Corporate America, Your Employees Want a Word With You

BY Emily Nonko | August 07, 2020

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and following the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, an upper manager at AT&T asked TeNita Ballard, lead consultant for diversity and inclusion at the company, how she was doing. After responding she was fine, he pushed her further. “He caused me to slow down–he really wanted to know how I’m doing,” she recalled. She answered him honestly: “I let him know, I’m not doing good.”

Ballard was reflecting on a talk with her family about being Black in America, particularly the fears of her brother. After the killing of George Floyd, she took the conversation with her family and boss and wrote a letter to share with fellow employees. “It was raw, it was real, and it was vulnerable,” she said. Her open letter prompted further workplace conversation around race and being Black at this moment in American history.

Ballard shared this experience during Bridging the Voice Gap: How Diverse Points of View Can Help a Company Thrive, a webinar hosted by From Day One. It was a frank conversation that examined the benefits of an open and honest workplace, while addressing why employees are often thwarted for speaking–and how employers can provide productive listening space for those who challenge the status quo.

The speakers all acknowledged that at the intersection of a pandemic and racial-justice movement, employers can no longer expect workers to simply show up and do their jobs as if their lives aren’t affected by the world outside. Managers have to take into account the needs and vulnerabilities of employees as they evolve, while creating the outlets for their opinions to be aired.

From Day One's webinar on the need for workers to speak up, moderated by Lydia Dishman (top row, center), an editor and writer for Fast Company (Image by From Day One)

Instead of labeling such conversations as “uncomfortable” or “unwanted,” employers can view them as productive for the overall company. Many companies are making new efforts to embrace a more vocal workforce. At Siemens, the industrial giant, company leaders compiled racial-justice resources, plus a knowledge board with “micro learnings” around empathy and anti-racism, before hosting “courageous conversations,” according to Nichelle Grant, head of diversity, equity and inclusion for Siemens USA.

Rather than pushing employees into discussion together, Siemens provided conversation-starting tools, including a facilitator guide and manager-information sessions to address questions early on. “What’s really working for us is that we’ve paired them with a racial-justice coach, so they’re not going at it alone,” Grant said. “We recognize the conversation about race is rare in the workplace, and it’s not easy for people to talk about in general.”

Other speakers shared steps their organizations are taking to encourage honest dialogue. Corey Flournoy, Groupon’s global head of inclusion and diversity, said the company hosted a global open forum following the killing of George Floyd. “Employees got to really share how they’re feeling … and the entire senior-manager team was part of the discussion,” he said. “It was a catalyst to start a lot more work and conversations that Groupon is doing.”

Erin Bramblett, head of HR for Communities in Schools of Atlanta, said the organization is hosting town halls, employee well-being surveys every four to five weeks, and regular mental- health check ins. She also stressed the importance of building an HR department based on trust. “It should be known for reacting and handling things properly and confidently, so that trust and that space is there,” Bramblett said.

Jana Morrin, CEO and co-founder of Speakfully, a platform for workers to document and report mistreatment, addressed the perspective of top managers: “As leaders, if you want [employees] to come forward and talk to you, you have to be vulnerable yourself and share experiences yourself,” she said. Chief executives have a responsibility to foster the culture of workplace trust, openness and vulnerability: “It has to come from top down, because otherwise people won’t believe it,” she added. “If they see senior leadership having these hard conversations on an ongoing basis, they understand the CEO wants to know what’s happening to them.”

Investing in long-term progress on workplace equity–as opposed to quick fixes–was a recurring theme of the panel. Siemens works with historically black colleges and universities and is exploring mutually beneficial partnerships in which the company can recruit from the schools and help support them as well. Groupon has an anti-racism book club with global sessions that will include top leadership. Participants won’t simply read books like White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo, but will open a conversation of how it may apply to company culture, according to Flournoy. The company also started a Black Lives Matter room on the Slack platform to maintain racial-justice dialogue.

The webinar speakers also suggested that while consistently pushing for more diverse and equitable workplaces, company leaders should simply “stick to the facts,” as Flournoy put it. Track the data on female and minority leadership within the company, he said, and point out where diversity falls short. “Yes, we may have a high number of certain employees, but what [leadership] level are they?” asked Ballard. “It’s all different ways to look at our pipeline to make sure we’re doing the work.”

The panel was upfront about the challenges ahead. Among them: the all-remote workplace often adds a layer of complexity, there’s fear that the energy around social justice and equity will die down, and there remains a lack of mentorship to help people of color move into top leadership.

