Group items tagged

article by Jennifer Knickerbocker, new Deloitte partner, talking about the importance of sponsors/mentors to moving into greater leadership positions, communicating authentically, and holding to their beliefs/recommendations, Fortune, February 2016

Article in Fortune about Google and innovation Story of Sheryl Sandberg "Take the case of Sheryl Sandberg, a 37-year-old vice president whose fiefdom includes the company's automated advertising system. Sandberg recently committed an error that cost Google several million dollars -- "Bad decision, moved too quickly, no controls in place, wasted some money," is all she'll say about it -- and when she realized the magnitude of her mistake, she walked across the street to inform Larry Page, Google's co-founder and unofficial thought leader. "God, I feel really bad about this," Sandberg told Page, who accepted her apology. But as she turned to leave, Page said something that surprised her. "I'm so glad you made this mistake," he said. "Because I want to run a company where we are moving too quickly and doing too much, not being too cautious and doing too little. If we don't have any of these mistakes, we're just not taking enough risk." When a million-dollar mistake earns a pat on the back, it's obvious this isn't your normal corporation."

good background on how social informal networks lead to promotions and new opportunities for its women members, Fortune

Heidi Hartmann writes about pay gap that is compounded when a woman is hired at a lower salary based on her previous salary that was most certainly lower than her male counterpart.

good article on how more work is shifting to an always-on demand model in order to succeed or at least stay employed. Mathew Ingram, August 20, 2015

Melinda Gates wrote this for International Women's Day - when you invest in women, you invest in the people who invest in everybody else. Empowering women makes good economic sense because the GDP rises when women do. Since they are the ones who are encouraging and caring for their children, their investment in their children's education impacts the future generation as well.

Interview with Ursula Burns, the first A-A female CEO of a Fortune 500 company, Xerox on what young women should do to accomplish their career goals. March 25, 2013

Blog post by Lara Galinsky on Dowser (who's solving what and how), August 6, 2012 "This may sound idealistic but we are already on the way. According to Net Impact's recent Talent Report: What Workers Want in 2012, the Millennial generation wants, and expects, to do good and do well in their paid work. In fact, a majority of students (65 percent) expect to make a difference in the world through their work, and 53 percent would take a 15 percent pay cut to work for an organization whose values matched their own. However, in my experience, too few of these students know the kind of difference they want to make, and how to make it. And that is the real opportunity. In order to harness this generation's desire to create change, we must move away from the antiquated concept of vocation, which emphasizes what's in it for the individual: whether it will sustain their interest or bring them fame or fortune. Instead, we need to help young people start their professional lives by asking questions. What issues, ideas, people, and projects move them deeply? What problems are theirs to own? How can they combine their heads and hearts to address those problems? What is their unique genius and how can it be of use to the world beyond themselves?"

Opinion piece in the July 19th 2014 NYTimes by Joshua Wolf Shenk, the author of the forthcoming book: Powers of Two: Finding Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs". He begins:"the lone genius is a myth that has outlived its usefulness. Fortunately, a more truthful model is emerging: the creative network, as with the crowd-sourced Wikipedia or the writer's room at "The Daily Show" or - the real heart of creativity - the intimate exchange of the creative pair, such as John Lennon and Paul McCartney and myriad other examples with which we've yet to fully reckon." and ends with: "This raises vital questions. What is the optimal balance between social immersion and creative solitude? Why does interpersonal conflict so often coincide with innovation? Looking at pairs allows us to grapple with these questions, which are as basic to the human experience as the push and pull of love itself. As a culture, we've long been preoccupied with romance. But we should also take seriously something just as important, but long overlooked - creative intimacy."

Although the author stresses pairs, the history of genius is really interesting - for example, before the 16th century, individuals were not geniuses, but having genius which was a value that emerged from within a person given to them at birth".

work/life integration not work life balance anymore

mentions wage theft experienced by NFL cheerleaders, fast food workers, low-wage workers

blog post by Sondi Bruner at Charity Village on 7 ways to break down silos, November 5, 2012. Also recognizes some of the positive things that come from the right degree of silo-ism.