Leading with Inclusion: Empowering Success Through Diversity

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so hello everybody my good morning everyone my name is capil guy and I am

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the senior manager of membership engagement here at the Toronto region Board of Trade thank you all for joining

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us this morning for our valued member Centennial College's workshop on leading with inclusion empowering Success

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Through diversity today's enlightening webinar will help us discover the profound impact of inclusivity and gain

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the tactics needed to guide your organization towards a brighter and more inclusive future please note that

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today's session will be recorded and uploaded to our YouTube channel if you have any questions while the webinar is

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going on please post your questions in the chat and we will answer your questions dur during our Q&A session at

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the end before we begin I'd like to acknowledge this land on which we are meeting is home to diverse First Nations

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Inuit and mate peoples though you could be joining us or watching from anywhere the board's offices are located on the

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traditional territory of many indigenous Nations they share with us a sense of responsibility responsibility for

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intergenerational Equity the well-being of today and tomorrow and now without

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further Ado I'd like to pass over the mic to Michael and Richard from Centennial College so they can get

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things started thank you everyone great thanks capella uh good morning everyone

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um my name is Michael Simons I'm the uh chair of specialized academic certificates and access programming at

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Centennial College uh and I'll have my colleague uh introduce himself and then uh we'll

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we'll Dive Right In and my name is Richard Williamson I am one of the faculty members at um Centennial and um

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really heavily engaged with a a program that is specifically about leadership and inclusion um that's offered both at

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the the undergraduate student level but more specifically related to our conversation today we offer this for um

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people currently in working in organization um at all levels and in all

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sectors Michael thanks Richard so as you see here today we're going to be talk about empowering success to diversity

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and inclusion and and I really want to sort of begin to give you a framework around how that's going to work so if we

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go to the next slide uh we'll begin to talk about you know how do we how do we begin to have that discussion uh and one

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of you know even though it sounds relatively fundamental one of the first things we always need to to think about

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is well how do we begin you know how do we start this how do we incorporate this into our organization or or as an

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individual and and often the feeling that we've encountered and heard about from participants in our program is that

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you know we're willing but you know what do we do you know how do we do it um people recognize that it is important

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that it is something that should be considered it is something that can make a organization successful but often one

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of the stumbling blocks is that they simply don't know where to uh where to to begin so we're just going to move on to the next slide and

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um you know before we start I I think it's important to know you know who are we you know uh why should we even be

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paying attention to us I mean here we are a couple of people showing up today and to talk about something that's

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relatively uh new to some complex to others uh and and one of the things we

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want to make sure you're clear about is that the the the snapshot of information you're going to get today is based on a

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variet of things it comes from a variety of sources and so uh you've met Richard he's one of our our faculty members but

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all the faculty members that are involved with this this type of program in Centennial they have years of EDI uh

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expertise and this is one of the things that certainly informs the kinds of things you're going to hear about today uh we also have a program advisory

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committee uh that helps us uh understand the nuances the changes the needs the

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unique situations that we need to be aware of when we're uh uh working with working with students uh and that leads

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to regular curriculum updates we understand this is this is an evolving sort of feel it's not the sort of thing

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where you you set the curricular you set the ideas five years ago and hope that

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they're still relevant today we're always uh trying to make sure that we're current and and that the curriculum is

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updated uh and one of the things that that's allowed us to do is is to be successful for the the past decade um so

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it's important that you know when when you're listening to us today that it comes from a place of of of some level

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of expertise but we also invite questions and and your sort of unique takes and and understanding of what

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we're going to be talking with that talking about excuse me so with that in mind I'm gonna hand it over to Rich oh

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thank you Michael U and good morning and welcome to everyone we're really glad that you're here um we're really

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passionate about this work and uh we're hoping that you share that same kind of passion with us or maybe you'll feel a

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little bit more passionate even by the by the end of our um our talk this morning just just to go back for a

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moment to something that Michael mentioned um in terms of the the people that we work with um there's an

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incredible willingness interest in in this type of work around Equity diversity and

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inclusion uh but there's frequently and the one theme I would say that emerges routinely in all of the work that we do

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is that yeah we're interested we're willing but what do we do and how do we do it and we're really hoping that even

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though this this morning is going to be an overview we're going to give you enough speciic specific information that you will be able to take away some

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really U specific ideas of what you can do um but also kind of launch something

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about a path forward so one of the first things that we um we really focus on in

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in our work is ensuring that we we have shared understandings of the terminology we we use because that again is one of

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the things that I find in having done this work for many years now um everyone

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brings different understandings of these terms so I would like to just go through and tell you you a little bit about some of the the terminology we use and how we

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Define it many of you may have seen this graphic before or some variation it it's

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all over the place on the internet and that's where I grabb this image but I I I really like it because I think it

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captures an an idea really well um and and it really helps to inform the

