Discovering Diversity Success: 10 Questions to Ask Yourself

 

By Jessica Alvarez, Chief Management Officer

A few years back, I was yearning for a community to embrace me, a tribe that would understand and respect that I’m not just a few general categories of a person, including female, Latina, mother. I needed a community outside of my corporate life that understands that the indigenous roots in me are not only from the Americas but can be traced back to slave trafficking from Africa to the coasts of the Caribbean, central and south America. My grandmother’s knowledge of the use of roots, herbs, and plant medicine has been passed down the generations through song and story.

In my search for such an embracing community, I found Centro Ashe, now the Wild Ginger Center in Washington D.C., which shares, protects, respects, and promotes the connections between plants, earth, and people. I enrolled in their training program to spark and renew the love and knowledge of plants I had in me.

Yes, it sounds very urban hippy, right? The first day I was amazed to be surrounded by an astonishingly diverse group of people, all coming together to learn and share experiences. Here, I didn’t need the emotional and mental protective walls I habitually built around me.

With my corporate and human capital lens, I tried to analyze the reasons for such “diversity success.” They didn’t use a sophisticated recruiting system with algorithms tweaked to maximize diversity. The curriculum was the same for everyone. The setting was a barn on a small farm. Yet, the diversity success was evident with race, ethnicity, creed, preferences, identities, age, careers, education, and social-economic levels all in one room, ready to learn. Everyone showed up with a smile and open to an embrace. Cell phone connection was awful, the conversation was great, and we all had meals together where we learned about each other’s families, interests, and even dreams. It struck me how different this was from work and school settings. Although there was a lot to learn and do, there was ample room for each person’s personality and voice to shine equally. They organically met the diversity and customer loyalty aspirations of the corporate world.

After months of enjoying the camaraderie, I concluded that the Wild Ginger Center’s secret ingredient for their diversity success is the kindness and respect that runs through its core. Empathy and respect not only for the plants and the earth but for people. Each person that walks into the center is unique, respected, acknowledged, encouraged, and celebrated for showing up as who they are.

By the time the workshops concluded, I had acquired lifelong friends, carpool mates, herb/veggie exchange buddies, but most importantly, I found the tribe I yearned for. I belonged.

Can we translate this success to the corporate world? Yes! Below are my top 10 questions to ask yourself.

1.    Is your mission clear?

2.    What is the human connection to your work (the back story of why we do what we do)?

3.    Are people working with a purpose?

4.    Is everyone’s uniqueness equally celebrated and acknowledged beyond the basic categories?

5.    As employers, are we creating safe spaces for team members to connect beyond transactional tasks?

6.    Does each employee feel encouraged to grow, to say, to be?

7.    Does every employee feel free to show up as who they are (i.e., my big curly hair vs. straightened hair, my ethnic wear vs. pantsuits and heels)?

8.    Is respect and compassion part of your corporate vocabulary?

9.    Is diversity even valuable to your corporate goals?

10. Are you aware of your company’s diversity standing?

I can help you start diversity conversations too. I’m pleased to announce DEI360, an organization’s starting point for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI). It’s an easy, customizable, online assessment that quickly allows organizational leadership to see how they’re doing from the employee’s perspective. Once an organization takes the assessment,( our team walks through the final report giving clear DEI data, a snapshot of the internal DEI landscape, and actionable next steps. Have questions? Check out our FAQ or contact us directly.

 

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Book Review: The Disordered Cosmos

 

Even today, you won’t hear many perspectives from black, women cosmologists/theoretical physicists. Not surprisingly then, this incredibly personal, emotional, and scientific work, The Disordered Cosmos, might be the most unique and original book you’ve read in years.

Associate Professor Chanda Prescod-Weinstein teaches physics, astronomy, and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire. Her professional recognition includes the 2021 Edward A. Bouchet Award from the America Physical Society.

Though many will label her views and words radical, we urge you to read this partly autobiographical, partly historical, but always withering social critique of America. Even if you don’t completely agree with any of her views, you’ll gain a vital and necessary perspective, one that speaks to almost unbearable pain, yet remains cautiously hopeful.

Over the centuries, through overt and subtle words, advertising, the media, movies, books, leader behaviors, and the like, the colors black and brown have become associated with dirt and negativity, while goodness and cleanliness have attached to the color white.

Oppressors have long used the color of people’s skin to reinforce power and to justify horrific deeds. As a result, people with more generous amounts of melanin identify as black and have created a black culture. They face more challenges and greater odds of dying at the hands of police. Many people with little to no melanin consider those with more melanin less intelligent, and less capable of physical and emotional feelings, even though melanin has no bearing on these things.

Scientists have played no small part in creating these fictions. Science and pseudo-experimentation, including eugenics have deliberately supported and championed racism or turned a blind eye.

