Daily Diversity Download Upgrades Coming December 1, 2010

Dear Fans & Followers of the Daily Diiversity Download,

I want to first Thank You for your continued interest in and support fo the Daily Diversity Download.  It is truly a labor of love. To provide you with a more interactive experience, we are adding some enhancements to the blog that will not only continue to address the broad dimensions and contemporary issues of Diversity & Inclusion, but also allow you to bettter connect with readers, contributers and subject matter experts. I am excited about the changes. We expect to be live again on December 1st.

Although scheduling has sometimes prevented me from posting daily, please know that there is still a great deal to say and share about how Diversity & Inclusion impacts our lives daily. As we all connect with these essential pricnciples, the world coninues to get better. Therefore, I am renewing my commitment to sharing with you each day. In the meantime, you can always follow me on Twitter @Diversitywiz to get the latest updates and breaking news regarding Diversity & Inclusion.

Thanks,

Sean Huddleston

It is Getting Cold in the Desert

Greetings. It’s been a few days since I have been able to post on the daily diversity download, so let’s get right to it. As I sit here and gaze out the window at the fine mist of snow currently falling to the ground in Michigan, I can’t help but thinking of those that are enjoying warmer days elsewhere in this great country of ours. My thoughts should go to sunny California, beautiful Hawaii or the beaches of Miami, Florida. But, as a passionate Diversity Professional, my thoughts have seemed to naturally land on the state of Arizona. I shake my head.

What the heck is up in Arizona? As many of you recall, just a few months ago the state’s Governor Jan Brewer pushed, supported and passed legislation that essentially legalized the racial profiling of Hispanic Americans. While the legislation’s wording essentially says that it targets illegal and undocumented residents, I am doubtful that Canadians, Irish or certain Europeans will have little to worry about if their documents are not in order. Since the queues to initially provoke such an investigation are likely based on appearance, it is easy to assume that Hispanics will be most impacted. And let’s be honest, this is the group that is perceived to be the “problem” and therefore the legislation was passed for in the first place. I shake my head again.

It gets worse. On Tuesday November 2nd, the voters of the state of Arizona passed a law banning Affirmative Action, which basically prohibits consideration of race, ethnicity or gender by units of state government, including public colleges and universities for employment, procurement contracts and college admission.  For the record, Latinos making up 29 percent of Arizona’s population and if current population trends continue, Arizona will become a majority-minority state by 2015. To add to this, Arizona is home to 21 federally recognized Native American tribes whose reservations and tribal communities comprise over a quarter of Arizona's lands. Now, one could assume that Affirmative Action may not even be needed in Arizona. After all, Affirmative Action programs were designed to eliminate disparities amongst genders and races in areas like employment and higher education. If the majority of the job and college applicants are people of color (namely Latinos or Native Americans), then the disparities should correct themselves, right? Wrong!
The benefits that Affirmative Action has and would continue to bring to Arizona go beyond the numbers. For starters, Arizona's universities -- like most institutions -- have many programs for minority students, some of which could be in trouble if not allowed to “recruit” students for these programs. For example, Arizona State University announced new summer fellowships in digital media for minority students in August as a means to get more diversity in this profession and academic discipline. This is money desperately needed by the students in order to be able to afford ASU’s tuition. What happens now? Desperate to prevent what ultimately happened on Tuesday, the University of Arizona posted this video on the potential impacts of banning Affirmative Action in Arizona.  In the video, Jeff Milem, associate dean of the College of Education makes the following statement:  "the most profound impact would be on graduate and professional education, where many programs do consider race or gender in admissions decisions.” He also said that in fields where there are clear disparities -- such as engineering, which has a large gender gap -- many professors believe they should make extra efforts to diversify their classes. Makes perfect sense to me.

