Culture Fail of the Month: The U.K. Government
The U.K. Government recently launched a campaign carrying the slogan “Stay Home, Save Lives. The new Covid-19 variant is spreading fast.” The campaign was widely shared on social media. On the surface it sounds quite innocent and noble, but the graphic that accompanied the campaign caused a firestorm.
Three scenes showed stay-at-home activities: women cleaning, a woman ironing, and a woman home-schooling children. There was a man in a fourth scene, relaxing with his family on a sofa. The campaign evoked immediate criticism and was withdrawn after going viral on social media where many accused the government of being sexist and reinforcing age-old stereotypes. The government responded by saying the ad did “not reflect” its “view on women”.
Commenting on Instagram, Lorraine Candy, the former editor of The Sunday Times Style Magazine who reported on the ad, along with Glamour magazine, said: “Are there no intelligent, smart women advising the government about this? I am perplexed by the lack of awareness.”
It has been widely reported that the pandemic has disproportionately affected women, particularly working mothers. Dubbed the “shecession,” COVID-19 has not only been harder on working women in general but particularly women of color. This reality seems to have escaped those in the U.K. Government who created and approved the graphic, sending a clear message on who they think should be staying home during the pandemic.
Kevin is CEO and co-founder of the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), the world’s leading human capital research firm focusing on people practices that drive high performance. i4cp conducts more research in the field of HR than any other organization on the planet, highlighting next practices that organizations and HR executives should consider adopting.
Kevin is also the author of Culture Renovation®, an Amazon bestseller which debuted as the #1 new release in a dozen Amazon book categories. Drawing on data from one of the largest studies ever conducted on corporate culture, Culture Renovation™ details how high-performance organizations such as Microsoft, T-Mobile, 3M, AbbVie, Mastercard and many more have successfully changed organizational culture.
Kevin is currently on the board of Performitiv, and on the advisory boards of Guild Education and Sanctuary. Kevin was previously on the board of directors of KnowledgeAdvisors, a provider of human capital analytics software, which was purchased by Corporate Executive Board in March of 2014. Kevin was also the Chairman of Jambok, a social learning start-up company which was founded at Sun Microsystems and was purchased by SuccessFactors in March 2011. Additionally, Kevin served on the boards of Workforce Insight and Koru prior to their sales.
Kevin is on the board of Best Buddies Washington and helped establish the first office for Best Buddies in the state in 2019. Best Buddies is a nonprofit organization dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development, and inclusive living for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
Kevin was previously the Founder and the President of SumTotal Systems (NASDAQ: SUMT) which he helped create in 2003 by merging Click2learn (NASDAQ: CLKS) with Docent (NASDAQ: DCNT). The merger won Frost & Sullivan's Competitive Strategy Award in 2004.
Prior to the formation of SumTotal, Kevin was the Chairman & CEO of Click2learn, which was founded by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. Kevin helped take Click2learn public and engineered over a dozen acquisitions post-IPO. Prior to joining Click2learn, Kevin was president and founder of Oakes Interactive in Needham, MA. Oakes Interactive was purchased by Click2learn (then called Asymetrix) in 1997, prior to going public a year later.