Dr. Tina Opie is a voice for change—and coalition building—fostering a sense of inclusion in society, communities and organizations. As a thought leader and provoker, she combines practice and theory, an approach that ensures engagement, deep thinking and action.

Using her trademarked Shared Sisterhood framework, she helps individuals and organizations “dig in” and unearth our blind spots, providing a catalyst for new thinking—and needed change. In developing Shared Sisterhood, Tina has created more than a powerful approach for connecting and supporting each other, she’s fostering a new way of navigating the world by staying true to ourselves while working together. It’s a modern-day movement of individuality, sisterhood and collective action that crosses historical boundaries of racio-ethnicity, socio-economics, age, and gender.

An Associate Professor of Management at Babson College, Tina has been recently named a visiting scholar at Harvard Business School following her MLK Visiting Professor/Scholar position at MIT (2019-2021). Her speaking and consulting work has helped organizations including American Express, Hulu, the NFL and dozens more navigate forward toward more inclusive organizations. She is a regular commentator on Harvard Business Review’s Women at Work podcast and Greater Boston’s NPR affiliate television station WGBH. Her work has appeared in top national publications, from the Harvard Business Review and O Magazine to The Washington Post, Boston Globe and she has been published in multiple top academic journals.

Her book, Shared Sisterhood, co-authored with Dr. Beth Livingston and published by Harvard Business Press, was recognized by Publishers Weekly as a Top 10 Business and Economics Book for Fall 2022. Tina obtained her Ph.D. in Management (with a concentration in organizational behavior) in 2010 from New York University’s Stern School of Business; she earned her MBA from the Darden School of Business in 1999.

Topics:

  • Shared Sisterhood is not just the business of women. It’s for all of us. When organizations or teams narrow the conversation, they are limiting the potential of what Shared Sisterhood offers. In this “All-Inclusive” session, Tina provides the Shared Sisterhood framework and, importantly, shares effective ways for galvanizing all in the organization to become part of the effort. With a deeper understanding and appreciation for foundational elements, she identifies specific ways to foster them, ensuring leaders and their organizations are poised to move forward faster together.

  • While no leader sets out to marginalize or disenfranchise a member of the team, the truth is it happens. Often, the reason is right there, in plain sight. Identifying the patterns and processes within organizations that undermine inclusion efforts is Tina’s focus. She’ll walk you through key areas to examine—observing power patterns, considerations of “fit”, appearance policies and norms, definitions of “difficult” and more. And help you focus on the areas that too often undermine your efforts, including performance management metrics and HR policies encouraging competitiveness and aggression versus teamwork and cooperation. You’ll emerge with a lens for identifying potential issues before they become engrained practices, along with ways to address and dismantle processes that may be in place.

  • This is a very personal journey—digging into individual thoughts and actions. Tina’s starting point is trust and empathy. Trust is focused on how confident we are with the words, actions, and decisions of another person; for it to deepen it is grounded in reciprocated interpersonal care. Empathy focuses on “other-oriented” or feelings of concern for others. Vulnerability and risk come next. How susceptible are you willing to be for the negative consequences of actions you undertake on behalf of another? Are others willing to take a chance on failure or rejection on your behalf? Together, these four elements are the foundation for authentic emotional interactions. Instead of competition in which individuals seek to maximize their own utility, Tina helps foster a climate for cooperation and co-empowerment. In “Mind & Muscle” she helps tune both our minds and muscles to be open to connections and community.

  • Shared Sisterhood is about coalition-building, a potentially powerful remedy for workplace gender inequity. Too often, “women’s issues” and efforts around gender equity are conflated, as if all within the cohort face identical challenges. This is a false premise—but holds the hope. Uniting women across their differences, including the very salient racio-ethnic differences that exist among women within diverse companies, can be a powerful and attainable way to collectively drive change. For the process (and promise) of Shared Sisterhood to take hold, trust, vulnerability, empathy and risk-taking, both individually and collectively are required. Understanding these essential building blocks and being intentional about them is a critical, often overlooked step. Even the most inclusive organizations miss it. Tina takes you through the process of starting and building toward a culture of inclusion that is more sustainable for all.

Twitter: @DrTinaOpie

Instagram: @drtinaopie

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