one of the greatest things that we could
ever do the most courageous things that
we could ever do is to be inclusive as a
organizations to have the capacity to be
courageous
however most or not most organizations
look at inclusion as a problem to be
solved in order to get on to bigger and
better things it’s almost like they have
a checklist let’s see we have an Asian
in sales Muslim and marketing we’ve got
that guy in a wheelchair down in
customer service and Lisa obviously
she’s a woman but she’s also black and a
lesbian three check marks we are diverse
and inclusive organization are you
diversity and inclusion is more than
your workforce composition an inclusive
organization means you have a diverse
cross sector of individuals who actually
work together they interact throughout
the day if your organization has diverse
faces but lacks diverse voices you do
not get to call yourself diverse and
inclusive so that brings us to my big
idea I believe that growth and great
works began with inclusion and in order
to do that you have to be a courageous
organization
I think Verna Myers says it very well
when she speaks about the difference
between diversity and inclusion so
courageous companies are companies that
go beyond just tolerating one another
when you think about a company like AT&T
mm to their CEO Randall Stephenson stood
up at their annual conference in front
of all of his ploys and he said
tolerance is for cowards we have to go
beyond tolerating one another to an
uncomfortable place and understand one
another at that moment in time AT&T was
listed as number nine on diversity inks
most diverse companies out of the top 50
in the country currently they are number
three so obviously in doing that
something clicked and they’re doing
better or you could be courageous like a
company like a cincher they have lofty
goals in terms of inclusion and
diversity so much so that they went out
and did a study and did a video this
this program is a fascinating and it’s
called inclusion starts with AI and they
did this program where they videotaped
their employees and they asked them this
question what is exclusion feel like to
you what is exclusion look like to you
and from that conversation they
generated a program where they were able
to go back to their management staff and
implement programming to make it a more
positive and inclusive work environment
they wanted their employees to be
themselves and be free to do their work
they are listed at number 14 on a very
same list so when we think about this
big idea growth and great works
beginning with inclusion we have to
really pill it apart and today I’m going
to give you a blueprint on how to do
that in little bite-size steps when I
was growing up in Chicago I I’m the
oldest of four and the only male for a
black male in Chicago at that time it
was a very challenging time the
statistic said that by 25 you’d be dead
or in jail and my mother worked
diligently hard to make sure we had
every opportunity for school and a good
decent place to live and sometimes she
worked two jobs
two of those jobs stand out to me even
today and one is because I was a kid and
I thought it was the mecca of cool jobs
it was Toys R Us but there’s not the one
that impacted me the most the one that
had the greatest impact she worked with
teens at the YMCA and I spent a lot of
hours after school there learning about
leadership responsibilities community so
a few years ago my family we packed up
and moved to a new community and we’re
looking to belong we were looking to get
involved and we decided to join the YMCA
a place that I was very familiar with
and to my surprise that wasn’t a team
Leadership Program there so my wife and
I are people who we believe if you
complain you ought to do something so I
volunteered to lead their program
through a series of conversations with
five different executives from the
branch manager through the CEO in three
different states I got a book that looks
like one of your college textbooks
marked up written highlighted numbers
notes pages out of order suffice to say
that program never got off the ground so
rather than quit I took the next step
and I joined the board and I said a
bigger seat a bigger platform a bigger
opportunity to serve and I’ve been on
several boards so a little background at
this time I had already going through a
place where I had been a youth pastor
and a young adult minister I had
operated and run a non-profit for youth
I had to work with kids during
curriculum and facilitating so I felt
more than qualified for this role at the
YMCA working with this exact population
I resigned from that position two weeks
ago I served on that board and was acts
to fundraise and was axed to go out and
do the work of the YMCA borås never
allowed a voice in how it should run and
make it better I didn’t feel my time was
respected and I didn’t feel as though I
was heard when new people come to your
organization how do they feel
do they feel like they belong or do they
feel like I did uncomfortable
isolated excluded this idea of inclusion
will allow us to fulfill the three
deepest needs of human when you think of
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
right after personal and safety is
belonging think of all the things that
you belong to gymnasiums churches social
media sites dating sites
Netflix think of all the things you
identify with race where you’re from
where you live
types of cars you drive Coke or Pepsi
Apple or Android those things are all
about belonging belonging is hardwired
predetermined path – like many many you
fesses before me I had some gigantic
ideas how I was gonna save the church
you heard me right I didn’t say my chart
just had D Church I was God was going to
make a difference and then I found out
that you for leaving the church in
alarming numbers so why I had to get to
the bottom of that and once I did I
found out that they didn’t belong they
didn’t have a place where they felt like
they belonged so the first thing we had
to do was figure out how to make that
work how do you get these young people
to belong in this church we had people
who were from 11 to 19 so we had old
