Comments

I really welcome the parity offered here.
For my part I also think myself (not consciously but often naive in the past about process etc), then the 'network', often mens but not always and then inadequate resolution processes within organisations whether public or private.

I have observed women networking and/or using their power to the detriment of other female staff - particularly casual or part-time workers. Often it's jealousy but the poor woman unable to get continuance on employment is hardly soothed by knowing that.

In certain regional (rural) centres the old boys network can also be as strong as what we know of in the city.

Posted by Susan Plunkett at November 27, 2007 3:01 AM

The part where women believe that the number 1 problem is themselves absolutely proves to me why they will succeed.

I do take issue with the view that men have it easy with the old boy network. Many Men struggle with this too - I don't think this is a gender issue it's a management problem with people promoting and rewarding clones.

Posted by PaulH at November 27, 2007 3:31 AM

PaulH, I largely agree with the "promoting and rewarding clones". When I hear a creative team talk about burnout I think: Please bring in someone with different takes on life than you.

This doesn't mean bringing in a problematic personality but rather a challenge to thinking and ideas and ways of being. Stagnation can sometimes be a product of resistance.

Posted by Susan Plunkett at November 27, 2007 5:43 AM

I agree with Paul H - the comfort zone option is propmting and rewarding clones - it seems a real challenge for bosses to appoint a candidate who is so obviously 'different.'

I recall Dave a colleague manager I worked with in healthcare here in the UK 15 years ago who was a keen cyclist and proud owner of an expensive bike. In his first week with us he chained his bike to a radiator in the corridor outside the office of the Chief Executive where we were all gathered for a meeting. He came into the meeting in his track suit, trainers and sweat band and was carrying a 'Tesco' supermarket bag containing his paperwork for the meeting. The rest of us in our smart but boring corporate black suits and ties and immaculate brief cases looked on with interest as you can imagine. He created quite an impression and stayed with us two years or so till he got fed up with 'stuffiness and rules' and not surprisingly he left. In those two years he changed things and made a real impression. Always challenging the status quo - he made work an intreresting place to be. I liked Dave - sadly I lost track of him and I sometimes wonder where he is now - probably back packing at 65 years of age across Australia or simething similarly interesting whilst most of the 'black suits' are still 'enjoying' writing their boring reports and still towing the corporate line.

By the way ... the Chief Executive was not amused and got the hospital porter to cut the chain and remove the bike .... THAT'S SAD BUT TYPICAL DON'T YOU THINK?

Posted by Trevor Gay at November 27, 2007 9:02 AM

At my last full-time office job, my immediate supervisor was a woman. So was her immediate supervisor. As was the VP she reported to. From my end of the chain, the next male entry was the president of the company.

Every one of these people was the very best I've ever worked with at each of their levels of responsibility.

My current business partner is my wife, which might not work in some marriages, but for us, it's the perfect arrangement.

After watching my mom struggle to eke out an existence after the death of my father, then my step-father, I don't want my wife or my daugthers to get stuck in the tradtional June Cleaver role in life. My wife actually manages our business, and both technically and practically, I work for her. Our middle daughter, 20, is already talking about starting her own company. Her 3 1/2 year old sister is going to grow up seeing a different perspective than I did.

And I'm glad of it.

Posted by Joel D Canfield at November 27, 2007 10:11 AM

Unfortunately, this book is based on a false premise. First, there are many, many, many single-parent households in the United States and most of them do not fit the stereotypical mental vision of the "poor, struggling, single mother barely making ends meet." There are also a significant number of one-income households wherein one parent stays home. Those do not meet the author's blank statement that both spouses "must" work to "put food on the table." There's food aplenty in these households, but maybe not as many I-pods, blackberries, I-phones, or other fancy toys. Education, talent, and skill development have much, much, much more to do with income and promotion than gender. This "cool" friend is merely hyping her own agenda. As old Sean used to say, "keep drinking the TP kool-aid kiddies."

Posted by Red Island Rhodes at November 27, 2007 10:22 AM

It’s not that the “old boys network” is a myth, it’s real enough - but it’s dying. It no longer serves an organization, the way it once did, to have an inside group of golf playing buddies who stack the deck for each other. The world is moving too quickly, and it’s getting easier to perceive and measure any individual’s ability to add value or contribute to the mission of an organization.