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work that we talked about so if you look at the the third of it that says under under the equality you know the concept

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of equality still Services um but we have a really understanding that equality really doesn't meet needs in in

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the Contemporary world because everybody gets the same and you see the three characters there each standing on a an

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equal box um it's certainly working okay for one person it's partially working for the little individual in the red top

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um it absolutely doesn't work for the person in the purple top equity in the center image um talks about people

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getting what they need specifically to enable them to have you know

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approach things from a from a a more equal starting point so everyone's able to see this baseball game happening

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because they each one got what they what they need and that's really what Equity work is about sadly the image on the

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right reality is is truly um you know I think a really nice representation of

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just exactly where different people's starting points are and this may resonate with with some of you and you

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know things you've heard or people you've met or experiences you you have had yourselves so the we we need to work

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from a a common understanding of terminology and this is how we we talk about

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Equity the next term that I want to um look at is diversity and this is a really really sensitive one

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um we frequently have um very very big range of um understandings or

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determination of what what diversity actually means and frequently it comes down to to skin

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color or culture and culture frequently is connected to a a home country um we

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work with a much broader understanding of what diversity is and the image that I've pulled in here is um is this nice

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Iceberg and it shows the the what they refer to is the water line of visibility

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you can see that skin color gender race and age pierce the surface so those are the

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things that we you know visibly can capture around you know the diversity or uniqueness of of individuals but the

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enormity of of an iceberg as we know um is what's below the surface in other words what can't be seen and if you take

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a look at this image quite closely um I think you can likely connect with a

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number of things you know relative to yourselves you know aspects of yourselves that um may be quite unique

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to you and not common to other people um but are still you know really critical valuable and important aspects of of who

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you are but they're not noticed and unfortunately I sometimes in in my work

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encounter people you know who will say things like well we need to have we need to hire more diverse people and of

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course my thinking is you know well everyone is diverse everyone is a is a mixture of different um

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identities as they you know as you can see you represented from this Iceberg um

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when PE when I hear comments like that I I realize that I still have a lot of work to do in terms of guiding people to

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seeing people as more than a one identity marker you know none of us is a single aspect of of our identity we are

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a combination um and some of you and many of you may be familiar with the

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term of of intersectionality that we are all individuals of a number of identities and those are we have

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intersections of identity so it's a much more complex image of who we are the one

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the the really really I think important takeaway from this is that there's no such thing as diverse people and

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non-diverse people everyone is diverse because everyone is a combination of these identity markers so that's

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something that we need to establish really early on in our work and in your own workplaces and the work that you do

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ensuring that you have some really good common definitions is incredibly helpful

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so that takes us to our our next image what we talk about um when we talk about

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inclusion and I think this um this image works really really nicely to convey that for you so inclusion clearly is

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that idea of um all the different color dots connected within that one Circle

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the the images below exclusion you can see all the green dots are in the center but all of the other color dots are

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outside so they're really not they're not included they may be connected to

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but they're not actually a center and um at the Forefront and really included segregation and integration you can see

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you I think are probably you know pretty self-explanatory how they work you know segregation being a dominant group and

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all others in a completely separate and segregated area integration is an interesting one because it's the

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dominant group the large circle with the green dots with in a sense a sub group

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internal to it but not really well connected and this this hearkens back to

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a really really interesting article that was um done written a number of years ago and interestingly published in shadan magazine talking about of the

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challenges that multiculturalism brings because multiculturalism really um frequently focuses on differences and

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while we want to acknowledge and recognize difference we also don't want that to become the primary driver that

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we you know we see people as being different from ourselves in a way that that separates

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and creates something like in integration so that includ if I can just draw your eyes back to that inclusion

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circle at the top that's really what our aim is every everybody's together everyone you know interacts and engages

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and we're on a plane together so that we're not you know some elevated some not that's really ultimately our goal so

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these clarifying these terms is really helpful for us um in terms of you know starting the

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conversations because if we don't have common understandings then we're really working at Cross purposes so ultimately what we're

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looking for in our working definition is that in a workplace and that's really

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what we're talking about here today you know workplaces and leadership in workplaces our working definition is

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really simple everyone everyone feels valued respected and

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included but we have a challenge you know that's a really admirable thing to say everyone feels valued respected

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included but there are barriers and the barriers of things that we really need to focus on and and

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understand and then begin to dismantle if we truly want to move towards inclusion where everyone does feel

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valued respected and included so let's take a quick look at um a little bit about barriers so I've brought back that

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image of the iceberg with all those different identity markers and those identity markers um

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are where barriers can exist so barriers generally exist relative to these

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different markers so there could be barriers relative to skin color barriers relative to gender barriers relative to

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sexual orientation um Family status any of those identity

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markers so one of the things we want you to think about is in order to feel valued respected and included you know

