Diversity and Inclusion Part 2: Creating a Culture of Inclusion and Learning

Diversity and Inclusion Part 1: Beyond the Checkbox

 

It is only the second month of 2021, and although I am grateful that 2020 is behind us, I have reflected many times on the lessons learned, on the pandemic, and on the tragic events (e.g., the Black Lives Matter protests and the Capitol Hill riots to name a few) that have taken place in the last year. It is hard to forget how our world has been turned upside down. 

In the aftermath of the events of 2020 and with increased media exposure, discussions around diversity and inclusion (D&I) are going strong. The heartbreaking events and protests in 2020 are advancing dialogue on systemic discrimination and bias like never before. People are hurting. I feel angst on so many levels – professionally as an HR leader and personally through my lived experiences – because diversity, fairness, and equity are at the center of my life and work. 

What has changed? Why do these discussions feel different today? This is not the first time there have been riots or powerful events around racial injustice and systemic discrimination. Is it because these events are hitting prime time news and media?

From a corporate perspective, historically, organizations have made efforts to incorporate diversity and inclusion into the workplace. Resolving D&I incidents were limited to the HR department that was charged to rectify the scenario, ensure employees were treated fairly and given equal opportunities, and subsequently, offer training. The difference today is the world is talking about the realities of diversity, equity, inclusion, and more time and energy are being invested on educating people on anti-racism and interrupting bias.

These ongoing discussions have inspired action. More organizations are becoming aware of how systemic discrimination and bias are subtly and overtly part of their organization, and leaders are becoming actively engaged to start to break the cycle to build more diverse and inclusive workplaces. Leaders are having conversations within their organizations to evaluate what has been done, if it is enough, or how they can get started. There is momentum to get involved, to act, to contribute to something bigger that gives purpose and meaning for humanity. This drive to act has inspired me to get involved; to give back; and to participate in networks that openly share, embrace differences, and encourage learning. I wholeheartedly believe it is in each one of us to act. 

How should organizations approach D&I?

In my experience, the best way to approach D&I is as a leader-led culture change management initiative that is interwoven into the organization’s strategic plan. It is not an HR initiative. For successful outcomes, D&I requires an organization’s living commitment to lifelong learning as part of a never-ending journey.

With the ongoing discussions around D&I, some of the companies, that had not done work in this space, have rushed to create a D&I policy or post a company-wide statement about its stance on diversity and inclusion – check; or offer awareness training to its employees – check.  They have completed the D&I requirement, right? Other organizations did not have an urgency to respond because they do not see themselves as having any issues with diversity and inclusion. Is it because when they look around the room, the majority of employees look like them? Or when they look at the people at the leadership table there is at least one person who looks different in an executive role, so they are good, right?

Don’t get me wrong, developing a D&I policy is a start, and training is a part of the puzzle, but it is not THE solution. Training on its own does not actually change the behaviors and systems that contribute to systemic discrimination and bias. The work around D&I needs to go deeper. The work needs to go beyond the checkbox to challenge values, beliefs, behaviors, and systems. Furthermore, the deep work requires being intentional to understand, appreciate, and acknowledge people’s unique attributes and the differences that make up who they are. D&I work requires an organization to define their why and what outcomes are desired as part of the overall strategic plan. This is the deep work required to ingrain D&I into the fabric of an organization. With deep work comes deep learning and it is in learning where progress is made. Are organizations prepared to invest in doing this work?

If you are wondering if there is a business case for diversity and inclusion, the jury is no longer out. The decision to invest in D&I with a learning mindset is well worth it and organizations will reap many benefits. Most notably, it leads to higher employee engagement and team satisfaction, stronger employee skillsets, higher quality of work, improved decision making, better staff retention, and increased overall company performance. 

