In his Women Roar booklet, Tom Peters wrote
about Deloitte’s & Touche’s Women’s
Initiative. “I found a marvelous article in
a recent issue of the Harvard Business Review. I underlined
until I ran out of ink. The title: Winning the
Talent War for Women: Sometimes it Takes a Revolution.
The author: Deloitte Consulting CEO Douglas McCracken.”
“There
will be no surprises for women in the analysis Mr.
McCracken reports from his own firm. ‘Deloitte,’
he writes, ‘was doing a great job of hiring
high-performing women; in fact, women often earned
higher performance ratings than men in their first
years with the firm. Yet the percentage of women decreased
with each step up the career ladder.’ The largely
unexamined assumption, common as dirt, was that the
‘girls’ were leaving to have babies. After
examination, McCracken et al. arrived at a place that
was about 180 degrees away from conventional wisdom.
‘Most women weren’t leaving to raise families,’
he reports. ‘They had weighed their options
in Deloitte’s male-dominated culture and found
them wanting. Many, dissatisfied with a culture they
perceived as endemic to professional service firms,
switched professions.’”
“The
lengthy, painstaking, highly professional analysis
Deloitte undertook exposed unexamined assumption after
unexamined assumption. ‘The process of assigning
plum accounts was largely unexamined,’ McCracken
continues. ‘Male partners made these assumptions:
‘I wouldn’t put her on that kind of company
because it’s a tough manufacturing environment.’
‘That client is difficult to deal with.’
‘Travel puts too much pressure on women.’
McCracken goes on to describe the several-year plan,
raised to the level of high strategy, which has led
Deloitte, finally, to start reversing these trends.”
As
the partner in charge of Deloitte & Touche’s
Women’s Initiative for New York’s Tri-State
Region, Shaun Budnik often gives presentations to
other partners about the goals of the Women’s
Initiative. Recently, she’s adopted The Leader’s
Voice model of communicating in the three channels
of Facts, Emotions and Symbols:
Shaun
always begins with the factual channel.
“Eliminating
the barriers to the development of women is our objective,
and it is a top priority. Our goal is to admit 35
percent women partners by 2005. Right now, we are
admitting 25 percent. In 1997, 10 percent of our partners
were women. Today, 18 percent of our Tri-State partners
are women. We are improving, but since we hire 50
percent women, our goal is to close the gap.”
Speaking
in the emotional channel is easy
for someone as passionate about her work as Shaun,
but she must also acknowledge the feelings of others.
In other words, “Why should men care?”
“I
need to explain to the men why they should care, and
I do that through a solid business case that our best
and brightest women aren’t staying. I express
some of the emotion that they might be feeling, ‘Do
we still need this initiative?’”
Her
answer is that the Deloitte’s Women’s
Initiative will end when “we close the gap.”
Finally,
Shaun communicates the importance of Deloitte’s
Women’s Initiative in the symbolic channel.
At
a recent presentation on talent development at Deloitte,
the head of human resources asked everyone to imagine
themselves as Master Chefs. “In order to have
a great recipe, you need the best ingredients.”
Shaun talked about one of the ingredients being women.
This
symbol comparing Deloitte to a great recipe and talent
to the best ingredients was inspired by her grandma’s
spaghetti sauce. “If you want ordinary,"
her grandma said, "then open up a jar of Ragu
or Prego. However, if you want richness and elegance,
then make my sauce."
Tom
leaves no doubt in his Women Roar booklet
the benefits for organizations such as Deloitte &
Touche that recognize the importance of women:
“I
am a business person. An analyst. A pragmatist. The
enormous social good of increased women’s power
is clear to me; but that is not my shtick. My ‘business’
is haranguing business leaders … about my fact-based
conviction that women’s increasing power –
leadership skills and purchasing power – is
the strongest and most dynamic force at work in the
American economy today. Dare I say it as a long-time
resident of Palo Alto and Silicon Valley … this
is even bigger than the Internet!”
“…Okay,
some of you think I’ve gone too far. How about
going this far with me, though: DO ANY OF
YOU SUFFER FROM TOO MUCH LEADERSHIP TALENT?
Obviously, the answer is no. And, equally obviously
to me, the answer to the question is WOMEN.”
Tom
Peters Company
THANKS
TO SHAUN BUDNIK FOR SHARING HER STORY AND HER GRANDMA'S
RECIPE:
Spaghetti Sauce with Meat
3
lb. piece of pork (cut in large cubes)
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small can tomato paste
3 large cans crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
Basil (5 leaves of fresh or 1 tablespoon of dried)
Heat oil. Brown pork in oil. Add garlic and sauté
(but do not brown.) Add tomato paste and two cans
full of water. Add crushed tomatoes and 1 ½
tomato cans full of water. Add oregano and salt and
pepper (to taste).
Cook sauce with lid on until meat is nice and tender.
Cook with lid off until desired thickness.
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Geoff
Thatcher
After a 20 year career in theme parks and journalism,
Geoff Thatcher joined the Tom
Peters Company in February 2002 as its creative
director. Geoff has worked on a variety of projects
for the corporate education and training company.
He is responsible for creative development of company’s
corporate workshops, special events, training and
presentation materials, online seminars, web site
and ecommerce. He also edited, researched and helped
write The Leader’s Voice, a book co-authored
by the firm’s CEO and vice chair and published
by SelectBooks in July 2002.
Women
Roar: