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5. Four Big Ideas for the Future of Work

About This Video

New avenues for creating workplaces where all people can thrive.

This video offers four big ideas to spark new collaborations, new pathways and new programs for redesigning work: 1) experimentation, 2) inclusive work environments, 3) adding value to hourly work and 4) building communities. These ideas can help lay the foundation for creating a workplace where people thrive and companies win in the global marketplace.

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View Four Big Ideas Biographies

Jennifer Allyn

MANAGING DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF DIVERSITY, PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP

Jennifer Allyn

Jennifer Allyn is a Managing Director in the Office of Diversity for the US Firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.  As an executive and thought leader promoting diversity initiatives, she is responsible for designing programs to retain, develop, and advance diverse professionals.

Ms. Allyn has been recognized as a subject matter expert on gender, GLBT and work/life challenges.   She is a frequent public speaker and has been quoted in dozens of publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, Forbes.com, and US News & World Report.  Among her many accomplishments, Jennifer spearheaded the effort to enhance PwC’s parental leave policy and launched Full Circle, a program designed to assist parents who want to “on-ramp” after taking an extended period of time off from work. She was also instrumental in designing and facilitating PwC's Diversity Leadership Forums, which bring together hundreds of business executives to discuss the future of diversity.  PricewaterhouseCoopers has been recognized as a best-in-class employer by Catalyst, Working Mother Magazine, Diversity Inc, Out & Equal, and Fortune Magazine.

Prior to joining PwC, Jennifer was a senior consultant at Catalyst where she advised a diverse group of Fortune 500 clients, among them PricewaterhouseCoopers.  From 2007-2009, she was a member of the Executive Committee of the Women’s Leadership Board at the Harvard Kennedy School and in 2008 she received the Crossing Borders Award from the Feminist Press.  She currently serves as Co-Chair of the Advisory Board of the National Council for Research on Women.  Ms. Allyn is a graduate of Brown University and earned her Master's degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.  


Beth Axelrod

FORMERLY SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, HUMAN RESOURCES, EBAY INC.

Beth Headshot

Beth is a global executive with deep expertise in business strategy, people management and organization development, particularly in the technology and professional services sectors.  Most recently, she spent a decade as eBay Inc.’s Senior Vice President, Human Resources. She was responsible for all aspects of the company's human resources capabilities designed to drive the performance of the business. These included HR strategy, data analytics, gender diversity, recruiting, learning and development, compensation, benefits and the continuing evolution of the company's culture. Beth also sat on the board of the eBay Foundation, which oversees eBay’s philanthropic and social innovation endeavors. 

Previously, Beth was Chief Talent Officer at WPP Group plc, one of the world's leading communications services groups, where she was also an Executive Director of the company’s Board.  She was responsible for all aspects of HR worldwide. Before WPP, Beth spent nearly 12 years at McKinsey & Company where she was a principal/partner serving clients’ strategy and organization needs.  She led the Firm’s second generation of research titled The War for Talent and is a co-author of the book The War for Talent.

Beth sits on the Advisory Board of Bulger Partners, an investment banking and strategy consulting firm. She also serves on the Advisory Board of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, The Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University, YaleWomen, the community of Yale University alumnae committed to advancing women’s voices and UC Berkeley Center for Executive Education. 

She holds a BSE degree with a concentration in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s in Public and Private Management (MPPM) from the Yale School of Management where she was named a Donaldson Fellow in 2014/2015. 


Gina Bianchini

FOUNDER AND CEO, MIGHTYBELL

CLAYMAN INSTITUTE ADVISORY COUNCIL MEMBER

EDUCATION MODULE INTERVIEWEE

Gina Headshot

Gina Bianchini is an expert in creating communities of interests online and in the real world. She is the founder and CEO of Mightybell , the first community platform built to support networks of groups.  Before Mightybell, Bianchini served as CEO of Ning from its inception in 2004 to March of 2010. Bianchini serves on the board of directors of Scripps Networks Interactive (NYSE: SNI). She also serves on the Advisory Council of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research and played an instrumental role in creating the Voice & Influence Program.

