Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
You know them when you see them – which is seldom – and fully appreciate them after they’re gone and not when you have a chance to know them.
They are the type of people who rare; people by dint of background, experience, situation, skills or simply by being who are highly unique in a world where many of us are commodity plug and play.… Read the rest
While the Twittersphere exploded with Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s “binders full of women” it shouldn’t have been any surprise.
Guess what? Romney has lot of company. Many, many organizations lack decent diversity at the leadership level of one sort or another, whether it be racial/ethnic diversity or male/female diversity.
What’s “decent” diversity? Enough of something to have a critical mass and not the one token person of color or one female (or male) on an otherwise homogeneous executive team or board of trustees.… Read the rest
The email from the prospective applicant family asked my thoughts regarding my son’s grade school.
It could have just as easily been about a place to work or somebody referencing an employee.
It brought to mind a simple question.
When do you shift from “highly recommend” to a more nuanced “recommend with reservations?”
Just as the most qualified candidate may not be the best candidate for a job (“He had lots of great skills and experiences.… Read the rest
If you live in a certain City by the bay, sooner or later little surprises you.
Annoy you? Yes. Delight you? Often. Alarm, disappoint, thrill, and endear? Always.
It’s those differences that make the place so special. Take away those difference and ultimately it leads to one destination; the land of boring, common, even mediocre.
Some workplaces are just like that City.… Read the rest
There’s a problem or two with diversity and inclusion efforts.
It’s just not the one(s) you probably think.
Similar to the efforts to increase employee engagement – if you can just win the hearts and minds of employees they’ll be more productive, have less turnover, and engender greater customer satisfaction – inclusion and diversity efforts in some organizations struggle with the proper effective positioning (think marketing) and the changed culture required to be effective.
Sweet post from Tristan Walker this morning on the subject of startups.
The link is here.
University of Michigan professor Scott Page’s interview in the New York Times – “In Professor’s Model, Diversity = Productivity” can be found here.
Page’s research has shown that diverse groups outperform non-diverse groups in mid-to long term performance; fire drills, no, start-ups and running an organization, yes.… Read the rest