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our our working definition of inclusion we need to address the barriers that we face you know that are based on our

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identities and I want I would like to just you know for a moment to give some thought to this

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question what barriers have existed for you in your your workplace and they could be relative to

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any of those so I'm hoping that many of you are already thinking some of these things that barriers relative to

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Identity markers whether those are visible or not so give that question in red what barriers have existed for you

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in your workplace just give that a moment's

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thought unfortunately it's just a moment so we will be moving on um but we're

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going to give you an idea sort of where we're aiming so when we think of equity diversity and inclusion and the barriers

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and the barriers are really critical because that's what really what defines what we need to do we go by the work of George day so George a is actually an

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academic um you from Toronto um and this one quotation in the

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center is just capture so beautifully um you know what our idea is and I'm hoping

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that you this is something you'll be able to take away so inclusion is not bringing people into what already exists

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it is making a new space a better space for everyone now that's pretty lofty that's

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pretty ambitious but it's something that I think we need to keep in our minds that we're not really sort of saying

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well we're going to bring you into what we currently have and then you know what

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happens with you know situations like that is then people feel a very very strong pressure to modify them elves

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code switch for example um into ways that things are done so what we're aiming at is then is a is a new space or

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a space that has been rethought into such a way that people don't need to change who they are and fully adapt and

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adopt the Norms of an an organization so that they can be comfortable in in you

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know working and thriving and feeling valued respected and included again we go back to that kind of working

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definition that we have the one word that's really key here

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and really can't emphasize this enough is the final word everyone so I think George really just

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so brilliantly pulled this together that inclusion is not about taking something that exists and adding in some more

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people so let's get a few people from this group and from that group and bring that group and then okay we're good now

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we've got you we've brought in some diverse people it's really shifting uh workplaces and workplace cultures into

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being um places where everyone can feel valued respected and included so again

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you know big and lofty goals um but really important because they're really

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fundamental to who we are as human beings and who we are fundamentally as people is important in our workplaces we

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do great work um and we feel we valued and we feel we contribute when we can

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when we can feel that way in our workplaces so um our Challenge and a lot

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of the work that we actually do at Centennial is exactly this you know digging deeply into so so what do we do

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um how do we create these better spaces I'll be honest and I'm sure it's

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no surprise this is not easy work um it's it takes a lot of thought it takes

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a lot of commitment um and it takes time so it's not going to be it's not

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something that you can do an activity or you know throw something into place and then it starts to

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work so the focus that we have in particular is on inclusive leadership

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and we need to be attentive for a moment with um the word leadership this does

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not necessarily mean formal positions so it's not something that you have a title and suddenly you're you're a leader

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truly anyone can be a leader and when we really examine you know closely

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organizations and workplaces and workplace cultures there are many many leaders some of them very positive uh

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people at all sorts of different levels within an organization some of them contribute wonderfully to the work some of them

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take away from it so i' I've been very privileged in my career to be able to be

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engaged heavily in this work but I've also had management roles in um in the past where I've managed um fairly large

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staff on on my own as a single manager um and I've certainly come to see how

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there can be leaders who are not formal in any way and who can be very strong leaders in positive ways and people

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equally who can be strong leaders in not positive ways we want to bring those people on board we want them to use

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their leadership in very specific ways to start with we're probably looking at um more formal leadership

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roles in s to Kickstart things but as well one of the things that we really need to think about is for leaders to be

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inclusive there are some really there are some really fundamental um skills um there are some knowledge that's needed

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there are some skills and there are also dispositions and so while be speaking to those

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specifically I highlighted the word courage because I would say that yes

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this this work takes courage so it's really not for the faint of heart and I think it's truly something that we can

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expect of leaders to be courageous um in doing this work uh that doesn't need to

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be too difficult because if your heart really is in it um then it happens if you're doing it in a perfunctory way uh

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it's probably not going to happen so let's take a look at some of the knowledge sets that we have one of the

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really key aspects of the knowledge is um understanding what the issues are um

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and that's a really big significant piece that know we engage with in our our work is really starting to build a

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good foundational um breadth of knowledge because it's much more than you know simply those um visible

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identity markers it's not just about gender it's not just about race or you know culture or country of origin there

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are many more aspects so fully understanding you know what the issues are is um is really is something that um

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is really critical um so the issues need to be known and the issues need to be understood um the second Point here have

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knowledge of the why we need to know why we're doing this work is it purely for moral ethical reasons is it you know

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something that's you know very personal um is it something organizational is it connected to a business case so having

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knowledge of the reasons why you do this work and we will get into some of the business cases that's incredibly helpful

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to to work with another aspect that's needed um is

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the steps the take the steps to take and the Order of the steps that are are taken so later I'm going to be

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suggesting to you that you indeed you plunge you know dive into this work don't stop don't don't wait for you like

