Ep. 10: Diversity as a Profitability Practice

Career Design Podcast

Episode 10

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I'm Lindsay Mustain and this is the career design podcast made for driven ambitious square pegs and round holes type professionals who see things differently and challenge the status quo. We obliterate obstacles and unlock hidden pathways to overcome and succeed where others have not stagnation feels like death. And we are unwilling to compromise our integrity and settle for being average in any way. We are the backbone of any successful business and those who overlook our potential are doomed to a slow demise. We do work that truly matters aligns with our purpose, and in turn, we make our lasting mark on the world. We are the dreamers, doers, legends and visionaries who are called to make our most meaningful contribution and love what we do.

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Welcome to Black History Month, that is what is amazing about February and last year, the world turned on its head in so many different ways. But in particular, there were two big ones one was the pandemic and coming into COVID, where the equalizer became became work at home global movement to the work at home, front, and then the Black Lives Matter movement. And that happened in May. where we're at I should say that that shouldn't happen. But we're in particular, one inciting moment that really began the reinvigoration of the Black Lives Matter movement happened in May. And that's when George Floyd lost his life. And as somebody who has been on the HR front, now, 20 years, I have been inside of organizations, I have led diversity practices, I have measured what actually happens inside of companies and understand the reporting and the impact. And what happens when we talk about some of the the bigger names like Equal Employment Opportunity, or the OFCCP, which is the federal office for contractor compliance. Those governing agencies require us to check diversity. So one of the things that I have seen over hiring 10,000 people looking at over a million resumes is what really happens inside of an organization. And here's the deal. Diversity is considered to be a nice to have practice, but not a business imperative practice. And it's why it's been very lackluster. When I think about our true diversity initiatives, it's been check the box, did we post it? Did we do the right things? And then do we actually back it up? totally different. And so what we say and what we practice, what we practice, what we preach have very different, very different structures. In fact, I've actually hired DNI people inside of major companies who would go on and leave, because DNI wasn't actually included as part of their job. And they wouldn't be embraced as being diversity ambassadors. And that was just not okay with me. And so I want to talk to you about why why diversity is actually a profitability practice, and not just a nice to have. Now, here's the thing, if you look at all of the executives, in corporations, within the fortune 500, only 3% of CEOs are actually African American 3%. Okay, to give you an idea, like the population in the United States is around 14%. So one way you can measure whether or not you're being effective in the demographics of your business is whether or not you model the community you're you're in. This is the easiest way to know, are you actually doing a good job of being a good ambassador for diversity? It's just goes to show what is my workforce comprised of? Okay, now, if I'm going to tell you what really looks like inside of most companies, is these homogenized panels of white dudes who consider diversity to be we went to different Ivy League schools, okay, folks, that is not diversity, the diversity comes in many different thoughts, many may have different ways it shows up. In Black History Month, we're talking about in particular marginalized voices, people of color, people who have not actually been able to be empowered. And we've told them that they've had a fair shot, I'm going to tell you as somebody who watched the frontline, if that was a lie. Sounds like I'm sorry, that was a lie. The actual starting point for somebody who is of a has a protected class or classification is what we call an HR, I would say you actually start a full lap behind everyone else. There's never been an equalized standing point. And this is where people like, well, that's what affirmative action is, folks, we can justify anything with data, the only time that we're actually going to get called out on something is when the EEOC or the OFCCP goes into a truly investigate an audit,