On the employment and State contracting front, the ban on Affirmative Action will have economic development impacts felt by the entire state. While the state’s unemployment rate is just below the national average at about 10%, the figure is much higher when discouraged workers are included in the count. That brings the broader unemployment rate to nearly 1 in 5 workers, most of whom are people of color. Additionally, when you factor in the compensation disparities, you will notice that those that are employed and on the higher ends of the compensation scales are also those that are soon to be in the state’s minority. So, who is going to buy goods and services sold in Arizona to help the state economy progress? Banning Affirmative Action adds to the problem because it essentially means that people of color and women can continue to be disenfranchised in Arizona because of a lack of simple intervention by the State’s government to help level the playing field. The same goes true for Minority & Woman owned businesses. It is no secret that small businesses make the economy move. They are more nimble than large businesses, able to hire more people faster and often more loyal to the local economy & communities. Moreover, small minority and woman owned businesses tend to locate and higher from communities that need economic development the most, and therefore rely on Supplier Diversity programs to help open the doors of opportunity. When these state programs go away, then typically the opportunities (and businesses) do as well.

Simply put, Arizona appears to be on their way to becoming “anti-diversity & inclusion”. I can’t imagine what’s next. Just so you know, I think Arizona is an absolutely beautiful state. My mother and step-father reside there, and have enjoyed visiting as often as possible. My wife and I even contemplated relocating there at some point. Not now thought. Not until I see some tangible steps to make Arizona “warm” again for people of color and women. It’s getting cold in the desert. If you go, dress warm.

Thanks. As always, I welcome your comments and reactions. Tune in again for the next Daily Diversity Download.

Feet on the Welcome Mat

Greetings. Last Friday, I had the great opportunity to attend meeting with some of the key stakeholders for downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. The topic we were discussing was “How to create a more inclusive and welcoming Downtown” for residents and visitors of this great city. This meeting was just one of a series of meetings that have occurred and will be ongoing. Admittedly, it’s a big mountain to climb. Not being born and raised in Grand Rapids gives me some disadvantages, in that I lack the long history and catalog of experiences of not being welcomed by downtown that some lifelong Grand Rapidians share…the very problem we are attempting to solve. However, I do easily recognize this issue as a consequence of a number of other diversity-related issues for the region that I have experienced and am working with others to address and fix. It’s the reason I started this business in the first place. I see, feel and experience the lack of Diversity & Inclusion in this region every single day. However, I also have seen, felt and experienced it work here in small ways. But I am convinced that small is sometimes the best way to start as long as it is sustainable. That’s where my passion to solve the problem resides.

I gathered from the discussions that some of the main issues around building a welcoming downtown include a lack of diverse employment in the downtown businesses, lack of ethnically and culturally diverse business establishments to patronize, lack of events that target diverse audiences, a downtown experience that is economically out of reach for mainstream urban consumers and a history of poor treatment of minority patrons. Because of this, people of all races and cultures don’t feel that downtown is for them, so they don’t come. I warned you, the mountain is big.

Compounding this problem is the fact that if our ethnically and culturally diverse citizens don’t come downtown to work, conduct business, shop, eat or patronize the arena and concert venues, then we also risk missing out on diversity from (1) sports teams and entertainment acts looking to fill seats, (2) national conventions and meetings looking to hold events and patronize the city’s hotels and restaurants and (3) visitors looking for a great experience. The risk is that if they don’t see people that look like and have some of the same cultural experiences as them, then they will not choose Grand Rapids as a welcoming destination. Now, one could easily say “good, that will teach the downtown stakeholders a lesson, and THEN maybe they will get it and start to change”.  However, that statement could only be accurate if the problems described above were the downtown businesses and organizations to solve alone. You see, this truth of the matter is that we are all stakeholders in this issue.  “They” is actually “We”.

Let’s examine further. Let us assume that everyone accepts that this is a universal problem and become invested in the solution. The more business that is conducted downtown, the more economic activity. This has several implications. It increases employment needs and opportunities, which in turn increases disposable incomes and the pool of taxpayers while bringing more diversity to the forefront of downtown businesses. More business activity results in a greater need for competition and the addition of more businesses to handle all of the new customers, especially businesses owned by people with a wider range of cultural connections and competencies to assist a broader customer base. More economic activity also results in a better story for entertainment promoters to tell. A good lesson comes from the failed Mary J. Blige concert. Here’s a quick recap: less than 10,000 tickets sold and a promise that she would NEVER come back to perform in Grand Rapids. Hence, more people and patronage downtown provides a greater chance of improving numbers to entice top-notch and diverse talent. Now if we add all of that up, it means more people working with more money to spend and businesses and venues being able to charge less due to higher volumes of customers.

