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

My work has been focused on diversity and inclusion from the beginning, and over the past 2-3 years, authenticity has become my third primary focus. There are a number of reasons for this. 1- I am trying to fill my buzzword bingo card. 2- My own personal experience tells me that authenticity is hard work   [Read More…]

A couple of years ago, I started paying a lot of attention to how organizations make decisions and deal with disagreement. I had come to see it as a really reliable marker for how inclusive an organization or a team truly was. As I started paying more and more attention to decision making, I also   [Read More…]

Sorry, but this post really is all about me. Some stuff I want to share… resources: Building an Inclusive Culture, a free webinar Tuesday August 6th, 12:00-1:00 pm (CST). Register here. videos I have recently released a couple of videos with discussion guides. The first is focused on authenticity, here are links to the video   [Read More…]

The other day I caught a string of tweets coming out of a conference regarding the behavior of Millennials. You know the kind of stuff I am talking about; 26% of Millennials say they are not affiliated with any religion (Pew Study 2010), 23% of Millennials think they will still be with their first employer   [Read More…]

In my last post, I talked a bit about diversity being misunderstood. Organizations often lack clear, concise definitions and the word diversity is often used as code for race, African American, minority, gender, affirmative action, etc. While these are all important parts of the diversity and inclusion conversation, I continue to argue that the word   [Read More…]

I wrote a blog post recently about some of the underlying beliefs that inform my approach to my work. One of the things that I said in that post was this: “I believe that difference is one of the most fundamental and powerful dynamics of the human experience.” I knew there were a few things   [Read More…]

A couple of interesting conversations recently served as catalyst for this blog post. I am reminded that underneath and behind different approaches, there are often different beliefs. We advocate different approaches to human resources and management, governance, law enforcement, guns, education, etc., because we (sometimes) hold very different beliefs about human beings. While those underlying   [Read More…]

Ug. I am not a patient person, and that is why I often have a love / hate relationship with the body(s) of work that I am connected to. Most of what I do lands somewhere in the Diversity & Inclusion / Human Resources / Management / Learning & Development / Leadership & Organizational Development   [Read More…]

“Words do matter.  Language is messy by nature, which is why we must be careful in how we use it.  As leaders, after all, we have little else to work with.  We typically don’t use hammers and saws, heavy equipment, or even computers to do our real work.  The essence of leadership — what we   [Read More…]

My second podcast, in which I discuss Just Kids, by Patti Smith, the story of my life, my work, Talent Anarchy, The Frontier Project, the Diversity Summit this Friday and my next Skype Day. Enjoy. Be good to each other.