In my last post I said that conversations about race may be awkward but are very necessary. A woman sent me a comment that said, “if you didn’t mention race so much, it wouldn’t be an issue. You’re perpetuating division.” Issues like the scarcity of people of color in the technology industry and the excuses and false belief that there…
Talking about race with people who are different than you can be awkward and uncomfortable, but it’s necessary and doable. The fact is racism exists, racial conflict exists, and inequality still exists. To say that we are post-racial is nonsense. To say that everyone is the same is nonsense. And to say that we should all be color blind…
Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging, Cultural Competency- in some circles they have become buzzwords. Organizations, individuals and departments use these terms almost interchangeably. It’s good to believe in their importance, however unless they are connected to concrete actions, they remain good ideas, or buzzwords. So then, what do you do to make people feel included? How do you know they feel included,…
I just returned from the Global HRD Congress in Mumbai where I received the Global Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Award and also led a panel on Diversity, Inclusion and Innovation. The conference was amazing. Not just because of the incredible people I met from over 100 countries, but also because of how included the conference organizers made us feel, and…
Diversity doesn’t go away because we have a president who is not on the side of diversity. People still need and want inclusion, and diversity and inclusion is the heart and driver of long-lasting innovation. I hear and know how upset, angry and scared so many people are by the rhetoric and white nationalism, and/or homophobia, islamaphobia, anti-semitism, etc. During…
A lot of people were shocked, angry or speechless when Trump’s lewd comments about women were made public. Trump has bragged about his support for gender equality and how well women will do if he is president. Trump and his supporters fired back in his defense with comments like, “He’s not running for Sunday school teacher,” “It’s just locker room…
The headline in the Huffington Post said that a mother in Tennessee threw a fit when her daughter was “forced” to learn abuot the existence of Islam in a 7th grade social studies class http://huff.to/2dtOkXg . They may take any mention of Islam out of their text books. I’m outraged that this ignorant mother is even allowed to influence education….
Is there anyone in today’s business world who has not heard of transformational leadership, organizational culture change or talent optimization? Articles, books and white papers are published daily on those topics. We’ve heard a lot from the experts but we aren’t hearing enough from people in organizations who are the future innovators and hold the hidden genius. Without real diversity…
Research shows that too often women are more worried about being liked than respected. This desire to be liked can take us to extremes and be detrimental to our success. Being liked is not bad and it is important as a leader. But when being liked makes us compromise our values and our personal dreams, we end up not…
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….
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