Of late, however, because of shifting demographics, American leaders have begun to encourage black and brown youth to enter the STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). This is for fear of having too few scientists and falling behind competitor nations.

Here are a few key takeaways from the book:

·         All things, including humans of all colors and all gender and sexual preferences, formed from the same stardust.

·         In physics, with its captivating theories, wonderful weirdness, and mysteries, anything is possible.

·         ‘Western’ science ignores the perspectives of marginalized people and often claims credit for their contributions.

·         The author’s experiences, beginning at Harvard, demonstrate that racism in science remains an insidious force.

·         Varying amounts of melanin determine the color of a person’s skin and hair, but race was a construct before the discovery of melanocytes in the 1800s.

·         White supremacists still pervade science, ignoring racial injustices and perpetuating centuries of inequities.

·         Instead of opening doors to the marginalized to do right, white leaders, including scientists, do so mainly for economic, military, or personal gains.

CHCI weaves over a decade of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) expertise into all of our core offerings. If you want to determine your company’s DEI strengths, opportunities for growth, and actionable next steps, check out DEI360, our new online assessment tool. We’d love to help.

 

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Workforce Trends: The Importance of Diversity–The Old Minority Will Become the New Majority

 

There are several major demographic trends in today’s workplace, such as Baby Boomer retirement, companies losing female talent and the increasing need for workplace flexibility.

Perhaps the most profound trend, however, is the fact that the United States is transitioning from a nation whose majority population is white to a nation in which the majority of the population will soon be people of color.

 

So-called minorities accounted for 92 percent of the nation’s population growth in the last decade. They are now the majority of residents in four states, 348 counties, the District of Columbia, and a growing number of major metropolitan areas like New York, Las Vegas, and Memphis.

 

And, in case you think this is just a blip on the screen, you should know that, as of July 2011, the majority of new babies born in this country are now children of color.

 

That is only going to increase, because Latinos, on average, are in their prime childbearing years, while the average white woman, at 42, is probably done having children.

In fact, because the majority of older people are white, and the majority of younger people are not, we’re looking at a very new kind of divide that’s both racial and generational.

 

And here’s another issue: Right now, Hispanic and black youth are graduating from college at far lower rates than their white peers: 13% and 18%, versus 31% for whites.

That’s why I said that this is the most profound of the three demographic trends. Because if the majority of young Americans are not educated and prepared to take their place in the workforce of tomorrow, that will be a true disaster for your organizations and our economy.

 

Solution

You hear so much about how manufacturing has left the U.S.  But what you don’t hear is that the manufacturing jobs we still have can be hard to fill, because young workers aren’t really interested.

 

And it’s not just that Gen Y doesn’t want to work an assembly line.  They also don’t want to be manufacturing executives.  They’d rather work for a tech start-up. So what do you do if you’re a manufacturing company that has to replace its retiring workers with a diverse workforce?

 

I’m helping this client create a Strategic Workforce Planning Tool that will help my client track birth and education rates, education rates, and other key data on a country-by-county basis, so that they’ll know where to expand, consolidate, or even close a plant.

 

Ideally, you want to be proactive, and educate new workers.  But the first step in that process is knowing where you’re most at risk, and that’s what my client is focused on right now, in order to increase diversity.

Note: Many of the statistics presented in this blog series have been pulled from Deloitte’s Human Capital consulting resources and The Gender Dividend report. 

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

 

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Manage Your Personal Bias with These Three Tips

 

“No, not her!” I thought to myself.

What I needed was a massage and my regular massage therapist wasn’t working. I couldn’t believe I got stuck with HER instead.

My mind started racing. “Is she strong enough to give the deep massage I like? Can she really handle a full hour on all my shoulder knots?”

I’d seen her before as I was waiting for my appointment. She was a practitioner in her late 50’s. My immediate thought was, “Wow, she looks old for this job.” But I dismissed the thought, realizing I was just being biased.

Yet when the reality hit that this “older” woman was going to be giving me my massage, I couldn’t control my mind. “You hate ageism,” I reminded myself, “so knock it off.” I smiled and told her what type of massage I prefer.

When the massage started, I immediately noticed she had a very different style than my usual therapist. “Ugh,” I thought, “is this some technique she learned 20 years ago? I guess she doesn’t know the NEW massage techniques.”

“Stop it,” I said to myself again, “quit being biased and relax.”

But I couldn’t. Because she was stepping too loudly on the floor or breathing too hard. I even thought, “What kind of music is this? Is this from the 80’s?”

As someone who writes and speaks about age bias in the workplace, I knew exactly what was happening to my brain. To be specific, my inner dialogue trifurcated into:

1.    A running monologue about every little thing she was “doing wrong”

2.    A 30,000-foot view of “Oh, so this is what happens when bias kicks in. Look how it’s running over every other thought.”

