Newsletter Sign Up
Regular work+family updates for
HR and diversity professionals.
Celebrity spotting
I bumped into Andrew Neil coming out of Green Park tube the other day. Literally!
I'm addicted to my BlackBerry and also a bit spatially clumsy and you know, these things happen... I apologised and then fell into conversation.
He probably gets that all the time but I was excited. I congratulated him on how he had dealt with American Shock Jock, Alex Jones the night before. Shock Jock Jones had been a guest on the Politics Show not because he's worth listening to but rather because he's a semi-plausible, extremely opinionated lunatic. That makes good viewing...
Opinions are like...
Remember Dirty Harry? Now that is one way of doing law enforcement.
I loved it. He knew what he thought of people with opinions "Opinions are like... everyone has one". Our website and social media etiquette sadly prevents me completing the quote, but you get the point. And when it comes to opinions, I agree with Harry.
Take a side, don't sit on the fence
Want to get noticed? Then make some noise, sound righteous, opinionated and a little bit extreme and you're on the right track. No-one is interested in the middle ground. It's boring in the middle for everyone other than politicians.
Take the case of Avivah Wittenberg-Cox - a well-known expert on all things pertaining to female talent. She has this theory that all these great corporate initiatives aimed at gender diversity aren't working. She's particularly dismissive of women leadership networks that are a 'must have' at most banks and professional firms. She brings impressive intellectual certainty to the subject and has built up a nice business as a result.
Opinions are personal
Personally I get less and less sure of my opinions as I get older. But our social media police don't like uncertainty.
On that basis I'm happy to tell you that Avivah is completely and utterly wrong. There are lots of great employers out there pushing gender diversity seriously and effectively. Every initiative, every bit of good news, every small bit of progress makes a bit of difference. There is momentum out there for female talent to be given the same chance as male talent like there has never been before. This time it is different.
By the time my daughters enter the employed ranks, women will have a 1 in 4 chance of making it to the top rather than the 1 in 10 chance they have now. Of that I am completely and utterly sure. Our social media police wouldn't let me blog if I wasn't!
Ben Black
