previously published at Property & Casualty 360

Courage contagion seems to be the most relevant phrase to use when reviewing the trend that we see from employees at complex organizations that have a history of diversity & inclusion (D&I) complaints. The usual scenario goes: one employee speaks out about the disregard for their life experience’s influence on their work performance, and other employees start to rethink how they’ve been valued. Over the past 20 years of corporate change management, we’ve seen this trend start to snowball into new types of internal corporate policy and financial risks.

It was well documented…

In the aftermath of a divisive U.S. presidential election that seems to mark the tail end of the 20th Century, I’m reminded of the daughters of the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The “Mill Girls” of Lowell, Mass., made up 75% of all textile workers in the U.S. In the 1830s, they took jobs to put their brothers through college and feed their families. These young women, starting to work at age 15, were the fabric of their community’s economic production. …

This Sunday at 5:30 we had Corey Ortega on my radio show Inclusionism @ WHCR 90.3FM and he really blew us away with some origin stories… one in particular about his working in constituent services for a former NY Assemblymember and helping a community member get out of a drug deal gone wrong.

Given this pandemic, we need leaders who will not only represent us ideologically but can get things done. Corey has worked in government at the city and state levels and organized the elect members themselves as Executive Director of the Black Latino & Asian Caucus. He…