A CEO recently complained that his employees were resistant to diversity and any kind of training.I asked him what he meant. He told me that the EEO officer had created a program and no one was signing up. What’s wrong with this picture?1-Diversity management is not the same as affirmative action and shouldn’t be sitting in the same office.2- When…
Jason Collins, NBA player with the Washington Wizards, told the world he was gay in an interview with Sports Illustrated and on Oprah. While there are a few naysayers who are reacting out of petty ignorance and bigotry, support for him has been overwhelmingly positive in the Sports World and from those of us in the outside world.
Roosevelt Thomas was one of the original thought leaders of diversity and diversity management. I read Beyond Race and Gender when I first started this work as a profession, and found myself agreeing with everything I read. His book, “Building a House for Diversity,” is one of the best books to break down why diversity and diversity management is so…
I’m tired of people talking about cultural competency. I’m not sure what it even means. It sounds like it is limited to “being good” at one culture, or just good enough to pass. I prefer to talk about cultural intelligence, or cultural flexibility which are processes to be able to interact effectively with people from any cultural group. Cultural intelligence…
Employee Resource Groups or ERGs, are organized networks of employees in organizations who have similar demographics, interests, or life experiences, i.e,, veterans, women, Gen Y, people over 40, African-American, people with various religious affiliations, South Asian, etc. Early on, many ERGs began as a affinity groups formed to provide social and career support for their members. As diversity and inclusion…
Meaningless Diversity Slogans(We probably have used these more times than we admit. I pledge to stop myself before I use them) 1- The Golden Rule- Treat people the way you want to be treatedWhat if you hate yourselfWhat if they other people don’t want what you wantWhat if you have no idea how you want to be treated because you’ve…
Have you ever had a job that you hated? That you dreaded so much you didn’t want to leave your house in the morning? I had one of those jobs. In those days, it was called telephone soliciting. I sold aluminum siding over the telephone. I didn’t know how much it actually cost or even what aluminum siding was. I…
If you want to recruit, retain and leverage the skills and talents of brilliant employees, you need to provide an inclusive workplace where people love to come to work. Employers that treat their employees like recalcitrant children, micromanage and demonstrate their distrust of them will not only lose good people to their competition but will eventually end up miserable, broke…
Not many industries have as much chaos potential as the Restaurant industry. There is constant activity, conflicting personalities and customers that need to be served. Your mental, physical and spiritual health are directly impacted by how you deal with these factors on a daily basis. Two people who own busy, successful restaurants practice meditation and have more energy, stay calmer,…
Many restaurants start out with exciting concepts and ideas, but as they grow they lose the culture that made them successful. Other restaurants manage to continue growing and keep the culture they created. What separates one type of restaurant from the other? One of the key factors is to define the culture you want to create, and integrate that in…
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