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

In my experience, one of the greatest challenges in moving diversity and inclusion work forward is that it is horribly misunderstood.  People and organizations are all over the place when it comes to what diversity and inclusion actually are and there tends to be a lot of confusion and disagreement around why (or if) diversity   [Read More…]

Well I am coming off of my social media holiday which started way back on Dec. 2oth.  It was good.  There were a few quick “log ins” here and there, but for the most part I avoided the world of social media for about 3 weeks…and it was good.  And it is good to be   [Read More…]

1970 called. It wants its business model back.  It also wants its diversity programs back. Business has changed.  I think it is critical that we are tracking on this so that we are also able to appreciate the growing significance of diversity in an ever evolving business environment. In many, many ways and in some   [Read More…]

In October I spoke at the HR Reinvention Experiment and one of the many cool things about this event was that they had an incredibly talented graphic facilitator capturing the essence of our conversations.  This is her work from my session.

Conflict is good. I am not talking here about drama or dysfunctional conflict, but healthy and honest disagreement. It is good because: 1.)    It is reality…human beings have different perspectives, different points of view different priorities and are going to disagree…and arguing with or avoiding reality is a poor investment of time and energy. 2.)      [Read More…]

Just a heads up on events that are on my calendar and open via registration.  Things are winding down for this calendar year, but the first half of 2011 is starting to look good! Minnesota Recruiters Conference 12 ||  Friday, December 3rd  ||  Minneapolis, MN 45th Annual Northern Ohio HR Conference ||  Friday, March 11th    [Read More…]

Todays rant. I have said numerous time before that HR should not own organizational diversity and inclusion work, and I think that there are a number of reasons for that, but lets just cut to the heart of the matter.  HR does not want to do the work.  HR likes to get credit for “getting   [Read More…]

Everyone on the planet is talking about social media…except for diversity and inclusion practitioners.  Okay, a bit of an exaggeration, but not that big.  Of all the conferences that I have participated in this fall, D&I conferences are the only ones where social media has been absent from the agenda.  I have even felt some   [Read More…]

Open Community and diversity and inclusion I’m taking part in the virtual book tour Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer are doing to explore concepts from Open Community: a little book of big ideas for associations navigating the social web. In this post, Maddie and Lindy introduce the book and discuss a few of the ideas   [Read More…]

I am anxious about the future. I have very real concerns about whether D&I work is evolving in the ways that it needs to and at the rate that we need it to.  I think that diversity and inclusion continue to be the most misunderstood issues in the world of business, organizational, community and individual   [Read More…]