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the perfect day but you do need to know how change happens you need to understand how people operate so there

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are some big knowledge pieces that are are really important those frequently come you know with your own professional

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learning your Rel to leadership but you can add in this um Equity diversity and

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inclusion aspect to without without much difficulty at all so knowledge areas

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some very specific skills areas one skill is the ability to Envision you know what does this

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actually look like um pushing forward without some clarity is um frequently

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misguided and we frequently see um misguided efforts that keep

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organizations in different directions you know if they if they're um brief or

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shortterm U visions they sometimes can be actualized sometimes successfully sometimes not and

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then they fizzle away and they die out um that's really dangerous because it does damage to to this work and and all

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the language connected to it so being able to Envision long term what what is

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this going to look like when we're all finished what's happening in the organization what are people doing how are people interacting with each other

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visible behaviors so being able to Envision that and then begin to articulate it the second point the

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skills to bring about change successfully um we in our work um at

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Centennial we we partnered with Harvard University on this on change management work because we really want the people

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we work with to have a deep understanding of the complexities of change management it's not just

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following you know a particular model the canra model or the Adar model um

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models are really helpful but actually diving into doing the work and

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understanding the human relations that are you know that play into changes as well so our work with Harvard is really interesting in terms of how we build

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knowledge and capacity to understand change well beyond the

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models and I think the final skill is understanding um having the skills

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needed to to build inclusion which means having a really clear picture of what inclusion means so if we go back to

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George day building a better Spa a new space not bringing people into an existing space but building a new space

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that is beneficial to everybody so nobody's feeling squeezed out nobody's feeling you know neglected or forgotten

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about or like oh I have to step aside for for someone else because that is a common type of refrain that we hear um

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and that's really not what this work is about it's not squeezing people out in favor of others as much as we may hear

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that from time to time so there's a knowledge base that's required there's a skill base but also a dispositional um

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base That's essential so I've stated it here in terms of I want a successful

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workplace where everyone feels valued respected and included so that's you the disposition is the

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desire for that to happen another disposition um I'm not afraid to do the work so that speaks to the you know our

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road sign of Courage as well I'm not afraid to make mistakes and if you're not afraid to

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makees mistakes and there's a certain humility attached and humble leadership

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um is is really effective leadership when when you can uh slip up you can

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make a mistake you can do something wrong um accept it readily admit the mistake and then draw on the Knowledge

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and Skills of the people you work with um that does that gives a lot of credibility to you so not being fearful

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or you know feeling the need always to have all the right answers for everybody all the time so um not being afraid but

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ALS and feeling comfortable to be able to make mistakes and to learn from them so U one of the the knowledge areas was

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that around business cases and so I want to speak very specifically to those quickly but specifically so this is the

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type of knowledge base that we would talk about the ROI or the return on investment um for inclusive leadership

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so just a few um helpful points here um organizations that focus on

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diversity and inclusion gain a quantifiable boost in Employee

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Engagement so yes it absolutely um Equity diversity inclusion work is a

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moral and ethical um choice and action it also actually has good business

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results and in in the work that we do we have found that um this is frequently a

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a really powerful starting point to get people on board we get their heads on board with some of the information

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you'll be seeing on this slide you know things like about boosting Employee Engagement you know oh now you've got me

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listening and then we get to their heart eventually but we may need to start with their heads but as long as we're going

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to get to our destination in the end that's probably what's really important a few other pieces just quickly um some

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bits of information from research companies with diverse leadership teams so again you know diverse a mixture of

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people outperform less diverse organizations 15% higher for gender

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diversity 35% higher for ethnic diversity so that came out of

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McKenzie organizations with more women in board position s outperform peers now

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that's probably not a surprise to a lot of you uh but here it is it's a fact you know that was studi that was researched

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we have all of this research I'm just giving you a single line from it so Catalyst brought that information

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forward for us team-based assessments of inclusive teams show 80% better results um deoe

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does a lot of work um in this and deloid Australia specifically wonderful material that they come out with well

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well researched um terrific studies um very helpful but the improved results from um inclusive

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teams is really quite remarkable um you may be thinking in your own mind some of the you know the teams you have are they

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inclusive and do they do better work than than non-inclusive teams and again another one from um Delo

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not delot Australia this time um inclusive Talent systems as a talent strategy best predict the highest

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performing company compes so when inclusive Talent systems are intentionally done as a talent strategy

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those organizations outperform so for those who need the

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business case as opposed to the moral ethical case here it is and there's loads more where this comes

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from okay so let's get a little bit more specific about what do you actually

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do so we talked about knowledge skills and dispositions so some of the things

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that um important necessary for you to be doing um this work we frequently talk about is

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it starts with yourself it's not sort of what you're going to do or expect of others or you know things you put in

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place you really do need to start with yourself you need to know whether it's you or people in your organization that