3.    Scrolling through bias management tips (link), such as “Calm down. Breathe deep. Relax. Enjoy.”

Despite these three conversations monopolizing my mind, the monologue about what she was “doing wrong” steamrolled everything. For all I knew, the music playing could have been the exact same music my regular practitioner plays. This new therapist could be the most revered in the community! I couldn’t see any of that though because my bias was holding me hostage.

Why Was This Happening To Me?

While I take full responsibility for my biased thinking, there is a scientific aspect to those behaviors as well. The culprit is the amygdala part of the brain, which is responsible for rapid visual predictions and categorizations. For example, friend or foe? In-group or out-group? This part of the brain is useful in that it enables us to recognize danger quickly. However, the rapid categorizations are made before the frontal cortex can consciously think.

Yet, if this were just about danger, my brain wouldn’t have reacted the way it did to an older massage therapist.

The compounding factor here is our culture. It is filled with stereotypes. Many of us have inaccurate and prejudicial information that is quickly accessed before the other part of our brain can analyze. This is why biases are so dangerous; they are reinforced almost unconsciously in our culture, and the outcome is often much more serious than a woman not being able to relax on her massage table.

Fortunately, the amygdala doesn’t completely run the show. We have a highly complex frontal cortex, which allows us to control impulses, make complicated decisions and behave in ways that are socially appropriate. This frontal cortex helps moderate gut reactions.

So remember, despite what it might appear like, the human mind is actually extremely adept at control and regulation. With the awareness and willingness to put some work in, we can grab hold of our biases and tell them to get out of our heads. Start by taking a good, hard look at yourself and be honest about the biases you have. Then try these tips to help manage them.

Three Real Life Ways to Manage Your Personal Bias

1. Ask Yourself Questions

When you notice a bias popping up, take a minute to ask yourself these questions:

·         Is this bias relevant?

·         Does this bias help anyone, including me?

·         Why is my brain acting like this bias is important?

·         Where did I get this bias?

Looking hard at biases can often not only make you realize they are useless, but also make them less attractive to you.

2. Surround yourself by those you are biased against

Whether it’s older people, people of a certain ethnicity, certain religious groups or otherwise, if you find you are biased against them, find a way to interact with the group in a positive way. This could be as simple as going to restaurants in parts of your city you don’t usually go to. You can also volunteer in social programs that allow you to work amongst people you tend to be biased towards, join community clubs, attend events, and even simply watch certain movies. The goal here is to challenge your perceptions of certain groups of people, and thereby create new gut reactions when you encounter those like them.

3. Ask Trusted Friends and Family to Hold You Accountable

Because biases are often unconscious, we may not even realize we have them. If you truly want to tackle your personal biases, ask friends and family to call you out when you behave in biased ways or make biased comments. It’s not easy being confronted but control your urge to be defensive, have an open mind, and thank your friend or family member for helping you on your quest to control your personal biases.

I am embarrassed to say that my bias was front and center that day, just because the person looked older than what I expected a massage practitioner to look like. Did my bias impact my massage? Yes, because I was unable to relax. Did it impact her? No. So at the end of the day, my own bias just made it worse for me.

Take a deep look and think about how your own biases may have impacted you in a negative way. 

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter.

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A Human Capital Strategy to Help America Thrive

 

No one would argue against the idea that, to thrive in today’s global economy, nations must grow their capital. But many people don’t realize that “capital” comes in two very different forms.

We often think of capital as tangible things — physical assets like factories, farms, roads, highways, and even warships.

But what about intangible capital? These are also critical for success, and include such competitive advantages as creativity, motivation, loyalty, and trust. These intangible assets are called human capital — and in How to Grow Human Capital During Hard, I argue that investing in human capital is the best choice right now.

I also posit that, although the branches of our military services have benefited greatly from human capital strategies, our nation has never tried to implement a national strategy to marshal and grow our most important asset: people.

What Would a U.S. Human Capital Strategy Look Like?

National human capital strategies grow out of human capital policies; both the policies that are consciously adopted by a country, and those that are so deeply embedded in its DNA that we take their impact on our lives for granted.

There are five policies that I believe are essential for maximizing human capital at the national level. Some of these are areas in which the U.S. proudly leads the world. Others are areas in which we’ve arguably fallen to last place among other wealthy, industrial nations.

They are:

1. Education and Training
2. Enforcement of Contracts and Property Rights
3. Balance of Risk and Safety
4. Freedom
5. Agility of Government and the Private Sector

Let’s look at each of these policy areas to see how they do or don’t support a U.S. national strategy to maximize our human capital.

Education and Training

Although education can be its own reward, many advanced societies offer rewards and incentives to encourage their populace to pursue more education and/or more formal skills training.

