Joe Gerstandt | keynote speaker, freedom fighter, freak-flag flier

I have been a fan of Robert Jensen for several years.  I very much appreciate his perspective on issues related to diversity, privilege and complicity.  I feel honored to do the work that I do, am very serious about the responsibility that comes with ths work, and I have appreciated his guidance and leadership over   [Read More…]

Well, I started out with 14 women to follow on Twitter, but I think that 23 is a really nice round number, so here are nine more women that I think you should follow on Twitter.  You will not be disappointed! Maddie Grant I have had the great good fortune of meeting Maddie in person,   [Read More…]

Rosetta Thurman is one of my absolute favorites on Twitter and she has become one of my favorite bloggers as well…AND, she is coming to Omaha this week!  Last Friday, she posted 5 People You Should be Following on Twitter and was kind enough to include me on her list.  It occurred to me that   [Read More…]

Does your organization or community have an inclusive culture? Really? How do you know? A lot of organizations say nice, happy, shiny things about inclusion and about diversity.  For most organizations that is about as far as it goes…they have “inclusion of the mouth” but they do not have any real clarity on what inclusion   [Read More…]

I think most of us have some appreciation that race and our attitudes about race can influence how we vote (and what issues we feel strongly about), but what are some of the underlying dynamics that influence our attitudes about race?  This is a good clip from TED, with some interesting observations from Nate Silver.    [Read More…]

Last fall I wrote a post called “Whole People Build Whole Organizations” and I just recently stumbled across some discussion about this post on another site.  One comment in particular caught my eye: All common laments. Let’s celebrate individuality and engage the “whole”. And as a manager, it means nothing to me. Its mindless, its   [Read More…]

One of the things that I love about social media is that it provides us with many tools for telling our story and it provides us with greater access to the stories of others.  Telling our story and bearing witness to the stories of others are some of the most powerful things that we can   [Read More…]

I get to speak at several conferences each year, and conferences are good for me.  They provide me with the opportunity to introduce myself and my work to new groups of people and I am always grateful when I am invited to contribute to conference.  A number of the conferences that I speak at are   [Read More…]

I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel discussion Friday evening considering the impact of social media, and of course we really only scratched the surface of a big and important conversation.  I am a big believer in the potential of social media tools, but first and foremost I am an advocate for making   [Read More…]

“Any situation in which some men prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence;… to alienate humans from their own decision making is to change them into objects.” “Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.   [Read More…]