DIVERSITY IS THE NEW DENIM JACKET
By Kletra Newton
ones, and uh, I’m just going to go ahead and ask — did you all know there’s a … colored boy on your Christmas card?” - 2009, The Blind Side
in the non-inclusive organization - the team meeting. Meetings are a gathering place to hear and be heard, with open dialogue or closed monologue. This space is where the truth of your organization is represented loudly, without design. The coming together of people will tell you as a leader what is important singularly, if that impor- tance is received wholly, and if it translates to my sitting next to you. The team meeting is where you learn whether or not your organiza- tion cares about equality amongst its players. Diversity invites us to the team meeting where there’s often food and drink, a preference of seat, the general disposition of mood and one key characteristic. Biases. Biases are great for inclusive assess- ment because of behaviors when, subconsciously displayed, provide insight into the company culture, which is what we’re talking about. “You are so talented and would be amazing if you were slightly
Those were the words spoken to me in January 2001, during a senior management meeting, weeks after I’d relocated from Silicon Valley to Dallas, Texas. I thought, sure, no problem. I can be slightly my hair straightened, because – well – straight hair is not intimidat- ing. I’d been newly promoted to director of a tech company by Mr. S Fedor, a splendid fellow, who boldly appointed a young minority from California to the helm of branded services. Arriving days later, debuting my new, salon perfect mane, and feeling pretty good about realizing that the composition of the meeting spoke loudly to my Diversity without inclusion is tokenism or “actions that are the
result of pretending to give an advantage to those groups in society who are often treated unfairly, to give the appearance of fairness” diversity is tokenism by invitation only. I’m not judging, just saying, that we function well, even gracefully in our organizations, touting – let’s be clear. Most of us have made no serious attempt to remodel the internal
psychology of inclusion within organizations. We’re just faking it un- til all of the diversity talks quiet down. I’ve lost count of the number of times that I have been spoken over or completely disregarded in diverse settings, irrespective of my experience on the subject matter and still receive the inquisitive look from those trying to understand my presence at all. Which poses some hard questions that we need to ask. Do we have enough emotional intelligence to foster inclusive
20 Facility Manager Magazine
contribution? Do we care to listen to another perspective or even have them to be diverse? If you survey most in leadership about inclusion, you will likely re-
ceive well-crafted marketing talk about diversity instead, or a quote of looking to better message diversity. If you are bold enough to question inclusion, you will notice that the tone of the conversation may quickly become defensive, a bit neurotic even, because we welcome everyone into every organization – sort of – not really – sometimes. Since we are all welcomed, it’s no surprise that Diversity 2.0 is the new denim jacket. Diversity is working the circuit appearing in mis- sion statements, being the highlight campaign during conferences, and photo shoots for target marketing, but what does it mean for organi- about company culture, and inclusive company culture should be fo- cusing on inclusive leadership which would cover the basis of diversity in its very practice. For years, we have been functioning through the passive-aggressive way in which we condescend, and we have mostly, fabulously, failed to be inclusive.
crying out loud, we do not need more diversity training. We need a commitment to inclusive leadership. Inclusion means all of us, every ethnicity or ability or partner preference, it is all of those at the table, collaborating on the hard decisions that drive change culture. in company culture. This inclusive culture shift must start from the C-suite and permeate every facet of the organization, remaining loud and persistent, shutting down bias that serves to exclude. You know and inclusive culture, what your stewards look like and if you allow them to speak with authority and those you include or exclude. Client for the savvy company, and the impact to the bottom line for inclusive Company.
It has taken years for me to understand the concept of equality with-
in my organization’s culture and how that directly impacts the way we work and measure our wins and losses. The landscape of human cap- ital (your employees) should represent your inclusion initiative. There is not a template that can be implemented to make your organization more inclusive or compliant. Yes, you will have to do the hard work on purpose to reshape your company culture to inclusivity, because, Nike sneakers won’t cut it. FM
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