I was delighted to lead a workshop on “Diversity and Inclusion on Teams” for a class of engineering students at the University of Toronto last week. As part of the university’s Leaders of Tomorrow program, students can obtain a certificate in Team Skills.

Engineering. Leadership. Team Skills. Diversity and Inclusion. How remarkable! All these critical competencies offered in one program. Times have changed and learning about this program, which has been around since 2002, buoys me with optimism for the future.

I worked for almost two decades in a global technology company. In my early years I was responsible for recruiting new grad engineers and technical staff. While of course we wanted people who demonstrated leadership and showed potential for advancement, our primary focus was technical competency. Team and diversity education wasn’t on our radar.

These same engineers are still in the workforce today and I hear continually from clients and colleagues about the challenges of working effectively on teams – silo mentality, lack of trust, and high levels of stress and anxiety from the pressure to produce results.

In my current field of leadership and team development, diversity and inclusion are topics that are rarely addressed directly. In fact, when I ask colleagues how they deal with diversity and inclusion challenges on teams and in organizations, they often respond saying “That’s your thing. I don’t talk about it.” Ugh.

Research shows positive relationships have a direct positive impact on the performance of teams and their ability to be innovative, problem solve and produce results. So with this knowledge I am frustrated by the reluctance to talk about diversity on teams by my colleagues. Developing inclusive teams and workplaces must be integrated into the leadership and team development work we do in organizations.

Now you can understand my excitement at discovering a terrific program like the Leaders of Tomorrow at the University of Toronto. Their vision is as bold as the projects their students will create in the future “An engineering education that is a lifelong foundation for transformational leaders and outstanding citizens.” Things really are changing.

Let’s celebrate efforts like these by sharing them publicly. What innovative, integrated programs do you know about for developing “leaders for tomorrow”?

On Sunday I ran a 10k race in beautiful central Ontario. When I picked up my kit bag, my t-shirt was men’s size small/medium which was the smallest shirt they had. Too big. Again. Not a big deal you say. Not really. Except that I have so many men’s t-shirts from running races that do not fit because they are too big and too baggy. What’s frustrating is that in recent years more women are signing up to run races than men. In this particular race, there have been significantly more women than men participating for the eight years the race has been in existence. Why are only men’s style shirts available?

Now flip to the boardroom. Last week I was reading about the lack of progress women are making in obtaining boardroom seats. More »

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make lasting systemic social change. There are lots of methodologies and best practices and training programs around that serve a good purpose and yet the problems they are intended to resolve are still prevalent, in some cases getting worse.

Last week I attended a Change Lab workshop in Toronto, facilitated by Adam Kahane and Joe McCarron of Reos Partners. The Change Lab is an approach designed for working on complex social problems. Their version of a Change Lab has  “Theory U” at its core.  The process is systemic, participative and creative. Kahane explained that for complex problems where we don’t know how to get from A to B, where the answer is around the corner, More »

Part 1: Social Media in Bystander Action – A Help or Hindrance?

Part 2: Positive Bystander Action: What’s at stake?

Positive bystander action is as varied and diverse as we are. There is no best way to be as a bystander. It begins by being yourself and ‘noticing’ in a way that is comfortable for you.

Words that describe a bystander include:

A bystander is not a…

Bystanders do not speak for or ‘over the person’ on the receiving end of the uncomfortable comment or action. Being a good bystander comes more from humanistic empathy than having a good theory or methodology. And like most things, we get better with practice. Start by simply noticing. Pay attention to uncomfortable moments. This raises your awareness and your sensitivity. More »

Part 1: Social Media in Bystander Action – A Help or Hindrance?

Part 3: Positive Bystander Action: What Does It Look Like?

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies,
but the silence of our friends. (Martin Luther King, Jr., 1968)

The story below illustrates the impact of the silence of our friends. 

A technology company was having trouble attracting and retaining women engineers. One day a group of project managers and engineers were having a meeting to review a new product. There were 9 men and 1 woman in attendance. One of the men said “This remote is so stupidly easy to operate that even my wife can use it.” No one raised an eyebrow or spoke up about this comment. After the meeting the woman’s boss asked her, “Why didn’t you say something?” and she replied “Why didn’t you?”

The woman left the company shortly after this incident. True story? Unfortunately so. An isolated incident? Unfortunately not.

Micro inequities such as this one accumulate over time causing a culture of stress and anxiety as a result of not feeling valued or respected. Eventually people will go elsewhere. More »

Part 2: Positive Bystander Action: What’s at Stake?

Part 3: Positive Bystander Action: What Does It Look Like?

Recently I watched a CNN clip hosted by Don Lemon talking about how social media affects bystander reaction. The two recent examples cited were Bill Nye “the science guy” fainting on stage and Anthony Barre being gunned down on the street in New Orleans. Claims were made that people tweeted about Bill Nye rather than help him and that people posted video of Anthony Barre bleeding on YouTube. The sense I got from this CNN segment was that social media played a role in the irresponsible action or non-action of bystanders in both instances. “Tweet first, act later” was the sub head on the screen. The unfortunate truth is that these two incidents illustrate what often does happen in pubic situations where people fail to act or act in ways that seem irresponsible or without compassion. And it has nothing to do with social media.  

Lena West, a social media strategist commenting in the discussion, acknowledged that although there is a bit of a “scooping culture” out there where some people want to be first to “report” a story, that whether a person steps in to help has nothing to do with whether the person had access to twitter or Facebook – that the actions of a few people are not representative of everyone who is active in social media.  I agree. Bystander apathy is an age old problem. More »

Recently I participated in a conversation with colleagues about the feeling we have that a “paradigm shift”  is happening in organizations. There is a movement from “managing diversity” towards creating inclusive work cultures. Another way of describing it is making the shift from “counting the mix” to “engaging the mix” in working together.  Of course the bottom line in all this is…well…the bottom line.

Leaders in organizations are now realizing that developing and retaining a diverse group of high performing employees is a business imperative. We work with people from around the globe, whether locally or virtually. What exactly is an inclusive culture? How do we know when we have it or not? What does it look like? Feel like? Sound like? More »