[MUSIC] Welcome to our final module, our focus today will be on thought diversity. We're going to discuss many ideas about why it should matter to you, as you go forward with your strategy and plan. It matters because, thought diversity features more than a one way approach and harnesses the potential of diversity and inclusion as an organizational resource. Greater diversity means greater variation in perspectives and approaches that could provide some positive brand, differentiation. Marketplaces are very competitive, anything that we can do to support that differentiation and the focus of our brand. And the support of our brand in the communities that we serve and sell to, would be very helpful, so I was thinking about thought diversity as another way to do that will be the focus of our time. I'm going to share a case study, with you that has actually happened in many of the companies that I've worked with. And that's an interesting, but not often thought about thought diversity dimension, so here we go. You have a manager, TJ who is not in particularly inclusive, TJ is well thought of in the organization because she is work horse gets a lot of accomplished in short periods of time. She is outgoing and is challenged when other's ideas and communications styles don't align with hers. TJ has an employee on her team who is extremely introverted, who does not speak up at meetings, though when he does talk, he has great ideas. TJ has written him off as having any thought diversity value, because his style is so different from hers. So some questions to think about, style and thought diversity are connected, because style is a type of thought diversity the way that I think about the world, the way that I interact with the world. The way that I make decisions and think about things, brings a different perspective, so how can style be about thought diversity? We have to do everything we can do to encourage all people, from all of different styles to speak up and feel comfortable. And feel like their voice can be heard, what's at stake for TJ and her team? Well, if TJ doesn't really look upon this introverted employee as a full member of the team, she's missing out on a lot of great ideas that, this particular employee could bring, if he felt comfortable and able to voice his opinions. What's the potential impact to the organization? Well, we can miss out on some great ideas that he has, because he just wasn't in the style we were comfortable with to listen to. What are the possible side benefits from intentionally including this introverted employee conversations? Well, some of the side effects could include retention, hanging on to this employee because they feel like they belong. And though their style may be different than their managers or their teams, they feel heard included, so they feel like they belong. Style is a type of diversity as we just discussed, though TJ is outgoing dismissing those who are known as a missed opportunity. One of the elements of inclusion and really listening to all voices, is to create a climate where different styles can feel comfortable, having a voice without feeling pressure or judged. Many of the folks that I've in my career coach to work stream introverts, they talk a lot about this when they finally feel comfortable enough to share their feelings. That it's very easy for them to feel not included or marginalized, because they're just not as comfortable, in that big group setting. So our role, Just as TJ's role is to try to figure out a way to make a much better connection, and who knows what an employee like this can bring when they do feel comfortable. And are able to put those thoughts out there in a way that we can hear them, so of course, every employee has a part of that relationship, it's up to them to also participate. But it's also up to us to create that environment, where they feel comfortable and psychologically safe, to put their thoughts and their voices forward. How do we celebrate and embrace diversity? Let's count the ways, in an earlier module we talked about celebrating diversity by creating a culture of celebration on a calendar. Actually having a cadence of events, that we would celebrate and look at, encouraging that participation the more voices the better. One of the wonderful ways to create your own traditions is to come up with something really clever and creative hopefully, that's supported by employees who have made suggestions. Whether it's a lunch and learn or a day that celebrates the diversity of our communities or food, or customs or traditions whatever those things would be. But do think about the ways that you want to celebrate these diverse things and activities, as you develop your strategy into the future, to support your organization's diversity and inclusion goals. We began this course, with definitions of what does diversity inclusion and belonging mean. The ones on the screen here, are the og words to take or to adapt this reorganization sees fit. One of the key things is making sure that you're comfortable with the definitions, and that it makes sense to you and you're able to share with your organization. So some questions to ponder, as you think about your organization, are these three definitions in place, do people all understand what they mean? Do we have a shared understanding, are they being practiced daily, are these words being translated into positive actions? Would all of your employees agree, when you look back at employee complaints or employee litigation, are there any incidences that stem for lack of diversity, lack of opportunity for diverse employees? Or a feeling of not being included, have you had to manage any discrimination situations? If so, what part did exclusion and not feeling accepted or included play, early on in my career when I was beginning to do this work. I had the opportunity, to work on a project for