The LIE About DEI: The Real Work that Drives Results – Part 3

DEI isn’t magic, it’s real work. And it’s worth it. In this episode, Michael Baran unpacks what DEI work actually does and how it can make a difference. Along the way, he provides some actionable tips leaders can use right away to create more trust and inclusion.

DEI work is mistakenly thought to be only about quotas or the most extreme examples of “wokeness.” What is the work really? And how can it help organizations? 

In this episode of The Culture Advantage, Michael Baran elaborates on different kinds of work that organizations do that falls under the umbrella of DEI. He breaks down some of the most common categories of that work and provides concrete examples for each.  

Michael unpacks the work that it takes to assess where an organization might need to improve and where they are already doing well. He explains how surveys, focus groups, and interviews can help answer common leader questions and often provide surprising answers. He gives concrete examples of biases and habits that can get in the way of hiring practices, for example, and some common pitfalls to watch out for. 

He'll also explain how DEI work has designed products and services to accommodate for disabilities, but in the process make work and life better for everyone. He also talks about how intentional DEI thought could have avoided some well-known PR disasters, such as the Kendall Jenner Pepsi commercial. DEI work could have saved a lot of time and money by ensuring a more diverse team in all stages of planning for that ad.

Finally, Michael shares about some of the work that DEI trainings can do. They may help leaders who don’t know how to lead a diverse team; they may help leaders who act more like bosses than leaders, delegating and thinking they have all the answers; they may help all employees build trust, have hard conversations, and work better together; and they might help individuals get the devoted attention they need to grow through coaching. 

If you’ve been wondering what the day to day work of DEI really is, beyond the stereotypes, this episode will lay it all out, and it will help you see how this work is essential for thriving organizations, no matter what you call it.

Transcript

The LIE About DEI: The Real Work that Drives Results – Part 3

Is your company struggling, navigating through high turnover, toxic leadership, or a culture that's holding your team back from reaching its full potential? Well, you're not alone. So here's your host and guide, Michael Baran.

Michael Baran: Imagine that I had a magic wand and I brought it over to your office. I waved it around and I made it so that over the next few years, your organization was gonna be making more money. People were going to be happier and more satisfied. You were gonna avoid a horrible PR disaster. You're going to avoid a couple of lawsuits.

You're going to innovate more and come closer to achieving your vision. Everyone would do that, right? Who would tell me not to waive that you'd [00:01:00] invest a lot of money to get me to waive it, but what if I told you that would be exactly what you would get if you put in the effort on DEI? Not that you have to call it DE.

I call it whatever you want if you're going to really do the work. It has always been about the work and not that word. And that's what we're gonna talk about today, the work of it, the work that organizations can do to create an inclusive and equitable culture. Culture for everyone. And while I'm talking mostly about organizations like businesses, this is also a applicable for schools and government organizations and nonprofits and community groups, and.

Families. Right? Whatever. Now this is part three of the episode, focusing on DEI. If you haven't listened to the other two, it might be helpful. They kind of build on each other. You will remember in that last episode, part two, I talked about how people were trying to [00:02:00] co-opt the term DEI and mislead people about the work that it does.

Well, knowledge is power, and so I'm gonna tell you what the work really is. I'm not gonna give you an exhaustive list, but I want you to have an idea of what it really is, and in the process, there'll be some things you can take away and put into practice right away. Okay, first, a lot of leaders think, well, I know we're not perfect, but I don't know exactly where we're doing good and where we could improve when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

So one type of work that can happen is figuring that out systematically. You might do an assessment or an audit of all the policies and practices with that lens. Are we treating people fairly? Are we making people feel good? And you've gotta have people who know what they're doing with this.

Maybe you have that capacity in your [00:03:00] organization to do this objectively. Or if you don't, maybe you bring in an external partner to do it with you. For you, they might look at something like. You know, just as an example, are people getting fairly considered for promotions based on their merit and not just because of who they are or what they know?

Sometimes someone way more qualified for a promotion gets overlooked because the person who makes the final decision knows one of the other people better. Right. And that's related to the culture of a place too. A lot of leaders, for example, they talk about having an open door policy, right? Great.

But who feels comfortable taking the initiative to walk through that door and who doesn't? Or the hiring process. Right. Does the hiring process have biases built in? Biases still play a huge role. There's a famous study where they took, resumes. They printed out copies of the exact same resume. The only different thing on them [00:04:00] is on half of 'em, they put a stereotypically white sounding name and on half of 'em they put a stereotypically black sounding name and they sent 'em out to real positions and they wanted to see what would happen.

Right. So they, you talk to the person you know, who's looking at the resume and you ask them, Hey, are you trying to hire just white people here? And what do they say? Of course not, right? I'm not trying to hire the best candidate, the most qualified candidate, and they're not lying. That's what they really think they're doing, but these unconscious biases come into play and made it so that.

Even with the exact same resume, the ones with the stereotypically white sounding name got not 10, not 20, not 30, not 40, 50% more callbacks for interviews. That's a lot. They did another variation of this study where they sent out the resumes to different job levels, and then they used an algorithm to calculate that.