Final Thoughts

From my experience, it is not enough for organizations to simply create a D&I policy and conduct awareness training. D&I goes beyond the checkbox to include deep work to change behaviors and systems. It requires organizations to dig deep into understanding, appreciating, and acknowledging its people’s differences. Human beings have had a lifetime to build attributes, beliefs, and experiences that have shaped who they are today. This work takes time and a living commitment by organizations to learn and grow.  And most of all, always remember why you started.

Check back on Friday, February 26, 2021 for Part 2.

Driven by connection,

Rita Filice

______________________________

Rita Filice, BCOMM, CPHR

Partner, BreakPoint Solutions

ritaf@breakpoint.solutions 

www.breakpoint.solutions 

780-250-2544

Rita thrives on connecting people, leveraging human resources and delivering performance.  She is a collaborative and accomplished HR leader who values authentic connection, meaningful conversation, and her positive energy and outlook make anything possible.

What's Your Ocean?

I have often found myself using a variety of metaphors in my personal and business life, trying to make a point, trying to confirm or cement my own understanding of a concept, or to do something similar for someone I'm working with.  I think we have all done something like this at one point in time or another. The ability to provide people with some point of comparison or even a visual representation of a thought or an idea can often allow us to reach agreement, advance a perspective, or otherwise make a change.

So what is my reference to an ocean meant to convey?  From an early point in my career (and life) I found myself strongly influenced by the writings of Stephen Covey.  His book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, inspired me to articulate and document my first mission, vision, and values.  As I look back on those initial efforts, I see a significant degree of naivety and lack of depth in the efforts!  No small wonder, as I might have been 21 years old when I took my first stab at this kind of work, had limited life experience (relatively speaking) and wouldn't say I had much benefit of mentorship at that early stage of my career.  That being said, the effort was the right thing to be doing and some of the same values I identified then are still important watchwords for me now - not least of which is the value of integrity.

As I have transitioned through my leadership career and into executive coaching and consulting, my ability to frame my personal mission and vision has dramatically evolved - or at least I think so!  I believe I have been able to solidify both elements with the benefit of all kinds of experiences - life, business, relationships, formal learning, and so on.  My points of reference and foundations for creating visualizations that help me make sense of things for myself - and with others for themselves in my coaching practice - have grown, expanded, and become more fulsome. One of the most relevant, consistently useful and powerful I have found to be a reference to the Ocean and to the River.

One thing that many of my clients so often struggle to deal with or overcome is the notion, or the even the utility, of having a vision.  Common challenges in this regard revolve around an inability to be specific or detailed enough about a desired future state, intimidation around not having the crystal ball to predict the future, being overwhelmed by the potential immensity or power of a desired vision that causes some to not even start on the journey, or - perhaps hardest of all - feeling like one has no power to overcome barriers and challenges that will inevitably arise and get in our way.  Taken to extremes, this latter perspective suggests we are truly victims of circumstance, destined to a pre-determined fate, mere flotsam and jetsam to be tossed about by far more powerful forces.

So to the Ocean and the River and the potential power of metaphor.  The Ocean for me is that stand-in for our sense of direction and where we want to get to.  Sometimes that Ocean is something we see in close proximity to us - perhaps no more than a few months or a year out.  Other times, it truly could be years in the making, up to and including retirement.  Many of us might be accustomed to thinking of a traditional retirement age of somewhere between 55 and 65.  Regardless, for all of our individual protestations, assumptions, and limiting beliefs, we have a vision, or dreams, about how we hope life might turn out for us.  

Now to the River.  That is our path. These are the steps we take on the journey to that far-off shore.  At points in time in the River's journey to the Ocean, the clouds or a fog bank might clear enough for us to see the destination more clearly, or there may be a parting in the forest and perhaps a height from which the river flows that allows us to glimpse the future.  We get some brief moments of clarity before the riverbend puts its head downward again, carving out its effort against the rocks and the soil that we must cover and push against to succeed and achieve.  

