Power is America's last dirty word. It is easier to talk about money - and much easier to talk about sex - than it is to talk about power.

John Akers once said that changing IBM's culture was more difficult than getting elephants to dance. Of course it's really difficult, as Lou Gerstner also found out years later. The title of his own book is Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? He and his top executives were change masters at IBM. All organizations, especially the larger ones, will always need change masters. Dissatisfaction with the status quo and efforts to improve it should be encouraged rather than discouraged. Regrettably, that is often not the case.

The very lack of opportunity the group faces creates a self-defeating cycle and puts pressure on members to limit their aspirations.

To stay ahead, you must have your next idea waiting in the wings.

if networks of women are formed, they should be job related and task related rather than female-concerns related. Personal networks for sociability in the context of a work organization would tend to promote the image of women contained in the temperamental model - that companies must compensate for women's deficiencies and bring them together for support because they could not make it on their own. But job-related task forces serve the social-psychological functions while reinforcing a more positive image of women.

I've found that small wins, small projects, small differences often make huge differences.

You've no future unless you add value, create projects.