Expand Beyond Your Current Culture. Leslie Short
department but the rest of the company doesn’t follow suit, then people in other departments feel that they’re losing out. This is what I call department inclusion.
A manager proudly told me that his department is inclusive because he can control who gets hired, and he makes it a point to reach outside the company to find employees. I asked whether the rest of the company works the same way, and he said that he had no idea, but he’s good! I told him that I applaud his actions, but that when he leaves the company his culture goes with him. Department culture isn’t sustainable; company culture is.
When was the last time you reviewed your company policies, procedures, and mission statement? Look at them again, and you may find that diversity, inclusion, equity, and company culture aren’t as important to your company as you thought.
When a company has made a commitment to expand beyond its current culture, its leaders constantly review company policies and procedures. If they don’t review them, they can’t ensure that new employees will understand the company culture or that they’ll feel included. Who you are and what you stand for determine what your employees, as well as your customers, expect of you.
Once you’ve thought about the four pillars, and asked yourself if you’re actively championing them, look in your bag. Ask yourself why you took your job. Then you’ll realize that others at your company may have taken their jobs for the same reasons.
Additional Questions to Consider
• Why would anyone want to work here?
• What are we offering them in addition to the job?
• What keeps them here?
• How do we insure that they keep learning as we keep growing?
• How do we communicate the four pillars to them?
• How do we communicate them on a daily basis?
• How do we insure that we all live our mission statement?
• Who will insure that we keep checking in with staff? (This is not the job of Human Resources.)
• Do we have diversity outreach? If so, what is it? Does it make sense to our mission? Is it working? If so, why? If not, why not?
Inclusive Committees
If everyone on a committee looks like you, talks like you, and comes from a similar background as you, then you’ve formed a club, not a committee. Take the time to mix up your committee with people from various departments and cultural backgrounds. Don’t have only leadership lead the committee or the meetings – give a voice to those who may be more comfortable sharing their discomfort with those outside of leadership. (This leads us into the topic of having a champion, an advocate, and an ally. I’ll break down the differences below.)
Once a committee is formed, and it looks diverse and sounds diverse, you may hear things you may not want to hear. There will be discomfort before there’s comfort (and maybe the committee will never really be comfortable). You have to ask again how important diversity, equity, inclusion, and authentic company culture are to your company. If you say that you’re committed to do what’s needed to assure an inclusive company culture, and to make it part of your foundation, then and only then will the real work begin.
Looking at your biases and differences is uncomfortable, but you need to be honest with each other to have a solid foundation and meaningful outreach. Ask yourself and others why it’s important to have a committee made up of people from various departments and backgrounds so you have cultural understanding. Make sure you understand before you assume that everything is good.
Your Role
What will be your role in the process of building an inclusive workspace? Will you be a champion, an advocate, or an ally? What’s the difference?
Champion: You bring up the issues when They & Them aren’t in the room because it benefits the big picture.
Advocate: This is truly part of your DNA. You believe that We & Us is the only way to move forward as a collective group. You also make sure that We & Us is threaded throughout all initiatives in the company.
Ally: You can’t call yourself an ally – that badge must be given to you. It’s given to you once it’s known that you rise to a situation regardless of what it is. We need to see that you’re really about the work not because you have to be but because it’s important and you hear us and see us and you move with us for us. It’s not about you, and it’s not a one-answer-fits-all. It’s not logical, and it means traveling a road that may not have been traveled yet. You bob and weave with us.
When Being an Ally Is in Your DNA
In the 80s I was dancing on a cruise ship. It was in the days when cruising was a luxury. The ships had one dinner seating and were full of iconic Hollywood movie stars and the elite of the elite. The shows that were produced for the ships were like Broadway shows, with dancers, singers, and a live orchestra.
I was one of those dancers and the first black dancer to ever work on the cruise ship in any position. Before I was allowed to join the ship, I had to be approved by the corporate office in Norway. There were some who weren’t sure how the elite passengers would react to a black dancer. As dancers we also hosted dinner tables with the guests and one of the activities during the cruise, such as ping pong or shuffleboard. So during the two-week cruise guests would see me on and off stage.
I should mention that I was also in charge of the other dancers. As the dance captain I had my own cabin and had to report to the on-shore office how things were going with the show and the dancers.
Before leaving Las Vegas, where we rehearsed for the show, the choreographer held a meeting to explain that I would be the first black person to be on the cruise as an employee. She wanted to prepare the other dancers to answer questions from passengers. Sure enough, one night at dinner one of the dancers, hosting his dinner table, was asked by a wealthy older white woman, “Why is she here? How did she get hired? Why is she in charge of the dancers?”
I wouldn’t have known about the incident if I hadn’t heard Ted’s voice rise above his normal tone and then seen him leave the dining room. Later that night I asked him what had happened. He said, “How dare she ask those questions?” I reminded him of the talk we had before leaving and told him he didn’t have to fight for me, to stay calm, that I would be OK. I told him that she asked what others might have been thinking.
Fast-forward twenty years – Ted and I are connected on Facebook. I saw a post about how saddened he was for black families having to teach their boys about the police and wonder if they would come home at night. He said that he never had to think about that when his sons walked out the door. Where was the fairness and justice in this, and how could he do better? How could he stand up?
I don’t normally respond on Facebook, but I needed to remind Ted that he has always stood up and that writing about his feelings is a form of standing up. Ted is now teaching theater and is still fighting for justice. Being an ally is in Ted’s DNA, and all these years later I still consider him one of my allies.
CHAPTER 3
Checked Boxes Aren’t Good Enough!
MANY COMPANIES THINK that if they’ve checked the boxes described below they’ve followed the law and they’ve done all they need to do to be considered an equal opportunity employer. It should be clear to you after reading this chapter that companies can check the boxes without being seriously committed to Diversity and Inclusion.
Here are a few D&I boxes and, sadly, some real examples of the thinking of some companies in checking them: