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

Considering the warrior concept… I believe that the defining issue of our time is that we suffer greatly from an absence of leadership.  We have bookstores full of books about leadership.  We have plenty of people who consider themselves to be leaders.  We have plenty of people writing, speaking and shouting about leadership.  What we   [Read More…]

I think that organizations are truly more about alchemy and ecology than they are about finance, strategy and tactics.  I think that very few organizations actually understand that and this is a big part of the reason that the organizational lifespan is still not terribly long. Organizations that favor conformity over diversity, that value title   [Read More…]

A lot of leaders, organizations and communities say the right things about diversity and inclusion today.  Unfortunately (at least from my perspective) that is about as far as it goes.  I see very few organizations and very few communities that are actually doing anything of substance regarding diversity and inclusion.  I think that a great   [Read More…]

Because of my tree-hugging, dirt-workshipping ways, people tend to assume that I am a liberal / progressive / Democrat. I no longer know what any of those words mean, and maybe more importantly I no longer care.  I do know that they are connected to non-stop efforts to raise money and win elections, which I   [Read More…]

Slidedeck for session at the CHRA 2010 HR Conference: zen and the art of inclusion View more presentations from Joe Gerstandt.  

The biggest problem with stereotypes?  We think they just influence other people. Most of us think we are not influenced by them in anyway…that is the biggest problem with stereotypes.  If we are going to do a better of job of reducing the impact of stereotypes we are going to have to understand them better.   [Read More…]

One final post on the whole self at work. This idea of bringing your whole self to work is a bit abstract for some…especially, I would imagine, for those that have never realized any real resistance to doing so.  I often run into people who know exactly what I am talking about and share their   [Read More…]

I recently wrote a post titled “Whole People make Whole Organizations” which got a fair amount of traffic and generated conversation with some readers including Nilofer Merchant (who I am a fan of), and she pointed me towards some of her wonderful thoughts on the topic.  (P.S. She also has a webinar coming up that   [Read More…]