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

I am in the Dallas-Fort Worth area today for HRSouthwest and this morning I presented a session called “this is your brain on diversity.”  This is a session where I take some significant insights from the fields of neuroscience and social psychology and consider what they mean to how we do diversity and inclusion work   [Read More…]

1971 called. It wants its conversation back. All this talk about “talent.” Finding it, measuring it, acquiring it, managing it, yada, yada, yada. Talent is becoming irrelevant. Okay, I got carried away…it’s not irrelevant.  But it is much less relevant than it used to be. For starters, I do not think that our approach to   [Read More…]

I have over the past few weeks found myself engaged in a number of open conversations with primarily HR folks about diversity and inclusion.  I love it that I continue to find robust conversations involving lots of people in different roles around this set of issues. I think that there is a growing awareness that   [Read More…]

Difference is a part of any and all social interactions.  You may pay attention to it, you may ignore it, but it is there.  All groups, all conversations, all interactions, all relationships contain difference…it is one of the basic building blocks of everything social.  How the people involved deal with their shared difference is a   [Read More…]

Once upon a time… I facilitated a half day workshop for the leadership team of a large urban school district; there was about 100 people involved.  A couple of weeks prior to this workshop I had asked them to evaluate themselves regarding how inclusive they were of people that were of different genders, race, ethnicity,   [Read More…]

The human body is composed of a variety of systems.  Each of them has a unique role and they all depend on each other.  Bones, muscles…digestive, cardiovascular, nervous systems, etc.  Similarly, an organization is an integration of intermingling and overlapping systems.  Organizations generally have some physical infrastructure.  There is also the workforce, the organizational chart,   [Read More…]

This is a time of year that always brings reflection for me. Packed within a few short weeks in the fall are the wedding anniversary of my wife and I, the birthday of our youngest daughter and the anniversary of me starting my business.  We have now been married 5 years, Gillian Mae turned four   [Read More…]

I am hyper-critical of other speakers and facilitators.  It’s ridiculous.  I am extra, especially, super-duper, hyper-critical of speakers that talk about diversity and inclusion stuff.  It’s really ridiculous.  If you asked me to recommend a speaker (other than myself, of course), there would be a very short list of names that would come to mind.   [Read More…]

I may not be getting much blogging done right now, but I know some people that are.  I highly recommend each of these posts…read and share! Love and Power  A wonderful post from Jamie Notter Getting More Players on the All-Star Team A wonderful post from Jeffrey Cufaude Quotas / Women / Boards A wonderful   [Read More…]

Intersections baby, its all about the intersections.  Robust, dynamic, chaotic intersections of different perspectives, different heuristics, different experiences and interpretations…this is what feeds an organizations ability to: share information make meaning from information make high quality decisions solve problems create and innovate Pretty important stuff. And they are all influenced by our ability to disagree   [Read More…]