DIVERSITY & INCLUSIONSTIMULATING INNOVATION

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Presented by

Vernā Myers, Esq.

Baltimore, MD

February 25, 2014

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Follow me on Twitter

@vernamyers

Moving Diversity and Innovation Forward

1. From Diversity To Inclusion

2. Inclusion to Communication

3. Communication to Innovation

CULTURALLY EFFECTIVE HABITS

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• Try On• Okay to Disagree• No Blame, Shame, or Attack- yourself or others• “Ouch”• Keep a Self-focus• Practice “Both/And” Thinking• Maintain Confidentiality

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Discussion Guidelines

• 30 countries or more

• Not rocket scientists

• Not astrologists

• Passionate

• Dedicated

• Family

• A few introverts among you

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What I’ve Heard about STScI

WHAT’S DIVERSITY?

UPS AND DOWNS

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GENDER

AGE

RACE

Physical Ability

Religion

Nationality

Sexual Orientation

Thinking Style

Geography

Education

Functional Experience

Socio-Economic

Class

Birth Order

Family Size

Military Experience

Hobbies

What we may see

What we may not see

WHAT’S INCLUSION?

Harvard Law School Innovates in 1953

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Promoting a workplace where people from different cultural backgrounds:– Are welcomed and treated with respect– Feel included and integrated – Are given equal access to opportunities – Are given opportunities to contribute their ideas

and concerns

“Inclusion” is about…

Inclusion – A Qualitative Analysis

• Think about how you felt when you came to STScI- Did you feel welcome?

• If so, why? If not, why not?• Were you conscious of any identity when

you arrived (ex. Your age, gender, religion, field of expertise, education, language)

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Inclusion is Being Asked

to Dance.”

Vernā Myers

“Diversity is Being Invitedto the Party.

Why Didn’t The Brilliant Men at Harvard Remember the Bathrooms?

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Fish in Water Problem- Blind Spots

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Inclusion Leads to InnovationThe Power of Difference

Scott Page demonstrates, using a formal, mathematical framework, that a group of people who have different skills and perspectives find better solutions to problems and make more accurate predictions than a group with homogeneous skills and perspectives -- even if the members of the second group score higher on individual ability tests.

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Why is Communicating Across Differences So Hard?

A TWO WAY STREET

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Encoding and Decoding

ENCODEVIA

CONSTRUCTMESSAGE SEND RECEIVE

DECODEMESSAGE VIA

CONSTRUCTRESPONSE

RESPONSE

EMOTIONS

Nouman Ashraf, Anti-racism & Cultural Diversity Officer, University of Toronto

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Many Ways to Communicate

Behavior + Words = Interpretation

55% - facial expression, gestures,

posture

38% - tone of voice, inflection

7% - words

- Source: Dr. Albert Mehrabian, Silent Messages (1971)

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CULTURALLY EFFECTIVE HABITS

If we want to collaborate and innovate with difference we need to:

1.BE AWARE OF OUR OWN CULTURE AND HOW IT SHAPES OUR INTERACTIONS

2.GET FAMILIAR WITH OUR BIASES

3. EXPAND OUR DANCE CARDS

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I’M FARM!!

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BE AWARE OF YOUR OWN CULTURE AND HOW IT SHAPES YOUR INTERACTIONS

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WorkingStyle

OrganizationalCulture

Occupation

Personality

MilitaryExperience

ReligiousBeliefs

GeographicalLocation

Background

Education/Degree

ThinkingStyle

Marital Status

Socio-EconomicStatus

WorkExperience

Legal Specialty

Family Size

Neighborhood

Parental Status

AppearanceTitle Own/Rent

Friends

Hobbies

Values

AccentBirth Order

Citizenship

Full/Part Time

Suburban/Urban

Vocabulary

Age Race

PhysicalAbilities/Qualities

EthnicityGender

SexualOrientation

Adopted from:Marilyn Loden & Judy B. Rosener, 1991

Political Views

Cultural Lens

GET FAMILIAR WITH YOUR BIASES

Bias Impairs Performance, Productivity and Retention

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Unconscious Bias

• “That person is like me” – a member of our in-group – “us”

• “That person is different from me” – a member of the out-group – “them”

Barbara Reskin, “Unconsciousness Raising: The Pernicious Effects of Unconscious Bias,” Regional Review, Vol. 14, No. 3, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (Quarter 1 2005): 33.