Bianchini graduated with honors from Stanford University and received her MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.


Erin Cech 

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, RICE UNIVERSITY

CLAYMAN INSTITUTE POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 2011-12

PH.D., UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SOCIOLOGY 

Cech Headshot

Erin Cech joined the sociology department as an Assistant Professor in 2012. She was recently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University and earned her Ph.D. in Sociology in 2011 from the University of California, San Diego.  She earned undergraduate degrees in Electrical Engineering and Sociology from Montana State University.

Cech’s research examines the cultural mechanisms of inequality reproduction—specifically, how inequality is reproduced through processes that are not overtly discriminatory or coercive, but rather those that are built into seemingly innocuous cultural beliefs and practices. She investigates this puzzle through three streams of research. First, she examines what she calls the “self-expressive edge” of occupational sex segregation: how the seemingly voluntary and self-expressive—yet culturally and structurally informed—decisions of men and women reproduce occupational sex segregation.  Second, she uses quantitative and qualitative approaches to examine inequality in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) professions—specifically, the recruitment and retention of women, Native Americans, and LGBT individuals, and the role of professional cultures in this inequality. Finally, she studies how cultural understandings of the extent and origin of inequality helps to uphold unequal social structures.  Cech’s research has been covered in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Huffington Post, California Daily, Stanford Watch, and the online careers section of Science.


Marianne Cooper

SOCIOLOGIST, CLAYMAN INSTITUTE

CLAYMAN INSTITUTE POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW, 2010-2011

Marianne Cooper

Marianne Cooper is a sociologist at the Clayman Institute.  She was the lead researcher for the book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg.  Her forthcoming book, Cut Adrift: Families in Insecure Times, with the University of California Press examines how families are coping in an insecure age.  She is a core team member of the Clayman Institute’s Voice & Influence program. Cooper received her PhD in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.  She can be contacted at coopermarianne [at] gmail.com (coopermarianne[at]gmail[dot]com).  For more information about Marianne and her latest book, visit her website at http://www.mariannecooper.com/#about. 

 


Shelley J. Correll

Shelley J. Correll

BARBARA D. FINBERG DIRECTOR, CLAYMAN INSTITUTE

PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, STANFORD UNIVERSITY

PROFESSOR, BY COURTESY, OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

VOICE & INFLUENCE EDUCATION MODULE PRESENTER

Shelley Correll is professor of sociology and organizational behavior at Stanford University and the Barbara D. Finberg Director of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research. Her expertise is in the areas of gender, workplace dynamics and organizational culture. She has received numerous national awards for her research on the “motherhood penalty,” research that demonstrates how motherhood influences the workplace evaluations, pay and job opportunities of mothers. Professor Correll recently led a nationwide, interdisciplinary project on “redesigning work” that evaluates how workplaces structures and practices can reconfigured to be simultaneously more inclusive and more innovative. She is also studying how gender stereotypes and organizational practices affect the entry and retention of women in technical professions and how the growth of the craft beer industry affects the founding and success of women brewers.  She is currently writing a book called Delivering on Diversity: Eliminating Bias and Spurring Innovation


Martin N. Davidson

PROFESSOR OF LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, DARDEN GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Davidson Headshot

Dr. Martin N. Davidson is Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business. He teaches, researches, and consults with leaders in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia on how they can use diversity strategically to generate superior business performance. His research appears in Administrative Science Quarterly, Harvard Business Review, Research on Negotiation in Organizations, and the International Journal of Conflict Management and several other journals and books. In his recent book, “The End of Diversity as We Know It: Why Diversity Efforts Fail and How Leveraging Difference Can Succeed,” Davidson introduces a research-driven paradigm for leaders frustrated or disillusioned with traditional ways of designing and implementing diversity initiatives.

Davidson teaches leadership in Darden’s highly regarded Executive Education and MBA programs, and consults with a host of Fortune 500 firms, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. He has served as the chair of the Gender and Diversity in Organizations Division of the Academy of Management, and has been featured in numerous media outlets including The New York Times, Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and National Public Radio. He earned his A.B. from Harvard University and his Ph.D. from Stanford University.