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they have done this work and that they have done this thinking and they have engaged in it themselves and come to

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their own understandings of their own positions potentially their biases their identity markers how they're similar or

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different to other people so the the work really um really starts with with ourselves always starts with

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ourselves we need as well to be able to and this is an I just think an interesting thought to embrace the

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Paradox of individuality and group identity and because we sometimes get

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that toggling between oh well we have to focus on the individual and each individual's wants and needs and you

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know how they're unique oh but we're also a team or a group so how do you toggle between those how do you Embrace

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that Paradox so that's a key thing that's really valuable in just in terms of your own thinking how does that work

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how do we see people as individuals within the group um challenging thoughts

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but again a lot of this work is thinking work it's not sit down and you know write reports work it's thinking and a

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lot of that thinking comes out of great quality conversations um the skill to Envision

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frame and create positive change I spoke about that a little bit earlier with the work that we do with um with Harvard

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around change management so it's the ability to you know Envision that long-term Vision frame things for

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people which fra and framing you know frequently involves including people in that so that there's a full

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understanding of what's happening and then how to create the positive change um you know using models and other um

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aspects that you that you know that clearly can be learn change management is a pretty critical skill um fostering

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true meritocracy and I would say that you know if you're really operating on a true meritocracy frame it's not only

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what you're doing but it's also what you are SE to be doing so you know that people in the

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organization have great confidence that people are you know that they're careers and their work and you know invitation

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to projects whatever it happens to be it's based on truly on the merits of their um their knowledge and skills and

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abilities um and not on other perceived aspects of like why they may have been

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invited in or promoted or whatever um using inclusive processes um this is one

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of the probably the most impactful and immediate kinds of things that you can do um I strongly recommend the use of um

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in inclusive facilitation kinds of processes for myself when I'm working

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with people and not just speaking as I am this morning this is not my standard kind of approach um I like the work of

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ingred Ben she has just done some terrific work on how to facilitate work

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in organizations in a whole range of ways and all of them are highly

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inclusive so facilitation skills a facilitative approach to work um is a

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wonderful way to get started and it doesn't have to be under an EDI um heading or department or team it can be

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anybody anywhere anytime um but very very effective so that's a piece that

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you know even independently can be worked on um sourcing and utilizing data

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one of the things that we'll talk about is goal setting and having some measures and metrics so how are what data do we

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do we need or want that's going to help us how then do we use that data and then how do we cycle back how do we measure

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you on an ongoing basis do we see improvements or not all those sorts of data questions that come up but using

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data pretty critical in this work um building Rel relationships and developing people

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um all of us in the different you know in in of the different locations we have within our

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organizations um can be doing this and it is an aspect of leadership this actually comes from the Ontario

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leadership framework that was created by Ken lewood and his team so building

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relationships with people sustaining those and those relationships can then develop um other people so we're really

31:53

cultivating and nurturing the the the growth learning and skill develop development of of

31:59

others securing accountability that's both securing our own personal accountability to the work that we do

32:05

our accountability towards others and our accountability within the organization um and you know what we do

32:12

what we contribute in and how do we assess that and how do we um how do we report it and how do we then celebrate

32:18

it as well leading an improving Core Business in inclusive

32:24

leaders inclusive leaders um in their work lead and improve core

32:31

business so that's never a part that we that we have to leave out um all of

32:39

us in our work we're not setting aside our core work in order to do inclusion Equity diversity work we are leading and

32:47

we're improving our core business but we're doing it in an inclusive way um that F Fosters and cultivates inclusion

32:55

within the workplace so we we're never ignoring or leaving behind the the

33:00

actual work of our organizations um and to that point developing um the organization to

33:06

support the core business so this is very connected to developing people so we're committing to the work of the

33:12

organization but we're just doing some of that work in a different way in many ways it's um inclusion work is Shifting

33:18

how we do work um but it's not taking the work away or it's not taking a focus

33:23

away from the work so they actually are married and that marriage of inclusion work and focusing on Core Business work

33:31

um that's where the magic happens and it's it's doable um I don't like to sort

33:38

of tell my own experiences but I have to say I've done it and it works um it truly works it is a journey for sure um

33:45

but it's an exciting one and you know there's unlimited growth that can happen here um it does

33:52

work and finally um for this one we're going to talk about personal leadership

33:57

resources again this comes from the Ontario leadership framework by lewood

34:03

and and Company um or team he's not the company personal leadership resources

34:08

are things like um optimism resilience perseverance we need

34:15

those we need our personal leadership resources um just as aspects of our kind

34:21

of character or personality and the dispositions that we bring to the workplace okay okay so talking of dis

34:28

dispositions um it's the dispositions in many respects are the will and I i'

34:34

think you to just draw your attention um to the the graphic for a moment here you can see these are um well you can see it

