Category: Organizational Change
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Advocating for Inclusion: A roundup of ideas from post-TEDx636 roundtable
“Building on TED and the TEDWomen Conference: How Can We Make Conferences More Inclusive?” We made a big start towards answering this question at our roundtable conversation after the TEDx636 NYC/ TEDWomen simulcast event. Our panel, organized by Natalia Oberti Noguera and sponsored by NYWSE, included Brittany McCandless (moderator), Adaora Udoji, Liza Sabater, Ritu Yadav,…
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Is your organization flourishing or withering?
Organizations are organic things — they are born, they die, they suffer and they thrive. But very few organizations flourish. Organizations that flourish are rare creatures. We find them where business goals are tied to larger purpose, where larger purpose is linked to community needs, and where individuals’ authentic selves are nourished by and engaged…
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Changing the CEO at BP: It won’t make a difference, except where it will
For the past 90 days and counting, we knew this day was coming. You didn’t need an Irish bookmaker to tell you that Tony Hayward’s tenure as CEO of BP was coming to a close. Any organization facing a crisis like the BP Oil Spill would be likely to replace the guy at the helm.…
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BP’s Beyond Petroleum: Hypocrisy, or caught in the act of learning?
Some people actually believe(d) that BP was making an authentic effort to move “Beyond Petroleum”. I was quite surprised to discover this early in June, in conversation with an organizational change consultant who specializes is sustainability change. This consultant explained that, in contrast to other energy companies that he had worked with, BP was making…
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The Horrible Work-Life Truth I Learned at the Harvard Business School Reunion
That’s one headline for it. Another one might be: “How to make a table of women with graduate degrees cry.” I could spend a bit of time trying to set the scene to give you some perspective, but let me cut straight to the chase. Sitting at a table, talking with my female friends– some…
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Could BP have avoided the Gulf Oil Spill if it had more Women Executives?
How much has the paucity of women executives at BP and the overall gender imbalance in BP’s managerial ranks contributed to the Gulf Oil Spill? I’m betting that had there been more women in the executive ranks at British Petroleum, more women (especially from inside the Company) on BP’s Board of Directors, and more women…
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3 Types of Employee Engagement Advocates: Which type are you?
Is there ever a time when our reactions don’t reflect our own perspectives on an issue? The whole wisdom behind the dictum: “Seek First to Understand” turns on our awareness of the near-impossibility of uncoupling our initial reactions from our personal standpoint. Our experience with an issue, as well as our general world views, are…
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Heaping Scorn & Criticism on Feminist Advocates at Newsweek
This week’s story about feminists at Newsweek who have publicly challenged that magazine for failing to make progress against gender discrimination encouraged me, as I’m sure it encouraged many others. To see someone, anyone, make a prominent critique of a prominent organization, and then to have that organization make this criticism public, should have inspired…