Nov 24, 2024Full list of content consumed, including annotations
24 highlights & notes
10 minutes Engaged reading, read (06/27/22)
7 minutes Engaged reading, read (08/14/20)
Joseph Bryant - PushTech2020 - "It's not just, 'Don't put your knee on my neck.' It's also, 'Help me get a job and build wealth, because I'm qualified and you're not even looking in my direction.' " (says Joseph Bryant, who leads PushTech2020, an initiative of the Reverend Jesse Jackson.) "Black tax"—additional work such as representing the company at career fairs or conducting new-hire interviews, implicitly distorting how diverse the company is. That takes them away from their day job for no extra pay. Bari Williams, a former Facebook Inc. lawyer who now heads legal at Human Interest Inc., a fintech company. "Leadership can talk about diversity all day long, but if the managers and people who implement it don't buy in, it's not going to happen."
bloomberg.com |
Illustration: Jordan Moss for Bloomberg Businessweek Quora Inc., which runs the eponymous questions and answers website, couldn’t figure this one out: Why were so many Black and Latinx college students rejecting its job offers or withdrawing from interviews? Last year, a recruiter suggested that the Silicon Valley company might seem more welcoming if it had dedicated groups of underrepresented employees for the candidates to consult. Higher-ups were initially skeptical, she says, whether the company even had enough diverse employees to do so. Quora says it’s in the process of creating such groups.
10 minutes Engaged reading, read (07/14/22)
Boycotts, lawsuits, social equality moments, civil and human rights laws, corporate policies, campaigns, diversity, equity and inclusion training, czars, targets, philanthropic declarations. Now more thansix decades, billions of dollars in spend and trillions of earnings later,why have these efforts failed to increase diversity and inclusion?
after decades of diversity and inclusion training programs, strategies and in-vogue values used by organizations to increase awareness, sensitivity and equality toward PCIs, efforts have failed to systemically aerate the social construct so D&I can take root. Rather, they have only served to turn D&I into a cliché that has become more of a hollow overture than genuine credence.
Carl Rogers, a humanistic psychologist, contends belonging is a unique and subjective experience that relates to a yearning for connection with others, the need for respect and the desire for interpersonal connection. For an individual to grow and self-actualize, the ecosystem must be designed to cultivate empathy, acceptance and authenticity.
1. Practice coaching.
2. Encourage calculated risk-taking.
3. Forge mutual experience.
4. Authenticate meaningful work.
5. Clarify purpose.
Mark Twain said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”Encourage an employee’s discovery of the catalyst for their calling.
chieflearningofficer.com |
To build a team that can celebrate authentic and meaningful diversity and inclusion as a credence rather than an overture, organizations must do what they have never done before. With high intention, they can cultivate a belonging credence as an intervention to systemic bias, prejudice and discrimination.
7 minutes Engaged reading, read (07/31/20)
Facebook, for example, has gone from a workforce that's 3% Black to 3.8% in the past six years. Others also are in the low single digits. "While hiring remains an area of focus for inclusion, Margaret Neale, Stanford University professor emerita in organizational behavior, said it's just as often an issue of retention. Finding a mentor or a sponsor within a company can be difficult. Without one, it can be nearly impossible to ascend to a leadership role."
cnbc.com |
Prominent tech companies have made little progress in their stated goal of hiring more minorities. Six years after their first diversity reports, Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter have seen low single-digit increases in their percentage of Black employees, according to a CNBC analysis of the annual disclosures. Amazon shows a higher increase, but those numbers include warehouse and delivery workers.
8 minutes Engaged reading, read (06/27/22)
16 minutes Engaged reading, read (09/09/21)
every.to |
In many ways, diversity, equity, and inclusion have become empty buzzwords, a box to tick off on an human resources to-do list after enough employees attend a few well-chosen trainings. Erika Brodnock, an entrepreneur, researcher, and PhD candidate at the London School of Economics, and Johannes Lenhard, a lecturer and researcher at the Max Planck Cambridge Centre for Ethics, Economy and Social Change, want nothing to do with this kind of vague nod toward “progress.”
