DEI: Creating Inclusive Company Cultures Where Everyone Thrives

1. Introduction: No longer can you retain employees because of the wages or because of prestige. No longer can you even attract the greatest talent because of wages or prestige. People are searching for something else. They are searching for cultures that support them in thriving. Cultures where they can bring their whole selves. Cultures that have a vision that they can live into, participate in and really be part of. This class is about creating inclusive cultures that support everyone to thrive; the individuals, your team and your companies. [MUSIC] My name is Yomi Abiola. I'm the founder of The Fem League. My area of expertise is human behavior, growth and the cultures that we co-create. We do that through community building , education and media. The Fem League has been around for close to a decade. When I started on this journey as a journalist, my curiosity for people, for their stories, for what they wanted to achieve in their lives and how I and we could potentially support them in doing that. The steps of this class will be; understanding human-centric business, setting the vision for your future success, amplifying growth, solving for the right problem, and focusing on progress over perfection. After taking this class, students will have a broadened perspective. Perspective is very important when we talk about inclusivity. The people know that at their places of work where they spend the majority of their time, they have the opportunity to grow, to progress and ultimately, to thrive. By the end of this class, you will have the tools to create a collective team manifesto. You will be on your journey to start to make the culture that you want to co-create real, not only for yourself, but for your team and the people that you work with. [MUSIC] 2. Understanding C.A.R.E.: Human-centric business is just as it sounds. It centers the human being, human well-being. An acronym that we use at the family is CARE. Is your business curious about its employees? Is it attentive about the needs of the employees? Is it reflective? Are you reflecting over your growth? Is it evolving? Is it growing? Human-centric business is important, because not only does it retain the best talent, it also attracts the best talent. Also, it really fosters a culture of inclusivity. For you to care, for you to be attentive, for you to be reflective, and for you to be evolving. I'm sure many of you have read the article, The Great Resignation. The term was actually coined by Dr. Anthony Klotz, where he spoke about four million people in the United States quitting their jobs. Many people attribute The Great Resignation to wages. But Dr. Klotz tells us that people are looking for purpose and they're looking for meaning. This is the perfect time to start to talk, and act around inclusivity because people want to start to bring their full selves, their whole selves to work. No longer is compartmentalization the order of the day. One of the best ways that we can retain our top talent and attract new talent is through the culture that we co-create. The focus and the energy needs to be poured into creating cultures that support people to flourish. Research has shown that toxic work cultures, are missing of course a number of things. But they're missing diversity, equity, and inclusivity. In addition to that, people are not feeling valued, not feeling seen, not feeling heard, and ultimately not feeling respected. Companies who have the reputation of being healthy also are companies with lower turnover. How do we get there? First and foremost, lead with curiosity. Get to really know your people. Who are you speaking to, and who aren't you speaking to, that you should be speaking to? Who is seen in your organization, and who is unseen in your organization? In our work with communities all over the world, we have been able to bust silos and address isolation through this tool of curiosity, through getting to know our people. Because through getting to know our people, we get to know our commonalities, and we realize that we have more in common than we thought. For your student's action, choose one person in your organization that's in another department that you can get curious about. How does getting curious about this person broaden your perspective? How well engaging with other people give you a broader understanding of your goals and your vision? In our next lesson, we're going to talk about setting the vision for our future success. 3. Setting the Vision For Future Success: Setting the vision for future success is important because it's a roadmap for success. On this journey when we co-create something that we haven't created before, but we know that we want to know that we need, it's so essential that we have a vision, that everyone is invested in. Setting the vision for future success is like you're going on a journey as many of us do. You have a map, a GPS, something that helps you know that you are on course to realize the culture that you want to be part of. An example of this is a quote by Michael Beckwith that says, your fear will push you until your vision pulls you. Ultimately, having a vision pulls us forward. It's your 'Why'. It's the reason you wake up in the morning. It's knowing how you're spending your time, and why you're spending your time in the places that you choose to spend your time. Here are a few tactics to support you in co-creating your future vision for success. Three questions. What is the culture that I want to co-create? What part will I play in this co-creation? What will be possible for myself and for the organization, once we start to co-create this culture? The student action is an opportunity for you to share. Why not take the three questions, write about them and find somebody on your team that you can share them with. Perhaps you even want to engage them in doing the same exercise and have them share with you. This way the co-creation of the vision, begins to crystallize. Not only do you get to see it from your perspective, you get to see it from the perspective of others. In the next lesson, we'll talk about amplifying the cultural shift. 4. Amplifying the Cultural Shift: Why is it important to amplify the cultural shift? I'm sure many of you have heard of the adage that what you focus on grows. Oftentimes when we have been in a culture that's stuck or evolving, we also get stuck with what's wrong. When we focus on that, then that's what is amplified. But now we have an opportunity, with the tactics and the tools and with what you're learning to start to amplify the shift. Shifts happen moment by moment. In amplifying the shift, it gives us more momentum. It gives us more energy and it really starts to bring our vision to life. By this, I'm not saying that we don't discuss the challenges or we don't highlight the areas that need more attention. What we are focusing on is amplifying the shift that is happening moment by moment as we employ the new things that we're learning. An example of this is a teacher and a writer by the name of Marcus Buckingham. I remember when I first discovered Marcus's work. Marcus really talks about putting our strengths to work. Many of us traditionally focus on what we're not good at and spend so much time and energy on that. Marcus invites