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

Experience and expertise can be dangerous traps. Expertise and experience can make learning hard. They can also make it hard to appreciate novelty, hard to understand something unique or original, hard to explore the unknown. Shunryu Suzuki was one of the first American Zen Masters and he spoke to his students about the importance of   [Read More…]

I cannot remember whether I read it, watched it or heard it, but it was an interview with Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens. The conversation was about how, even though Lewis was nearing the end of his career, he was still in incredible shape and a dominant force. While a lot of attention has   [Read More…]

Truly. The business case for investing in diversity and inclusion is big and broad and robust. There is today a more compelling business case for diversity and inclusion efforts than there is for a great deal of what actually gets done inside of our organizations. I am just tired of proving it. I am really   [Read More…]

I hear you telling me how open-minded you are. I believe that you want it to be true. I think that you probably believe that it is true. It is not. And this is a pretty big deal. It is really hard to change what you do not acknowledge. A lot of us think that   [Read More…]

We are pretty good at knowing what our point of view is (and we are pretty good at thinking highly of our point of view). We are also good at knowing when someone disagrees with our delightful point of view. We are not quite so good at understanding why they disagree with us. The value   [Read More…]

Via MBA@UNC MBA Online & Women 2.0

In my last post I talked about the value of diversity in your network of relationships and “The Social Origin of Good Ideas.” Here is another way to take a swing at this issue: Take a few minutes and conduct the following social network analysis. (These questions come from Achieving Success Through Social Capital by   [Read More…]

It is a hard thing to measure, but I consider the default stance toward difference one of the key markers of an inclusive organization, team or community. Think about the team that you are a part of. What is the collective stance or orientation toward difference? When the team is introduced to a person, a   [Read More…]

I find myself talking more and more about dealing with conflict. Some work teams and some leadership teams get stuck in conflict and have a really hard time agreeing on anything. But what I see much more often than that is teams that are not willing and/or able to disagree in a healthy, functional way.   [Read More…]

Be good to each other.