An Experiment with LinkedIn as a Tool in Gender Equality

When Niall Crowley, former CEO of the Irish Equality Authority summarised the hot topics that will take gender mainstreaming forward in Europe, diversity was one of them. Performance monitoring of gender mainstreaming was the other. He said this in his closing remarks at the the European Institute for Gender Equality's conference on gender mainstreaming and training, held in Vilnius in November. I had delivered a contribution to the workshop entitled Accommodating Diversity in Gender Training, and agree with Mr Crowley that including diversity in gender strategies is an important way forward. 

 

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In my ideal world, people who understand music, art and geography are as important as people who understand economics when it comes to deciding how we are going to define a new economic order. In my ideal world, women and men bake cakes and clean babies bottoms and head ministries in national cabinets. In my ideal world, professional women tennis players are paid the same as men tennis players. Thanks to Billie Jean King we have that part of my ideal world already. 

A few days after the conference I delivered my Mobilise Networks workshop to health professionals in the Netherlands. One manager challenged me on the value of LinkedIn in the work context, so I decided to put her challenge to the test. I posted on one of my groups the questions: "Because diversity is such a hot topic it is likely to be the topic that advances gender equality into the next phase. I'm interested to hear what you think."

Khosi Nxumalo of South Africa's Commission of Gender Equality responded that she thinks performance monitoring of gender mainstreaming is the key issue going forward. "This is what we are currently battling with in South Africa."

Susanne Moore, executive advisor and business transformation expert from Sydney, Australia responded to let Ms Nxumalo know that she is currently researching “The profit impact of organisational gender Diversity programs” as the first part of her research into Diversity Economics. She has developed a Diversity Program Review Framework, and sent the link http://susannemoore.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/major-dimensions/. 

So far so good. South Africa has now access to a framework for measuring diversity programs.

The framework was good news for Carrie Pemberton Ford, human trafficking researcher in the UK. She wanted to know more. She learned that the framework will do several things for a client.

1) It will measure the effectiveness of a diversity program from a standalone program perspective and assess the capability of the program according to known program metrics.

2) It will measure the effectiveness of the diversity program organizationally, that is: it will look at the level of engagement and integration of the program at an organizational level and if the organisation is fully leveraging the benefits of diversity (in terms of innovation, performance and creativity).

3) It will provide the data Susanne needs to input into her research project, “The profit impact of organisational gender Diversity programs”. 

Susanne said "So through the process of the review we are hoping to uncover areas where we think we can draw a causal link to profit."

"Currently, at least in Australia, most of our diversity programs are run out of the HR area, and I want to highlight the profit impact on the bottom line and get them recognised as an important business transformation driver, ie; getting them seen as more than HR. I have a background in the corporate world and know that in order for diversity (particularly gender diversity) to be taken seriously we must prove a causal link to profitability."

With the UK and South Africa involved and Australia providing concrete input nto how to measure the value of diversity in gender mainstreaming, World Bank gender economist Elbatoule Alaoui in Washington joined the discussion. She agrees that diversity is appropriate since gender issues is not only about the sex-specific differences between men and women, girls and boys but also about the differences between people in the same sex community.

"Diversity is at the basis of gender approach", she wrote in the group discussion.  "I believe that in Europe the policies needs to take into account the specific needs of the new citizen coming from developing countries and west Europe for a better social cohesion and sustainable growth. It is as important as in developing countries even if the parameters are different. Based on my experience in gender mainstreaming in Morocco, taking into consideration specific needs and interests of women and men is at the basis of development sustainability. For example girls in rural area don't have the same interests and needs as girls in the city. All women in the same city don't have the same needs and interests and public policies have to take into account this diversity in their development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation."

Ms Alaoui concluded that she would like to join me in my project, and that she can contribute in Arabic, French and English. I am sitting here thinking: what a great idea! There is not a project at the moment, but there is definitely a need for one. 

My next question to readers is: how will we create this as a project, and who will do what?

