5 Ways to Infuse Diversity and Inclusion Into Your Organization

0:02Chevy is called the heartbeat of America for a reason. with SUVs made to move with your rhythm. The versatile Equinox tackles your entire day. The spacious Traverse fits your crew and your whole weekend. And tracks bring style with value you can count on. All infused with tech that has your back. So your drive always hits the right chord. Chevrolet. Together let's drive. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks.

0:45Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability varies 18+. I think leaders are putting diversity and inclusion into the bucket of special initiatives. the big pledge, the new committee, the new appointment. But this is not a special initiative. This is not something, an adjustment to the business. This is not a side issue. I actually think that what we want to get to longer term is where there isn't a CDO, Chief Diversity Officer. And maybe my friends who are CDOs would not like me saying that, but by definition, the CDO role exists in an organisation where what we're doing is we're siloing this experience.

1:27What it will require in my book is a repositioning of diversity inclusion in people's mindset. We need to change from it being considered a one-off initiative to actually a mindset infusing diversity inclusion throughout the organization. Our first solution is to ensure that the CEO positions themselves as the top champion for D &I efforts in the organization. It's not to say that we expect that everything that's happening in that bucket is going to be directly attended to by the CEO. What we are suggesting is that the CEO clearly articulate within the organization and to the broader community a stance, a point of view, and a desired outcome that says we want things to be better and we're doing something about it.

2:12The element that is most likely to be a barrier to improvement and movement on these factors is often C-suite behavior. Because the individuals within the C-suite in their various business units and functions who run the day-to-day operation of the business, they can just sort of put the brakes on if they don't believe it, if there's no accountability and so on. So the CEO has to take a stance, has to clearly articulate a point of view and set themselves as that example. so the rest of the C-suite knows that this is important and that they need to do something about it. So the CEO is the linchpin.

2:47Our second solution is to center diversity inclusion in the business strategy. It's far more than just an HR issue. The strategy is about making choices about how to win, where to play and how to go in the future. And as soon as diversity inclusion as a concept and a practice is central to that, I think people think, you know what, actually, this is where we are going as an organization. And one CEO who I've admired is Alex Mahon, who's the chief executive of Channel 4, a UK TV company. Yes, diversity inclusion is sort of bedded into the remit of the organization, but she's actually seen it as a way of actually developing better ideas that go on screen.

3:25Also being very demanding in terms of what she expects from suppliers and partner organizations to make sure that they are actually putting the right people behind the screen and on the screen as relevant. So actually, it's not just about the internal strategy process. It's also about the ecosystem of organizations around you, too. Our third solution is to hold executive leaders accountable for driving D &I outcomes in their organizations. Accountability is essential. You've got to really state. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs.

4:02It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a$75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Good sleep is everything. That's why OLLI's science back support is made with a blend of melatonin and L-theanine for both kiddos and grownups. So when your mind won't switch off, you've got something that can help.

4:39Erasing thoughts and restless nights won't stand a chance. Find OLLI's sleep solutions for the whole family at OLLI.com. That's O-L-L-Y dot com. Intended outcomes. State who is going to be responsible for that. hold individual members of the C-suite accountable for achieving those outcomes. But those aren't things that we have done in the past. It's been sort of taboo to even necessarily say that the C-suite needs to be accountable for this. One of the things that's helping with accountability is that institutional investors are saying, you know what, we want to see these numbers. We want to see the progress.

5:17Frankly, that is going to be the thing that will make the biggest difference on this issue. Our fourth solution is to mitigate implicit bias at the systemic level. We've talked about moving on from one-off initiatives, but if you're looking at recruitment, retention, progression, experience, every single part of that needs to work together and well. So if you are a leader in an organisation, you have to look at and understand where are there systemic biases that may prevent somebody entering the organisation, progressing, having a great experience, and actually looking at the whole system and identifying interventions that you can make to change that.

5:54And I use the word intervention very carefully. You do have to positively intervene to change things. Our fifth solution is to pivot from diversity training to leadership development coaching. We know from the data that just the whole notion of diversity training in and of itself is never going to accomplish these more sophisticated outcomes that the C-suite really needs. For me, the only outcome is an outcome that says managers know how to be effective managers of everybody on their team. The manager is the biggest determinant of the experience I'm going to have on a day-to-day basis. If I could change the rules tomorrow, it would be that in MBA programs, we stop using this terminology about soft skills.

6:39And we say, look, you can't get an MBA from a fancy school unless you know how to manage humans. Sure. I want you to be able to manage finance. I want you to understand sales and operations and strategy and all these other things. They are no more important than managing the experience of every single person. And I'm going to hold you accountable for that. This is not a softball. This is incredibly hard to do well. But it has to be positioned at the center of our business acumen. And that's a big shift. So actually, rather than saying you've been successful because you've sold a lot or you launched a new product, of course that's important.

7:10but actually how you interact with your fellow employees your customers and so on surely is important to shareholder value and the purpose of the organization too and I think often certain behaviors are tolerated because oh well he or she's really successful but you know they're a bit rough around the edges well actually those edges are important so actually we're not going to tolerate that that's not good enough and that's where the leadership interventions need to come in The conversations that I have had in this year since George Floyd's death are conversations I had never had. And I've been in corporate America for more than 30 years.

7:48For example, a conversation where a leader has said to me, I didn't realize how difficult of an experience some of the employees in my own company were having. I did not know that until now. I am seeing more understanding of historical facts. I'm seeing more awareness of the current state of affairs with regard to the differences in the socioeconomics in this country. I'm seeing differences in terms of empathy. When someone is interested in knowing more about this issue, what they usually figure out is that things are worse than they thought they were, which then if you now know, then you want to fix it.

8:23And I certainly think that CEOs can change the world when it comes to this stuff.

8:48Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills. but it turns out that's very illegal uh so there goes my big idea for the commercial give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch up front payment of 45 for three months 90 for six months or 180 for 12 month plan required 15 per month equivalent taxes and fees extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy see terms