But the speakers suggested that workplaces can take a good first step by simply listening. “Meet people where they’re at,” said Grant. “I start with listening and then it’s a dialogue, a conversation about where they’re at. It’s not just one conversation, it’s multiple conversations over time.”

Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partners who sponsored this webinar: Speakfully, LumApps, and Achievers.

Emily Nonko is a Brooklyn, NY-based reporter who writes about real estate, architecture, urbanism and design. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, Curbed and other publications.

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Building an Anti-racist Culture in the Business Community

In response to the George Floyd protests of this summer, companies and other organizations released a flood of statements in support of Black Lives Matter. Rhonda Vonshay Sharpe, founder and president of the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race (WISER), intentionally decided not to. “It was not just the feeling of ‘Here we go again,’” she said in reference to past statements on racial justice that never lived up to their promise. “But that there was so much pressure, not just from the racial injustice we saw, but that it was on top of this political climate.” She worried that if Donald Trump were not the president, the business world wouldn’t pay as much attention to these longstanding issues. (Update: With the confirmed election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the U.S. will have the first woman, Black person and Indian-American to serve as vice president.) Yet as Sharpe’s work consistently grapples with, racial injustice is baked into the past, present and future of this country. And awareness of that within the larger business community will only matter if it’s followed by action. “For me,” she said, “I want to know, What are you going to do?’” Sharpe joined three other speakers for a From Day One webinar last week that explored the challenge of building an anti-racist culture in the business community. The moderator, Erica Licht, a senior fellow at the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project (IARA) at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center, opened with a quote from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “Our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay.” It set the tone for a conversation on what business leaders can do to follow through on increasing diversity and inclusion at all levels of their organizations. Kendra Proctor Goldbas, director of professional development for McKinsey & Company’s West Coast office, described three steps in the realm of talent development and professional growth. “There’s the work we need to do around knowledge, skills and then creating the space for engagement,” she said. Self-awareness, personal growth and knowledge should lead the work; that’s followed by skill-building to engage in anti-racism. “The third piece is the notion of engagement,” Goldbas said. “How do we engage one another, take action and be vulnerable?” Speakers on the panel, clockwise from top center: Rhonda Vonshay Sharpe of the Women's Institute for Science, Equity and Race, Kendra Proctor Goldbas of McKinsey & Company, Bobby Griffin of CBRE and moderator Erica Licht of the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project at Harvard (Image by From Day One) Bobby Griffin, VP of diversity and inclusion for the commercial real-estate company CBRE Group, said the diversity commitment needs to encompass workplace culture, talent acquisition and the broader marketplace. “We want to enhance our relationships with diverse customers and our relationships to the various diverse communities in which we reside. It’s an ongoing effort,” he said. ‘It’s more like being in a relationship than speed dating.” Sharpe emphasized the importance of data. In her work at the WISER institute, she supports more inclusive women-focused research. “We really advocate for a micro-analysis,” she said. “And that is to have folks disaggregate that data by the characteristics you think influence the outcome, and then take an intersectional lens to talk about why you might see a particular outcome.” She notes that a categorical term like “women of color,” for example, is far too sweeping to shed light on the experiences of individuals. When it came to the topic of “uncomfortable conversations” on workplace equity, the panelists shared insights on their impact and how to go about them. “Growing pains don’t always have to be uncomfortable,” as Goldbas put it. Later in the conversation she offered a different term: “Radical candor.” She explained it as “a notion of how you provide both caring personally but challenging directly in the way you engage in feedback, discussion and conversation.” The key, she added, is that such conversations must start with a desire for change. What could that change look like, beyond the solidarity statements released this summer? Griffin noted that CBRE set goals around “visibility, capability and accountability” and outlined specific and intentional actions to back them up. “For visibility, for example, we want to make better data-informed decisions,” he said. “So how are we providing information and metrics from a data standpoint?” McKinsey set ten actions in place this year to move toward a more anti-racist culture, Goldbas said. The key will be tracking the progress of such actions in a year. “We have to be held to account for what we’ve committed to,” she said. Sharpe echoed the importance of transparency. “When I think about accountability, it’s the transparency in what was your goal, what was it you were planning to do?” she said. “A huge part of that is who is making decisions. And when companies are talking about diversity and inclusion, who are they having conversations with? Who are you speaking to so that you get an understanding of the work you need to get done?” A company that sets goals and is held accountable must respect the people who call them out. “Folks have to know they can speak up about injustice, in that moment, without losing their livelihoods,” as Sharpe put it. In a robust Q&A session with their audience, the speakers discussed confronting racism head on as a systemic power structure. “White people historically and currently hold power–this shift of power has not changed,” Sharpe noted. Allyship with white people who want to “utilize their power for good,” as she put it, is far from impossible. “It’s incredibly important to explain to them, in your situation, what do you need from them as an ally?” There’s no monopoly on diversity, Griffin added. It has to be about everyone, including those who still have some learning to do about people who are different from them. “It’s very important to have conversations in a way that doesn’t distance imperfect allies,” he said. “And allies have to be willing to show up and support with their imperfection.” The panelist’s insights suggest that the conversations around racial justice may well lead to real action in the coming seasons. To wrap up the session, Licht left the audience with a fuller quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: “What always bothers me is that the long, hot summer has always been preceded by a long, cold winter, and that the nation has not used its winters creatively enough to develop the program, to develop the kind of massive acts of concern that will bring about a solution to the problem.” Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner who supported this webinar: McKinsey & Company. You can watch a video of the conversation here. Please visit our conference page to register for more upcoming events. Emily Nonko is a Brooklyn, NY-based reporter who writes about real estate, architecture, urbanism and design. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, Curbed and other publications.