And yes, LinkedIn definitely works as a tool in promoting gender equality.

Lin McDevitt-Pugh
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At the core of Lin McDevitt-Pugh's work is a passion for freedom, exploration and respect for all people. Lin is the Director of NETSHEILA, a company she founded three years ago to provide management expertise in connecting organisations to the most valuable resource they have: the people they know or could know. Social networks connect, and so does sitting around a table with colleagues andt discussing real issues that matter to you.

Business Cases for Diversity Bring New Opportunities to Gender Mainstreaming

Gender training was the subject of a conference I spoke at this week in Vilnius, organized by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). Practitioners, professors and government representatives participated in the event that was intended as a networking event where people could exchange knowledge or find people with the knowledge and ideas they are looking for.

I was asked to speak in the workshop on Accommodating Diversity in Gender training programmes. This is a great subject for me, allowing me to follow through on inquires I have been involved in over the past dozen years. I have a long history in pushing the envelope in women’s empowerment and more recently in understanding how businesses and institutions benefit from taking into account that people with whom they interact – clients, employees, other stakeholders - are more than one of two things, Man or Woman.  People are clients and they are sources of information and they have multiple skills, multiple identities and multiple sources of engagement. In any group of people, the way Men are perceived and the way Women are perceived varies greatly. I notice this in simple interactions. I often hear women experiencing me as powerful and men experiencing me as scary. My identity, in the eyes of others, is fluid. How wild is that!

In my contribution, I brought in the concept of living from a future in which we all live in dignity and respect. If you think that is a new concept, think again. It is actually Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I find it incredibly compelling to work from that vision and to see what strategies we could implement now that could forward the action. Any one of us can think of something that can forward the action, depending on what our starting point is. In Sweden, for example, a kindergarten has chosen to change the language it uses with little ones. They no longer use the pronouns He or She and instead refer to Friends.  Imagine the impact this will have on kids. They will not be forced into gender stereotypical behaviours by the implicit assumptions of the kindergarten staff. Hopefully they will learn that playing with dolls and bashing boxes can be behaviours enjoyed by one and the same person, depending on the mood. 

As I was researching my presentation I came across an article on how 50% of the kids in craft classes in UK primary schools are boys. One of them was a football player who loves knitting because it gives him peaceful time. He is not required to run around and push and kick at all times and he loves it. The simple strategy of having knitting clubs at schools can contribute to developing a new notion of what being Boy is. 

In the end, the notion of who belongs in a boardroom will change.

I am grateful to Helga Christian and Landmark Education for the outstanding training session I recently attended, called Transforming Yesterdays Strategies, where we explored sex stereotypes and how they affect our reality. As children we develop strategies around being boy, or being girl. We tend to keep and strengthen the strategies, mostly because no-one ever tells us that we can choose to keep them or get rid of them and take on different strategies. We have, certainly as adults, the ability to reject strategies that don’t work for us and our communities, and bringing this element of choice into gender training is powerful.

More and more companies are inquiring into and developing the business case for diversity. It is taking the discussion on mainstreaming gender to a new level. In today’s wrap-up of the conference, the moderator noted that the issue of diversity was one of two "Hot Issues" of debate during the conference and added that he expected it to be a source of change in how companies, public institutions and civil society organisations reconstruct their relationship to gender.

I have every hope that this is the pathway to a world where all of us live in dignity and respect.

Creating cultures of “We”

29 August 2012. On Sunday night I watched four straight white men in suits debate their party stance on the way forward with Dutch politics. We are heading for a general election, and the leaders found o so many others to blame for the crisis we are in. Greece is ruining the Euro! Migrants come here looking for free handouts! Development aid should be a voluntary decision per person.  Only one potential new Prime Minister talkedof solidarity, of the Netherlands being a place where ‘we’ live. I hope he gets a lot of votes in September at Dutch elections - the 5^th general elections in 10 years.