I’m not downplaying the real obstacles, but talent and leadership aptitude is in short supply everywhere. Organizations will provide accommodations and flexibility more readily when doing so clearly pays off. It’s happening. Really.

Posted by Shaun Kieran at November 27, 2007 11:25 AM

Some fabulous comments on this thread in my humble opinion. Thanks all for keeping me awake on a rainy miserable Tuesday in England … oh how I wish it were summertime :- ).

So herewith a few Tuesday musings …

Joel – ditto – my business partner is my wife and for us it is perfect too. We both do the things we are best at and it works. Annie is great at the detail and this more than compensates for my (occasional) lack of attention to detail :-) She is a much better Chief Executive in our 2 person business!

I had very few female bosses in 35 years in healthcare and they were generally no better and no worse than my many male bosses. Perception of the ability of any of my bosses is totally biased by my own style and beliefs rather than any objective assessment. So I certainly don’t feel qualified to say whether gender makes any difference or not.

What I do recognise and celebrate is more women in senior positions in healthcare and that is fabulous. To me it means there is just a chance the patient will become the central feature of healthcare instead of male invented ‘hard’ targets and ‘numbers’ supported by pointless processes that no woman would ever introduce.

Shaun – great comments – individuals now get on or get out in my experience because there are - thank God - fewer places to hide poor performance. The ‘old boy’s network’ is definitely on its way out. When I started work as a 16 year old in 1969 the conversation at my first interview for a position in hospital administration focused as much on football (soccer) as it did about what the job was about!

And it’s still raining ….. :-)

Posted by Trevor Gay at November 27, 2007 12:11 PM

Whether they are filled with boys- old or young- or women- again of any age, networks themselves form a formidable wall and ceiling to the emergence and success of innovation and novelty- in ideas and people.

Networks become much like gangs defending their truth, defending their hierarchical positions, defending their turf. And when we are in defensive mode, it is difficult to think or see clearly- actually it's difficult to think or see at all under the siege of the stress chemicals exuded by perceived threat...

The problem may be more than in our minds and may be hardwired. It is natural for us to defend our turf tooth and nail as they used to do when we were furrier. In the face of 'perceived' threat, we human beings automatically regress to fight-flight mode, defending our ideas and positions with the same ferocity with which furrier versions of our species defended against barbarians at the gate- so to speak...

Change- including people who are different- had a negative impact on our brains- see research by Jennifer Richeson and Bruce McEwen. People who look different or think differently are perceived as threats to out nervous system. That includes people of different genders or people who may be smarter than those in power.

I am one of those women who launched the good fight to forward women's ability to be taken as serious equals at the table-and on the tennis court- remember the Bobby Riggs' loss to Billie Jean King in '73?... I am also the proud mother of four young women entering the world of competitive work. As I observe the situation into which they march, I muse daily about how it is that we have come so far- and yet not as far as I had dreamed back during the days of that historical tennis match.

The challenge, now, is to understand that the very response that has ensured the survival of our species may ensure the demise of our species or subgroup. If we continue to defend against what is new or different as it could be poisonous (this is a holdover from days when novel-looking or smelling plants could be toxic and in today's world, novel ideas are seen as deadly to our own campaign for limited resources which may not be as limited as we think...), we will continue to band together only with like-minded or similar-gendered or like-any-attribute-you-choose to defend against what is new and innovative.

In today's global world where it is change or die, that may not be such a good strategy.

The good news?- it is possible to expand your mind and change your behaviors to move beyond autopilot fight-flight. When we begin to do so, we may see a true integration of genders, cultures, and ideas that would enable us to really be global.

Posted by Pam Brill at November 28, 2007 10:44 AM

In building a diverse team it's good to have everyone focused on the desired outcome as the first point of commonality (dear heavens, did I just say that?)

sorry- the first thing the group has in common is a mutual commitment to the goal. That helps dampen the unfamiliar-as-enemy impulse that Pam identified. In working towards that common goal one learns to appreciate the new and different as it brings everyone closer to achievment.

And what's wrong with building your own network of geeks and freaks? Some of them will be hiring, or influencing the next hire.

Posted by Lois Gory at November 28, 2007 2:53 PM