us to do quite the opposite. To actually focus on where our strengths lie and to amplify, which means to turn the volume up, on where our strengths lie. In amplifying the cultural shift, we're turning the volume up on what works and we're leaving the rest behind. Here are some of the tactics that you can employ. Again, you can lay in the curiosity that we spoke about before. These tactics are going to support you in noticing the shifts. First and foremost, what are some of the shifts that you're noticing in your organization? From these shifts, we want to then start thinking about, what's giving you hope? Where is the momentum that you feel and that you see, if they continue, how will they then support not only the short-term evolution of the vision, but the mid, and the long-term? The student action is; find out from other people in your organization, from other team members, what are some of the shifts that they are noticing? This really supports us in creating a more holistic picture and we start to see a great vision. Also start to engage with them and ask them, what hope this generates for them? How does it energize them? How does it enable them to show up differently in their day-to-day? In the next lesson, we will talk about solving for the right problem. 5. Solving For the Right Problem: Solving for the right problem is important because it keeps us on track. We all have finite amounts of energy. It's so very important that when we are problem-solving, that we are solving for the right problem. There isn't a waste of energy, there isn't the lowering of morale, there isn't this moving off our path, our vision, the journey to our vision. Now, you have an organization that is practicing cultural curiosity. You're curious. You're getting to know your people. You are an organization that cares, curious, attentive, reflective, evolving. Do you think that means you won't have any problems? Unfortunately, it doesn't. What you can start to do is take the collective energy of the team through being more inclusive to support you as an organization, to solve for the right problem. In the incredible work that we do with many people around the world, including a company called [inaudible] One of our partners, Crystal Shinning, often talks about solving for the right problem and making sure that we don't lose momentum. One of the ways is through the communities that the family has built and cultivated where we've had more than 700 conversations. We see the trends. We see what people are thinking about, and we see what people's concerns are. Through that, it gives us the insight that we need in order to solve for the right problem. Here are some tactics that will support you to solve for the right problem. First and foremost, don't make any assumptions. It sounds very obvious, but many people go around making assumptions. Lead with questions. Ask questions. Ask more questions, and then ask again. Don't work in isolation. You have a whole team with you. You have a culture that you're co-creating and building. Make sure not to work in isolation. Finally, the famous quote of trust, but verify. Trust the information you receive and verify it. This will all support you in solving for the right problem. Now is the time for the student action. To take the three top problems you think that your organization has, and invite a few other teammates. Let's say three other teammates to do the same. Then you want to do a comparison. You want to compare and contrast and see if you came up with the same problems. You might be surprised that other people come up with things that you didn't even think about. This will support you in becoming aligned and ensuring that your energy is used in the right way. Of course, that you're solving for the right problem. In the next lesson, we will discuss, aiming for progress over perfection. 6. Aiming For Progress Over Perfection: Aiming for progress over perfection, is very important when we talk about human-centric business, because as human beings, progress is innate in us. We're meant to progress. Change is a constant. When we think about perfection, perfection is about stagnancy, it's about being stagnant, and this is not the same as excellence. They're not to be confused. But when we talk about progress, we talk about evolution, we talk about growth. That is the key to its importance; to start to cultivate a culture that really champions progress over perfection. An example of this is for anyone who has a cell phone. So on our cell phones, we get systems updates. Do you get systems updates? I certainly do, and the systems update allows the phone to be enhanced. It's progress. It happens again. It happens frequently. That's how we need to start to look at progress over perfection. Progress is not an event, it's a journey, and together, we can take that journey. Here are a few tactics for you to start to practice, progress over perfection. Get curious about yourself. Where are you or your organization entering perfection paralysis? What are the areas where you would like to move forward? But perhaps you haven't moved forward, because you're veering more towards perfection over progress. Then what are the small incremental wins, that you can start to go after? What are those small actions that you can take so that you get into the momentum of progress, and out of the stagnancy of perfection. The other tactic is, to start to identify where you've made progress. It's not just about the identification, it's about amplifying, as we said again, turning the volume up. So be vocal about it, be vocal about it in meetings, be vocal about it in conversations. Like this you start to give other people the permission to also amplify their progress. Before you know it, you are co-creating a culture that amplifies progress over perfection. The student action that I would like you to take, which is actually one of my favorite ones, is to actually create a pool of progress. What does that mean in practical terms? You might want to visualize it if you are a visual person, so write down the different ways in which you've made progress. Sometimes I like to write them on tiny pieces of paper and fold them up, and then over the course of a few months, I look over them again. But this is going to really support you and your team, to start to have a level of momentum when you look back over all of the progress that you've made. If you want to make it a collective board, then why not just stick it up on your wall and have other team members join in with you as they also post their progress on your wall of progress or in your pool of progress, whatever it is that you want to create. But again, what you focus on is what grows, so why not focus on amplifying progress. 7. Final Thoughts: [MUSIC] All time and our attention are some of the most valuable resources that we have. I truly want to thank you for taking your time and taking your attention to take this class, to co-create inclusive cultures where everyone thrives. I'm curious about you, and because I'm curious about you, I'm inviting you to ask whatever questions you may have. That's the way that we get to engage into deepen on learning. I'm also very curious to find out and to see your manifestos. Remember that manifestos make real. Let's make your culture real together. Thank you. [MUSIC]