Stop Fixing Women and Start Fixing Cultures

By Michelle Brailsford   March 26, 2014
Women in Business Series

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox wrote a wonderful blog called Stop Fixing Women, Start Fixing Managers. I’d like to take it even further. No one needs to be ‘fixed’. People are a part of an eco-system – and if that system doesn’t support change, then change won’t happen…

Change is hard. We know it’s not enough to present data, facts and evidence. We know it’s bad to smoke. That working 12-hour days reduces our creativity and ability to make quality decisions. And that eating healthily extends our life. Yet people continue to smoke. Teams still work punishing hours in many industries and sectors. Individuals still eat high fat, high sugar diets.

We also know that diversity impacts the bottom line – that women mean money. Companies with top quartile representation of women in executive roles perform significantly better than organisations with no women at the top. Yet organisations continue discussing how to get better gender parity and movement of female talent through the pipeline with little improvement in the representation of women in executive roles.

Change is hard. That is because change requires a shift in beliefs, values and behaviours. This type of shift doesn’t occur because someone reads a compelling business case. This type of shift doesn’t occur because we develop women as leader; sending them off to workshops and seminars. Or offering them mentorship and sponsorship programmes.

This type of shift occurs when a CEO puts it into their strategic plan. When their passion goes beyond logic and economics. When they ‘walk their talk’. And when senior leadership teams contribute and benefit from a gender diverse culture.
I’ve been a leader of the PWN-Global for the past eight years, and in that role I’ve been invited to events where women learn to ‘lean in’, be more ambitious, be less aggressive, adopt a more masculine communication style, learn politics, etc.

These are fantastic webinars, seminars, workshops, and coaching sessions. And all for women! The problem is that we take our new found confidence and skills and apply them back in our organisations where little has changed. And a McKinsey study, WomenMatter 2013, found that corporate culture is the most important driver for women’s confidence in success, twice as much as individual factors.

Research done by Aspire shows that 78% of corporate women working in the USA dream of starting their own company so they can do what they love, control their own destiny, have more flexible hours and make more positive impact. Imagine the brain drain if 78% of your female talent left tomorrow to follow their dream.

Why not simply build a corporate culture where mastery, autonomy and purpose are offered to everyone—not just the women! Daniel Pink, in his latest book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, shares that this is the secret to high performance and satisfaction in the workplace.

What beliefs, values and behaviours would need to change?
CEOs and senior leadership teams would need to believe that work can be completed anywhere, at any time (mostly!) and done virtually. As long as the deliverable is achieved. Line managers would need to value results only working and manage their teams based on the results they produce, not the hours they put in. Human Resources would need to believe that our current people management & talent management frameworks/models are no longer fit for purpose. We need new processes that move away from controlling people (via rigid and mechanical processes) to liberating them (and allowing them to contribute to their full potential).

But mostly, individuals – men and women – would need to believe that shifting corporate cultures would benefit everyone. A survey of young men by Emap magazine found that they feel trapped in their traditional masculine roles and look to women to ‘release’ them from it. The goal is building the best possible organisation culture – for everyone. An inclusive culture that allow everyone to do their best work every day.

When organizations focus on building an inclusive culture, aligning people’s strengths with their roles (versus rigid job descriptions), autonomy follows as engaged employees are willing to pour their hearts and souls into their work. Then the women will not have to leave to start their own companies. And the men won’t feel they have to put off balancing work with family until they retire. Organizations will enjoy the benefit of diversity – more innovation & creativity, better governance, better ROI. And the world of work will have advanced into the 21st century. Only when companies start to adapt their cultures to embrace diversity of all type, will we see real change in the gender balance of leadership.

Susan Vinnicombe, OBE Professor of Women and Leadership, Director of the International Centre for Women Leaders at Cranford University, has stated that we currently have organisations designed by men for men. How about, “Organisation by and for men and women…”?

Link to original article by  By Michelle Brailsford http://bit.ly/RJgGfF

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