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# Adding Allies: It’s not as clear cut if LGBT groups want to include allies. How do you widden support? Yet, how do you provide privacy? 8:30 PM May 13th from web

# Pushing the needle: Getting the 100% on the HRC Corporate Equality Index is key! Advice: Expand the HRC Index & make it more challenging. 8:12 PM May 13th from web

# Partner Advice: Don’t be afraid to be visible – If you build it they will come & LGBT group WILL grow. 7:55 PM May 13th from web

# HOT TOPIC: Political activity of an LGBT group – it’s tough to know how far the firm should go! 7:40 PM May 13th from web

# The dividing line: Some say transactional lawyers can be more diverse; litigators need to be more traditional. Agree/Disagree? 7:26 PM May 13th from web

# Gaining momentum across firm – LGBT and Diversity in big offices = great; small offices = can be tough! 7:14 PM May 13th from web

# Tweeting LIVE on behalf of Jennifer Brown from a Metro NY Out & Equal Event (7 to 11 tonight) http://bit.ly/8soGQ 6:31 PM May 13th from web

Some terms to know:

LGBT: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender.

Allies: Straight Allies in support of LGBT groups.

HRC index.

Jennifer was recently featured on the Derek & Romaine show on Sirius Radio’s OutQ Network on the topic of LGBT workplace issues. .

Jennifer is excited for this opportunity to speak directly to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community about our work with our co-advocate organizations and with organizations who recognize the business value of building advocacy and equality for all groups in the workplace.     By focusing on global diversity, Jennifer Brown consultants develop and implement best practices for corporations through focus groups, affinity group planning, panel discussions, key note thought leadership, and cutting edge consulting.  We work to educate and enable corporations and non-profit organizations, affinity groups, Leadership & Development and HR professionals, and individual contributors through programs and services that align equal policies with business goals.  In this way, we are able to create opportunities that benefit the organization and its employees regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, expression, or characteristics.

Listeners and fans are welcome to participate by calling 866-305-6887.  For those who don’t subscribe to Sirius, a free online trial is available on Sirius.com .  Please let us know if you listen by commenting on our blog!  We would love to hear from you.

My colleagues, mentors, friends and I who do consulting and like to think of ourselves as change agents are more and more working to discover the most powerful meaning of diversity at work, which is as an engine of innovation. What we’re finding is a scarcity of models which make this link real to the business, let alone people who can articulate this link’s value proposition in a way that gets vast numbers of employees (and more critically, senior management) on board. The inauguration of our new president, what he stands for personally, and the fact that America needs to generate innovation now more than ever just add to the urgency for those of us who work in corporations to create better, more innovative cultures.

The (female) president of RPI at a 2006 speech at IBM summed it up this way:

“… diversity is a kind of energy – a power which generates the new,
the unique, the innovative, the excellent. Diversity advances innovation
to meet global challenges. Innovation is advanced by chance, by
challenge, by choices, and by informed coincidence. It is nourished – it
is powered – by the full breadth of diversity, and, overall, by the
quest for excellence. Diversity is an energy which powers this quest.

But, in order to have innovation, one must have human talent – people -
well-grounded in basic fundamentals, globally astute, exposed to a broad
diversity, and curious, motivated, enthusiastic.”

Speech given by:
Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D.
President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
at
IBM Watson Research Labs
Yorktown Heights, New York
Monday, October 30, 2006
Read the whole article here.

One of my favorite books is by a fellow consultant, Patrick Lencioni, and it’s entitled Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars. Just the title made me want to pick it up, because I feel so much of my energy facilitating groups is spent trying to help clients identify the harmful effects of “silo’d” thinking: the cost to individuals, teams, and business generally of thinking inside the box.

This is becoming especially imperative for US business, as it is incumbent on us to innovate ourselves out of the current crisis, and that’s going to require looking “across the aisle” and joining hands more than we have traditionally done.

I see boxes everywhere, with my coaching clients, the teams I support, and executive teams who run my client companies:

1. The individual: Boxed-in thinking about what you’re capable of, what your strengths really are, who would be interested in knowing you/networking with you, what people really think of you and what you bring to the table, etc. Often this thinking is difficult to get un-stuck from, without the help of a coach or consultant who opens you up to the world of professional possibilities that are really available to most people. Plus, the transference of confidence into someone is a really powerful motivator.
2. The team: What does the team do now, for the organization, and how could team members re-conceive themselves, their purpose, and the way they collaborate laterally? Teams get stuck in historical performance – “this is the way we’ve always done our function” – vs. thinking of all its possible stakeholders and driving value to each. It’s critical to stay relevant. This requires understanding what each stakeholder in the organization outside of the team WANTS and needs from the team, and mixing the team’s internal values/vision with external customer wants. This is the only way to achieve and maintain alignment.
3. The organization: Company-to-company collaboration is the way of the future. The metaphor I like to use is that of Supply Chain – whoever your suppliers are on the front end, and whoever your customers are at the back end, your company has the opportunity in our inter-connected world to reach beyond your four walls and use your influence and values to impact the practices of EVERY entity you touch. I hope we live to see in the next decade the larger corporations moving towards a model of investing in the suppliers and partners they so rely on, so that the quality of the ultimate output is better. This means seeing your business as connected, and responsible, beyond traditional definitions.

In the world of corporate diversity initiatives, collaborate or die takes on a whole new imperative. I work a lot with Affinity Groups (race, gender, age, sexual orientation-based employee groups at companies), and the days of the groups existing for community and networking purposes, and working in silo’s on their own initiatives, might be over. What will help the business case for diversity the most in corporate America is if these groups co-develop their strategies, to be interlinked, so that no leader who “doesn’t get it” can separate anyone anymore based on gender or color, because the groups can present a united front.

I want to instigate … sometimes I have to moderate that urge a little b/c all consultants know that it’s all about “meeting the client where they’re at”. If you can move the client, even incrementally, you’ve done your job. It’s tough to know when you’re going too far, and you usually hear about it after the engagement, or workshop.

That’s actually happened to me recently, where an audience of senior executives weren’t ready yet to receive the info, and actually personalized their resistance back to me. Not fun!

But when the audience is with you, and invested in learning and actually changing, it’s powerful. Those are the good days.