2 minutes Engaged reading, read (06/27/22)
forbes.com |
This article examines why chief diversity officers often fail to achieve diversity goals and initiatives within organizations.
7 minutes Engaged reading, read (06/27/22)
forbes.com |
Ever feel like you’re having the same conversation on diversity and inclusion with the same or similar co-workers? For many professionals, now is a time of frustration - as well as hope that this time may be different. To succeed, we need to learn why and where we have failed before.
5 minutes Engaged reading, read (06/27/22)
23 minutes Engaged reading, read (10/23/20)
Be sure to read the update to this articke: What Has — and Hasn't — Changed Since "Dear White Boss…" https://hbr.org/2020/09/what-has-and-hasnt-changed-since-dear-white-boss
hbr.org |
It’s easy to assume that other people experience the world the way we do. More specifically, it’s very easy for white managers to assume that their colleagues of color face the same basic set of challenges they do. On one level that’s true: The work itself is the same. African-American and other nonwhite managers have to make their numbers, motivate employees, hire and fire, and plan for the future. But on another level, these managers frequently contend with an atmosphere of tension, instability, and distrust that can be so frustrating they lose the desire to contribute fully or do their best work; they may even drop out altogether. Their white bosses and coworkers are simply unaware of the “miasma,” as Keith Caver and Ancella Livers call this noxious and tenuous environment. They’re often puzzled when their nonwhite colleagues quit, seemingly out of nowhere, or appear to overreact to what seems like a minor incident—but which is really the last straw.
7 minutes Engaged reading, read (06/05/20)
"Organizations have to go beyond the "add one and stir" approach to bringing in more workers of color. A 2018 report from LeanIn.org and the McKinsey and Co. revealed that "onlys" — the lone representatives of an identity group — have higher rates of mistrust, skepticism, and doubt about the organizations' goals, motivations, and ability to support people like them. The same report showed that for women, being an "only" is also correlated to higher rates of sexual harassment. Companies can stop failing black workers by hiring a critical mass of them, particularly at high-functioning, elite levels where they can be influential. Research shows that when women are more highly represented on corporate boards and in the C-suite, conditions improve for other women in the organization. A similar phenomenon may occur when black women hold high-ranking positions within companies. These downstream effects are a compelling reason to make sure that your organization is hiring and elevating black women, too.'
hbr.org |
It’s common today for organizations and industries to state their commitment to attracting workers of color. In the tech industry, for instance, companies like Google and Apple say that they want to increase diversity, and leaders in health care are slowly starting to grapple with the need for more black doctors given demographic changes. But change has happened slowly, if at all. Much like medicine, black workers in particular are underrepresented occupations like law and finance, and it’s not because of their own shortcomings or “pipeline issues.” I’ve been studying black workers for nearly 15 years, and the research and data in this area show that organizations are failing black workers in three key ways, especially if they are employed in professional occupations.
12 minutes Engaged reading, read (06/22/20)
"Black employees (who are, to be clear, far too exhausted from navigating the events of the last several weeks, in addition to the lifelong impacts from systemic inequities, to answer all your well-meaning questions). White employees and others can take individual responsibility for their own education by tapping into the wealth of resources others have compiled. Organizations must also take seriously their role in educating employees about the realities and inequities of our society, increasing awareness and offering strategies for the individual accountability and structural changes needed to support inclusive workplaces."
hbr.org |
The U.S. is at a turning point, and the world is watching. The murder of George Floyd — preceded by the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and many, many others — has sparked an outpouring of grief and activism that’s catalyzed protests in all 50 states and around the world. For Black people, the injustice we feel around the murder of another unarmed Black person is not new — but the scale of recognition of systemic racism and the allyship we are feeling from others is.