Sounds logical, but that works for everything except one issue which is arguably the largest of all and the root of the problem….the history of poor treatment experienced by minority patrons of downtown. Should we be trying to convince them to “forgive and forget”? That’s a tough one and rightly so. Also, what about the downtown businesses? Will they get the logic and are they prepared to change? Before tackling these, I need to point a few things out. As one of the great minds in this “Think Tank” pointed out, we do have some diversity downtown. There is diversity in the workforces of a number of the downtown businesses, although not very pronounced. There are minority and woman-owned businesses downtown as well, although not in large numbers.  There have also been a number of entertainment events and large meetings focusing on more diverse audiences coming to downtown grand rapids in more frequency, although still not frequent enough. To borrow a phrase from that great mind, we need to “showcase that diversity more” by making improvements in all areas.  

How do we fix it?

The only way to move forward with solutions is for everyone to be willing to try something different. I’m convinced that it starts with content. We must first improve and then “showcase” that diversity, which means that the downtown businesses have to make changes first. The good news is that if nothing else, business people understand economics. I think if we keep speaking this common language, the social justice and imperatives that go hand-in-hand with economic benefits will begin to take shape…but not without help. It will definitely take some time and coaching for the needed changes to get into their DNA.

For consumers and residents, some forgiveness would need to occur. However, I don’t think anyone should forget. I think the emotions and passions garnered from past experiences should be preserved but channeled in a different and forward direction. That way when things are better, the stark contrast and improvements are vibrant. But in order to become invested, residents need to see, feel and trust the change. They also have to recognize that "they" are part of the “we”. Therefore, the downtown businesses that are already there (or moving forward with diversity) need to be frequented now. Entertainment and sports events, especially those brought to Grand Rapids for diverse audiences, need to be attended now. Museums and other major downtown attractions need to be visited now. The more we do now, the faster the future can get here.

Thanks. As always, I welcome your comments and reactions. Tune in tomorrow for another Daily Diversity Download.

Should We Be teaching New Dogs Old Tricks?

Two summers ago I decided that it was time for my oldest son to get a job. He was 17 years old at the time, and I felt it was time for him to begin learning what it feels like to actually earn his own money. Plus, I was having no parts of him sitting around the house all summer playing video games or asking me and his mom for money to go hang out with his friends. I myself had been working since age 15 and remembered how much I had looked forward to the day that I could get a job, so this should be a piece of cake. However, my son and I are different, and I (like most parents I know) had done a pretty good job of helping him develop a sense of entitlement that it was time to retire. Therefore, I knew that this was not going to be an easy conversation, but I was not backing down for a second.

As I made my announcement to my son, I got the usual slumped shoulders and deep sighs of disappointment, but I had learned to easily deflect them with a pretty stern look. Then, he hit me with this: “it will be impossible to find a job because my friends told me that businesses around here are not hiring high school kids”. I deflected again. I then told him to get dressed. We were going out to the mall and he was going to go to every store, ask for the Manager or person otherwise in charge, introduce himself and ask if they were currently hiring new talent. If the answer was yes, he was to politely ask for an application for employment that he would complete on the spot. If the answer was no, he was to keep it moving. He was going to follow the same time-honored process I had used successfully without fail over two decades ago. I knew better than to drop him off alone, so I waited for him to finish the deed and report how many applications he had completed. After four attempts, I found a pattern that I wasn’t prepared for and had not considered. Every one of the stores told him that they did not have printed applications, and if he were interested, he needed to apply online. This went on for three or four more stores. I then ended his misery and we left.

That got me to thinking about how the game has changed, and the impact that new technology, cultures and techniques have on the things that we have been doing forever. For my son, if successful finding a job, the new and the old would have to collide in some way. He would find and apply for the job electronically, but he would have to get the job offer the old fashion way….by interviewing in person with someone. I’m pretty tech-savvy (I can text, friend and tweet with the best of them), but as far as I know, there is no technological substitute for eye contact, a firm handshake and a friendly smile (emoticons don’t count). But, I’m also thinking that that’s a very small part of what the future will soon look like. The way we work is changing every day, and although there are some traditional tools and techniques that still hold success, we probably need to view many of them as perishable.

