I was 12 years old when Back to the future first hit the movie screens, with ‘Marty’ transported back to the 1950’s by his eccentric science friend Doc Brown and has gone on to be considered a movie classic.

Within the movie however, (and typical of it’s era) there are numerous references and suggestions of the atypical stereotyping of ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles. With ‘Gals’ dressed in pastel colours adorning lace gloves and drinking milkshakes! whilst guys drive cars, wear leather jackets and fight! Dad has job, whilst mum is a housewife, the usual assumption that somehow women were in some way inferior to males and their ego’s!

Back to present day, and I recently co-hosted a business master-class for a small group of budding entrepreneurs. All people in the room were known to me, and the agenda was collaboration to facilitate transformational growth.

The day started well, everyone was fired up and ready to work together, the venue was fabulous and we were all geared up for a full day of high intensity work.

However, as the conversation begun to increase in intensity as we unlocked the ‘gremlins’ in peoples thinking and began to expand the possibilities of what could be achieved (The classic “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?”) a very unexpected and uncomfortable occurrence began to unfold…….

One of the attendee’s a 30 something year old female was offering some very technical and detailed advice to the group from her acquired experience as a consultant in this field. Another attendee (an older gentleman, also who works in a similar field) completely dismissed not only the suggestion and comments made, but the female altogether. His body posture change, turning slightly in his chair so as to slightly face away from her, his line of sight shifted away from that part of the room, his communication style changed from open and welcoming to defensive with an air of superiority and demur for the previous suggestions.

Over the period of just a few minutes, we had been transported back in time, away from a modern business practice of collaboration, to a stereotypical 1950’s boardroom, where the secretary was called on to pour coffee and provide biscuits, whilst the ‘men’ smoked and deliberated about ‘men’s work’. It was completely surreal!

I had previously heard comment that this young lady had a reputation for being tough, hard nosed, challenging and at times short; however having witnessed the hostility unfold so quickly in front of me, based on her more modern and up to date knowledge of her subject of expertise than that of the older gent, it was so evident as to why she felt the need to continually walk round with a 14lb pair of gloves in her bag, ready at all times to step into the ring!

Have we really not progressed at all since neanderthal man, the days of the spear and club, fascinated by fire and driven by the need to ‘survive’.

I honestly, (and it would appear very naively) believed we had moved past this, acknowledging knowledge, skill and experience rather than if we walk to the left or the right at the washroom door.

I’m doing a lot of work at present, both internally and externally regarding Vision, Value and Culture based businesses, and I can’t advise you strongly enough as to how important it is (now more than ever) to have clarity, transparency and integrity in who we are and what we do.

If you already have a Vision, Value and Culture policy within your business, please STOP, go and pull it off the shelf, out your 10yr old business plan, dust it off and remind yourself of it, and establish if it still truly reflects who you are and what you do!

If you don’t already have one……. The national history museum is full of dead artefacts of a bi-gone era!

The Delorian might have been a hit in the films, but most are in scrap yards across America these days! Don’t let your business join them!