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

Still talking about privilege. In my last post I started to explore the impacts of privilege. Privilege does not require any bad intentions or hatred to pit groups against each other. Privilege makes it really easy for privileged folks to judge other groups based on stereotypes. Many, if not most privileged folks would vehemently deny   [Read More…]

More on privilege, and the uneven playing field. I have already posted a definition and some characteristics. There are also a number of posts and articles that provide examples of how privilege shows up: examples of white privilege examples of male privilege examples of Christian privilege examples of straight privilege Privilege unexamined and unchallenged, pits   [Read More…]

My last post included a basic definition of privilege. There are some basic characteristics of privilege that I think are also helpful in considering privilege. I do not remember where I came across them, but they should be credited to someone other than myself. They have proven to be pretty valuable for me. institutional domination:    [Read More…]

The first time that someone told me I had “privilege” I just about flipped my lid. They could have just as well been speaking another language, the idea made absolutely no sense to me. I was certainly not living a life of leisure, perched atop some inherited wealth. Privileged? Absolutely not, I had worked hard.   [Read More…]

As much as I like social media, I also very much value a break from it. Every year at about this time I sign off for a month. I will continue contributing to the Talent Anarchy blog, and I have a post or two cued up at a couple of the other places that I   [Read More…]

Inclusion is the act of seeking out and including additional difference, and a lot of this work is focused on people. It is also important to make sure that we give some attention to diversity of practices and diversity of experiences. This is an additional layer of this work, but it also comes with some   [Read More…]

I recently participated in a panel discussion about leadership.  The conversation was specifically focused on a leaders role in creating an inclusive organizational culture, and the whole thing just made me very scratchy. I tried to not make a big stink during the conversation, but I felt that we were way off base. The golden   [Read More…]

I recently took our girls, pictured above in their Halloween finest, to see the new Muppet movie. They enjoyed it and I was not miserable. It was a fine movie, nice, funny, and not too cheesy…and I very much enjoy doing things that the girls get excited about. When I posted something on Twitter about   [Read More…]

If I thought I could get away with it, I would probably call myself a sweetness consultant. I have written about sweetness before, I think it is a wonderful analogy for pursuing the creative potential that exists where things that are different from each other intersect…whether they be people, or ideas, or practices…or atoms. This   [Read More…]

This is a slightly modified version of a post I published earlier this year…seemed timely with SHRM Leadership this week. A lot of my work happens with and around HR folks…and that means that a lot of it happens with and around SHRM.  I have attended and presented for a number of SHRM events, local,   [Read More…]