“An Innovation in Classical Music”

After auditions for orchestras became “blind,” the number of women in the top U.S. orchestras increased five fold.

Malcolm Gladwell. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, 2005.

From: Implicit Association Test (IAT)

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One-downGroups

One-up Groups

Avoid Micro-Inequities

• Quick, small acts; slights or indignities – subtle and often unintentional

• Reveal an assumption or stereotype

• Repeated slights, accumulate & develop a weight of their own

• Impact teams/offices/clients - frustration, exclusion, low productivity, litigation, attrition, squandered opportunity

– “There’s no way to be good at this job and be a good mother too.”

– “If you never do another thing, you’ve done a lot for a black girl.”

– “You don’t seem gay to me.”

– “Are you sure your parents are going to let you come to NY?” (To a South Asian professional woman)

– “Your English is so good!” [to U.S. born Asian person]

– Mistaken Identity; being surprised when someone does a good job

– Using the word “qualified” only when describing candidates of color

In-group Favoritism

• In-group favoritism is a bias toward your own group

• Try not to look for yourself

• Apply standards consistently

• Rotate opportunity (don’t keep the best

opportunities for those who you know well)

• Consider the entire list

of people who could take on

the opportunity- don’t use your

mental list-

It’s corrupted with your biases

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CULTURALLY EFFECTIVE HABIT:Expand Your Comfort Zone and Professional and Social Circles!!

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Examine Your Social and Professional Circles?

A. Consider who you have mentored/sponsored in your organization? Do you see any patterns? (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation schools, region, appearance)

B. With whom and where do you socialize? What messages do you think you send about how open to diversity and inclusion you are?

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Choose to Expand and Collaborate

• Put yourself in places when you are in the minority; develop relationships

• Go to affinity groups, conversations and events that increase your awareness and comfort

• Choose a person of an underrepresented group to co-lead a project or committee

• Seek to learn more about groups different from your own (exhibits, movies, books, dialogues)

• Build relationships across difference

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EXPANDING!!

It’s not about PERFECTION

It’s about CONNECTION

You have to go beyond comfort to experience it

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Small Moves Matter • Say hello

• Say thank you

• Make connections with those on the margin

• Spend time in places where your dominant identity is the minority

• Get people’s names right- watch out for nicknames- www.Mivoko.com

• Learn unthreatening ways to solicit different views

• Share information about how to access resources

• Rotate opportunity- don’t chose the same people

• Speak out about the success of those in underrepresented groups – watch for out “even though”

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Things You Can Do

• Look out for your implicit biases and stereotypes- especially your unconscious sense of your group as superior

• Develop cultural competence-- get information about the experiences, contributions and histories of one-down group members

• Build relationships across difference

• Decide to invest in the success of someone from a “one-down group - mentor, sponsor, support their development

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Things You Can Do, cont’d

• Interrupt bias when you see it

• Publish the accomplishments of one-down group individuals to offset bias

• Examine and change systems in the organization where unearned advantage is embedded

• Expect to make mistakes, get disoriented, feel destabilized with this information – don’t succumb to or be paralyzed by guilt and shame

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Spectrum of Responses to Bias

ActivelyBiased

PassivelyBiased

ActivelyAnti-Biased

Q U E S T I O N S!

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Vernā Myers Consulting Group, LLC

100 Harborview Drive

Suite 1402

Baltimore, MD 21230

443-438-7060

vmyers@vernamyersconsulting.com

www.vernamyersconsulting.com