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

I am pretty critical when it comes to the topic of leadership.  I think that the defining issue of our time is a great absence of leadership. I see a lot of great things said and written about leadership…I do not see a lot of it actually showing up in our communities, our organizations and   [Read More…]

In my experience, one of the greatest challenges in moving diversity and inclusion work forward is that it is horribly misunderstood.  People and organizations are all over the place when it comes to what diversity and inclusion actually are and there tends to be a lot of confusion and disagreement around why (or if) diversity   [Read More…]

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a lot of attention is generally paid to the I Have a Dream Speech, which is powerful and one of the great messages in the history of this country.  MLK Jr. wrote and said a lot of things during his life, and I still consider his Letter from Birmingham   [Read More…]

Well I am coming off of my social media holiday which started way back on Dec. 2oth.  It was good.  There were a few quick “log ins” here and there, but for the most part I avoided the world of social media for about 3 weeks…and it was good.  And it is good to be   [Read More…]

I am supposed to be on a social media sabbatical, and this is proof of how incredibly weak I am.  Only a few days into my time off line and I have to put out a blog post and jump on twitter for a bit.  There has just been some cool stuff that has happened…   [Read More…]

I am taking a social media holiday.  If I can.  Today is my last day for a while.  Sort of…this is my plan: Starting today (12.20.10) at 5pm CST today  and lasting until 8am CST 01.10.11. – no Twitter -no blogging here, with the exception of a couple video posts (the obligatory “this is the   [Read More…]

1970 called. It wants its business model back.  It also wants its diversity programs back. Business has changed.  I think it is critical that we are tracking on this so that we are also able to appreciate the growing significance of diversity in an ever evolving business environment. In many, many ways and in some   [Read More…]

If you have a moment, please check out this new testimonial video we just finished. Thanks!

In October I spoke at the HR Reinvention Experiment and one of the many cool things about this event was that they had an incredibly talented graphic facilitator capturing the essence of our conversations.  This is her work from my session.

Conflict is good. I am not talking here about drama or dysfunctional conflict, but healthy and honest disagreement. It is good because: 1.)    It is reality…human beings have different perspectives, different points of view different priorities and are going to disagree…and arguing with or avoiding reality is a poor investment of time and energy. 2.)      [Read More…]