Emily Nonko November 06, 2020

Inclusive Leadership: What Gives Employees a Feeling of Belonging?

While corporate culture can set a tone for a workplace, research has found that the experience of individual workers is more influenced by their team leaders. So what makes an inclusive leader, the kind of manager who can give diverse workers a feeling of belonging?    “Authenticity,” said Dionne Wright Poulton, head of diversity at Riverside Community Care. “Authenticity is a precursor to congruity—to make sure your words and deeds are in alignment. If you find you’re making many gaffes [regarding diversity and inclusion], you want to do a self-examination and find out why.” Poulton was among the speakers on a panel on inclusive leadership at the From Day One conference on Sept. 18 in Boston, where the panelists agreed that one of the most important traits for a leader is humility and being able to say, “I don’t have all the answers.”  Tip-toeing around the issues doesn’t help, asserted KeyAnna Schmiedl, global head of diversity, equity and inclusion at Wayfair, the online home-furnishings retailer. Managers need to move away from strictly being “careful” to really engaging and digging into messy conversations. “I want to sit down and have people engage,” she said. Shirley Leung, at left, a business columnist for the Boston Globe, moderated the panel conversation Boston Globe columnist Shirley Leung, who moderated the panel, asked the speakers to name the No. 1 diversity issue. Tom Bourdon, head of inclusion and diversity at Staples, said “the challenge is to give the adequate time and resources needed to move the needle.” He said that at most companies, “the commitment is there in theory,” but the resources are not necessarily allocated or even available.  Poulton said one of her biggest challenges is, “How to balance the notion that the customer is always right—with protecting the staff?”  This has been increasingly important as Riverside employees find themselves on the receiving end of a growing number of racial slurs and derogatory comments, she said.   “When we realized it was happening across the organization, not a one-off, we wanted to make sure people were being treated fairly,” she said. She credited her organization’s CEO for his willingness to respond quickly to the problem. Leaders especially need to be open and inclusive when their company is going through change. Tyler Muse, founder and CEO at Lingo Live, found being “radically transparent with people” has helped him best address these issues in his own company, which provides communications coaching. After the company went through a round of layoffs, he said, “the biggest concern for people is psychological safety.”  Lingo Live started as a company teaching language lessons online, but then pivoted more to coaching. As the company made the transition, Muse set up one-on-one meetings with staffers, in which he realized that the employees needed him to fully acknowledge that it was a time of transition for them and the company.   Leung asked the panel what advice they would give to people who have bosses who “don’t get it.” “If you have someone who isn’t being inclusive, it’s hard to give them the benefit of the doubt—and assume they are clueless—but you really have to,” said Muse. He suggested to try talking to a friend first, if you don’t know how to bring up the topic with your boss.   “If it’s your direct manager, people want to suss out if it’s happening with anyone else,” said Wayfair’s Schmiedl. “Finding out ‘it’s not just me’—is helpful.” Also helpful, she said, was building in inclusive language when describing a company’s core competencies. “We baked them in—so we are telling you how we expect you to act.”  For example, Schmiedl said instead of requiring employees to be “vocal contributors” at meetings—which could create bias against women and minorities who statistically tend to speak up less—Wayfair changed the term to “proactive contributor” which allowed employees who might be more introverted to contribute via email or other means, not just in the meeting itself.  The panelists agreed that younger workers are more outspoken on social media about their opinions, and more comfortable voicing them at work. As a result, companies need to have a different type of managed conversation about inclusive political and cultural discussions in the workplace.  “I think we millennials crave authenticity more than anything,” said Muse. “Bringing up politics or deeply personal beliefs tells who you are as a leader. There is a risk of doing that, but also of not doing it. I think most people want to know what you stand for—as long as you can explain your personal views are separate from what the organization stands for.”  Schmiedl said millennials, as well as Generation Z, are a group of people who have been shaped by the events they grew up with, like 9/11, so it makes sense they would want to talk about the influence of current events on their lives, but that can bring up divisive topics. The question for businesses is how to create inclusive workplaces that meet their needs, while also addressing the needs of older employees too.  “We can’t be expected to check who we are at the door,” said Poulton. “Organizations should provide a safe space where people can engage in constructive dialogue and are able to talk in a way where, if they disagree, they are not made to feel less than.” Brittany Hill, CEO of Accelerist, led a workshop on becoming a purpose-driven brand Bourdon agreed that often more harm is done when we don’t say what we think.   Finally, in one of the takeaways from the panel, he suggested, “I think we could move mountains if leaders said three things: ‘How are you doing?,’ ‘How can I support you?,’ and ‘Thank you.’” In an earlier workshop at the conference, Brittany Hill, CEO of Accelerist, a social-impact partnership technology, led a workshop on “becoming a purpose-driven brand in a sea of purpose-built companies.” She was joined by Gary Lavante, SVP of corporate responsibility at Berkshire Bank. Jennifer Mattson is a journalist and writer. She is a former producer for CNN and National Public Radio. You can find her work online at The Atlantic, Salon, Psychology Today and USA Today

