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”?

Chaos. Not knowing. Confusion. Uncertainty. These are not words that we typically include in describing the environment we want to create to solve problems. More likely these are often the descriptors we are actively seeking to eliminate. And yet, it’s at the edge of chaos and order that innovation lives. It is also the exact place where the practice of leadership lives. This Chaordic Path between chaos and order is where things are not fixed but rather flexible enough for new connections and solutions to occur. New levels of order become possible out of chaos if we’re able to stay on the path long enough to see what emerges. How do we do this? More »

Recently I was in a meeting with a few colleagues talking about co-developing a customized leadership program for a client. When it came time to decide how we’d actually create the program, one person said “well we all know the best way to develop a program is to lock yourself in a dark room and write it by yourself.” I was surprised (shocked actually) by this comment because this person is someone who works as a team and leadership coach and “knows” all about generating high-quality team experiences. As coaches and leaders, isn’t it important to practice what we teach?

My colleague is human however and unfortunately her gut level response is indicative of how many people feel when they think about working on teams. “Oh no! Not another team!” We envision complex to do lists, More »