But aside from any conformity imposed by man on the course of any individual River, none flow in a straight line.  The River encounters a multitude of different geographical and environmental realities that alter its flow, that change its speed, maybe at times seeming to stagnate, and even seemingly turn back on itself.  The journey of the River is meandering, changing, worked through cataracts and rapids, and can even change paths from season to season.  Ultimately and unerringly, it does, eventually, reach the Ocean.

As a metaphor then, I suggest you can describe your vision - your Ocean - in sufficient detail to keep you moving forward.  You can find and describe your version of this Ocean view, its shoreline, the sounds and the smells you might expect to experience.  Warm or cool breeze, sounds of birds, crashing of waves, sandy or rocky beach.  We've heard about similar destinations from others.  We know some of what to expect when we get there.  You CAN create this vision, your Ocean.

In similar fashion, we know some of the first steps we can take along the way to the Ocean.  We can prepare for the journey, but at some point, if the Ocean means enough to us, we must begin, we must start.  And even when (not if) we encounter some harder terrain, some boulders, or a diversion, keeping the Ocean in mind allows our River to adjust, to change course, to slow down or speed up, with the idea that the Ocean is still there, still waiting for us and still worth working for.  

What's your practical application of this metaphor?  How can this metaphor even apply within the context of world-altering events like COVID-19?  For me, I still have an image of my Ocean as it relates to my obligations and commitments to my family, hopes, and expectations for my career, and even something as small (perhaps) as the next Ironman in August 2021 and $100,000 in a fundraising goal reached for Kids with Cancer Society and in honour of Ronan Smyth.  

Find your Ocean.  Begin and sustain your journey as the River.  The path will be winding.  There will be both scenic and desolate landscapes along the way.  Keep your vision and sustain your efforts.  The River will get there. 

______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC

President & Founder - BreakPoint Solutions

gregh@breakpoint.solutions 

www.breakpoint.solutions 

780-250-2543

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

Disruptor - In Service of What?

In previous blogs I have called for disruption as a necessary and required force for change. This has been particularly true for me given my long experience in healthcare.  We have a very expensive system that doesn't deliver on what it should given the resources expended, we have imbalances in how we spend our dollars in light of our changing population demographics (e.g., a need to continue a shift from cure to prevention, mental health, palliative and care of seniors), and there is a need to appropriately leverage technological advances (the right tool, at the right time, for the right reasons).  In those past blogs, I have suggested that healthcare needs some form of Uber-like development or something akin to how Apple disrupted how we communicate and interact with each other.

This is not, however, a post about disruption in that sense.  Rather, it will speak to a perspective of leaders as disruptors within their own companies or organizations.  By definition - or at least by my reasoning - leaders are not brought in or hold a pinnacle position to manage to the status quo.  They are uniquely positioned and tasked with scanning the environment for the organization, identifying both threats and opportunities, and required to position the business for future success.  Disruption can and often is the name of the game for a leader.  This is why there is a constant need on the part of the leader for continuous learning and development.  The strengths or knowledge that got you to a position of leadership must remain as evolving and dynamic as the organization's environment.

The same holds true for leaders at all levels of the organization, even if to a lessor extent.  Even at a front-line supervisory level, the leader must be in a constant state of learning, evolution, and anticipation of what is before them.  They are required, at their level, to challenge their teams to grow and avoid stagnation and complacency.  Their teams must be made change ready and resilient if they are to maintain effectiveness and engagement.  

Let's be clear here as well that I am not talking about change for the sake of change.  There are just as many leaders - in both the private and public sector - who go for the appearance of disruption without actually changing anything of substance.  Nor do they intend to or are they capable of leading real change in these circumstances. The most common forms of this in my estimation are things like mergers and acquisitions and organizational restructuring.  

Turning back to healthcare for the moment, how many restructuring efforts have our systems been through in the past decade or two?  Can we say that the benefits of such have outstripped the cost of the disruption that was caused?  I am in the cynical group that would say we have put on the modern day equivalent of Roman bread and circuses without addressing core fundamentals.  Similarly, I have worked with several organizations that are in a constant state of acquisitions, driven to enhance (short-term) shareholder value or image, but oblivious to or uncaring of the systems and cultural integration work required in such endeavors.  There is much bluff and bluster built on shaky foundations.