34:41

just at the top I managed to capture that title for the this image um again it's from deoe the six signature traits

34:49

of an inclusive leader so inclusive leaders demonstrate

34:54

curiosity they're interested they're curious they find out that um and curiosity is a is a person who takes on

35:01

a learning stance so they're not the ones who know everything they're the ones who present themselves as Learners

35:07

um so that's an element toward becoming an inclusive leader when you don't have

35:13

all the answers but you sure have the questions cultural intelligence there's

35:18

an awareness of you know a workplace culture but also that individuals all come from their own cultures um and

35:25

culture not just being country origin but it could be cultures related to the

35:30

identity that we saw back in that um in the iceberg so different aspects of who

35:37

we are are in many cases you know cultural aspects maybe the you know the people we um socialize with our family

35:44

members the kind of backgrounds that we have you know maybe educational background upbringing you

35:50

know if we were raised in wealth or poverty all of these are in a form cultures so awareness of those cultures

35:56

and having cultural intelligence understanding those um is helpful collaboration again this speaks to what

36:02

I mentioned just a moment ago about um facilitative processes we build facilitative

36:08

processes um for the purpose of collaboration bringing people together drawing on all their unique talents um

36:14

to do better work and you'll remember one of the Returns on investment was you know that when when there's

36:20

collaboration that with um well integrated and in diverse teams they are more successful than than non diverse

36:27

STS commitment this does not work for the faint of heart um you you don't give

36:34

it up because it gets hard um you stick with it but you share that burden a bit with others and you let them know you

36:40

know this is hard work but I'm not stopping um you know this is important we need to you know carry it on we may

36:45

need to shift our speed or our um you know the the scope of our work um at

36:52

periods of time depending on you know the ups and downs of things that are happening but we don't let let go of the

36:57

commitment it's always there we don't drop it when you know when the going gets tough it just maybe takes a

37:02

slightly different position in the car and again courage it come you know it's interesting that courage you know

37:08

resurfaces as a signature trait of of a leader if we don't have courage then we don't really um have in a sense the

37:15

determination and drive to carry through and cognizance and generally

37:21

cognizance of bias is really is the thing that um you know that that's such a

37:28

that's such an important thing so you know unconscious bius training is is a really helpful thing as long as

37:34

everybody's involved in that and not just you know the people that we think they need to have unconscious not us

37:41

they need to have unconscious bi it's only when when I we when we include ourselves and you remember my comment

37:47

earlier about um we start with ourselves well if we're GNA if we want someone to look at unconscious bias um we do that

37:54

we do it ourselves first uh and we talk about it and we're open about it um before we would expect

38:01

others so um I think this image might capture a little bit of kind of how

38:07

you're feeling when you you're thinking about your current work and thinking okay and all of these things I'm saying

38:13

um might lead you to like either look like this person or feel the way she's probably feeling um is this only the

38:21

work um for leaders um to do is is it really only for them and like I I put

38:27

this slide in purposefully because this is a question that comes up so frequently um for me that uh you know

38:35

people thinking well when they start doing it or when you know they need to do this and they need to do that no it's

38:41

this is for all of us and each of us you know if we draw on our commitment and our courage we know we then can take

38:47

some steps toward helping move this forward it's really exciting when you know people I get to work with do decide

38:54

to take steps forward and approach leadership and and frequently they're very surprised when they take forward some good

39:00

ideas so it is everyone's work to varying degrees some will maybe be

39:05

leading it some will be funding it others will be um driving it other ones will be supporting and and spreading the

39:11

word you know so different people will take on different kinds of roles but all of us are involved um and it speaks to

39:18

um a quotation from a a wonderful writer um Margaret Wheatley she's also in a

39:25

sense like a consultant for um businesses and she talks about invite one of her really famous lines that I

39:31

just love is invite everyone who cares so if we invite everyone who cares

39:38

then we start to spread this work around um to everybody and that can be kind of

39:44

infectious so we you now how to engage everybody well first off um you know the

39:52

saying that all saying context is everything so I put that at the top of the list so yep context is pretty Dar

39:58

critical you need to know your context we can't tell you what exactly to do because you need to look and identify

40:05

what your context is and know then what you know what what barriers may exist

40:10

what Pathways may exist you know what could be done um when what speed um we

40:16

spoke about um the knowledge that's needed you how to engage people but also

40:21

you know what's the you know what What's the timing you know what's the the tone of the workplace so what you know the on

40:26

those knowledge elements that you have the skills you have you know there are some specific engagement types of skills

40:32

like what I've talked about ingred Benz and her facilitation skills work the dispositions um that's where it

40:40

goes to us individually what are the kinds of dispositions that we have do we carry those traits of you know the six

40:46

signature traits of inclusive leaders you know if we carry those dispositions of curiosity and and commitment and