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the likelihood of that is less than 1%. It's like a small percentage of that 1% actually, and so this is why most the time these practices have gone unchecked. Now, I understand that diversity, it's not easy to measure. It's not easy to manage. I'm not telling you it's going to be easy. I'm telling you, it's going to be worth it. Okay? And here's the thing when we start to introduce diversity actually is a business practice inside of companies. That business practice has increased the tune of financial revenue by increasing it by 19%. Okay? That's how important diversity is as initiative because here's the deal. The antithesis of diversity is groupthink, okay? So what's groupthink? groupthink is the phenomenon where a group of people, yes, men, and it could be Yes, women, all together in a room who think and sound like if you ever seen there's a meme where it says we need more diverse voices, and everybody in the boardroom goes, Yeah, that's the perfect example of groupthink, where everybody goes along with the leader regardless, and instead of speaking out, instead of actually stepping up and willing to put our voices our necks out, we go along, and we go so far along that we don't even bother to check or question our true belief, we don't even look, we become so self centered in what is we feel a self righteous inside of these closed doors with these homogenized groups, that we are actually have zero connection to the front line. And this is where you see these salacious reports of how companies are actually treating diversity inside of companies is because we get into the zone of just assuming that they're doing the right thing. And then actually at the frontlines, nothing backs it up, okay. And so what I really want to embrace here is that when you introduce somebody who has diversity of thought, diversity of color, diversity of background, it makes your practice better. Now, here's why groupthink becomes, it's actually a great way to put your company into maturity or client decline, meaning when a company is mature, that means they're no longer growing, okay. And there's lots of companies right now who love to say, we're so innovative. And instead, they actually act like they're a bunch of old white men inside of company, doing nothing, to increase diversity, to increase new ideas and to bring in new innovation. Okay, they do nothing for that. And that's where we say we're one thing and then our practices, we just continue to recruit people who look and think and sound exactly like our existing employee population. And that's a problem because we are actually not doing anything to introduce the idea of innovation. So we talked about, like, On Time magazine's the death of innovation in corporate America. Why? Because we hire people who are like us, folks, this is how we survive as millennia, human beings dead, we were tribal. Okay, what that meant is that