jennifermattson September 27, 2019

How Empathy Can Lead to Equity in the Workplace

The phrase often repeated during the protests over racial injustice, energized by the police killing of George Floyd, is that this time “feels different.” In one of many media commentaries offering hope for lasting change, CNN’s John Blake, who covered riots sparked by the Rodney King police-brutality verdict and the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, wrote, “[A]fter the George Floyd demonstrations I find myself filled with a guarded optimism.” Amplifying that feeling was the response of Corporate America, which rushed to answer the bell. Though not without criticism, business giants pledged billions of dollars to community-outreach programs. Many have promised to address shortcomings in diversity and inclusion through new initiatives. Yet to prove they’re not just “woke-washing” their reputations, these organizations will need to take concrete steps toward real change. How they might do that was the topic of a panel discussion at From Day One’s July virtual conference, The New Push for Workplace Equity. In a conversation moderated by Lydia Dishman, an editor and writer for Fast Company, five leaders in the field of diversity and inclusion offered suggestions to corporate leaders who are eager to enact change: Start With an Expression of Empathy   The renewed focus on the well-being of employees, which has arrived after a half-century of corporate fealty to shareholders, has been sharpened by the emotional impact of watching people of color killed by police and the struggles of workers throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Now is a time when business leaders need to show that they care. “There are issues of bias and inequity in COVID, and thinking about who is affected most, who are considered essential workers, what are the infection rates within different neighborhoods,” said Dion Bullock, who leads strategy on equity, inclusion and belonging at Bravely, a coaching platform. “How do you work, and how do you have this conversation about racial equity within this context of, quite frankly, mass infection and death, and mass unemployment and loss?” From Day One's panel on workplace equity, let by moderator Lydia Dishman (upper left) of Fast Company When Bravely employees started working from home this spring, leaders sought ways to address employee morale–if only after some prodding, he said. “Part of the challenge was to get our leadership from, ‘Here’s how we just keep the lights on,’ to ‘OK, but the people who help us keep the lights on also need our support,’” Bullock said. “We really need to make sure we’re checking in with folks.” A wave of internal communications were sent to workers, with leaders boosting transparency. They outlined strategy considerations, remote-work best practices, safety procedures, and employee-support options. That same active approach, with some tailoring, can be applied to other difficult periods, notably the nationwide protests over racial injustice. Develop Comfort and Trust So Difficult Conversations Can Occur The Coca-Cola Co. did not shy away from taking a public stance on racial injustice, which the  CEO called “a wound in the fabric of America.” The company announced four pillars in its  efforts to enact change, centered around “listening, leading, investing, and advocating.” The organization has developed “allyship guidebooks” and “talking points for leaders to use during difficult conversations,” said Valerie Love, SVP of HR at Coca-Cola of North America, who acknowledged that some leaders within the corporation “need help” in engaging the issue. But for the sake of building trust, those leading the company’s D&I push have told them, “We’re gonna meet you where you are.” “I like that one of our associates said, ‘The table is set for the conversation,’” Love recounted. “‘We’re gonna slow it down and we’re gonna speed it up for wherever you are on this journey.’ … We’ve asked our leaders and our employees to be patient, and have empathy, and realize not everyone is at the right place to start the conversation.” Matt Orozco, an organizational-change consultant at Peakon, a platform that measures employee engagement, said his company has developed metrics for measuring progress in D&I. But he acknowledged that the collection of voluntarily submitted data won’t tell leaders much if employees don’t feel as though they can honestly express their opinions on fairness, equity, diversity, inclusion, and support in the workplace. And leaders might not even want to ask the tough questions in the first place. “Not many people feel comfortable telling their friends about those kinds of things,” Orozco