40:52

courage then you know we are on a path to being able to engage people ongoing

40:58

learning um there isn't much talk these days about learning organizations and there

41:04

has been um there was much more talk in past years about organizations being learning organizations and um this is a

41:11

really key piece that this is not work that happens with a few workshops or

41:18

like a a committee that goes off and does something but none of us are really quite sure um ongoing learning is you

41:26

know for everybody at all levels done collaboratively done together you know

41:31

as best possible setting goals um you don't get

41:37

very far you don't um make much Headway if you don't have some specific goals that you're working with and then some

41:42

follow-up measures to see where you know where progress was made or not what

41:47

maybe why was progress made and so what did we do what what should we repeat because it worked well where did we not

41:53

meet goals why not are the things that maybe maybe we should avoid in future um participation again think about that

42:01

quotation from Margaret Wheatley invite everyone who cares so when do we

42:09

start just just get going okay don't wait for the right day there's no right

42:14

time there's not the right day it's not you know the a week from Tuesday it's not you know when the spring comes it's not when this project

42:20

finishes you get you can start it as simply as just opening up conversations you know you intended this you know this

42:27

talk today take it back start talking it up in the in the office you get those things going um so not to be um afraid

42:35

of it include everybody this is not just thought and discussion and ideas for a

42:41

particular group it it truly is for everyone and then together when you have

42:48

these conversations you know determining together um what do we need to do what

42:53

do we need to learn what are some of the those skills you know and knowledge sets that we need to have that would really

42:59

guide us in this work you know the things that I spoke earlier about knowledge sets skill sets and disposition sets and then get going on

43:07

it now I hope that tone this doesn't sound too too flippant because this is

43:12

I'm not flipping at all with this um but I think I'm maybe hoping to bring us

43:18

back to a point of as much as there's an awful lot of content in this um talk that I've just

43:25

done there's also an understanding that um we can't do everything and and prep

43:32

and plan and then kind of have a like a launch date um for certain things there

43:37

may be launch dates but in general this work is everybody's work all the time and we can engage in it at any point and

43:45

at least we can and because what we're doing is then we're we're reconstructing in a sense the context in which you're

43:51

in so that you can then move forward um maybe with some somewhat more fertile

43:57

fields to be sewing the seeds thank you for listening to all

44:02

this I normally don't speak at at Great length without you know back and forth in discussion so this is um this is a

44:10

bit of a challenge and I'm sorry if you I'm hope you're not feeling that it's been an information D but maybe some

44:16

great nuggets um we would like to turn it over to questions now

44:22

so capil um I think you were looking at the chat and Pi yeah yeah yeah for sure

44:28

um no thank you Richard that was a wonderful presentation um very informative even for myself and the work

44:34

that I do every single day um amazing so thank you for this content um if anyone has any questions uh please feel free to

44:42

enter them in the chat if you like for me to uh submit the questions to Richard

44:47

um otherwise you're feel free to uh raise your hand in the meeting and uh

44:53

what I'll do is I can unmute you and you can ask Richard your yourself whatever works for you uh Richard I actually did

44:59

have um a few questions um so there was a question that had I I remember at some

45:05

point in the presentation there was a slide where there's a few different circles where you had differentiated between

45:10

integration uh segregation and inclusion it was very well uh laid out but um I

45:17

wanted to ask um is it common for people to um kind of get confused or um

45:27

maybe maybe not get confused but to mistake or get confused between integration and inclusion is that common

45:33

you feel um not so much with those words attached but um I would say that you

45:41

said the thinking would reflect that and by that I mean there is this idea um and

45:48

I think I may have commented but you know kind of hurriedly um there sometimes is that idea that you know we

45:55

you know here we are we're a group we're an organization we're a team whatever um and oh we need to diversify and you know

46:01

that's you know maybe like a bit of a checkbox for us so let's hire one of these one of these one of these and you

46:08

know so then we now we're now we're diverse um or we have the diverse representation you know within our group

46:14

or team or Department um that can end up being very much you know that

46:20

integration where you know there's a kind of a group within the larger group but that that group stays

46:26

kind of isolated i' I've experienced that myself and it's really quite it's really interesting to observe

46:33

um it's it's unsettling um to be part of because you don't feel connected to

46:39

other people at least that for me my sense was being connect but it's a little bit of that you know we should

46:45

get some of them to join us and that's you know something I'm really uncomfortable with this is not about

46:51

getting them to join us you know this truly is about um you know fully

46:57

integrating everybody to you know together um so it's not an Us and Them

47:03

kind of perspective is that sort of where you were where your thinking was coming from yeah because I think that um

47:10

honestly like I think that it comes from a genuine place where people are looking to you know do the work and um you know

47:16

to do better but sometimes I think uh you know maybe people can kind of make that mistake along the

