041: Disruptors, Unconscious Bias and Gender Equity with Dr. Patti Fletcher

Are you known as a troublemaker? Do you hate the status quo? Well, on today's show, Dr. Patti Fletcher joins me to discuss what it means to be a disruptive influence at work and how it can work to your advantage. Dr. Patti Fletcher is a global speaker on gender equity, cultural transformation and leadership, and the best selling author of the book, Disrupters: Success Strategies from Women Who Break the Mold.  

In addition to talking about disrupting the status quo, we talk about Patti’s career journey, how she came to research the topics of unconscious bias and gender equity, plus we talk all about her book. Additionally, we discussed the topic of gender equity and exclusivity. And of course, we covered disruption in the workplace - both the positive effects and negative. 

In this episode you’ll hear:

• The various stages of Patti’s career beginning with enterprise software and on to what she is doing now
• How Patti came to pursue the topic of disrupting HR and gender equity in the workplace
• Patti shares about her book, Disrupters: Success Strategies from Women Who Break the Mold, real-life stories from real women in the workplace
• What Patti thinks about the book Lean In, it’s message about gender equity and why, in the words of Michelle Obama, “That shit doesn’t work.”
• Disruption and disrupters, including negative disruption and positive disruption
• What to do when someone feels threatened when you are disrupting the status quo and how to protect your own interest in a healthy way
• Stories of people who didn’t belong and found purpose and meaning elsewhere
• The state of business today as it relates to disruption, unconscious bias and gender equity

In the wise words of Dr. Patti Fletcher, “There is a status quo that’s no longer serving the world in which it lives and we have to disrupt it. Disrupting means you unpack it. Some things might be working, let’s keep those. But let’s disrupt the ones that aren’t.”

So if you're ready to burn bridges or at least shake up your career, this episode is a MUST listen. Oh and hey, come see us at WorkHuman in March, in Nashville, Tennessee! We are appearing together on a panel and we’d love to meet you.

Resources from this episode:

Today’s Sponsor: WorkHuman.com - Use Code WORKHUMANLFW for a $100 discount

Dr. Patti Fletcher’s websiteDr. Patti Fletcher’s book Patti on Twitter, Instagram, FacebookShe for S.H.E. ConferenceSXSW (South by Southwest)Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg

Thanks to Danny and his team at Emerald City Productions, the producers of Let’s Fix Work.