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as a tribal species, we were surviving, because we surround ourselves with people who were like us, okay, now, how that manifests inside of a company means that we have a whole bunch of white guys inside, and I'm sorry, I'm picking on white dudes. But this is the main problem, okay? If you look at our leadership, the further up you go, the further wider the further the male that it goes up, okay. And so we've managed to cut off women, we've managed to cut off diversity. And now we have a group of white dudes who thinks that they can make decisions for people and speak for their women and diversity hires, and they can't. So that groupthink idea, it really becomes an issue because we keep recruiting and bringing people who are just like us, which is where Why don't we have innovative ideas? Because we didn't bother to bring any somebody who looks or sounds differently. Is it uncomfortable? Yes, it is. When you are outside of your comfort zone, it is uncomfortable. And that is why groupthink is the antithesis to innovation. When we start to introduce new ideas, when we introduce new people, when we start to bring in some things that cause people to think critically, we start to introduce new ideas, we start to find ways to align people into different practices instead of what we've been doing for forever. Okay. But the problem is, is that lot of times the answer is they're not a good fit. Okay? They're not a good fit. So if you hear yourself saying this in an interview, and I'm gonna call out a little bit of hiring managers, interviewers, recruiters, if you have people who are telling you it's not a good fit, it's time to go, what the hell does that mean? Okay. Does that mean it was uncomfortable for me to be in there? Because this person brought in a new idea? Was it uncomfortable? Because this person put me on the defense because they might be better at what they what I do, then I am. And instead of saying that's an opportunity for me to bring somebody in, who can bring and elevate my team, I put that person and say, that person is not a good fit for our team. And that's where you have to question whether or not Am I doing this because it's comfortable or am I doing this because I am not embracing the idea of introducing a differing opinion into the groupthink idea. So if you see your team and you have a whole bunch of people who are just like you, it's time to bring in something somebody who is different. Okay, so why does this matter again, the Increase is a 19% improvement in revenue. That's what studies have shown. I didn't just come up with this. In fact, if you go back, you can google how the black life matters movement, I just might save our economic savings from economic crisis. And I wrote this back in June, because I talked about what actually happens inside of companies and and what really the idea and what falls into it. In fact, if you wouldn't mind dropping the link, Nicole to the we just had, it's gotten a lot of traction lately because of Black History Month, which is why I wanted to come and talk about this idea. Okay. So how do you actually start to move the dial on diversity? Okay, well, here's the thing, it has to become a moral imperative instead of a nice to do, okay, it has to be something where it actually is measured and tracked, and people are accountable for it. And because it is the right thing to do. In addition, it just happens to give us extra money in our pocket, because when we start to disrupt groupthink, we come up with more innovative ideas. And we go further, even though it's uncomfortable, because, again, growth does not happen in the comfort zone. Okay? So diverse organizations see better profitability, increased problem solving, and better outperform other companies who do not embrace this. Okay? So here are six tips of how you can immediately increase your company's bottom line through diversity. Okay, the first one is to lean in, okay, the idea of diversity isn't just good to do, but it's good for your business, okay? So you want to create strategies, rewards and incentivize your team to hire, train and promote African American professionals? Okay, we need to take a first look at the Black Lives Matter movement and say, how do we find people of color? And how do we bring them into our organization, so we better mimic our communities, okay. That's the second one is commit to mirror your community and measure your progress. Okay? So you want to find the community that you're in whatever it's at and look at the demographics. So if you're based here in Seattle, we would look at the Seattle metro area. So this area would have a different demographic than maybe the far south like Atlanta, we would want to mimic and meet the percentages that we have in our community or outperform it. That is how you know whether or not you actually have been successful in your diversity practice. Okay, measure, analyze and report on this every single quarter. Okay, next, pull your people do a quick poll survey, and I want you to exhaust x, look for the good ask your existing employees to share their ideas on how you can improve diversity inside of your organization. Here's the problem with coming from the very top, okay, you have zero clue, we call this the CEO cushion zero clue what really is actually happening inside of your company until you start to actually listen, you start to listen, and we do social listening for our companies. But we do a really bad job of actually pulsing our people, meaning we get an input like just a pulse check here on what it is that's actually happening inside of our organizations. So go and do that. Because you know what, here's the deal, unless you're tapping into the people who are inside of your business, why are you isolating yourself inside of a closed room with people who are just like you, rather than tapping into a whole abundance of ideas and diversity that are outside of the boardroom doors, go check and pull your people and take their best ideas, and especially listen to voices that have never bothered to speak up because you never bothered to ask them. Okay, create an advisory board and make sure it's not filled with white people. It needs to actually be people of color, it needs to be marginalized voices, it needs to be protected classes. And you need to empower them to lead your diversity initiatives this person needs and this board or whatever team that you do, has to have a corporate sponsor. And that corporate sponsor needs to be somebody who is at the very top, okay, that means C suite. And when a sponsor means is that they're willing to go to bat that means it's no longer just a check the box we actually put effort behind this to intentionally attract and retain people of color. Okay. Next is creating fair hiring practices. And I say for real here because we love to pretend like it's fair, it's not fair. Okay, it's never been fair. Don't settle for check the box activities. I am talking about allocating volunteer time and financial resources to your local Black Lives Matter movement chapter your n double acp, your historically black colleges and make sure that you connect to them for every single one of your job openings every single one and ensure referrals from there, go to the top. That is how you get into fair consideration. Okay, do outreach activities inside of your for within your company for black professionals and make sure that they have opportunities that they have not been tapped on the shoulder for growing their career, okay? And understand that cultural fit is not about the color of someone's skin. Okay? When you look around the room and everybody looks like you, you need to go for something is wrong here, because we don't look like and especially in America, we don't look like America, America is so diverse. Why don't we look like that something is wrong, something is broken. And it starts at the very beginning with the ethos of the organization and their beliefs around diversity.

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Okay. And the last is to share the success. If you want to attract more people who are just like these diverse workers that you have that are your best people, you need to tell their stories, you need to be able to amplify their voices and show that they have a fair shot, and it can shine inside of your organization. The organization, you have to share their stories, because until that they won't know they have somebody to defend and advocate for them. Okay, share the success of the people who are marginalized share the success of the stories of people of color, okay. Imagine if we leaned into the idea of voices that have been silenced for centuries. Imagine if every company decided that they could invest in this idea of bringing diversity because it could save us financially and economically. And not only that, it's the right thing to do. So with that, I'm going to say thank you for joining me. It's been amazing to have every one of you here and have a wonderful day, everybody.