This entire experience also got me to thinking about the cultural diversity associated with the multiple generations in the workplace and how organizations need to really be sensitive about how different generations have to adapt differently. Most of the information about generation diversity that I have seen and read is about it being four generations in the workplace: The Traditionals (born 1930-1945), The Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964), Generation X (born 1965-1977) and Generation Y or Millennials (born 1978 – 1990).  However, if “Traditionals” are indeed still in the workplace, and some are, then there is fifth generation that is emerging. That generation is comprised of people born after 1990. Since the legal working age in most states is 16 years old, then anyone born from 1990 – 1994 would now comprise this new workforce generation. There have been some attempts to name this generation, such as Generation 2020 and Generation 9/11, but I don’t think an official moniker has been decided. With that being said, what “old tricks” do we need to help preserve for the generations in the workplace that will be dominant for the foreseeable future, or is everything up for renewal?  

While to good old “9-5” schedule is quickly becoming a thing of the past as is working for the same company for over five years, there are some things that I think transcend time and generations:

1.    Quality – Quality must remain personal. Every person from every generation must maintain a passion for creating quality work, providing quality service, developing quality processes and expecting quality results. Quality defines your brand, whether it be personal or professional.

2.    The Entrepreneurial Spirit – Trust me, it takes a lot of guts to start and successfully run a business. However, it also takes a strong commitment to resilience, creativity and tenacity. These are the qualities of successful people everywhere and I don't expect them to change.

3.    Ambition – Ambition is under-rated. Traditionals, Baby Boomers and some Gen X people will tell you that ambition is all about getting the big title and corner office by any means necessary. But ambition is really about wanting something more and never settling for what you have when something greater can be achieved.

4.    Change – Everything changes all of the time. In fact, I just found out that there is a company that is even experimenting with doing away with the cardboard tube found in the middle of the toilet paper roll! Those that are resistant to change perish, those that accept change survive and those that CAUSE change flourish.

So, to the question “should we teach new dogs old tricks?” my answer is yes, but they only need to be taught the ones that were built to last. And if you are the one teaching... be prepared to become the student at some point as well.

As always, I look forward to your comments and reactions. Tune in tomorrow for another Daily Diversity Download.

Out Of The Night That Covers Me

I love movies. I really do. I especially like the ones that I can’t figure out until the very end. Those movies keep me engaged as I search my mind to connect the clues and events in order to predict the ending. Now, most of the time I chose the movies that I want to see by the trailer that comes out to promote the movie a month or so before it actually comes out.

One movie that came out last year titled Invictus was one that I was luke-warm about seeing. I was interested because the title of the movie was the same as one of my all-time favorite poems by William Ernest Henley, and the movie starred two of my favorite actors Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman. However, the trailer suggested that it was a movie about Rugby – one of the few sports that I have little interest in or knowledge about. I’d catch it on DVD or cable “On Demand” one day if there was nothing else out to see, but I wasn’t spending the $9.00 at the movies for the ticket. So yesterday, while scrolling through the On Demand menu, I found Invictus. Nothing better to do, so I decided to watch it. Guess what? Invictus IS NOT a movie about Rugby. I never imagined that this would become one of the most impactful movies that I had ever seen and likely become one of the greatest examples of why Diversity & Inclusion simply must work that I have ever witnessed.

As it turns out, the movie Invictus is based on the book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation by John Carlin. Essentially, the movie is about the initial months of Nelson Mandela’s South African Presidency and how he used a national symbol of hate and separation to unite the country and speed up the true eradication of Apartheid. Black South African’s and white South Africans were separated by many things before the end of Apartheid in 1994, including their national sport. Nelson Mandella saw this as an early opportunity to unite a nation that had been torn apart by oppression and racism. With Black South Africans representing the majority of the population, and Nelson Mandella being a black South African himself, one would think that it would make perfect sense for him to disband the South African national Rugby team, the Springboks, and allow the country to unite under the sport of Soccer, which was the preferred sport of black South Africans…..right? wrong.

