Walk the Talk

Refining Our Mission:

1. Support each other in our challenges & opportunities at work
2. Two additional themes: Ethics & Service to Community
3. A forum in which to discuss these issues
4. First part of each gathering -> what’s on our mind? Issues we’re facing or wondering about?
5. Second part -> topical -> based on a brief reading or with an “expert” guest. Or people who have succeeded & done so ethically & as good citizens.

Needs:

• Arrange a program of meetings, regular day and time and place each month.
• Look into another meeting place as we grown

Questions / Issues on our Minds:

• What is a positive company culture like?
• Who or what guides it? What helps or hurts it?
• How often are corporate stated intent and staff perceived intent in tandem?
• Where does change start in a firm? What if anything can we – people in late 20s & 30s - affect?
• We are not running orgs; rather we are competing with others to move up.
• Assess impact we can have on culture as managers of a group even if overall culture is toxic or anomalous.
• Succession of leaders above us: how assess if culture will continue? If new regime looks bad, do we have options other than opting out?
• How can a firm reach out to its communities?
• Can “people in the middle”, in departments or units but not in charge, affect the culture?
  If so, how?
• How participatory is our firm about ethics? Or is it: “Here are the rules. Keep them”?
• Fact that it is often difficult to determine what is ethical in today’s economy.
• Pressures from the press and the market to make quarterly targets.
• Importance that chief executives and their direct reports set tone at the top.
• Ambiguity arising from the customs in various cultures as we trade internationally.
• People often resort to fight or flight in such situations, thereby often resolving nothing.
• Middle ground possible? > cooperation, discussion, collaboration, conversation, dialogue.
• Creating a sense of common purpose, a “we” rather than adversarial us versus them.

Personal Needs:

• Decide between right & wrong now for ourselves. Credo.
• Decide now what success will mean for you as time goes on.
• How do we survive in a toxic or amorphous culture?
• How can we change it?

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nventory on a Web Page or Blog to get fix on what MBA students / recent alumni sense they need would be helpful. Some initial thoughts:

• List of Possible topics or questions to discuss
• List of Possible Guest Speakers