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

I have the privilege of presenting to the Diversity Roundtable of Central Indiana this week and will cover a lot of stuff in this workshop, but the key theme is “making the case” for diversity.  Unfortunately there are a lot of people wandering around the business world claiming that there is no business case or   [Read More…]

Part III The Soup Pot and the Soup in the Pot You think because you understand one, you must understand two, because one and one makes two. But you also must understand and. -Sufi saying Social beings we are. In the first post of this series, I presented the idea that there are two forces   [Read More…]

Part II The Yin Yang of Being with other Humans Years before Louis Pasteur came along and proved to the world the existence of germs; Ignaz Semmelweis was trying to convince health care providers to wash their hands. Semmelweis was trying to reduce mortality rates in the obstetrical clinic he directed and he strongly believed   [Read More…]

Part I The Final Frontier Social beings. We share many types of interactions with others, especially today. We talk on the phone, some still actually write letters to one another, we have myriad “in person” exchanges, formal and informal, functional and dysfunctional. For many of us, e-mailing for personal and professional reasons is a standard,   [Read More…]

I am well into a big fat love affair with Web 2.0. For the sake of this post, I do not care what Web 2.0 and other associated buzzwords mean to you, only what they mean to me. The love affair started innocently enough many years ago, in a galaxy far, far away when I   [Read More…]

A great deal of my work revolves around issues of diversity and inclusion, and much of that work is about better understanding the raw value of difference and about being more intentional with our behaviors, processes and systems so that we do not waste, overlook or limit the potential and the unique contributions of those   [Read More…]

  Mary Schaefer and I found each other on…(wait for it)…Twitter. Where else do people find each other these days!!?? Mary and I orbit around some of the same ideas and hopes for the world of work. On her Twitter profile she describes herself as an “HR/OD Consultant, Fierce Idealist, Farmer’s Daughter,” who Tweets about   [Read More…]

Is bystanding becoming the new “great American pastime?” I have written before about how intentions can get us in trouble if we are not careful. Here and here. One of the ways our happy, fuzzy, wonderful intentions can get us in trouble is that they can convince us that we are not a part of   [Read More…]

Some good reading and good resources related to issues of Diversity and Inclusion: Diversity Helps Your Business – But Not The Way You Think This Forbes article from Katherine Phillips sheds new light on the value of difference in the group / organizational context. Phillips summarizes research she recently published with Katie Liljenquist showing that:   [Read More…]

Do you work with humans? If you are interested in being a more effective communicator, a more effective collaborator or a more effective leader…this workshop is for you. If you are interested in helping your organization become more successful at attracting, engaging and retaining a talented workforce…this workshop for you. If you are interested in   [Read More…]