5 Things / 5 Ways
Happy new year! I hope this year is a wonderful one for you, personally and professionally. As always, I’m optimistic that we’re all on the right side of history. I’ll keep sharing the good vibes with you every week and cheer you on along on this DEI journey.
Lately, I’ve had some conversations with people who’ve shared with me how they’ve been using 5 Things. You’re a creative bunch! I can’t tell you how happy it makes me that 5 Things resonates with you, and that you actually use it.
Here are 5 ways you can use 5 Things:
Bring it to a weekly team meeting and choose an item to discuss as part of the agenda
Share a story from 5 Things in your internal DEI newsletter
Bring one idea from 5 Things to each DEI Council meeting for discussion
Share it with someone you’d like to reconnect with - tell them that you saw this and thought of them
Test some things out! If you see a story that sounds like something that could work at your org, then get the right people in the room to figure out how to make it happen.
My word of the year is deepen and that includes deepening my relationships with any of you. In part, that means that I’m going to start sharing these 5 Things daily on TikTok…you can find me over there @5ThingsDEI. Doing this makes me very uncomfortable, but I’m doing it anyway because the world needs these messages.
Here are the good vibes I found this week:
Hershey Launches 1st Bilingual Manufacturing Facility
The Hershey Company turned one of its manufacturing plants entirely bilingual. All training is now in both English and Spanish and all signs, labels, and forms are in both languages as well. There are also bilingual employees available on the floor to help with communication. The Say Hola program, developed in conjunction with Hershey’s Latino Business Resource Group (LBRG), has led to increased diversity, higher retention rates, and reduced recruitment costs. This matters because it’s a win-win – employees have more positive experiences and feel more supported, and the company benefits.
911 Dispatchers in Montreal Are Learning to Stop It Racial Bias Calls
911 operators in Montreal are being trained to detect racial bias. The training is among the first in North America. The training is designed to help operators detect bias in the conversations with callers. For example: is the caller using unnecessary racial descriptors, or even veiled racial descriptors? This bias that starts with the caller can then be transferred to the police officer on the scene. The training’s goal is to “permit our police to intervene based on the actions of a person, not their identity." This matters because every step towards racial justice matters.
West Point Will Remove Confederate Symbols from Its Campus
The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is removing all Confederate memorials on the campus. One such symbol included an image of an armed man in a hood, with "Ku Klux Klan" written below. It’s about damn time. This matters because the legacy of racial injustice should not be on display – it’s a form of re-traumatizing Black people.
The White House Gets Its Own Menorah for the First Time
For the first time in history, the White House has its own menorah in its permanent collection. This marks the first time a Jewish artifact has been added to the White House archives. In the past, menorahs have been on loan. This matters because inclusion means everyone – and Jewish people are increasingly under attack in America.
The Ex Manifesto; The Definitions, the Values, and the Principles of Ex and Ex Design
There’s a new manifesto called the Employee Experience (EX) Manifesto created by leaders from companies such as Patagonia and Airbnb. They’ve developed principles that “elevate business performance through employee wellbeing.” You can bet there will be more emphasis on EX in the years to come. This matters because happy, well-cared-for employees = happy customers.
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