Unlocking the Power of Diversity Marketing in America
In a report released by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2016, it was outlined that white people are represented in industry at a higher rate in the tech sector’s executive category than the rest of the private sector, at 83% more than 15% higher than their representation in the professional category, which includes jobs like computer programming. Other groups are represented at significantly lower rates in the executive
category than in the professional category, including African Americans (2% to 5.3%), Hispanics (3.1% to 5.3%), and Asian Americans (10.6% to 19.5%). Additionally, if we focus on gender, less than 7% of tech professionals in Europe are female. The representation of those in intersectional communities is even lower. For example, between 2007 and 2015 there has
been a 13% decrease in the number of black women professionals. Even though white women are now substantially more successful in reaching the executive level than all minority men or women, white men are still 47% more likely than white women to be executives. To have the most successful and well-rounded tech industry, representation of marginalized
Groups in industry must improve
To invoke this change, the majority must help, support and advocate for the minority. If engaged correctly, allies hold the power and the key to stimulate positive change.Allyship is a continual investment of time in supporting others, holding ourselves accountable when mistakes are made, apologizing and being prepared to rework the approach towards allyship
as needs change.So starts David Foster Wallace’s famous commencement speech. It is a beautiful summary of the core challenge for inclusion work. Dominance is invisible to the dominant group, and extremely visible to everyone outside it. In other words, fish don’t see the water they’re swimming in. Thus most of the work of diversity and inclusion approaches in
companies to date has focused on empowering the “out” groups or training the “in” groups about their unconscious biases. This has succeeded only in annoying everyone. Meanwhile, most senior executives are still white men. The more companies talk about it all, the more skeptical everyone becomes. Who is calling whom diverse? And who is being asked to be inclusive of whom How many times have I heard executives refer to the fact that they have
Several diverse candidates
for a job This weirdly common expression is meant to cover women and the range of minorities listed in diversity approaches. The exception is the companies (or countries) where two rare but simple things are present: commitment to change and skill at getting everyone to buy in to it. When old majorities become new minorities, it’s time to update our approach. If this summer’s transatlantic political events have taught us anything, it is the value of inclusion
and of broadening how we define it. The Trump phenomenon and the Brexit vote are case studies in the dangers of ignoring or discounting resistance to change. And yet rarely have I ever seen inclusion strategies that stress the need to include, listen to, and work with the dominant group the one that is seeing its preeminence questioned. That is where leadership is most needed: in helping today’s dominant group embrace tomorrow’s reality.
Nowhere is this more true or less obvious than in the issue of gender balance in companies. In most companies where I work, there are two common subterranean mutterings among executives, which usually emerge as soon as you ask: Gender is “over” (even though some high-profile people have recently lost their jobs for saying so publicly). Most American executives like to think that the issue has been solved, despite huge and persistent gender
Gaps within their own organizations
especially in the leadership ranks. The new reality of major countries, such the UK and Germany (and perhaps soon the U.S.), electing female heads of state will likely only confirm this perspective.All the focus of D&I programs is on women and minorities, and straight white men are being unfairly discriminated against. There is still a huge push on “promoting
in most companies, accompanied by a slew of programs, conferences, and initiatives aimed at women, run by women, and branded for women. But what if good leadership were responsible and accountable for engaging everyone in change? Companies that effectively achieve balance drop the talking and move to action, with CEOs visibly leading the way. They treat gender balance like any other business issue. CEOs and executives teams are
accountable for clear targets (not HR, not women, not the head of diversity). Leaders get skilled at convincing their dominant majorities why balance is essential for the business, just as they would with any other initiative. Core business systems are redesigned to support the change using research that short-circuits biases. Yes, communication is still key, but the companies that get it know that less is more: Emotional issues require carefully designed
Conclusion
communication strategies. Research shows that much of the communication to date has backfired. Ensure that all messages and vocabulary are “inclusive” of 100% of the target audience. For example, President Obama recently penned a personal essay on why he is a feminist in Glamour magazine. “That’s what twenty-first-century feminism is about: the idea that when everybody is equal, we are all more free. Emphasis mine. Smart companies are
wary of approaches that single out and target a particular group still the dominant approach in too many large companies. Singling out women is hardly inclusive in a context where the majority intake in many companies is trending female. Inclusive leaders will be those skilled in getting everyone to embrace balance, and keep an eye on the balance between genders, across all functions and levels. (An HR department that’s all female is just as problematic as
tech team that is all male.) They will help their teams see the shift not as a threat but as a business opportunity that the smartest will learn how to capture and be rewarded for. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau became an international sensation when he explained that he was gender balancing his cabinet “because it’s 2015.” This is inclusive leadership at its best, and it’s a video I show often to emphasize what the concept looks like.
