As organizations seek to build a more diverse and multi-cultural workforce, one of the more significant impediments towards developing an equitable environment are the unconscious gender biases affecting behavior and lack of processes addressing them. Some such points to consider when developing related diversity initiatives are: The trap of “Act like a man” and “Don’t be a girl”. Our socio-cultural environment has common gender normative concepts such as “men don’t cry” or that “women are emotional” that establish behavior and expectations. These concepts are reinforced in the work sphere where women in leadership roles are judged as being masculine or aggressive. Part … Continue reading Unconscious Gender Bias – Identifying & Managing it.

  Be it telecommunications, transportation, public management, government, non-profits, technology services or e-commerce, there is one challenge common to all sectors: the last mile challenge. Simply put –  it is the actions taken that enable the delivery of goods or services to the final destination or to the final consumers/beneficiaries. When viewed from the lens of Diversity, I believe we are at a stage where organizations are facing “Diversity’s Last Mile Challenge”. While there is an increase in corporate leaders, entrepreneurs , government agencies, fortune 500 corporations  as well as startups who are talking about diversity while also implementing diversity … Continue reading Diversity’s Last Mile Challenge

We all know in some format what a multi stakeholder process looks like; without going into the theory of it, in essence the end goal of this process is it promote better decision making by ensuring that the views of the main actors concerned about a particular decision are heard and integrated at all stages through dialogue and consensus building. This is the UN perspective on it and admittedly one that I am partial towards. That said, having wrangled together a few multi stakeholder processes, here are a few tools that I have used and found beneficial- Draft out a … Continue reading How to manage a multi stakeholder process

While I was spinning away at my soul cycle class, the combination of loud hip hop and motivational words led to honing in on two concepts that can make for a better organizational culture. Embrace your authentic yourself Every team or department has a unique identity and and value proposition. Healthy organizations enable teams to define themselves, embrace their identity and establish their space within the intra organizational dynamic. Set your intent Be it a short term project or long term strategy, setting the intent at the onset establishes the essential road map to be followed. The simple act of … Continue reading Culture Code: Healthy Organizations