Having a white sounding name was [00:05:00] equivalent to about. Eight years of job experience, right? You can see if you really wanna find the best people out there. It's really helpful to understand how to adjust your processes to mitigate against the impact of these biases. Here's some ways you can think about that.

Are there biases or habits that impact even where you post your ad and recruit people? Right? The very start of a job recruiting process. If there are, that can impact the candidate pool dramatically. Are there unconscious biases or messages in the wording of the ad itself that cause people to self-select out?

There's research showing that words you might think are very neutral, like, you know, using the words rockstar or, ninja, like, we need a graphic design ninja. Just using words like that. When you do, women tend to think that's not a job for them and might self-select out [00:06:00] and you might miss out on the best person because of that.

So you need to understand that. Are people conducting the interviews trained and equipped to do it without letting their biases get in the way? Are they gonna ask everyone the same questions? Do some people get softballs? Softball questions, are they gonna use the, metric of, you know, would I like to have a beer with this person?

Right? The sort of culture fit lens. Do they fit the culture that sometimes is code for? Are they like me, right? And instead, you can think about. A value add lens, a culture add lens, right? Are they gonna make everyone, are the people doing the hiring again or doing the interviewing, are they gonna make everyone feel equally comfortable in the process, or will they be, you know, inadvertently awkward or even cause exclusion by some of the comments?

They make, one person told me an interview, [00:07:00] asked, not asked an interview, said, your English is so good. And she was like, yeah, I was born in San Francisco. So certainly it is, comments like these where people think they're giving a compliment. Or trying to bond or trying to connect with someone or be curious about them.

They can actually cause the opposite. They can cause exclusion and they can cause people to drop out of the process or even not take the job if they get offered it because they kind of anticipate this is not a place where I'm gonna feel valued or feel inclusion. You might ask, for hiring. Is the whole process accessible to people with different disabilities?

Does the job portal have alt text and clear visual contrast so that blind people or low vision people can apply? Is the description clear about the physical requirements for the job rather than just saying something generic like, candidate must be able bodied. Right. In fact, [00:08:00] my daughter was just telling me about a small farm she visited, where the best harvester they ever had, WIC goes down the rows harvesting, in a wheelchair.

And she said they eat this farm, even planted wider rows for the next season so he could do it better because he was so good at what he was doing that anything they would lose from having fewer roles they rose, they made up for, because he was so good at it. And , if their job posting had just said, must be able-bodied.

They might have missed out on this person, the best person they ever had at that job. Okay? Now this isn't the whole list, right? Just some things to think about when looking at reducing biases from the hiring process so that we can remove all the barriers and find our best colleagues. Then for people already in the organization, it's really helpful to assess how are people feeling?

How satisfied are people? How engaged are people? [00:09:00] Who is feeling that and who's not? Does it break down by race or gender or sexuality or disability? Or veteran status, or office location or level at an organization. I've seen that before. Like, wow, everyone in the Baltimore office, it thinks everything is going great and they feel really engaged.

People in the DC office are not feeling that, you know, things like that. You can design surveys and do focus groups and figure this stuff out. Let it lets you know, where you're doing great. And where you could be improving and how you go about doing something about it, where it's needed and where it isn't.

Now another big bucket of DEI work is making sure a company's products and services work for everyone. For example, subtitles, right? Subtitles on TV shows or movies. They make it so your movie or your show can be understood by people who speak a different [00:10:00] language and they make it so people who are deaf or have a hard time hearing can watch, right?

That's how subtitles started. Then what often happens is that an accommodation that's made for one group actually helps a whole lot more people. So it turns out it's actually great for people who speak the language, but not great. It's really useful for people who have a hard time with accents.

It's useful for people who wanna watch a show or a movie in, places where the sound has to be turned off. Maybe a library or when other people are working nearby. It's also great for people with sensory sensitivities. It's great for people who have distractions in their place of viewing. You know, just last night, one of my kids was practicing piano and another one was watching tv quietly nearby with subtitles on, right, because they couldn't hear great because the piano was going.

Now, I'm sure you've noticed this as I have when none of these things is happening, people [00:11:00] still like to have subtitles on, right? This is a relatively new phenomenon. Turns out people really like that. Maybe it makes it a little bit easier, a little less cognitively taxing to watch something.

Another example of an accommodation that started for one group was curb cuts and ramps for sidewalks. So started out for people using wheelchairs, but turns out it's also really important for people with other mobility issues. Think about crutches or a boot. People pushing strollers, people wheeling, suitcases.

Electric scooters, whether you think they should be riding on the sidewalk or not. So the work can be making sure products and services work for everyone, and also making sure that marketing and advertising is not. Outright offensive, right? That it's, reaching everyone, but also that it's just not alienating and offensive.

I always think about the Kendall Jenner Pepsi [00:12:00] ad. I don't know if you remember that. In this ad, she joins in a protest. They probably want us to think it's a Black Lives Matter protest, and she solves the whole issue. By giving the police officer a Pepsi, right? And people found this incredibly offensive because it trivializes this movement where people are fighting for their very lives and their livelihood.

