group took five years to restore it, with the help of several financial contributions, Jaccard said.

The rotating crew sleeps on four bunks, and share a kitchen and a small bathroom.

Jaccard said years of living in an RV made such a cramped lifestyle all the easier.

Goldie is really lucky, she said. She is incredibly lucky or magical. When I lay on the bunk with my feet up, I think to myself how incredibly lucky I am.

The Golden Rule will be docked at P Dock through Aug. 18. The public is invited to visit through Sunday, and then Aug. 16, 17 and 18 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.

For information, to follow the progress of the Golden Rule or make donations, visitwww.vfpgoldenruleproject.org or call (206) 992-6364.

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Following the Golden Rule - Register Pajaronian

Remember the Golden Rule? Its the credo we learned as children, reminding us to do unto others as we would have them to do unto us.

Its also referred to as the Law of Reciprocity.

Many of us agree that the Golden Rule sounds great in theory. However, Over we discover over time that people around us dont always abide by it. Perhaps we dont abide by it, either.

My previous podcast entitled Respect feeds right into this latest subject. The Golden Rule invites us to delve into the nebulous and often challenging arena of interpersonal relationships. Within this current podcast, I share how Ive endeavored to employ The Golden Rule on personal and professional fronts, and offer a final tale that might greatly surprise and inspire you, too!

If youve ever pondered why the world behaves the way it does, and wondered what can be done to turn it around, tune in for a listen.

Expect to be challenged to think afresh and anew. More than that, expect to operate as a potential world changer as you increase your peace and happiness while youre paving a way to the peace and happiness of others!

Finally, listen in as Patti Mocco shares what makes her happy from the inside out, too.

Click here or on the bar below to listen to Podcast 122: The Golden Rule.

Like these podcasts? Subscribe for more on iTunes, iHeart Radio and Stitcher Radio.

Maura is a Speaker on Influence, Leadership and Emotional Intelligence

Visit Mauras Author page for her 2017 Art of Happiness series

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Is the Golden Rule Still Golden? - HuffPost

Think a minute...This is the true story of a boy named Jim who started working on farms at the young age of eight. By the time he was 20 Jim was training as a store manager, and within a year was a successful salesman. Then in 1901 he married a young woman named Berta. After a couple of more years, Jim was put in charge of a brand new store. He put a big sign on the front that read Golden Rule.

He worked hard to manage his store from early morning until late at night. He and Berta lived in a small room above the store that was an unfinished attic. Their dining table was just a box turned upside down and shoe cases for chairs. But their Golden Rule store was on its way. Jims wise, hard work paid off. After 12 years he had 71 stores. Three years later he had 177 stores. And 11 years later Jim owned and a chain of more than 1,000 stores across America!

Maybe you have heard this true story of the J.C. Penney stores and the young man, James Cash Penney, who built it all from nothing. But you probably have not heard of the terrible suffering and disappointments he had to overcome to accomplish it.

Back in 1910, Jim lost the most important partner and person in his life when his wife Berta died. Then came the famous stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression in America. So by 1931, J.C. Penney was in the hospital from a physical and nervous breakdown.

When he woke the next morning, he heard music and followed the sound to the small chapel in the hospital. There Jim met God who began to heal his broken heart and restore his purpose for living. Jim had lost 40 million dollars! But that day he discovered wealth greater than any amount of money. So at the age of 56, with his new-found purpose and passion, he started his life again.

Jim traveled everywhere speaking about the power and principles of Jesus Christ, including The Golden Rule. In fact, Jim rebuilt his company even bigger! No matter what disappointments you have had in the past, you can start all over again today. But this time you live your Makers way. Remember, His way is the only way you can have real prosperity and peace that can never be taken away from you. Just think a minute

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The golden rule of business - Samoa Observer (press release) (blog)

In this compelling TED talk, Karen Armstrong, religious scholar, shares what she feels is the universal urgency spanning both the religious and nonreligious the world over, in adopting the Golden Rule, aka, one should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.

About Karen Armstrong and TED

Religious thinker Karen Armstrong has written more than 20 books on faith and the major religions, studying what Islam, Judaism and Christianity have in common, and how our faiths shaped world history and drive current events.

A former nun, Armstrong has written two books about this experience: Through the Narrow Gate, about her seven years in the convent, and The Spiral Staircase, about her subsequent spiritual awakening, when she developed her iconoclastic take on the major monotheistic religions and on the strains of fundamentalism common to all. She is a powerful voice for ecumenical understanding.

Armstrongs 2008 TED Prize wish asks us to help her assemble the Charter for Compassion, a document around which religious leaders can work together for peace. In late fall 2008, the first draft of the document was written by the world, via a sharing website. In February 2009, the words of the world were collected and given to the Council of Conscience, a gathering of religious leaders and thinkers, who crafted the final document. The Charter was launched in November 2009.

Follow the Conversation on Twitter

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and are not necessarily those of World Religion News.

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Karen Armstrong TED Talk: Reviving the 'Golden Rule' For Everyone - World Religion News

Venices residents have fled the city en masseas too much tourism hastaken its toll on infrastructure and daily life. But the city finally thinks it has a winning strategy to bring it back from the breaking point: Tell tourists to live by the golden rule.

In short: Treat the city like you would want visitors to treat yours.

Earlier this month, the citys government and tourism board, Venezia Unica, launched the #EnjoyRespectVenezia campaign aimed at telling tourists how to behave when theyre exploring the city.

But this is far from a being adestination marketing campaign for the city.

Rather, the campaign is reinforcingrules and regulations that have been in place for years and telling tourists that theyll potentially face hefty fines of $29-$580 (25 to 500) if they dont follow them.

Sitting on the ground in iconic St. Marks Square or below theProcuratie Nuove, for example, is forbidden under city regulations. Its also forbidden to hinder circulation of traffic on bridges and alleys, according to the city.

Cycling in the city center and swimming in the citys canals are also forbidden and illustrated as such on the campaigns official signage that will be posted throughout Venice (see sign below).

Swimming, littering, wearing swimwear, giving or scattering food, cycling and camping are forbidden activities in Venice.

The campaign is also promoting good tourist behaviors such as discovering the citys hidden treasures, exploring nearby islands in Venices lagoon, or visiting a food market and sampling local produce.

Telling travelers to visit new places or hidden gems would only be a temporary relief, of course, if that message reaches most travelers andthey actually listen.

Eventually, the hidden gems will no longer be hidden either.

The city is also sharing a map of authorized accommodationsand a map of restaurants and public restrooms.

The tourism board has produced a few YouTube videos for #EnjoyRespectVenezia, albeit in Italian and without any particularly compelling messaging or creative.

Signs and posters, which will be displayed in 10 languages including English, Chinese, Arabic, and Korean, will be placed throughout the city center and main tourist zones. The city has also highlighted the campaign on some of its main attractions such as Saint Marks Belltower, pictured below.

Venices residents and city council have increasingly grown agitated with overtourismin the city center during the past few years. They havefought to keep larger cruise ships outand proposed other measures to limit or regulate tourism.

Its not clear how wide of a reach this campaign will have beyond the physical posters throughout the city and travelers who happen to stumble upon the social media hashtag.

Venice seems to understand that it wont be able to tell travelers to stop visiting its unique attractions and canals, but it is trying to tell them how to show respect and behave around those attractions when they are in the destination.

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Venice Tackles Overtourism by Telling Visitors to Follow the Golden Rule - Skift