This is where the question of Disruptor - In Service of What? comes into play.  And it applies no less at a front-line level as it does for a CEO.  In fact, just recently, I had a newly-minted leader recount how he had been questioned and even goaded by a subordinate to be more disruptive, to challenge the culture of the organization, to take on senior leaders all in order to make a leadership mark.  In the view of this subordinate, disruption was required in order to make one's mark as a leader.  The further implication was that failure to be disruptive was tantamount to mediocrity and career stagnation. What I believe I heard in this was that disruption was seen as a means to advance a personal agenda. Disruption and challenging behavior were seen as necessary for career advancement, to get noticed and to otherwise standout.  The reality was the organization is saddled with a challenging employee who scorns the use of influence versus power in leadership, engages lightly, if at all with others, and is not an icon of collaboration.  At this point, disruption is most often destructive, conflict-ridden, and a sport for one.  There is much promise accompanied by little hope that this potential can be harnessed.

It's at this point that I am reminded of Jim Collins's concept of Level 5 Leadership.  Whereas our examples above seem motivated by personal gain and short-term thinking, Collins notes the success and longevity of other leaders who are as equally ambitious, disruptive and creative with a focus on team and organizational success.  The difference between the hard-driving individual in the little vignette above, and the executives in restructuring and acquisitions noted earlier, is one of motivation.  Disruption that acts only to challenge and destroy, or change for change's sake, are all too often about personal ambition and glory.  They don't necessarily create something new and better, and even if they do create something, these edifices are built on shaky foundations that inevitably fall in the next strong wind.  They get changed and disrupted by the next "great" leader. 

So by all means, disrupt, challenge, seek out, and generate change.  That's what a leader is supposed to do.  But if you really want a legacy and to build something of lasting impact, do it for the purpose of creating something bigger than yourself, of building up the capacity of those you lead, and to realizing a potential for yourself and your organization that you never dreamed of when you started.  I further suggest that being the lone wolf, railing against all around you, calling out the failings of others, may feel vindicating and cathartic.  However, in order to be truly called a leader, you have to have more than a few people follow you down a new path of change.  Leaders need willing and committed followers.

In my view, disruption is necessary, inevitable, and should be used to create rather than simply tear down.  Be a disruptor.  Be a creator.  Be a leader. 

______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC

President & Founder - BreakPoint Solutions

gregh@breakpoint.solutions 

www.breakpoint.solutions 

780-250-2543

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

What Leadership Isn't

We live in interesting and challenging times.  The pressures, frustrations, anxieties and everything else you might want to use to describe 2020 and the first weeks of 2021 are there in spades.  People are trying to cope with extraordinary events and circumstances unlike anything they have ever experienced.  As a consequence, our personal reserves are being tapped, stretched and even shattered like never before.  The consequence of this is we may have found ourselves wanting, perhaps not quite up to the challenges, and acting in ways, that in better times, we would never imagine.  I say this in part as a hope that some of what we have seen of late can be chalked up to stress reactions.  

That being said, a phrase that comes to mind in times like these: adversity does not so much build character as it reveals it.

So what does it say about us as individuals and collectives that in these times "we" have rushed the Capitol in Washington, vilified and threatened each other in online forums, made death threats against public health officials throughout Canada and the U.S. (and perhaps more) and, as of January 23, saw fit to rally in the front yard of Saskatchewan's Chief Medical Officer of Health.  There are, it seems, no bounds to what we believe is acceptable behavior or discourse, nor do we see anything wrong in attacking - perhaps even killing - those who have given themselves over to serving the public.

What does this have to do with leadership?  