The U.S. clearly doesn’t offer such an organized incentive structure. While college graduates often earn more money than those without diplomas or degrees, the skyrocketing cost of a college education is born by individuals or families, which explains in large part why, over the past 50 years, the percentage of Americans with four-year degrees has grown by a paltry 5%, from 25% of adults to 30%.

Our grade schools and high schools are also not optimized to produce the best outcomes for most U.S. citizens. Because local schools are controlled by local school boards, the best predictor of the quality of your education is the zip code where you were born.

Enforcement of Contracts and Property Rights

The strong U.S. protections for owners of both physical and intellectual property provide a tremendous incentive for economic growth. Owners know that if they successfully expand and nurture their assets, they will reap economic benefits and — most importantly — be allowed to keep them.

This basic tenet of the U.S.’s social contract has fueled periods of tremendous growth and innovation by allowing us to invest in both human and tangible capital to produce future growth, confident that we “know what’s ours is ours.”

Balance of Risk and Safety

Every nation has rules about what risks will accrue to individuals and families, and what risks will be managed on their behalf by society. The social safety net adopted in the U.S. following the Great Depression ushered in a long period of property and growth that benefited Americans from all walks of life and allowed many citizens to develop themselves and contribute to society.

By contrast, countries like Japan (where families are expected to provide the safety net, and 65% of elders live with their children), can expect that adult children — and particularly women — will do significant care-taking during their prime years of productivity, with a consequent diminishment of positive economic activities.

Freedom

In America, citizens have the freedom to decide where they will live, what job or professional field they’ll choose, who and when they marry, how big of a family they’ll have, whether or not they’ll move for advancement, how much they’ll work and when they’ll stop working. And while these decisions can be daunting and hard, they’ve allowed many in the U.S. to develop their own human capital to a high degree — to invest in themselves and garner the rewards.

Agility of Government and the Private Sector

How quickly can a country’s government and its private sector adjust to the reality of a changing world? How smoothly can they coordinate their responses to challenges like economic disruption, artificial intelligence, new technologies, terrorism, or even a global pandemic?

In a world of accelerating change, the ability of nations to increase their human capital depends on the agility and effectiveness of both government and private sector responses to those changes. And here, the U.S. has a mixed record: Some technologies, like social media, have developed rapidly and had a tremendous impact on society. Others, like stem cell research, have languished because government could not be agile on the policy side, and the vision of industry was thwarted at great potential cost.

Can the U.S. Create a National Human Capital Strategy?

That answer is clearly complicated. An effective national human capital strategy requires clarity and coordination between government and industry, across a wide range of policy areas.

In some of these areas, the U.S. excels. In others, our success has been limited.

One thing is clear, however: Because of the nature of global competition, it is time for nations to look hard at their current human capital strategies and take actions now to optimize the sum of our human capital. Our future will depend primarily on how well, how effectively, and how fast we learn to maximize our human capital.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter.

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Four Resources to Help Employees Manage Change

I recently had the honor and privilege to be interviewed by different publications about changing work dynamics, managing difficult employees and the future of our workforce. The new era of workforce management is here; I hope our interview discussions help you plan for the future in these times of change.

When I spoke to Bindu Nair, editor at The Smart Manager, we discussed various ways to manage unmanageable people and situations.

Supported by my years of experience as a front line coach and consultant, we outlined how to help those unmanageable employees who torment other employees. The methodology we recommend consists of five steps: Commit or quit; Communicate; Clarify goals and roles; Coach; and Create accountability. How can you use this methodology? First, the manager needs to decide to retain this unmanageable employee or not. Ultimately, it’s not only about making that employee accountable; it’s also about the manager’s commitment to the employee’s success. Next, the employee should be clear on what goals she is expected to achieve.

Successful organizations not only manage employees; they also create and manage successful teams. During another discussion with The Uncommon League, we mused about preparing individuals and teams for employee training. What tips did we discuss? First, explain the training context to increase the chances of employees attending that training. Second, build organizational interest in what they will learn, to attract other employees who want to learn these skills as well.

Successful organizations are also nimble and adapt to change, which is important because the way people are choosing to work has changed. Discussing the trends that are shaping the future workforce with Brown Wallace on The Bridge Revisited, we shared our thoughts about the personality traits and key differences of each generation in the workforce. The discussion also included the impact of women starting their own businesses, the importance of workplace diversity and the increasing trend of freelancing. If leaders develop a strategy without knowing about these workforce trends, they will be shooting into the dark.

Finally, at the Women’s Foodservice Forum we exchanged views on how freelancers and contract workers can provide fresh perspectives and help organizations move toward success. To effectively leverage their talents and capabilities, leaders must integrate freelancers in the workplace culture, articulate clear expectations, touch base regularly, and recognize results.

I’d love to hear how you are managing workforce challenges. What works for you and what doesn’t? What results have you seen? 

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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