None of these four will get my vote.  I will vote for a party who believes that ‘We’ can face the environmental crisis with renewable energy sources, and that ‘We’ are a diverse nation with many gifts to bring each other. Migrant, indigenous, men, women, gay, straight, young, old, black skins originating generations ago in warm climates and white skins of ancestors born to temperate climates.  I will vote for this party because it matches my values of promoting dignity and respect for all people. As a party they are not as evolved as they could be – there is a lot to improve in the culture of the party that will make it better able to achieve its vision. I would like to work with them on that!

I am inspired by cultures of We. Of working for and developing ideas together, listening to each other, taking on the good ideas, debating the sloppy ones, discarding the ones that don’t work because they don’t work for us.

In the coming days and weeks I am working with several different kinds of organization to develop the culture of We. The processes we use are based on the work of Dave Logan and CultureSync. Our intention is to build tribes of leaders that empowering organizations to do the impossible, over and over. The key is synchronizing the organizations’ culture with its strategy, structure and processes.

This approach is very much grounded in business knowledge.  What I observe in the companies and organizations I work with, is that simple business concepts help all employees be leaders. Take one of my favourites, the stakeholder analysis.  I recently did a stakeholder analysis as part of a staff communications training. In a stakeholder analysis I like to work with a grid, and to map onto the grid who are powerful players and which players are interested  - or not - in the outcome you as an organization want. I then like to map where the organization would like the players to be, several months from now.  Everybody in the group has a different piece of knowledge about the players and their influence on the outcome. Each piece of knowledge is a contribution to the group.

From a We culture perspective, the insight is more than just: “You have different knowledge to me”. The insight is that we together know what we need to know to be a great organization and to succeed in fulfilling our mission. When this way of thinking becomes integral to the organization , the organization has what Michael Porter calls Competitive Advantage.

Another favourite is the Hedgehog concept, from Jim Collins. This is a tool to give people to use over time to understand their strengths in the world. It is useful in  both for profit and not for profit organizations.  

The exercise is to look at three components of success - however you interpret that word. First is to discover what you are passionate about. In reflecting on this over recent weeks I have found that I love to work with people who promote dignity and respect for all people. What I am passionate about is creating a listening in the world for dignity and respect for all people. 

The second inquiry is into what drives your economic engine. In a context of shifting spending priorities for governments and individuals, not for profits have to constantly measure and gauge this. I am working with an organization that has found it can function and grow using direct donations for specific products. It can also attract grants, but these will never be the basis of growth. The individual interest in and willingness to donate directly to a product is the driver of the organization’s economic engine.

The third inquiry is into what you can be the best in the world at.  Take Twitter. It was started in 2006 as an SMS system for following the transport of goods. Could the founders have ever envisaged the millions of users it has today? Could they have envisaged that people would share tips and tricks and even make a business out of on how best to use the service? Twitter took off and since then the company has concentrated on developing what it is the best in the world at. Chances are, if it wanted to expand and buy up products it really doesn’t understand, Twitter will not do well.

So here are some great questions for a school, a university, an employee network, wanting to ignite leadership. What are we passionate about? What drives our economic motor and what are we the best in the world at.

Being in the inquiry, and being a culture of We, are the road to follow.

Lin McDevitt-Pugh
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Management Consultant Lin McDevitt-Pugh advises and trains organizations in developing leadership in organizations,  promoting stable environments in which all people have the power to make their organization successful. Call +31 6 150 48468 to talk about working together to create more We in your organization,

How a Conference can Carry your Vision

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How the networked organization approach made a difference at the LGBTI ALMS 2012 conference.

A week has passed since the LGBTI ALMS 2012 conference, designed as a networked organization event, and it is clear that our approach had extraordinary results.

Lin McDevitt-Pugh delivering networking workshop

IHLIA, the international gay and lesbian archive based in Amsterdam, hosted this conference. We knew what we wanted when we set out to create this conference. We wanted community LGBTI heritage organizations in the room with mainstream heritage institutes, to share their experience and desires and to create new partnerships. We wanted academics to inspire and students to excite the people ‘in the trenches’. We wanted to delve into the amazing day to day of what people are doing, to discover how others can benefit in their day to day worlds. We wanted people to write about the conference on their blogs and websites and share our vision, carry our vision forward.

