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

Some thoughts on Veteran’s Day. I have become a huge peace freak in my old age, but I am still thankful for the four years that I spent in the Marine Corps and I am still very humbled by the sacrifices made by the men and women in the Armed Forces.  I wish they were   [Read More…]

The New Web and the future of H.R. I did a Web 2.0 overview presentation this week for a group of HR leaders and I was reminded what a match made in heaven this is.  Web 2.0 tools (when used appropriately) are uniquely human and uniquely social in nature…and as people that work in and   [Read More…]

I have a question to respond to. I am a question guy.  I love questions.  I prefer a good question to a good answer any day of the week.  Answers generally bore me.  I think that good, big, open-ended questions help us find the future.  Last week my question was “what about love”?  I had   [Read More…]

Mary Schaefer and I have been tossing some questions back and forth, and this is a question we both decided to take a shot at:  We both focus largely on the intangible assets in an organization or community…the things that cannot be easily counted or weighed…things like difference, trust, relationships, culture, etc.  What can we   [Read More…]

Want to know what my work is really all about?  Sweetness.  With a little help from one of my favorite authors, I will share an example of what I am talking about. Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen walk into a bar… No seriously. An excerpt from The Hidden Connections, by Fritjof Capra: When carbon, oxygen, and   [Read More…]

Here we are again, Mary Schaefer and I, exchanging questions and answers. Joe: We both focus largely on the intangible assets in an organization or community…the things that cannot be easily counted or weighed…things like difference, trust, relationships, culture, etc.  What can we do so that more business leaders come to value these incredibly powerful   [Read More…]

 …lecture series sponsored by University of Nebraska at Omaha and open to students, staff, faculty and the general public: NEXT GENERATION LEADERSHIP AND DIVERSITY What is Diversity and Why Does it Matter? September 23rd 1:00-2:00pm Despite all of the rhetoric and static about “celebrating” and “embracing” diversity, there is a still a great deal of   [Read More…]

I spend a fair amount of time in the interwebs and I try not to ask for much.  I try not to ask for votes, re-tweets, diggs, etc.  But. This time it’s different. I am very much asking for your vote. I would like to be on the agenda at SXSWi in 2010.  The proposal   [Read More…]

Part V: The Difference Matrix In the first post of this series, I presented the idea that there are two primary forces present in every interaction between human beings; difference and commonality. In the second post, I presented the idea that difference and commonality are not independent of each other, but rather complimentary opposites forming   [Read More…]

Mary Schaefer and I have an ongoing Q&A exchange that we are posting on both of our blogs.  This week Mary has a question for me… For an organization leader who sincerely wants to better understand what it is going to take to make her/his organization more innovative, by way of diversity and inclusion, what   [Read More…]