Chief Diversity Officer Board Sept 2018 In-Person Meeting

A big thanks again to our host Jacqui Robertson and William Blair as well as our two dynamic keynote speakers: David Casey and Rosanna Durruthy. 

Eric, Madeline and I agree that quite a few of the big idea shifts came from all of you out of this meeting. I took some of Eric's great notes plus a few observations Madeline shared with me and added my own recollection to come up with the following list of 6: 

1.       The CDO role is continuing to expand rapidly throughout organizations and clearly transcends the realm of HR. CDOs are deeply involved in building shareholder value and protecting their companies brands across the Investor Relations, Marketing, Sales and other key area.

2.       While prominence and reach of the role has expanded, the resources are not keeping pace in either quantity or broadness of skill sets. CDOs today need staff members with a broader skill set beyond the former HR support roles and in many cases need to offload some of the hand-holding rolls that are employee centric back to HR. Addressing these challenges and opportunities in some cases means adding new FTEs from other disciplines, and for others it means embedding more D&I related competency into leaders, managers, and HRBPs to ensure the right considerations are at the table from the outset.

3.       Participants noted that HRBP capabilities at dealing with D&I are particularly lacking and in need of an update. If fact, a few cited how some HRBPs have expressed their own fears about their inadequacy in addressing day-to-day D&I issues. HRBPs need to step up their game when it comes to addressing D&I issues with their business partners as efficiently as they would a comp and ben or other challenge/opportunity rather than weighing down strategic D&I leaders with tactical challenges.

4.       D&I considerations need to be included at the design phase of any organizational work today. Adding D&I considerations after the design of an organizational solution is akin to designing a building first, then going back and putting in an elevator. It can be done, but it will be harder to do and more expensive. This means including D&I in developing leadership training, coming up with a marketing strategy, in creating employee and client surveys, and every other aspect of organizational life.

5.       Social media and ease of access to platforms has resulted in a world where a situation can immediately go viral. This combined with a society that expects business leaders to take ethical positions quickly and without hesitation, has increased the pressure for more rapid senior executive responses to incidents. Unfortunately, today one incident, captured on one phone with a camera, uploaded to a social media platform, and a 24-hr. news cycle hunting for today's breaking news have increased the speed and quantity of issues that need to be addressed. In just a few hours everything positive an organization has done to build a cherished brand, can come crashing down. Rapid response teams and social media monitoring services are essential to help you react in time and control the narrative. The office of diversity is a key part of the team that helps the company maintain control of its brand narrative. Offices of diversity and inclusion also need to help build community/customer relations, trust, and authenticity in interactions with the company. Bias training is nice, but behavior-based training and clear policy is more practical in the day-to-day. HR can partner with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to proactively address these issues through assessments that screen for people who will support your brand and keep your org from being the next social media casualty.

6.       Finally, social network analysis focused on diversity tell us a lot about functional-level inclusion at an organization and a lot about where innovation goes off the tracks due to lack of inclusion. Just because you have diverse perspectives on the payroll doesn’t mean people are reaching out and connecting in ways that tap into those varied individuals. Do your execs interact with the same people all the time? Are the choices of who they reach out to coming from a like-me bias? This topic raises a lot of questions, but has great potential for helping people break out of ruts, broaden their networks, increase inclusion and innovation, and possibly highlight some potential risks and pitfalls. If you aren’t being challenged and don’t spend some time everyday being with people who see the world different form you and make you uncomfortable, chances are you’re missing out on the next big thing. We may be as John Kennedy put it enjoying "the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of (differing perspectives and) thought. Organizations need to drive greater internal social network diversity and inclusion.

This is definitely not a complete list. As always, all of you came up with great thought-provoking perspectives that point toward the solutions we need to address today and tomorrow's challenges and opportunities.