This type of behavior doesn't exist in a vacuum.  Too many of us and most often, and disturbingly, our political leaders have been creating the environment that not only permits but encourages this type of behavior.  And the seeds of this reality were not just sown in the past year nor with the advent of someone like Donald J. Trump in the U.S. four years ago.  Too many politicians have determined that their path to power is abetted by attacks on our public servants.  And the collective "we" have become accustomed to attacking government waste and inefficiency, turning the word bureaucrat into a bad name, and even suggesting our public sector is this nefarious deep state intent on subverting the will of elected officials.  We have turned expertise, experience, and education into qualities to be questioned and dismissed, recommendations coming from such quarters to be held under suspicion and thrown away if they don't accord with what some leaders wish to believe.  Shoot the messenger for suggesting that the emperor has no clothes, their draft policies have no legs, and that plans are not grounded in reality. 

We have normalized a narrative that sees public servants as the other, as alien, and not worthy of the same respect we would demand for ourselves. 

As noted, this is not a new phenomenon.  I have personally experienced several examples of this perspective dating back decades.  As an administrator, vice-president, and CEO in Canada's public health care system, I have been subject to more than my fair share of eye-popping attacks.  

Example 1, individual members of my own Board of Directors deciding that their best course of action in voicing their displeasure with a Board-approved operational/budget initiative was to attack my credentials and my motivations in our local media.  Let's be clear - those attacks came from a couple of  my bosses, roasting their own employee, likely to protect themselves from potential community backlash.  It was convenient, easy and wrong. 

Example 2, straight out of the "I pay your salary through my taxes, you work for me" category (e.g., this is my desk Nancy Pelosi), getting calls literally at all hours of the day or night - and mostly night, at my house.  I was rapidly disabused of the notion that I could have my name and number in a phone book.  When I suggested that I would be more than willing to debate the finer merits of the issue during working hours, it was made clear that my public position meant my open for business sign was on all night.  While I might have signed on for some of those realities, my family clearly had not.  Number became unlisted after that. 

Example 3, after having made the effort to meet with a few community members whose community was about to be impacted by a provincially mandated decision, it was suggested that I ran the risk of being shot between the eyes.  The implication was that I needed to back away from the decision.  No discussion about other alternatives we could have worked through together.  Assassination seemed to be in order.  And this particular insight was not offered by any random member of the community.  It was provided by a manager of a financial institution in that community.

What does this have to do with leadership?  In light of some of the more newsworthy public events of late (e.g., Capitol riot, protest in Saskatchewan), we see political leaders stepping out to express their dismay at such events, to offer condemnation of the perpetrators, and support for public servants.  Too often those words ring hollow or hypocritical when these very same "leaders" have set the stage with their words in actions in the years prior to where we now find ourselves. 

I leave you with the following statement, which has a distinctly healthcare flavor to it, but which I believe should act as a call to do better in relation to how we should be treating all of our public sector employees; i.e., doctors, nurses, teachers, police, fire, civil servants.  

"Since the beginning of COVID-19, this worrying phenomenon has escalated. What began as online harassment has evolved into threats and in-person intimidation. We have seen protests at the private residences of #Saskatchewan’s chief medical officer of health and #Quebec’s National Public Health Officer.

We must speak out against such #intimidation, whether online or in-person, and urge those responsible for overseeing social media platforms and law enforcement bodies to put an end to this highly alarming conduct. Peaceful protests are an important feature of our democracy, but these recent demonstrations have crossed a crucial line between free speech and willful intimidation.

Public health officials and #HealthCareWorkers in Canada have been working tirelessly — under stressful and very challenging conditions — since the beginning of the pandemic to keep Canadians healthy and safe. They deserve nothing short of our full appreciation and respect.

These disquieting acts of aggression must not be tolerated."

Dr. Ann Collins, CMA President

Actions matter. Words matter. Do better. It's About Leadership!

______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC

President & Founder - BreakPoint Solutions

gregh@breakpoint.solutions 

www.breakpoint.solutions 

780-250-2543

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.