“Working with Eric was a pleasure. We developed a good rapport and established a level of honesty and trust. I valued his counsel and recommendations. I find Eric to be very competent in a variety of disciplines. He is able to correctly diagnose organizational problems and suggest solutions that are on point. I found Eric to be a professional with the highest levels of honesty, integrity, and ethical behavior. I would not hesitate to engage his services again in the future.”
Kathy Lueckert,
former Corporate Services Director,
Department of Planning and Development,
City of Seattle
(Kathy is now Director of Planning and Finance for Advocacy and Communications at World Vision.)
“I've worked closely with Eric on developing and presenting the Leadership Eastside community leadership program. He has that rare blend of extensive real-world experience along with a very strong background in theory and research. He moves easily between big picture strategy and the tactical details. Eric brings a superb ability to plan, execute and follow-through, both as a behind-the-scenes planner and as an upfront instructor and facilitator.”
Annalee Luhman,
founding board member,
Leadership Eastside
Conflict and change: The blog
17 June 2008
Women who are athletes
Today, over lunch with a colleague, I learned of a recruiting firm that focuses on hiring women who are athletes. The founder decided that athletic women have the best blend of skills for successful recruiting: assertiveness and competitiveness combined with an ability to connect with people and be a team player.
Now, a broad statement of that can probably get a company into trouble for discrimination. I’m not sure it’s such a good idea to focus only on demographic categories like that. Couldn’t there be other demographic categories that produce just as suitable recruiters?
What I found most interesting about this theory that women athletes make the best recruiters is how it illustrates a “tacit assumption” of the culture in this firm.
Tacit assumptions are those taken-for-granted beliefs about what works, what the environment demands, and human nature. Tacit assumptions come to be shared and taken for granted by a joint learning process in the group or organization. In short, tacit assumptions are mental models that explain why the organization has been successful.
I think this women athlete tacit assumption warrants a closer look. I'd like to figure out a way to test it. Does it that really make the firm successful? Or, is it something else?
Each of us are in the grip of tacit assumptions that we use to explain why we and our companies are successful. What are your tacit assumptions? Which of them might need to be exposed and reconsidered?
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