Nelson Mandella took the opposite approach. He believed that if he could get the two groups to recognize that the what they have in common is more important than what separates them, then and only then could South Africa heal and unite. Yes they were "Black South Africans" and "White South Africans"….but they needed to focus on the fact that they were ALL "South Africans". To do this, they needed to celebrate the one thing they had in common, their nation, together. The Springboks were in the best position for this as the World Cup was approaching. To inspire the players, Mandella called upon the one thing that got him through each day of his 27 years in prison, the poem Invictus (latin for undefeated or unconquered). As he puts it, it was the one thing that made him “stand up when all he wanted to do is lay down.”

Now, most members of Fraternities and Sororities are familiar with the poem Invictus, which is often recited by candidates for membership to encourage and motivate them to complete the process despite the odds. This is how I came to know this poem. However, the more I think about the words of the poem and the passion it seeks to evoke, I have come to realize that these words are the fuel that must accelerate the fundamental notion that our differences make us interdependent upon each other for true success and therefore we are greater together than we are apart. Invictus says that regardless of the historical obstacles to inclusion for all, regardless of the current biases and stereotypes, regardless of the unbalance of economic power and access to opportunities, we MUST not be deterred. And we must seek success from unlikely sources and in unconventional ways. Marches, vigils and boycotts were fine before. We need a new approach now. That approach needs to include identifying and embracing the value that all people can bring, even if it means reaching out to those that thought you had no value at all. Simply put, we need to be unconquerable in our quest for diversity and inclusion.

INVICTUS

Out of the night that covers me                

Black as the pit for pole to pole              

I thank whatever gods may be                

For my unconquerable soul.                    

Beyond this place of wrath and tears    

Looms the horror of the shade              

And yet the menace o the years            

Finds, and shall find me unafraid.   

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced or cried allowed
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloodied but unbowed.
      

It matters not how strait the gate
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul.

Thanks. As always I look forward to your comments and reactions. Tune in tomorrow for another Daily Diversity Download.

What Women Want.....I Think

Greetings. Many of you remember or saw the movie "What Women Want" that came out in 2000 starring the now embattled Mel Gibson. If not, let me refresh your memory. In the movie, Mel's character Nick Marshall is a "womanizer" that gains the power to hear the thoughts of every woman he encounters through a freak accident in a bathtub with a hair dryer (Mel probably wishes he had the power in real life right about now). While he initially uses this power for his own selfish gain, he eventually comes to better appreciate the value, talents and gifts that women bring, and ultimately is able to develop more functional and powerful relationships with them. The movie was a HUGE success, grossing over $374 million worldwide.

Now, I don't think we all need to risk electrocution to gain the strange and unnatural powers of Nick Marshall, but we do need a reality check.  It is a fact that a gender gap exists in America that not only prevents women from achieving simple equality and advancement in the workplace and entrepreneurial ranks, it threatens to stall the progress that Diversity & Inclusion seeks to make. Here are some fast and alarming facts:

·         While woman comprise almost half of the U.S. labor force (46%), they still only make 77.5 cents for every dollar a man earns AND women earn less that men in 99% of all occupations.

·         Even worse, African-American women earn 64 cents to every dollar earned by white men and Hispanic women just 52 cents per dollar.

·          40% of all of the businesses in the United States have no women in Senior Management.

·         Women business owners comprise close to 40% of all businesses in the U.S. and employ 35% more people than all the Fortune 500 companies YET their annual sales represent less than 5% of all sales in the United States.

·         Despite that fact that woman with Bachelor’s degrees outnumber men by about 1.2 million, the more education a woman has, the greater the disparity in her wages. Research conducted by the New York Times in April, 2010 states that women in professional specialty occupations earned only 72.7% of what men in the same position earned, and women in upper level executive, administrative and managerial occupations earned even less at 72.3%.

Source: www.jobprofiles.org/library/students/10_surprising_stats_on_women_in_workplace.htm

Do Women Want the Same Things As Everyone Else?

