And I speak from experience and from having colluded first unwittingly and then wittingly with the old model when I was in my 20s and 30s: I worked early on within an industry where ‘eating one’s young’ was considered an unofficial but appreciated leadership style; I went for an MBA from a top business school where (like all other top business schools) more focus is spent on spreadsheet/financial dynamics than on the workforce/leadership dynamics that produce (or do not produce) the output that the spreadsheets/financials try to optimize; I visited HR for a significant phase of my career and always felt like the function was stuck in the 19th century and yet had so much potential to make a difference if it just could shed outdated mental models; and through it all, I have been intrigued (and dismayed) by how many organizations manage to survive despite doing everything possible to kill the unique spirit of their employees.

When I hit my 40s, I woke up from the ‘be successful’, ‘get ahead’, ‘fit in’ self-imposed dream I was living. I first started to try to make a difference from the inside. Then, decided to go freelance. I now work as an external advisor/consultant/coach. I have learned to not fear the lack of income and it has helped me have the spine to turn down assignments where the client starts out not wanting to embrace the obvious. I just say no. I don’t want to have to convince anyone in charge of the most basic, the most humane, the most obvious. The obvious being for me being that organzations hold the potential, at their best and most producively profitable, to be unique works of social cooperation, empathy and creativity; places of connection with others, and a sense of accomplishment.

Any other way of organizing, leading, or managing is a) unimaginative and boring, and more importantly b) as harsh an exploitation of human beings and the human spirit as we nowadays judge indentured servitude to have been in middle ages or during the industrial revolution pre-reform movements. Any other way of organizing, leading or managing will survive for a time (and perhaps longer than any of us might wish), but eventually it will the way of those other forms of short sighted exploitation of the labor and creativity of another. And I really don’t want to be part of condoning or supporting that!

“Most organizations are in the process of dying, they just can’t see it because they generated a profit yesterday.”

sums up business approach to people in general, not just D&I. It is essentially what Jim Collins has been saying for a long time with his assertion that Good is the enemy of Great.

Im with you – lets turn this into a majority with the ones who are on the bus – eventually we will outnumber the ones who are not

Are you going to be at HRE this year? Would be great to catch up.

I feel the same way. Can’t tell if it’s major personal growth or just a ridiculous amount of sassiness that comes with hitting my 40s. So much energy to be found in working with people excited to learn, grow, change together. In creating more freedom together to be our whole, more authentic selves at work. In creating ever deepening relationships as we talk through what we value and believe and love and weave those things together.

I work for communities now, not organizations. Thay’re making me sassier by the day.

So much about D & I should be common sense these days – as you’ve rightfully pointed out – and yet even people in the HR field ignore it like a fly on the wall.