There's a lot of talk these days about "boundaries". Every other social media post tells you that "boundaries are important." Half of the rest of the social media posts mock the entire idea of boundaries, and insist it's all part of the "woke agenda". But what are boundaries, and how do you hold them whilst still enabling people, including the strangers who may become your collaborators, your team members, or your customers/clients, to approach you freely? What are boundaries? A boundary, in human psycho-social terms, is a requirement you have around the way people behave and interact with you. It needs to be expressed, because expected people to "just know" what your boundaries are is unreasonable; people aren't psychic. Many open-access spaces include signage about zero tolerance of verbally or physically abusive behaviour towards their staff - that's a poorly stated boundary, because everyone's idea, particularly of v...
The Supreme Court's recent ruling that "woman" refers to "someone who was biologically female at birth" only directly connects to roles specifically reserved for women , which have to follow a specific process to authorise gender exclusion against men. It does not mean "I want my organisation to be female-dominant, so I don't have to employ trans women anymore!" Nor does it mean that you "aren't allowed" to continue respecting the gender - and names and pronouns - of trans people who currently work for you, and those you "don't think look like women" - who probably actually aren't trans. For Boards, who are being legally obliged towards demonstrating equity, the real diversity is diversity of approach. Here at The Productive Pessimist , we work very much in alignment with Leandro Herrero 's style of management - and very much agree with his statement: "If you have two people who think exactly the sam...