Bernadette Smith Bernadette Smith

5 Things / Connection First

This week I met with a keynote client that found, when they issued return to office mandates last year, that productivity was higher when people worked remotely. As a result, they backtracked on the mandates and now the vast majority of employees work at home.

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This week I met with a keynote client that found, when they issued return-to-office mandates last year, that productivity was higher when people worked remotely. As a result, they backtracked on the mandates and now the vast majority of employees work at home. Now employees who were hired during the pandemic are reporting a lack of belonging – and many employees are burnt out, or close to it – because they work longer hours and don’t have the separation that comes with a commute. It’s a Catch-22 – is the trade-off productivity for belonging?

I certainly don’t think that it has to be that way. I’ve noticed, in my Zoom meetings over the past 6 months or so, there’s been less random “water cooler” type chatter at the beginning of meetings, compared to the first year of the pandemic, when video conferencing was more of a novelty than a norm. I’ve noticed more people blurring their backgrounds, myself included. I’ve noticed less personality.

A few years ago, I met a woman who shared that her team was committed to "connection before content", deliberately building in time for short individual check-ins at the beginning of every team meeting. This could be as simple as asking everyone to share one thing that’s going right and one thing that’s a struggle this week. If the struggles warrant further discussion, those conversations should happen 1:1, leader to team member, or peer to peer. Inclusion requires intention – those conversations may not happen without making time for them to happen. I’m looking forward to addressing this and other ways to create a culture of inclusion and normalize allyship, during my keynote for this client. Please reply if you’d like me to bring this conversation to your company!

This Week's Good Vibes:

  1. To Celebrate Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, Mattel Is Introducing a Doll Based on Hollywood Pioneer Anna May Wong

  2. Ben & Jerry’s Co-founder Starts Cannabis Nonprofit to Support Social Causes

  3. MrBeast Calls Out Transphobic Backlash to Chris Tyson’s Hormone Therapy

  4. Smartsheet Is Now Giving Logo Space to Various Nonprofit Organizations in F1 Racing

    • The tech company Smartsheet is a sponsor of Formula 1 Racing (F1) which gives them prominent logo space on McLaren F1 cars. Instead of their logo, Smartsheet is now giving that space to various nonprofit organizations in a project they call Sponsor X. At a recent Austin race, the spot went to The Hidden Genius Project, a nonprofit that trains and mentors Black male youth in technology creation, entrepreneurship, and leadership skills. Smartsheet’s also raising money for organizations and providing them with the software, training, and technology to run themselves more efficiently. I love this story because it shows a holistic approach to supporting community-based organizations – visibility, money, and technical support – and all of that can ultimately contribute to greater equity and a reduction in the racial wealth gap. (h/t to Karen Catlin for this story)

  5. Democrat Angie Craig Has Joined Other Employers Rejecting the “Paper Ceiling” Blamed for Limiting Millions of Workers

Call to Action:

I see everything as an experiment and have the sticker to go along with it, so I found this article interesting and a worthy read: “Why You Should Start A/B Testing Your DEI Initiatives."

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Bernadette Smith Bernadette Smith

5 Things / Not DEI

I had a conversation this week with a very kind senior DEI leader who wanted to help me help the company. They gave me some words to say that they thought might help get buy-in from the boss. This person encouraged me to pitch our Inclusive 360 Assessment as an “organizational improvement methodology”, not DEI. Our future work together as “change management”, not DEI.

I had a conversation this week with a very kind senior DEI leader who wanted to help me help the company. They gave me some words to say that they thought might help get buy-in from the boss. This person encouraged me to pitch our Inclusive 360 Assessment as an “organizational improvement methodology”, not DEI. Our future work together as “change management”, not DEI.

All of this is true because our assessment examines the systems for gaps in equity and inclusion. What it delivers is a roadmap for meaningful systemic change and organizational improvement. 

Not DEI. I’ve found that a lot of the organizations I speak to aren’t quite invested enough for “organizational improvement”, beyond changing the way they hire. We deliver a lot of workshops and keynotes to help establish that readiness, but those workshops are mostly about behavior change. About people. While that’s great, I know that will only move the needle so far.

Lily Zheng recently wrote about this in HBR – To Avoid DEI Backlash, Focus on Changing Systems — Not People. Organizational improvement, change management, systemic change, whatever you want to call it. We’re here for it. 

Have you found that you've had to change your messaging around DEI to get buy-in?

Here are the good vibes I found this week:

  1. A Colorado Ski Resort Is Opening a Day Care For Employees—and It Could Provide a Blueprint to Help Solve the Childcare Crisis

    • There’s a childcare shortage in the U.S., exacerbated by Covid. Many women, in particular, have chosen not to return to work because of the high cost of child care. Because of that, Steamboat Ski Resort in Colorado established an onsite day care facility for employees. Having onsite day care isn’t especially unusual – but the story provides a blueprint for establishing one through public and private partnerships. It’s a wonderful model. This matters because families shouldn’t have to choose between work and child care.

  2. Brown University Bans Caste Discrimination Throughout Campus in a First for the Ivy League

    • An increasing number of colleges are adding caste to their non-discrimination policies. Earlier this year, the entire University of California system added the protection, and recently, Brown University became the first Ivy League school to do the same. The caste system is a hierarchical system that originated in India but carries over to other societies, and to this today affects societal rank and opportunity. This matters because caste is a hidden form of oppression.

  3. Ava DuVernay Becomes the First Black Woman on a Ben & Jerry's Pint with New Caramel Flavor

  4. A Hundred UK Companies Sign Up for Four-Day Week with No Loss of Pay

  5. Anti-racism: When You Picture Doctors Without Borders, What Do You See? 

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