Susan J. Lambert

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SERVICE ADMINISTRATION, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

Lambert Headshot

Susan J. Lambert is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. Over the past twenty years, Lambert has conducted a series of studies on employer practices and employment conditions in low-level, hourly jobs with the goal of identifying ways to improve workers’ economic security and ability to fulfill caregiving responsibilities. The sites for Lambert’s research span both production and non-production industries, including retail, hospitality, financial services, transportation, and manufacturing, and both publicly-held and family-owned companies. Her research designs combine quantitative and qualitative strategies, from comparative organizational case-studies to a cluster-randomized experiment of the effects of improved scheduling practices on the well-being of sales associates in a national retail firm. Lambert’s work appears in leading academic journals such the Academy of Management Journal, Human Relations, and Community, Work & Family as well as edited books in law, sociology, social policy, and labor and industrial relations.  


Lori Nishiura Mackenzie

Lori Nishiura Mackenzie

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

FOUNDER, ONLINE VOICE & INFLUENCE PROGRAM

EXECUTIVE EDITOR, UPRISING AND GENDER NEWS

As Executive Director, Lori Nishiura Mackenzie leads the strategic direction and operations of the Institute, including finance, community relations, marketing, and program development. She is co-founder of the Institute's latest initiative, the Center for Women's Leadership. Mackenzie is creator of the workshops the Language of Leadership and the Dyanmics of Hyper-Effective Teams. She is founder of the online Voice & Influence program aimed at providing people with the skills, information and inspiration to be as effective as possible. This curriculum has been widely viewed through the Clayman Institute's partnership with LeanIn.org, the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Darden Graduate School of Business and INSEAD.

Mackenzie frequently speaks about Women's Leadership and Seeing | Blocking Bias at leading companies and organizations. Conference presentations include Mt. St. Mary's Women's Leadership Conference, Girls Alliance Keynote, the MAKERS Conference, Professional Business Women of California, eBay WIN Summit, Cisco CTSO Women's Conference, Amelia Earhart Society, VMWorld, the Latina Coalition, HR People & Strategy Global Conference, and the Grace Hopper Celebration Technical Executive Forum. Company presentations include CA Technologies,Cisco, Deloitte, eBay, Genentech, General Mills, LinkedIn, Mozilla, RedHat, Schwab, Shearman & Sterling, State Street, and VMware.


Phyllis Stewart Pires

SENIOR DIRECTOR OF WORKLIFE STRATEGY, STANFORD UNIVERSITY

Pires Headshot

Phyllis Stewart Pires has responsibility for designing and managing programs and services that support the Stanford community in navigating the competing demands of work, study, personal, and family lives. Stewart Pires came to Stanford with an extensive background in providing pragmatic, comprehensive programs to improve the workplace for working families. She spent many years designing, building, and managing corporate childcare centers and founded the award-winning Family Services programs at Cisco. During the past few years, she has held a variety of human resources, communications, and diversity roles at Cisco and SAP. Stewart Pires currently serves on the Conference Board WorkLife Leadership Council and sits on the Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Working Group on the Future of Work. Stewart Pires has spoken and written on the topics of worklife integration, women in leadership, creating inclusive work environments, and effective worklife interventions for companies.


Christie Smith

WEST REGION MANAGING DIRECTOR, DELOITTE CONSULTING LLP

NATIONAL MANAGING PRINCIPAL, DELOITTE UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP CENTER FOR INCLUSION, DELOITTE, LLP

EDUCATION MODULE PRESENTER

Smith Headshot

With more than 25 years experience, Christie brings innovative and effective solutions to Deloitte’s clients by aligning business strategy with the requirements of organizational structure, talent, leadership development and global workforce planning. As West Region Managing Director, her responsibilities include markets, clients, talent and community for the more than 2,400 consulting practitioners and 250 principals and directors in the region. She is also a lead consulting partner and advisory partner for several of Deloitte’s largest life sciences/biotech clients. 