It all happened. All of it.

Our methods were invented and I will share them.

It began with the vision. It always begins with the vision. As organizers we were clear about what we were up to, what legacy our conference would leave in the world. By 2020 every young LGBTI person will wander into a cultural heritage institute and be at home, because they are part of the history.

Putting together the call for proposals we explored what kinds of contributions, and from whom, would move us toward this vision. We knew who we needed in the room. We chose to focus on Europe and North America and be open to the contribution of people from other parts of the world. We knew we wanted the conversation to be about lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, trans and intersex people. People working on LGBTI cultural heritage in community organizations, in academic organizations and in mainstream institutions. We wanted to see how students, the young wise folk, were bringing together what they were learning with what could be.

We selected a broad group of advisors and they sharpened the focus while ensuring it was including the vast colourful palet of what can be seen as LGBTI heritage work. From ancient Greek art to oral histories of black communities in London, from the writings of poets to those of pamphletists.

Our content committee analaysed the proposals and noted the gaps. There were countries missing, institutes missing, themes missing. We noticed very few people offered to discuss the cultural heritage of trans and bisexual people and no one really was working on intersex. So again we went out to our advisors and our networks and found new people to invite and great speakers to address the missing topics - speakers you would perhaps not normally find on a conference for the world of gay heritage. One was a professor in law relating to trans. He was able to show very graphically how representation of trans was interpreted and how this affects how trans is ‘collected’ in a heritage sense. Was the woman soldier in the 18^th century butch, like some say, or trying to get away from a staid situation at home, like others say, or was it actually a woman who liked wearing male-designated clothing? Collection, we heard time an again, was a lot about having an opinion about someone, and often that opinion is pinned down to the paradigms of thinking – the memes – of the day. Those opinions may not be valid in 30 years time, and then what happens to the collection? Will the women dressed as men be findable, with etiquettes plastered on their index cards that make no sense 50 years from now? The legal profession can provide valuable input into methods of making the past visible and accessible.

One quite big gap was in the supplier side of the work of librarians, archivists and people in museums.  I wasn’t surprised we didn’t receive offers of contributions from suppliers. It is an unusual conference for suppliers to be involved in. Yet from the work I do with LGBTI people within corporations I know that there are suppliers to the, lets say, heritage industry that are actually very interesting for the heritage industry to know. Their approach to LGBT in the workplace can offer new insights for heritage workers. In my mind I was thinking that it is quite possible that the director of a museum is concerned that making gay history visible, sponsors may respond negatively. The work of IBM in the field of LGBT at work shows that productivity in the organization increases when there is a practice of valuing people being out at work. I hoped that there could be some cross-fertilization of ideas at the management level as well as the content level. I was happy that IBM agreed to speak at the conference. it brought in a different perspective to the subject at hand.

We had a full program of speakers, some with a 30-minute presentation, most with 10 minutes.

Our format was partially borrowed from a format of speakers I enjoyed at the L-Women at Work conference I spoke at last year. At that conference, people were offered a 6, 12 or 20-minute slot. I liked that I was able to hear every speaker. At so many conferences you have to choose. What I felt could be improved is the way pathways were created to increase interactions between participants. Our team felt we could improve on the format in three ways. A fourth innovation was very particular to the heritage world.

First, we asked the 10-minute speakers to post their contribution on our conference blog so that people could read before they came to the conference what the person would speak about. This is after all the age of connectivity, and there is really no need to arrive uninformed of the content at a conference. By reading the papers beforehand people had a better chance of getting what they had come all the way to Amsterdam to get: new connections, new inspiration, new ideas and a lot of fun. The 30-minute speakers were welcome to post on the blog, but could also keep their contribution as a ‘surprise’.