kids what we called em young kids and
they didn’t like each other I know
shocking that is not all kumbaya and
youth group but it’s true they they
didn’t old kids thought the young kids
were babies young kids thought the big
kids were bully they were all just kind
of dropped off where the parents went to
the big church for an hour and we had to
start at the beginning so we did
potlucks and we did games and we did
outings and we went to the sporting
events we did all these things just
because we needed them to belong and
when we got to a place where they
started to belong then we can move to
the next stage but not before you see
belonging is the buying stage and it’s
important to get buy-in if you’re gonna
talk about inclusion with people after
that point of the longing we could move
on to the next point and a lot of
companies want to skip the next point
the first point and go to the next point
because the second is believe believe is
actually an approval stage but it
usually looks like this we are a great
company we are rapidly expanding we’re
growing we are doing some amazing work
you should join us you belong with us
come we’re gonna pay you a lot of money
which I understand is a much easier
conversation then we are really
struggling to attract diverse talent and
people from diverse backgrounds so we
really need you could you join us it’s
like a blind date think of a blind date
that goes I’m awesome I’m super I’m cool
I’m good-looking I got a nice car you
should date me and I’ve got a lot of
money so I’m gonna spend that on you
probably not a lot of second dates and
if there are a few dates at some point
you just kind of get tired of that act
because you’re not heard you’re not
valued you’re not respected so the
belief stage is vitally important for
companies to understand they need to
make sure that the people buy into what
they’re doing and you can’t have one
before the others what I’ve learned is
you cannot catch a fish after you’ve
cleaned it it just doesn’t work in that
order you must first catch it and then
clean it and it’s the same with people
who come to your organization so after
the leave the final step in that process
is to begin begins a tough one because
in between there there’s a little sweet
spot where I had to lose control of that
youth group I had to allow them to do
the work I had to say hey here’s my
vision but I can’t make it happen you
have to and it’s kind of cool because I
understand something now that I didn’t
then I’ve never seen a gardener tell a
flower how to grow you cannot have
growth and control so before we got to
the next step I thought about something
in my life that I like to correct here
on stage with you I had a friend named
Earl when I was in college and they’re
all played basketball he was the captain
of our school’s basketball team I love
basketball
I still play two three days a week when
I can and Earl and I were good friends
but we never played basketball together
you’re thinking how could there be well
in order for me to play basketball Earl
I would have had to given up control I
probably should mention that Earl was
captain of the wheelchair basketball
team for me to play with Earl I mean I
would have had to lose the privilege of
walking I would have had to sit in his
chair and see things from his
perspective I would have had to give up
control and I wasn’t ready then but I am
now so old if you’re watching if any of
you know Earl please let him know that
I’m be glad to play with him and I want
to include him so the last step in that
process last stage is begin begin as
when people make a conscious decision to
engage so if I go back to that youth
group they came a point after we went
through the process where they actually
created all the logos for the church
they became the photographers for all
the church events they became the
videographers for the church event we
held our first Youth Conference and so
on and so on they brought in other youth
to grow their ministry and that’s how
the ministry grew I empower them but
they grew it and it has to be the same
four organizations we have to be willing
to let go a little control and empower
people to do the work the long believed
began
it’s a very simple process and we have
to follow it to get there here’s the
meat of the message this is what gets
uncomfortable for people because it is a
direct challenge for leaders to be
courageous for organizations to be
courageous inclusion will make you money
a lot of times that’s the bottom line so
let’s just get to that because it leads
to higher productivity people want to be
engaged people want to contribute people
want to belong it will also lead to
higher morale it will also lead to more
innovation better recruitment better
engagement better in retention so now
that that argument is done let’s look at
some of the other arguments that if you
include others you lose privileges and
you lose power you don’t lose privilege
when you include others you gain
valuable insight and valuable
perspective and you absolutely do not
lose power you actually allow others to
assume their power others to walk into
their natural power others to reach
their full potential you must not be
threatened by employees who are becoming
powerful because their power does not
diminish your power they are
complimentary and the onus cannot be
just on organization it has to also be
on us we have to know that even though
they aspire to be these companies that
are inclusive they are not yet there and
it is our responsibility to no longer
sit in the corner but to acts to dance
we have to raise our hand and our mantra
must be include me when you’re making
these decisions include me and for the
leaders when they come to you and they
say include me be courageous acts their
perspectives ask about their knowledge
see things from their
viewpoint allow them to be their
authentic selves and if you can manage
these stages belong believe begin you
will see your organization transform and
you will reach a nirvana
that is a fourth and final stage that is
simply be your people will be their
authentic selves and you can grow and do
great works that is my big idea thank
you for listening [Applause]