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The Lavin Agency Speakers Bureau

A speakers bureau that represents the best original thinkers,
writers, and doers for speaking engagements.

“Inclusive Leadership Is a Practice”: Daily Steps for Transforming Your Company Culture, from Minette Norman’s New Book

“Leaders set the tone for their organizations not only with their own behavior but also with what they reward, tolerate, or overlook,” Minette says. She’s experienced firsthand the power of championing diverse voices: she joined the male-dominated tech industry as a liberal arts major with no STEM background, and rose through the ranks to become VP of Engineering Practice at industry giant Autodesk (which makes the Oscar-winning animation software Maya). There, she successfully led 3500 software professionals—not despite her unique perspective, but because of it.

Minette previously co-authored The Psychological Safety Playbook (a #1 Amazon bestseller in Business Health & Stress). Now, in The Boldly Inclusive Leader, she offers daily and weekly practices that you can use in your own organization to hone your leadership skills. For example:

  • Calling out the interruptions in meetings—even if you’re not the one facilitating;
  • Taking notes about your emotions and using them as data for your decisions;
  • Asking “What am I missing?” or “What have I not thought of?” when you share a point of view (and actually giving others time to respond).

“Inclusive leadership is a practice, and every day provides a new opportunity to model inclusive behavior,” Minette tells Lavin. “Like any practice you may have in your life, you improve over time, but that doesn’t mean you don’t make mistakes or experience frustrations along the way. When you commit to inclusive leadership, you incorporate the practice into your daily work.”

Technologies Like AI Will Reshape Society. Let’s Make Sure Everyone Prospers. MIT Economist Daron Acemoglu’s New Book

Power and Progress is the blueprint we need for the challenges ahead.”
— Shoshana Zuboff, bestselling author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

In an age of ChatGPT and increasing automation, we must choose to take control of these technologies and build a more just and democratic world, says Daron Acemoglu. He’s the bestselling co-author of Why Nations Fail—the blockbuster book on why strong institutions are the often-overlooked key to strong democracies—and his new book Power and Progress (out now!) is a hopeful look at the future of technology and a roadmap for the work ahead.

Daron argues that although technology has historically been used to serve an elite few, it doesn’t have to be this way. We can use new tools like AI to bolster our economy, build up our democracy, and drive social progress for a more equitable world. “This is not a lament about the future being bad,” he says. “What makes this interesting is that the direction of technology is malleable—so we can redirect it.”

This bold reinterpretation of history and economics is already drawing accolades across the media, from WIRED to Financial Times. Along with co-author Simon Johnson, Daron gives us a sweeping overview of the last 1000 years of technological progress, drawing lessons from history to show what we need to do today to “ensure the rising tide of innovation lifts all boats” (Publishers Weekly).