the Los Angeles Police Department. At that time, women were just taking a much more active role becoming police officers and, there was many on the force who are not so happy to see the many men, not so happy to see these women taking on this job. So of course, lots of lots of challenges ensued, in myself and some of my colleagues came in to really do some conflict resolution before having to get to litigation, to say what can we do about all this? And I think on behalf of the folks that were already in place, those officers who had done stuff for years, mostly male. Felt that what these people wanted was they just wanted to make a big splash for themselves, and maybe they wanted to collect a lot of money. Because they feel like they've been in quotes, harassed well, at the end of the conversation, what they really wanted was very simple. They wanted the harassment to stop, and they wanted to be able to do their jobs in a way that was fair and consistent, like everyone else. And so, changing that mindset took a lot of work, and some training and some serious conversations, and they did make the turn. But it was tough going for a while because they had this idea in their brain, that women didn't belong in uniform in that role. So, diversity shows up in lots of different ways but we need to think about the impact as you have those questions to ponder, as you look at creating your action plan, for your organization. Maya Angelou said, it is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength. Well, yes, as parents we all have a role to play in doing that, but not everybody has parents who came to them with these thoughts and these ideas. And so sometimes in the workplace we have to retrain, and provide a different mindset, to help people understand that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength. In essence that's the core of what this whole course is about, the more open we are to these ideas, the better that we are going to be able to compete in the marketplaces. And the better the environments we have that we create, inside of our own organizations. As you start to take a look at developing your action plan, make sure that you go back and take a review, and look at all of the content that we've covered. We've talked about the impact of change drivers, in terms of diversity inclusion those were things like technology, the population changing. The changes in the demographics, who works for us, people working beyond those traditional 62 to 65 retirement years. The five generations in the workplace today, and even the aspect of Corporate Social Responsibility, employees expecting that we will do more, for the communities that we serve. We talked to them in a couple of slides previous about how do we celebrate, the diversity so that we are embracing those ideas, rather than pushing them away. What are the six elements of successful inclusion ideas to help you, become a more inclusive workplace, what are you doing around the microaggressions first of all understanding what that means? What does it look like when people do microaggressions, and how do we respond appropriately to try to damp down that behavior? And say, not acceptable here in our workplace, and what are the five ongoing questions to control diversity? So when you create that plan you consistently go back and ask those questions as, per for our very first piece here on terms of change drivers. Nothing stays the same too long the world in which we live in is very uncertain, lots of things change and shift on a pretty regular basis. So we have to be ready with thoughts about how do we manage through those, and how do we make sure that we are incorporating all those different voices? As a corporate educator, I've spent my career trying to help organizations, figure out the best ways to create environments. Where people feel safe and heard and are contributing to the highest levels. Now one of the things that comes back in my mind consistently is, what's your call to humanity? And here's what I mean by that, at the end of the day we're all people, right? We may look different, we may speak a different language, we may look a little different and maybe even eat different foods. But we're all human beings who have a very high need, to connect and feel connected, so what's your call to humanity? Think about one of the things that you're going to be able to do personally as well as in your professional role, to make that happen. To make that feeling of belonging and connectivity, to make us all feel human, happen. How will you make a difference, what are the plans that you have, in addition to your strategy to continue forward on this journey? Where are the small wins, celebrate those, right, and we talked a lot about celebration. How do we say, we're making progress because it's very incremental, we don't go from one place to another, it happens with those small steps along the way? And how do we share the creative and innovative outcomes, are we sharing those really great positive stories in those? Those things that happen inside the day to day inside of our business, that will continue to encourage all employees to contribute. All employees to say, you know what, I can see you guys trying I'm going to try as well, I'm going to lean in as you are leaning in. C.S. Lewis said, you can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are, and change the ending. I think that's a really profound approach, to diversity, inclusion and belonging we can't change what was, but we can go forward, and have an impact on the next endings. And the way things are going, I wish you all the best of luck as you go forward and make these changes happen, in your organizations. It's really important work and can be a differentiator as we've talked about, not only in the business community, but in our ability to attract and retain key talent, best of luck.
