The Barbie Crisis

Can I be transparent for just a minute? I really didn’t like it. My first response was, “Are you kidding me?!” My next thought was,“Someone has hijacked our social media page!”

I pulled our team together to get to the bottom of The Barbie Crisis. Someone had put a picture of Barbie dolls on our page. We are a leadership organization, and the last thing that I wanted representing us was… a bunch of Barbie dolls. Not only that, but they didn’t even look like Barbie. They were all sizes, colors, and shapes.

As I investigated, I found that one of the millennials on our team had sabotaged our site and displayed that article. The guilty party spoke up and said, “The article was called to my attention by a female executive who said she appreciated the diversity and message that the article sent.” Our team member continued, “And since we teach that everyone can lead no matter your shape, gender or color, I thought it was consistent with our vision and mission.”

I paused. From my lens, the article was irrelevant. However, leadership is about looking at life from other’s perspective.

As I contemplated how others view the world, I realized that this young leader’s post had touched a group of people that could connect with the message from the Barbie article.

While I reserve the right to hold our team accountable to send messages via social media or other means that are consistent with our vision and mission, I also realize that I have learned a valuable lesson. Our vision must be shared in a variety of ways and methods if we are to connect with the diverse world in which we live.

By the way, the young millennial mentioned above is my daughter. Once again, I learn from this young generation of global thinkers.When we choose to see the world from the lens of others, we truly make a difference.

Dr. Larry Little, CEO