In some ways……yes. Allow me to explain. Minorities and woman have a lot in common in both how they have been historically under-represented and locked out of opportunities in the United States disproportionately. The rights and respect both have fought for are for equal access to opportunities, information and mobility. However, the sacrifices that women are sometimes required to make to achieve these things can be a heavier load to carry. Here is an example. One friend shared with me that at her company, the unofficial and unwritten model of success for mothers (of young and school-aged children) to advance through the leadership ranks is that their husband’s must become stay-at-home Dads. If these women are successful in convincing their husbands to abandon their careers to help their wives grow and succeed at this company, then and only then are they considered Executive Material. Now, in fairness to the company, this could be that their experience indicates that Executives are far more likely to have a greater time commitment to the company and don’t believe that this can be achieved if the Executive needs to also be the primary caregiver for their children. As a former corporate Executive, I understand the challenges that come along with the job. It’s hard. Also, in fairness to those that have made this decision, the sacrifice may actually improve the financial position of the family and allow the fathers to create stronger bonds with their children. However, think of the message that sends to women at this company.

I think women want what everybody else wants. They want respect and recognition for the contribution they make, they want a good balance between career and life and they want to be free to advance. However, they also don’t want to have to sacrifice their femininity, motherhood or self-respect to achieve these things. These are dimensions that we should be trying to figure out how to leverage to improve innovation and inclusion, not eliminate from the profile of success for women.

Thanks. As always, I look forward to your comments and reactions. Tune in tomorrow for another Daily Diversity Download.

Is Anyone Benefiting From the Educational Divide?

My wife has a noble job. She's not a Doctor, Firefighter, Minister or Missionary. She does not put bad people in prison or professionally counsel people with serious problems. Also, she's not a teacher. She's the next best thing. She works for a company that owns and manages charter schools, many of which are in economically depressed areas that serve poor, minority and otherwise disadvantaged students. Her job is to recruit the best and brightest Teachers possible that are willing to put aside fears, assumptions and stereotypes and use their training to help provide some hope for these children. My wife is very good at what she does.

Many are very familiar with something called the "Educational Divide" (also referred to as the Achievement Gap) which essentially describes the gaps in the quality of schools, teachers and education that seem to follow race and socio-economic lines. Indeed, it is known that the college preparation, application and entrance rates for poor and minority students are much lower than other groups. Regardless of what side of the "charter school vs. public school" argument you find yourself on,  we have to wonder if anyone is ultimately benefiting from the disparities in quality education that unfortunately exist.

Companies like the one my wife works for are in business to make a profit. They compete for the same state and federal funding that public schools seek to operate and pay administrative salaries. Colleges then rely on charter and public schools to ensure that these students can get admitted to their schools so that they can then in turn get Federal grant money, loan money and any tuition dollars the families can afford to pay in exchange for preparing a new group of workers and taxpayers. Companies then rely on the colleges to churn out a workforce that can help their organizations turn a profit and pay shareholder dividends while the Federal Government gets a new batch of taxpayers to fund the needs of the country. Some food chain, huh?

Yesterday I tweeted about the The Obama Administration's renewed commitment to improving education  for Hispanic students, including the passage of the Dream Act, which is aimed at helping undocumented students become legal citizens of the United States. Other efforts under the focus on education for Hispanics are the reduction of the dropout rate and improved connections between pre-K-12 and post secondary education. Because of this, it makes perfect sense that President Obama would see this as a fundamental problem in growing a future professional and technical workforce or business base of new Entrepreneurs and actually do something about it. I loudly applaud this. It's definitely a step in the right direction.

However, as long as the Educational Divide exists, the chain will remain broken and benefits for all will be few and far between. Charter and Public Schools alike need the same great teachers, solid educational tools, state-of-the art facilities and parental partnerships that the more "high performing" schools have access to.
According to a recent report from the Manhattan Institute, only nine percent of all college-ready High School graduates are black and nine percent are Hispanic. The report ultimately concludes that  the financial barriers or affirmative action policies that are keeping minority and low-income students out of college are less of the problem than the fact that these students are not gaining the college-ready skills they need to continue with their education.

Consequently, it is my view that nobody is truly benefiting from the Educational Divide. Not the kids, schools, colleges, employers or government. Nobody. If we want to close the gaps that exist, we must create equity at the beginning of the chain and to ensure that the links at the end of the chain will hold.

Thanks. As always I look forward to your comments and reactions. Tune in tomorrow for another Daily Diversity Download.