And Pepsi had to pull the plug on that ad. And they wasted a lot of money and all of that could have been avoided with some intentional thought to who is involved in the process, who's brainstorming this ad? Who is writing this ad? Who is giving input? All of this. It has been worked. That was done under the DEI umbrella at an organization.

Also another bucket. When people think about creating an inclusive culture at a place, one of the main kind of leverage points they look to have a big [00:13:00] impact is leaders, senior leaders, directors, people, managers. How can we get those folks to lead in the most inclusive way possible? And that doesn't always come just naturally.

To leaders. A lot of people got to be leaders just because they were really good at their jobs. And then the only way to get a promotion is to start managing people. Right. But they didn't ever necessarily want to manage people and they aren't necessarily any good at it. And sure, they might be given some quick training, for that position, but it's usually not enough.

It's really hard to do that position well in an inclusive way. Especially in today's climate, all the generational differences and expectations about the workplace, heightened anxieties about the country and the world with the way, gosh, everything at work is changing so rapidly and a lot of leaders kind of got to where they are in [00:14:00] their leadership positions.

By leading in a particular way, delegating like they have all the answers. It's sort of like this boss style of leading right, thinking they have the right way of doing things. They have to be strong. Being strong means not showing vulnerability, not showing weakness, not admitting when you don't know something, and that's just not what works with the diversity of people in the workforce today.

Today, the leadership that's needed is all about relationship building, trust building, curiosity, vulnerability, cultural humility. And it takes work and practice to get leaders there most of the time. Now, in along the those lines, here's an example of a simple habit that can make a big difference and something you can put into practice right away if you have people reporting to you.

A lot of leaders have one-on-one. Right with the people that report to them. Hopefully there's [00:15:00] a regular cadence. Hopefully you don't miss them. Hopefully they're productive, but a lot of leaders don't know exactly what to do with them. I had one, boss, early in my career who thought that was just a time to bond with small talk.

Right? We talked about baseball, we talked about our families, and that's certainly nice. It was really nice, but it doesn't necessarily help me develop. It doesn't help us together maximize our working relationship right there's a lot more he could have done, right, and strategically with the work, but also to build our connection, right?

He could have asked me open-ended questions, things like, Hey, what's something you'd like me to know about you that I don't already know? Or, what can I do to support you this week? Or. What's one skill or talent or desire that you have that's not getting integrated into your work here, and how could we do more of that?

That's gonna build way more trust and connection [00:16:00] and give you great knowledge about the people that report to you, the people that are on your team, right? To be the best leader you can be for that person and for your whole team. And it doesn't matter if you've. Think you know the answers to these questions already, right?

Maybe you've worked with someone for years, but still asking these open-ended questions, you will learn a lot, right? Because people don't always share things like that if they're not given the space and people change, right? And that's just one little inclusive practice out of hundreds or thousands that an inclusive leader could do.

But working with managers on these skills often fell to the people in DEI roles because it cumulatively makes a big difference in the team and the organizational culture. And of course there aren't just manager and leader trainings. There's other kinds of trainings too. I know sometimes people groan when they hear about trainings, but they don't have to be boring.[00:17:00] 

Right? And they can be helpful for all sorts of important things. Helping people collaborate better, build better, trust on teams, understand one another better, have hard conversations. Sometimes people are really bad at having a hard, courageous conversations. The things that are, we really need to say to one another to work good together.

But it's really hard to do, right to say the hard thing to ask, the hard question to deliver real feedback that's necessary. And trainings can help with that in groups or sometimes may people need extra help. And then an individual coaching session might be in order a series of coaching sessions.

And the all those trainings are often run by people who, you know, who have DEI somewhere in their job title, or at least did, and it's one training gonna solve it. Is one keynote talk at a company retreat, gonna solve it all? Of course not. That would literally be like trying to wave that magic round, wander around, [00:18:00] right?

But not put in the work. Of course, the training, the coaching, all of this other work works best when it's sustained, when it. Builds when it's really practical and applied and interactive, and when it involves practice and commitment and when it leads to change of structures and habits when it's not separate from the other work, but when it's strategic and integrated.

And don't get me wrong, sometimes it has to start with one keynote talk or one training to get people on board to see why this is important, but that can't be where it ends. Okay. That's a lot that isn't even close to all of it. When it comes to the work that has been done under the umbrella of DEI. It takes a lot of work, but you can do it thoughtfully, strategically, intentionally, just like you would do anything else that's essential for your business.

And sure you're gonna have missteps in the process. You just have to commit [00:19:00] and take that first step. Or maybe for you it's the 10th step, but the next step, right? Because the missteps you have trying to do this work for real are nothing compared to what you will lose from the missteps you make, not taking it seriously.

Okay? Be well everyone, and I will see you next time.

So that's it for today's episode and the Culture Advantage Podcast. Head on over Apple Podcast iTunes or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener. Every single week that posts review on Apple Podcasts or iTunes, we'll win a chance in the grand prize drawing to win a $25,000.

Private VIP day with Michael himself. Be sure to head on over to culture advantage podcast.com and pick up a free copy of Michael's gift and join us on the next [00:20:00] episode.