If it is part of the present cannot integrate failures

Perhaps you remember this advertising of the 1980s: "But in ten years how appear" wondered, alarmed, a housewife of less than 40 years by looking at his hands in water dish. Times are changing. The place of women also. But attitudes are changing slowly. Fouls may of originality in thinking the famous glass ceiling, which has proved its resistance to conventional, binding or consensual approaches.

Where this initiative of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) conducted with partners of the Diversity Club () for the Women's Forum and unveiled today: to reflect three panels of women (and men) in London, Paris and Frankfurt on the place of women in business in 2025. So far nothing of very ordinary. Except that it is not from the usual. The point of departure of BCG and Diversity Club consists of three scenarios, "memory of a future possible and improbable", says Luc de Brabandère, Director associated with BCG. For him, it's "breaking the patterns of thinking and broaden the field of vision" participants starting... the future. "If it is part of the present, cannot integrate failures." "These scenarios are the equivalent of the laboratory tests: put the"product"in extreme situations to identify its capacity for resistance", believe.

Reasoning otherwise

The goal Consider any release of the new organizations. Philosophers call it an ontological approach, psychoanalysts introspective analysis. Management specialists, they are more poetic: they speak of "Black Swans". In the end, three scenarios preposterous but suggestive, leading them to believe otherwise the recruitment of women managers, solutions to balancing investment professional and family responsibilities, or the effect of an inflexible legislation on parity in the charts (see box). "It is a strong intellectual stimulation," recognizes Catherine Ladousse. Executive Director Lenovo, she participated in the Parisian panel and explains: "companies like Lenovo, who have a strong policy of diversity, possess the reflection kit." But things are progressing slowly. I expect these scenarios they help me to make effective diversity programs.

"The engine is the growing uncertainty," said Luc de Brabandère. A look close to the accident of BP in the Gulf of Mexico to the financial crisis, more and more companies are confronted with the "unpredictable". How to cope if management has never imagined the unlikely Apply the method in the future of women's work is "awesome", recognizes Karine Conte, head of human resources of the factory Renault at le Mans. "It must be open and go to look far to create a stream of creativity", said Stephanie Von Albert, Director of marketing perfumes in the division produced luxury in l ' Oréal in Düsseldorf.

In "The thinking and the fluid", Henri Bergson had this image on the artists and change: "that they talk about, shades of emotion and thought appear us that could be represented in us for a long time, but who remained invisible: such, the photographic image which has not yet immersed in the bath where it will prove."

Images of the scenarios concocted in the BCG panels will be revealed today at the "corners" of the Diversity Club where participants will be all brought to react.