Roman Ružbacký
November 15, 2016
There has recently been an explosion of diversity and inclusion work and a new wave of emerging diversity practitioners, managers and consultants across Australian workplaces. With a sea of information out there (and some imitation), it is difficult to find information that helps you to provide a clear narrative to executive when talking about diversity; something with depth, academic rigour, that says something different, that considers your workplace context and that makes a compelling story. A call to action. A reason to act. You don’t want to be doing the same thing as everyone else and want to embed your unique style. Being old school, I have a library of print outs, including research reports and papers, case studies, opinion pieces and few odd but clever cartoons and videos. I pull these out in preparation for a conversation with boards and executives.
Because diversity is something that challenges people’s deeply ingrained core beliefs in relation to gender, race, age, pregnancy and LGBTIQ, it can be difficult to shift people’s hearts and minds, especially those who do bad things (discriminate, sexually harass, bully or are unethical). As I have said previously, diversity is one topic that appears to hit a nerve with people. It’s the endless comments section at the end of an article about promoting diversity and inclusion or that critiques power and privilege that is alarming, hurtful and harmful. You see people endlessly arguing their point of view and no one ever wins even if compassion is used as a rationale.
What has also been occurring with this surge in D&I activity is that people attend a few workshops, do a few courses, read a few articles and then become so called D&I experts, whilst their rationale and narrative remains clumsy or shallow. I don’t know who advised a prominent male figure to walk in stilettos for a few hundred metres in a campaign to eliminate violence against women??? No more wheelchair challenges. No more talking about what you are going to (50% females and zero pay gap in 5 years). Talk about it when it’s done. This makes it a challenge for a D&I practitioner, who usually flies solo in a HR department and under instruction, to stick to course or push back. There is constant evolution of thinking and practice and some great practices out there. So how do you go about the work when everyone has an opinion on what to prioritize and how it should be done?
Narrative is usually hardwired. It’s a great challenge for the D&I practitioner to introduce ‘fresh’ narrative or to change the narrative if it is clumsy or shallow. I remember hearing an executive once say, ‘We need to help those people out there’- a hand out rather than a hand up. With the emergence of non-deficit language in D&I strategy – we’re now too afraid to name it what it is or afraid of leaving someone out. Some terminology has evolved, for example, People of diverse genders and sexualities instead of LGBTIQ (A). However, we can’t speak about eliminating discrimination or sexual harassment in our strategy because people will think it happens here. Let’s avoid using the term eliminating violence against women and replace it with domestic and family violence. Let’s talk about reflecting the community we serve, to harness this and that…… and ignore the organisation’s legal responsibility.
A classic case of popular thinking without academic rigour, is the recent claims that the blind recruitment processes is paying great dividends, without any clear references to evaluations or which groups are being targeted (professors, graduate engineers or executive), not areas where there is already gender parity like a call centre. Do some back the envelope calculations and you’ll see how many variables there are and how you probably won’t be able to get representative sample of hiring managers. At interview, the person is going to be exposed and game over, unless you bring your own curtain or wear a bag over your head.
One other issue in relation to impacting change is who has control over the agenda. A friend of mine who worked in a large organisation for a person in charge of diversity and inclusion, had their manager following Pauline Hanson and Andrew Bolt on Twitter. I don’t think it was a case of keeping the fire in the belly. It was possibly a person with a conservative view on life, in general, coming from a place of privilege (which don’t forget, is invisible to those who have it).
Any finally it is essential that diversity practitioners are at some stage exposed to discrimination and sexual harassment complaints, or have some complaints handling experience or read up on cases to really understand whether their strategies are working or not.
Successful organizations ensure that the D&I role is positioned high enough to have autonomy, freedom in decision making, licence to operate, be creative and innovative and adequate resourcing. The best model I worked in was having a reporting line directly to the CEO, where the work was perceived as independent without interference and with substance. Organizations at the start of their D&I journey usually needed to take a hard look at themselves and this can’t be out of the line of sight from a CEO.