Secondly, we felt that there could be some organization added to the informal interactions. In a totally unorganized, informal setting, it is possible for people to walk up to a speaker after the presentation and chat, perhaps over coffee. But do you do that? Were they so impressive that you think they wouldn’t want to talk with you? Or would a friend get in first and monopolize the person’s time. There are many reasons not to talk with someone and many people just aren’t used to walking up to a speaker and asking things about the presentation.  We chose to facilitate informal communications by organizing breakout sessions. We placed two speakers from the previous section of the program in a room together and invited people to go to that room and talk more. There was no structure, no further organization. No right way to hold a breakout session. People are adult and could figure out themselves how to make good use of the time available. Feedback on the breakout sessions was very enthusiastic. People really talked with each other and shared ideas.

The third innovation was fun for all of us. We began the conference with a mini networking workshop.  We were aware that most people in the auditorium did not know the other people. About 75 percent of the participants had never been to the previous editions of the conference. In the workshop, my first task was to get everybody on the same page about what ‘networking’ is. We explored what people regard a network to be and then how to translate that to a verb. If a network is connection between people, networking is making connections. The participants were then asked to define for themselves their networking goals and then to share these with their neighbour. If they were sitting alone they were asked to move.  Standing in front of the room watching perfect strangers animatedly talk with each other about why they were here was mind blowing.  I then ran around with the mike, asking volunteers to share what their neighbour’s networking goals were. Suddenly people were engaged with each other and, as one participant later remarked, awake.

The fourth innovation was particularly successful perhaps because it spoke to the passions of the archivists and collectors who had travelled to Amsterdam to be part of this conference. IHLIA’s colleagues at Aletta E-Quality, the 75 year old collection of the history of the Dutch and international women’s movement, invited conference participants to a tour of their library and archives on the day preceding the conference. Aletta E-Quality senior staff member Evelien Rijsbosch later told me how she saw networking unfold, as she led the groups of participants around the superb collection. People who didn’t know each other were talking together, asking questions, debating answers. When she later attended the conference she noticed how people who had come into her institute disparate and alone were now connected.

So what is networking? It is knowing what you want, asking others for their input, and giving generously when others let you know what they need. A conference is a great place to build strong networks. 

Lin McDevitt-Pugh MBA

Lin McDevitt-Pugh is director of NetSHEila and expert in networked organizations. She provides training to schools, universities, public and private companies and employee networks, supporting them to do more, with more fun, by utilizing the circles of people in which they operate. 
For more on the conference, see the conference website.

Master Class Women on Boards

Stichting De Beuk and NetSHEila plan to make a difference in getting more women in decision-making bodies in Dutch companies, both in the public and the private sector. Diversity works, and you can read many articles on this blog supporting that idea. Recent scandals in board rooms underlines the fact that we need strong people watching diligently the developments at senior levels in companies and intervening where necessary. This is the responsibility of a board.

A recent poll in a Dutch LinkedIn group for women in the board rooms cam up with very few training institutions with particular offerings for women who want to train in the diverse aspects of bard membership.  Now, while the business of being on a board is no different for men and women, the business of getting on to a board is. That is what inspires Stichting De Beuk and NetSHEila to work together on a series of workshops for leading women, called Leading Lady Masterclasses.

De Beuk has a vast network of women leaders in the Netherlands. They are inviting these leaders to join them in a series of workshops to equip them better for the task of leadership and, if they choose, board membership. The next one, on 23 and 24 May, is led by former Secretary of State Jet Bussemaker, a woman with a vast experience in controlling and monitoring private and public companies.  

