Virginie reflects on struggling as a woman in male-dominated spaces and hopes younger generations move beyond binary roles. Mark shares data showing diverse, flattened organizations create massive gains in long-term value and innovation. Jean-François emphasizes the gift of multidimensional human connection.
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We're almost at the end of the hour, so as a timekeeper, I want to thank you for this insightful conversation, and I'd like to end this discussion the way it began, with a tour de table. The intention for this podcast is to help each of us to become the self-authoring leader of our own lives through meaningful actions. So let's pass the mic and share what you've heard today that would either inspire you to do something differently than the way you did it prior to this conversation, or anything that you feel was left unsaid. And I'm going to start by sharing my own takeaways to give you a moment to collect your thoughts. So first of all, I really enjoyed this discussion. I've been struggling in my own life as a woman, because I was, you know, raised with classical model of the woman staying home and beautiful example of mothers or grandmothers either working as teachers or not working and being stayed at home and enjoying themselves, and then father and grandfather working, and I was always attracted to the man's world. Traveling, working. I love working. And when I look at those adjectives that I described that is associated with gender, you know, assertive and combative and competitive, that's me, and I'm not a man. So it was really frustrating as a woman to be in a man's world because the expectation were not who I thought I was. And when I look at the young generation, I'm hopeful because I think they are letting go of this. I appreciated what you said, Jean-François, about the fact that being human is really— it's not so much about being men and women, but it's really the experience that change ourselves and that really defines us. And I also liked what you said, Mark, about the how emotions emerge within the relations. So whether it is through the language, finding new words to describe ourselves, or creating a new type of organization. I'm part of Coopérative, which is really in that search of finding a structure that allows me to be who I am and not who I was told to be. Um, and I can feel a lot more creative actually. I've created in the last 6 months to a point that it's, uh, almost like in the last 10 years. It's really interesting. Um, there was a, um, um, The poet Ronye Maria Wilker writes, and I've seen her, I've seen people tweeting about her in the last few days. She writes, he writes, the deepest experience of the Creator is feminine, for it is the experience of receiving and bearing. And I find it interesting, and I'm hoping that we can start disassociating us, ourselves, with a gender. Because, you know, yes, I may have a physical body that looks like a woman, but deep down I'm much more than just a woman. And I hope that same way that my husband is on the outside a man, but deep down he's much more than just a man. And I think if we had another word to describe maybe human, maybe being, I don't know, that would, you know, bring the two together and stop this fighting. But it's just exhausting, I think, and we're missing so much. So thank you to both, really appreciate this difficult discussion. So why don't we pass the mic, and Mark, is there something that you would like to leave us with?
Yeah, I, I I shared some numbers earlier about what happens in fully diverse and inclusive organizations when all different kinds of human beings are given equal leadership power and roles, and you flatten the structure, and you begin to go more lateral. The productivity is massive. And I think we need to understand what it has cost us thus far to not operate in that way. Because if these numbers are correct, that it's 6 times higher levels of long-term value creation, 4 times higher innovation, What has 600 or 800 years of male-dominated leadership cost us in terms of additional solutions and creativity around the problems that face mankind? And we can no longer just spin our wheels allowing a male-based domination hierarchical system to cheat us out of this vast set of additional innovation, creativity, solutions for what's challenging us. That said, what I came away with that's going to stick with me is Jean-François' talk about speciesism. I think that's going to make a change for me. So thank you for that, Jean-François.
Wonderful. What about you, Jean-François?
What are your last thoughts, or before dying? Well, don't we always die anyway? Well, the great gift comes as both of you, this connection that we have, you know, meeting peers and human beings expressing each of them in their own way, their multidimensionality, in their own way with their own language. And that represents a great gift for me, an experiential gift that I really want to acknowledge and feel grateful, express my gratefulness for.
Wonderful, thank you very much. Well, you know, maybe the next generation of leaders thriving in this new world might be the one who consciously learn to balance their femininity and masculinity, within themselves, or perhaps it could also be those who decide to kill those stories once and for all and just be who they truly are. Thank you so much. I'd like to end by asking viewers and listeners to like this video and subscribe to the podcast, but more importantly, to tell us in the comments what are the feminine and masculine traits and characteristics that you have that you can recognize within yourself. And see what comes of it. Thank you very much.
