Celebrating women who break through the glass ceiling or pushing the business case for diversity can set back the drive for equality

If you work in the diversity and inclusion space, you likely have a couple of go-to moves. Celebrate progress made by a woman in a high-profile leadership position. And tout the business case for diversity to win over skeptics.

It is indeed heartening to see women, such as Jacinda Ardern, prime minister of New Zealand, and Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, steering countries and corporations successfully. And the business case for diversity is certainly compelling. …

New York City parking ticket scofflaws teach us a lesson about the limits of behavioral economics

Over the past decade, if you feel you’ve been played like a puppet — nudged to pay overdue taxes or limit water consumption — it’s not your imagination. It’s just some government department dabbling in the dark arts of behavioral economics to encourage (arguably) better choices for society.

Those nudges often work. Manipulating the way choices are presented to people can indeed have an impressive impact on outcomes. A reminder note based on a social norm (“Nine out of 10 people pay their taxes…

Peer mentors can provide a bigger boost than traditional mentors. Pity that few organizations bother to tap this hidden power

Management thinkers are not used to looking to the education or health-care systems for inspiration to improve organizations. If they did, they might appreciate a simple yet effective tool: peer mentorship.

Peer mentorship is what’s left when traditional mentorship is shorn of power dynamics. Peer mentoring refers to a one-on-one relationship between people of similar tenure, status, or age in which the more experienced person acts as an adviser for the less experienced peer. Imagine an upper-year Indigenous student role…

Companies with strong environmental, social, and governance metrics often do better in tough times. This pandemic may be different

The Covid-19 pandemic has been miserable for business across the board, buzz-sawing through corporate plans and industry assumptions. But it also accelerated trends rumbling in the economy’s background. The virtual workplace, for better or worse, is here to stay. And, if you believe a growing chorus of market analysts, so too is sustainable investing.

During the pandemic’s first wave, J.P. Morgan polled investors from 50 global institutions (representing US$13 trillion in assets under management) on how they expected the pandemic to…

Dense friend networks and tight community ties give start-ups better access to bank loans and other formal investments

Social capital is like a trump card that improves any hand you’re dealt. Having a dense network of family, friends and colleagues — or living in a trusting community in which members volunteer and look out for one another — is good for your mental and physical health and career development.

It’s even good for business. Research has shown that firms located in U.S. counties with high levels of social capital receive lower-cost bank loans, enjoy lower audit fees and report higher…

Have we ever lived in a greener, more socially aware and public health-loving era of corporate activity?

The greenwashers tell me that bottled water is the most environmentally responsible product in the world. The coronawashers suggest I focus on the 2,700 ventilator parts that an arms manufacturer produced rather than on their main line of business. The wokewashers are proud to support Black Lives Matter, though their management ranks look awfully monochromatic. The pinkwashers say I can join the fight against breast cancer by buying their fried chicken dinner. …

In the late 1800s, big urban centres such as London and New York City were powered by horses, tens of thousands of them plodding on any given day. There were horse-drawn carts and drays, horse-drawn carriages, horse-drawn buses, even horse-drawn streetcars on rails (or “horsecars”). All those horses generated more than power: in New York City, residents had to deal with millions of pounds of horse manure each day, and London was no better. …

The wall of denial has been breached. Now is the time for fierce workplace conversations

Before George Floyd, before COVID-19, before Zoom and Teams became de facto workplaces, some of Canada’s top corporate diversity and inclusion (D&I) leaders came together to discuss the challenges of advancing their mission. It was October 2019.

The attendees identified six challenges facing their work. Two related to attitudes and behaviour: the perception that diversity and inclusion issues don’t exist, and the imperative of converting fear into empathy. Two had systemic dimensions: de-biasing recruitment policies and processes, and the persistent lack of role models. …