I recently attended the 50th anniversary conference of the Black Panther Party at the Oakland Museum. I didn’t expected to be impacted so deeply. Three of the programs I attended had very deep, personal meaning to me. One was on the original Rainbow Coalition of White, Black and Brown people working together to feed hungry kids, promote consciousness and action…
Cultural Intelligence is the ability to work effectively with people from any group any time, anywhere. According to the Harvard Business review a key predictor for success in this century is a person’s level of cultural intelligence. To be successful we each need to recognize the multiple identities in each of us, and the differences and similarities amongst us. To some…
Does Your Organization Suffer From These Symptoms of “Hidden Genius Constipation”? 1- People in your organization have great ideas for new products and services but they have no outlet to express them. Innovation stays in the realm of the product development team, or with your “regular” stars. No matter how diverse your workforce is, if people can’t show what they can…
Diversity and Inclusion Starts With Hello September is coming fast as people return to work, school, and home. This is a great opportunity to strike up a conversation with new people and break out of social and work silos. There are three common threads through countless interviews and focus groups I’ve conducted in a wide range of organizations: 1- …
StartOut is the “must belong to” organization dedicated to creating great business leaders by fostering Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBTQ) entrepreneurs. It is the LGBTQ business life line. With 15,000 members and chapters in 6 cities StartOut is reaching out to expand and engage LGBT entrepreneurs across the US and the rest of the globe through the new…
I was honored to be a special guest of Carole Copeland Thomas on her Conversations With Carole, on Understanding Intersections between race, diversity and LGBTQ. This is an important topic and everyone is included in real inclusion. If we support diversity and inclusion, then we can’t pick and choose which issues are real, or stay in our little comfort zones….
Sexual orientation is not a lifestyle. Another person told me they were not “prejudiced,” they just didn’t agree with the LGBT lifestyle. I asked them which part of the life style they disagreed with. Was it going to work, paying a rent or mortgage, having a family, eating dinner, going to the movies, wanting to feel safe, or what? He…
1- We can all benefit by becoming aware of our biases, not only about people who are different, but even about what we’ve heard about our own groups. Be open to the fact that you may have some unconscious stereotypes about LGBT people. Those stereotypes lead to assumptions about what an LGBTQ person may be thinking or why they are…
Like many of you, my heart is heavy, and my sadness is deep. The horror and hate that showed up in Orlando is immeasurable. But the grief and anguish of the family, friends and loved ones of the young LGBT people who were murdered is only the beginning of a long journey of anguish, shock and disbelief. They will never…
After posting an article on LinkedIn about Target and Transgender rights including using the right bathroom, someone asked why I would use the word hater for someone who just had a different point of view. She said that it was just a disagreement about whether men should use the women’s bathroom and women should use the men’s bathroom. Unfortunately, a…
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