“Go to Florence,” quipped an early Novofemina Research Jam participant. She was responding to a light-hearted question during a Focus Group. “If we could pack a magic bag for a woman just starting transition, what should we put in it?” I asked. The answers surprised me. Kleenex. Something warm. Armor. A friend. Nothing. What would you add? Plane tickets? Continue reading…
Marquee Moments….
“What are they going to ask me,” queried a former colleague as we were talking about her upcoming job interview. ‘Marquee projects,’ I responded without even thinking. She sought a new, expanded role in another company. When we worked together she led a huge enterprise-wide initiative. Yes, this was in addition to her day job. Sound familiar? Continue reading…
Summer Book Review #28: Getting to 50/50
“My husband never ran out of a personal care product,” bragged a distant aunt about a household she’d run for close to 50 years. She’d crafted her life as a homemaker and mother who took obvious pride in the subtleties of her world. How do you respond to such a pronouncement? I didn’t share that I wouldn’t know if my husband lacked deodorant because I have yet to adopt that purchase responsibility despite 17 years of marriage. Instead of responding I sat there respectfully mute while others in attendance offered praise. Praise? Continue reading…
A real jam…
“I’m not used to asking for help,” shared Kate, a dynamic business owner and mother of six whose husband travels frequently for work. We were carpooling to a school event. She had taken a morning off, a rare moment to accompany her daughter’s class on a field trip to The Franklin Park Zoo. Help from Kate’s perspective seemed like an unaffordable luxury, one with its own time requirements and bandwidth issues. Kate repelled help. Continue reading…
Summer Book Review #27: Lean In
“This doesn’t get me,” remarked Carolyn Bates, a recent Notre Dame grad, from the dressing room of a mid-western retailer. (Fat Talk Carries a Cost, Hoffman, NYT, 5/28/2013, D4). This exchange from ‘Fat Talk Carries a Cost‘ highlighted body-centered self-deprecating women speak. Have you ever heard something like, “I can’t believe I ate that brownie. I am so fat!” Or responded, “You must be joking, you are not fat. Just look at my thighs!” (Fat Talk, NYT, 5/28/2013, D4) The article identified cultural norms that include all manner of negative retorts meant to maintain relationships. This doesn’t get me was presented as positive, a pivot. Continue reading…
Transition Requirement: Progress?
“Let’s not measure something simply because we can… let’s measure something because it’s meaningful,” challenged a woman sitting next to me as she stood and spoke into a cordless microphone at a corporate dinner I attended earlier this week. She saw a gap between the items the company had the capability to measure versus the things that were perhaps more difficult to measure but really important indicators of the company’s future. I understood her cautionary remark. Can action feel like progress even if it isn’t progress at all? Continue reading…
Transition: The Path Forward….
“I’m going to quit and go to work for Crate and Barrel,” said a dear friend after a long day at her employer, a local technology super power. She is a senior level leader. Her company is heavy on politics. Add to that endless pressure on quarterly results. Get the picture? A bit far afield from large white boxes and beautifully displayed home goods. I wondered as I listened…is Crate and Barrel a day-dream for her or a legitimate path forward? Continue reading…
Transition: Embracing ‘New’
“That may be good science — but it is bad archaeology,” said anthropologist and archeologist Professor Rosemary Joyce in the Berkeley Blog last June. She was critiquing reports of archeological findings in Honduras. It seems that researchers, although not archeologists, used a plane outfitted with LIDAR, a laser detection technology, to map remote portions of the Honduran jungle rumored to house ‘lost cities.’ Joyce publicly maligned the findings. Was it simply the technology’s newness that upended her? Continue reading…
400 and 2
‘I’ve got young children,’ recounted a slight teenager as he retold of a pleading woman’s request as he worked to untangle her from the rubble of last week’s garment factory disaster at Rana Plaza, Savar, Bangladesh. 400. The number of workers, largely female, who won’t be returning to waiting children or siblings or spouses. $37. The average monthly wage that makes a difference there. Great hopes relinquished all for another tee-shirt. Great hope…despite tremendous personal risk. Continue reading…
Transition: Necessary Anxiety?
“I’ll probably head to the Caribbean with some friends,” remarked a recent college grad during a quick conversation we had over chips and dip at the graduation party of a mutual friend. Imagine. No responsibilities for a few weeks or a month. Wow! What would you do? Continue reading…