Why are there fewer women than men on boards and commissions? In part, the process of getting on to boards is shrouded in mystery. There is an idea that most men are invited into their board roles and that old boys networks keep men on the boards. A growing group of women contest this idea, saying that if you don't apply for a board vacancy you cannot expect to be offered the job. As Pamela Boumeester (53), former CEO of the Dutch rail NS Poort said, the history of women in high leadership positions is short. That is why "we have to make the rules ourselves. Don’t forget I am the first generation of full-time working women in this country. We don’t have a blueprint to work from, we invent our careers ourselves.“ 

The NetSHEila part of the program,  on 31 October and 1 November 2012, will explore real aspects of networking. We will explore how your networks can provide you with the knowledge you need to do the job and how the availability of positions can be broadcast among women. We look at how the network you already have can put you in touch with anybody you want to speak with, to get their advice or to let them know your ambitions.

De Beuk has delivered programs supporting women with political ambitions for over 25 years and has a unique database of effective leading women. Bringing these women and their networks of contacts together provides an excellent platform for finding the right woman for the job.

For more information on the program, don’t hesitate to contact either Wilma Ruis of De Beuk or Lin McDevitt-Pugh of NetSheila.

Lin McDevitt-Pugh MBA is a management consultant, project developer and manager in the public sector, private sector and civil society, based in the Netherlands. With a background in human rights and networking, she works with organizations to move the conversation from “This is not how it should be” to “This is how it will be”.

Lin gets very excited when she trains organizations in working with people as creative economic resources.  By mobilizing the resources we all have at our fingertips - the people we know and the people they know - we can create unique knowledge, build trust and access the people and institutions we need to access.
Contact: mcdevitt-pugh@netsheila.com

Leadership and Corporate Lesbians

Last year, my wife and I invited some 20 lesbian women in Dutch corporations to sit with us and talk about their experience of being lesbian and corporate. We provided the meal and some crucial questions, our guests provided conversation. On any one evening we would have up to 12 women at the table. Most did not know each other and most were not even in the same company. Yet their stories were remarkably similar.

After the final meal together, we wrote up major findings  and the “Do’s and Don’ts“ for companies. I invited several high level corporate lesbians to address the issues in a workshop during the annual Company Pride Platform conference in June 2011.

One of the workshop speakers admonished us to move beyond talking, to make things happen. To be leaders.  To make sure the 5 Do's and Don'ts we came up with are implemented in our companies.

The 5 Do’s and Don’ts for companies that want to retain lesbian talent

1.     Have policies, with sanctions, against any activity that demeans lesbians. The work environment must be a place where lesbian women can work with freedom, equality and full self-expression.

2.     Create and maintain a culture of diversity, in which lesbians can proudly be lesbian. Don't stop until every lesbian feels safe to be out at work.

3.     Don’t assume lesbians do not have the family commitments of other staff.

4.     Don’t assume that lesbians will not want foreign postings in non-gay friendly countries. Never think on behalf of lesbians. Talk with them.

5.     Create ‘hard’ KPIs for lesbian network leaders for their work with lesbian issues at the workplace, and ensure that management accommodates these KPIs.

A year later, curious to find out what has happened since our ‘soirees’, I make it a point to ask ask our dinner guests how they are doing. One had a remarkable story. She had set up the LGBT network at her company in 2010 and, at the dinner table, she expressed a sense that her career might be suffering as a result. She was certainly having problems with her line manager, who did not want her putting energy into the network instead of into her work. He did not understand that putting effort into the network helped her work, because it helped create an inspiring environment where she felt safe to be fully herself. When the CEO approached her and showed positive interest in the work she was doing with the network, the line manager and the HR manager were both upset. 12 months later, she proudly reported that she had won an award at her work for being the most inspiring woman in the company – toppling several senior management women.

It takes courage to do this work. Willingness to stand out. Bravery. The ability to live outside short term comfort and trust that your values will become company values.

Lin McDevitt-Pugh

Lin is director of NetSHEila, a company specialized in maximizing the value to companies and organizations of relationships between people.  She coaches corporate employee resource groups and their leaders and delivers strategic network development workshops to corporate LGBT networks, business networks and international NGOs in The Netherlands, Africa and Australia. She can be contacted on +31-6-150 48468 or through the contact form on www.netsheila.com. Follow her tweets via @LinMcDevittPugh.