47:22

process and you know and to your point I you know this is I think something like

47:27

ultimately what we're aiming for is inclusion it's not sort of like oh we're not inclusive now you know we're going

47:33

to do all these things and then we'll be inclusive it's it's a process and it it may start with

47:39

integration but once you've got integration you see Okay so we've got all these people together but this group

47:44

is over here and this group is over there and you know the group people are sort of subdividing themselves I've seen

47:50

that it's it's quite unsettling for me um then you know okay so we brought

47:58

people together in in one place but they're still separating themselves so then we look at so okay now now we need

48:04

to move in a direction to kind of bring people together so there's more mixing and that's where I really really like

48:10

the work of Ingrid bz because you know her facilitation work and I just I mean this is like the third or fourth time

48:17

I've mentioned I can't speak highly enough about facilitation processes that integrate and include

48:23

people so I would say yeah when integration happens you're you still have some work to do to move toward

48:29

inclusion no and I thank you for um for for breaking that down we do have some comments and questions in the chat

48:35

Richard um so Monica mentioned that she also was a fan of the inclusion slides and the iceberg um as well and there is

48:43

a question uh sorry I'm just bringing this down here there's a question from Rose uh her question is when you talk

48:50

about the work being for everyone how do you recommend sharing or conveying this message message to senior

48:58

leadership um yeah this is a question that comes up a lot in the work that we do at s um

49:06

and I would say that one of the things that like I found in my own experience

49:12

like as an employee in in a workplace when I was you know pretty new um and what I would still advise I think maybe

49:17

because those things worked well for me but to put together some you know some thoughts ask for a little bit of time

49:23

and just take the ideas forward um now some you know that that's kind of like

49:29

the simple you know um the simple version of the answer but in a sense

49:35

have a have a purpose have a point you know if you're not seeing that things are happening if you see that there are

49:40

barriers then you're taking that idea forward you know I've been hearing about it I've been looking at it I've been

49:45

reading about you know you know inclusion work you know it looks like it could be valuable and helpful for us um

49:52

I'm seeing some issues kind of in in our organization or chamber Department um

49:58

and I just i' just like a few minutes to discuss those with you um so I I've

50:04

actually coached a couple of people on this and um it has been hugely successful the reaction usually is that

50:11

um that I find is people say that they were really surprised at how incredibly well-received one recently someone said

50:19

to me that they when they took this idea forward they the person they took it to

50:24

said you know what I've been struggling with for a long time I haven't talked about it I haven't said anything but I've been thinking about it so much and it's really interesting you came forward

50:31

so this person just felt like like she wrote to me right after the meeting and

50:36

she said it was just like an incredible experience for her because it was like it was like she felt embraced by this

50:43

person that she had been a little bit hesitant about going to but they were struggling with it um so and one thing

50:49

that I always find really valuable is if you can connect it in some way to the organization's mission Vision Values you

50:56

know commitments whatever whatever the organization is saying you know like you know I looked at our organization's

51:02

Mission and you know we talk about diversity and inclusion um I'm you know like what what kinds of things are we

51:08

doing because that that really appeals to me that's valuable for me you know like I I see a need for that so

51:15

connecting it to things the organization says it believes in you know that's a that's a really helpful tool as well or

51:22

referencing some of the you know the research you know the Deo Mackenzie and Catalyst work you know that I I

51:28

mentioned on one of the slides there are ways make it forward

51:34

there's interesting term I heard once someone said to me you know find a way to speak to their listening and and and understand as

51:42

Richard suggests you know what what is it that the organization values and there's places where that's written

51:47

there's places where that's communicated informally and and how can you if you're

51:52

looking for a way you how can I frame what I have to say in a way that the organization goes okay when I hear that

51:59

that fits with with some of the other thoughts I have about how we want to be as an organization and this new

52:05

information may help us get there so there's always a you know there's a bit of research there is but you know you

52:10

take your own experience within that organization and you look around you pay attention you see what's important and

52:16

if you can frame it all the better yeah and to Michael's point I

52:22

think if if this is a person who's going to hear um the return on investment then

52:27

you start with that if they're going to hear the company motos you know Mission Vision Values then you can work with

52:34

that so there there are different kinds of entry points so I think it was Rose who asked that question Rose I hope

52:39

that's something

52:47

helpful yeah so no rose rose is thanking you for

52:52

that awesome well um Michael and Richard I want to thank you all um on behalf of

52:59

you know the board um and everyone who attended today thank you for the wonderful presentation uh this is

53:05

definitely work that we need to you know always be active in and um you know we

53:12

really appreciate you all coming out today so we will be actually putting this recording on our YouTube channel

53:18

and so please look out for that and we hope everyone has a wonderful day and

53:24

thank you all for joining thank you so much for having us yeah thank you all right have a good weekend

53:31

thanks everybody okay bye bye