Often the work involves exposing bad practices and results (like pay gaps between men and women) and demanding some accountability from executives. If you’re a diversity practitioner or manager buried layers down in an organisation and flying solo, your work is going to be struggle from day one. Stay true to the cause as it’s all about the work. You’re not meant to be a cultural fit. You’re usually trying to break the ‘perceived cultural fit model’ that allows homogeneity to thrive, breaking the mould, which means you will most likely not be one of the flock and you’ll need to comfortable on the fringe. The white middle aged male will not become an endangered species if the rationale is clear and if there is growth. Unless the place is morally bankrupt and knee deep in shit, you should make great incremental progress.
And finally, as a friend who was disillusioned with his organisation once told me, if you’re an organisation that has never made Harley-Davidsons, then it’s likely that you are never going to make Harley-Davidsons. So for those who are starting, it’s a marathon, not a sprint and you don’t need quick runs on the board. You need time to bring people with you and shift hearts and minds.
So with all this in mind, I’m going to share my five minute, ‘high level’, ‘strategic’ (add another buzz word here ……… opening conversation with executive and hopefully provides a clear narrative and rationale for investing and believing in diversity and inclusion.
Core of the work (my core)
Ø People have a right to be treated with dignity and respect, and participate in all aspects of work life to achieve their full potential (where diversity and inclusion is a lived and breathed experience)
Key Issues
Ø Under-representation of people of diverse backgrounds in leadership (not reflective of the community we serve and homogenous)
Ø Under-utilization skills (women – stupid/scissors curve, CALD, skilled migrants, 40+)
Ø Low participation rates in the workforce (women, PWD disability, etc)
Ø Discrimination, racism, homophobia, sexual harassment, violence, disability (permeates through society), under-reporting and non-disclosure
Ø Complacency in CALD and Age strategies across organisations
Aim: “Excellence with Equity”
Ø Focus on inclusive leadership
Ø Ensure multiple perspectives in key decision making (avoid group think)
Ø Being competitive in an increasing globalised world (cultural competency)
Ø Being responsive to the changing demographic of Melbourne/Australia
Approach
Ø Utilising a sound evidence base (eg. gender) – not an even playing field/stupid curve, pay gap hasn’t much changed in 25 years. Drilling into aggregate data.
Ø Proficient in diversity narrative
Ø Mainstream diversity and inclusion strategies (leadership, employment practices and culture) and align with Corporate plan.
Ø Increase competency in diversity practice (diversity conscious practices, minimise racially and gender blind practices)
Ø Ramping up incremental change with aspirational goals/targets
Ø Creating formal setting for crucial conversations (including public image and public perception)
Ø Get people excited about diversity and inclusion (engagement piece)
Streams, themes and the culture piece
Ø Gender, CALD, Indigenous, Disability, Age, LGBTIQ
Ø Intersectionality (working across streams)
Ø The culture piece – taking people with you and moving from compliance, risk minimising, being competitive, aware, committed, reflective, aspirational, strategic to authentic (Jock Noble 2004)
Measure of success (some aspirational results)
Ø Longitudinal data shows change
Ø Qualitative results, such as, “Seeing diversity in leadership inspires me to achieve and aim high” or “The community views the success of the organisation as representing their own success. They seek to protect and strengthen the organisation because they believe values it represents, represents the values they hold dear.”
A role in Diversity and Inclusion role couldn’t be more critical in these current times where old fashioned values such as loyalty, fairness and good corporate citizenship has been eroded. After managing over 500 complaints of discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying over the years, I have seen the emergence and escalation of appalling workplace and public behaviours.
If you keep people disengaged, exclude them and treat them poorly then there are always societal repercussions to deal with. Stay true to the cause, speak your truth, be authentic and take the people with you. I hope this has added something to your next conversation.