said. “We’re trying to help [leaders] get comfortable with the discomfort of asking questions and getting responses they haven’t received [before], but also building trust.” Orozco urged managers to consider the question: “How do you create a foundation of trust so that people feel OK giving you this information, with the intention of using it in a thoughtful way, rather than in a not-thoughtful or adverse way?” Establish a D&I Task Force and Actively Listen With much of the world’s economy temporarily hitting the pause button during the pandemic, many corporations are taking major financial hits, which may inspire them to disregard D&I initiatives and focus on exploring new revenue opportunities. Ruchi Jalla, chief D&I officer of BAE Systems, a multinational defense, security, and aerospace company, said that her company instead decided to double-down on its diversity commitments. “We have goals, specifically tied to diversity and inclusion in our leadership population, and we had a conversation [with leadership] about that as a recipe objective, and they said, ‘We’re keeping on course; there’s going to be no give here,’” Jalla said. She implied that it was as if BAE’s leadership, in an effort to keep morale strong, told company leaders: “If you can’t make your financial [goals], you better make sure that you’re meeting your goals around safety and diversity and inclusion.” BAE has recently formed what Jalla called “Racial Equity Vision Teams,” in collaboration with the company’s Black and African-American employee resource group, to “help inform” and “ensure that we don’t march along thinking we know the answer without asking employees that are impacted.” These teams will offer insight into how BAE can make, according to Jalla, “equitable progress within all of the representative categories, whether it be processes, practices, and people.” Establishing such a group within a company is only an initial step, however. One of the primary keys to any company’s D&I mission is its leadership’s listening ability. “One of the things that was very exciting for everyone around the globe was having a weekly webinar,” said Olga Yakimakho, director of leadership and organizational development at Special Olympics International, a nonprofit whose very existence is to drive inclusivity. During these webinars “we really shine the light on our athletes,” Yakimakho said, giving neurodiverse people a chance to tell their stories about how they have been marginalized and excluded. “So now the entire world is able to understand how they feel when they can’t go outside, when they stay at home, the loneliness, the disconnect.” Yakimakho said the webinars have had an impact on the organization’s in-house team as well. Yakimakho admits that even this group, which could be seen as a beacon of inclusion, has room for improvement. “Any organization, any company has work to do,” Yakimakho said. “It’s a journey; we’re never quite there [and] so we’ve been trying to learn from [the athletes], learn from their resilience, learn from them how they overcome their challenges.” Play Games With a Purpose Nothing will change if employees, as well as leaders, aren’t engaged in the journey. Sitting in an auditorium and watching a PowerPoint presentation won’t cut it. (Besides, in these pandemic times, such a gathering isn’t even allowed to take place.) Bullock says Bravely has developed a role-playing game called Just-in-Time Coaching, taught to company clients. If an employee has a performance review approaching, for example, they’ll act out the roles of both manager and employee, with the goal of leaving both sides more mindful of “different dynamics when going into those conversations.” Yakimakho discussed a similar role-playing game designed to illustrate different perspectives among diverse employees. “We have a blind colleague with an intellectual disability and he would do a session blindfolding everyone in the room,” she said. The colleagues would spend 30 minutes blindfolded, engaging with each other. “When you really step into his shoes, you understand why we don’t have boxes in the corridors so he couldn’t trip.” Such an exercise, though now by necessity a virtual one, would likely lead to a better comprehension of the viewpoints of others. Once that kind of understanding takes hold, empathy–so vital to change today–could find a way to flow much more freely. Michael Stahl is a New York City-based freelance journalist, writer and editor. You can read more of his work at MichaelStahlWrites.com, follow him on Twitter @MichaelRStahl, and order his first book, the autobiography of Major League Baseball pitcher Bartolo Colón, at Abrams Books. 

Michael Stahl July 29, 2020