As one of Deloitte’s most senior diversity partners, Christie also leads the Deloitte University Leadership Center for Inclusion. Her roles provide a platform for developing solutions with Deloitte’s people, clients, academics and non-profits to help the business world fundamentally redefine how it approaches issues including inclusion, transitioning veterans, and education. As a result of her many accomplishments and commitment to inclusion, Christie has been identified by Diversity Journal as a 2013 “Woman to Watch.” In addition, in 2012 and 2013, the San Francisco Business Times recognized her as one of San Francisco’s most influential women.  

Christie is a frequent lecturer and author on topics including corporate values, leadership, culture, inclusion, and talent. Her work has been featured in Fortune, Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, Forbes and Fast Company.  She is a board member at Seattle Children’s Hospital and NEW America Caregivers & Breadwinners.   

Christie has an MSW from Rutgers University, and a Ph.D. in Social Work/IO psychology from New York University.


Kenji Yoshino

CHIEF JUSTICE EARL WARREN PROFESSOR OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, NYU SCHOOL OF LAW

EDUCATION MODULE PRESENTER

Kenji Yoshino

Kenji Yoshino is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at NYU School of Law. He was educated at Harvard (B.A. 1991), Oxford (M.Sc. 1993 as a Rhodes Scholar), and Yale Law School (J.D. 1996). He taught at Yale Law School from 1998 to 2008, where he served as Deputy Dean for intellectual life (2005-6) and became the inaugural Guido Calabresi Professor in 2006. His fields are constitutional law, anti-discrimination law, and law and literature.  

Yoshino’s first book, Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights was published by Random House in 2006.  His second book, A Thousand Times More Fair: What Shakespeare’s Plays Teach Us About Justice, was published by Ecco / HarperCollins in 2011.  

Yoshino has published in major academic journals, including The Columbia Law Review, The Harvard Law Review, The Stanford Law Review, and The Yale Law Journal. He has also written for more popular forums, including The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. He makes regular appearances on various radio and television programs, such as NPR, CNN, PBS and MSNBC. In 2011 he was elected to the Harvard Board of Overseers for a six-year term. He also serves on the Board of the Center for Talent Innovation and Deloitte’s Inclusion External Advisory Council. 

View Four Big Ideas for the Future of Work References

Redesigning Work for Gender Equity and Work–personal Life Integration

Bailyn, Lotte. 2011. "Redesigning Work for Gender Equity and Work–personal Life Integration." Community, Work & Family 14(1): 97-112.

Work-life Initiatives and Organizational Change: Overcoming Mixed Messages to Move from the Margin to the Mainstream

Kossek, Ellen Ernst, Susan Lewis, and Leslie B. Hammer. 2010. "Work-life Initiatives and Organizational Change: Overcoming Mixed Messages to Move from the Margin to the Mainstream." Human Relations 63(1): 3-19.

Passing the Buck: Labor Flexibility Practices that Transfer Risk onto Hourly Workers

Lambert, Susan J. 2008. "Passing the Buck: Labor Flexibility Practices that Transfer Risk onto Hourly Workers." Human Relations 61(9): 1203-27.

'Opting in' to full labor force participation in hourly jobs

Lambert, Susan J. 2012. "'Opting in' to full labor force participation in hourly jobs." Pp. 87-102 in Women Who Opt Out: The Debate Over Working Mothers and Work-Family Balance, edited by Bernie D. Jones. New York: New York University Press.

Schedule Flexibility in Hourly Jobs: Unanticipated Consequences and Promising Directions.

Lambert, Susan J., Anna Haley-Lock, and Julia R. Henly. 2012. "Schedule Flexibility in Hourly Jobs: Unanticipated Consequences and Promising Directions." Community, Work & Family 15(3): 293-315.

From ‘Work-family’ to the ‘Gendered Life Course’ and 'Fit’: Five Challenges to the Field

Moen, Phyllis. 2011. "From ‘Work-family’ to the ‘Gendered Life Course’ and 'Fit’: Five Challenges to the Field." Community, Work & Family 14(1): 81-96.

Uncovering: the Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights

Yoshino, Kenji. 2007. Uncovering: the Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights. New York, NY: Random House.