Diversity, equity and inclusion: from words to action

Juneteenth

Published at Acento Diario, section Opinion June 22, 2021

On June 19, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, in Texas, a group of African-American slaves belatedly learned of their freedom. June 19 marks the end of an era in American history, although the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery throughout the United States, was ratified a few months later. Despite the fact that many US states recognized the date and observed it since the eighties, it took more than four decades for President Joe Biden to finally on June 17, 2021, signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into Law.

The news is a "concrete action" requested last year by the UN General Assembly who adopted a resolution calling for the elimination of racial discrimination and xenophobia, citing an alarming increase in hate speech and incitement to violence. By then, hate speech had unleashed a series of incidents around the world.

It is not an easy task to change from intention to action. A famous phrase by Peter Drucker that states "Culture eat strategy for breakfast" points out that it takes time to achieve the desired impact on the culture of the country or the institution, even if there is the intention or the best strategic plan. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are concepts that go beyond the intention of the leaders of our organizations. The challenge is to build a place where all groups, in the same way, feel committed to achieving goals and the success of the organization.

Creating new traditions and changing organizational culture begins with opening all the senses, but above all, listening. With words, policies, or beautiful presentations in PowerPoint, Canvas, or Prezzi, it is unable to achieve the change, much less the change of the organizational culture. It takes years of listening and learning the needs and expectations of talents, as well as creating new traditions accordingly, leading by examples.

Even though organizations are becoming more aware of equity and inclusion for several years now, studies indicate that the pandemic has impacted certain groups more than others: in the Dominican Republic, the greatest impact was experienced by women, including those with small children. They have assumed both, the responsibilities around at home, as well as the education of children, in addition to the work responsibilities, many times greater, as a result of the staff reductions. Some have even had to make the decision to abandon their professional lives because of a country's cultural issue, but also because not all companies have clear policies on this matter. Other organizations have the policies in place, but the leaders are not necessarily model it at the workplace.

The fact is that the commitment of the collaborators translates into better organizational results. McKinsey's research from November 2020 shows that companies with diverse leadership teams outperformed their less diverse peers in profitability. In April of this year, they pointed out the importance of aligning how growth is achieved since it is difficult to improve economic mobility and the distribution of resources without increasing the overall size of the economy.

Our clients and our human capital and potential talent increasingly consider diversity a priority. In one of its ads launched last year, Nike signals through a video its commitment to diversity and the ability to improve ourselves through sports and in general as a society. Their ad and slogan “Nothing can stop what we can do together. You can’t stop sport. Because you can’t stop us.” motivated the company to report significant income, even during the pandemic. It is because 46% of customers buy a brand because they feel identified with its culture, but 70% will stop buying it because they don’t. And this is only going to increase in the future.

Other studies indicate that diverse, multigenerational, multicultural teams with a diversity of genders, in other words, inclusive teams, are more resilient, better prepared to face the time of change.

Finally, the collaboration between multidisciplinary teams encourages divergent thoughts, therefore, the creativity of collaborators and continuous innovation, essential for the sustainability of organizations.

Organizations that do not yet have policies and practices to support diversity, equity, and inclusion should create a plan of work in the near future. According to the US President, the true meaning of the Juneteenth proclamation is the commitment to equality that “is not going to be fulfilled until it becomes real in our schools and on our Main Streets and in our neighborhoods “

Angelina Angelov