21 minutes Engaged reading, read (07/24/20)
hbr.org |
It was a throwaway comment, and you were unaware that it was demeaning. But now that a colleague has brought the slight to your attention, you realize what you said was offensive. As a person who wants to be a good ally to your colleagues of color and members of underrepresented groups, how do you apologize after you’ve committed a microaggression? How and when should you try to make amends? And what’s the best way to ensure that you do better in the future?
8 minutes Engaged reading, read (09/11/20)
Provider diversity: "Does your mental health solution recruit and engage racially diverse providers? Ask about their initiatives to promote diversity within their provider network and whether they continually assess the balance of racial representation among their providers." "ERG groups can provide safe spaces for discussion around employees' race-based traumatic stress and the intersection of mental health and cultural diversity. Ask the leaders of these groups if they'd be willing to have an HR representative and possibly a clinician from your mental health benefit provider join a meeting to discuss barriers that are holding BIPOC employees back from seeking help and how to overcome them. "
hbr.org |
“I am not okay. But I know I have to be. And I will be. But I’m not okay.” I (Andrea) shared these conflicted yet honest sentiments with a colleague after the murder of Ahmaud Arbery began to receive increased media attention in April. The feeling I called “not okay” was actually psychological distress. I was nervous, mentally fatigued, and continually distracted by the pain of another racially motivated murder and the fear that this could happen to someone I loved. While I was not directly connected to Ahmaud Arbery, the tragedy felt personal due to a psychological phenomenon called shared racial fate.
17 minutes Engaged reading, read (08/25/20)
hbr.org |
Racial discrimination—defined as differential evaluation or treatment based solely on race, regardless of intent—remains prevalent in organizations and occurs far more frequently than most White people suspect. Intractable as it seems, racism in the workplace can be effectively addressed. Because organizations are autonomous entities that afford leaders a high level of control over norms and policies, they are ideal places to promote racial equity.
1 minutes Engaged reading, read (10/23/20)
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More than 18 years ago, we co-authored a Harvard Business Review article entitled “Dear White Boss… .” It was a fictional letter from a Black manager to an anonymous white executive. The letter was based on our years researching, interviewing, and working with Black leaders, as well as personal experiences. We described how the challenge of inequity based on racial, gender or other differences was debilitating for both people of color and the broader organization.
32 minutes Engaged reading, read (11/18/21)
hbr.org |
Companies are prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as never before, talking about it publicly, making strategic hires, and putting metrics in place to track progress. And yet, according to in-depth interviews and focus groups we conducted over the past several months, many are still struggling to create environments in which Black professionals feel they can thrive. As these organizations find themselves losing valued talent — or failing to recruit it — especially during this period of post-pandemic job change, managers are wondering: What are we doing wrong?
51 minutes Engaged reading, read (03/16/23)
Many workers today are stuck in low-paying jobs, unable to advance simply because they don’t have a bachelor’s degree. At the same time, many companies are desperate for workers and not meeting the diversity goals that could help them perform better while also reducing social and economic inequality. All these problems could be alleviated, the authors say, if employers focused on job candidates’ skills instead of their degree status.
Drawing on their interviews with corporate leaders, along with their own experience in academia and the business world, the authors outline a “skills-first” approach to hiring and managing talent. It involves writing job descriptions that emphasize capabilities, not credentials; creating apprenticeships, internships, and training programs for people without college degrees; collaborating with educational institutions and other outside partners to expand the talent pool; helping hiring managers embrace skills-first thinking; bringing on board a critical mass of nondegreed workers; and building a supportive organizational culture. IBM, Aon, Cleveland Clinic, Delta Air Lines, Bank of America, and Merck are among the companies taking this approach—and demonstrating its benefits for firms, workers, and society as a whole.
Moreover, degree requirements undermine organizational commitments to improving racial diversity. Although U.S. Census data from 2021 shows that a majority (about 65%) of Americans who are 25 or older do not have a bachelor’s, the proportions are highest among Black Americans (72%), indigenous populations (80%), and those who identify as Hispanic or Latinx (79%). An unnecessary insistence on credentials is, in short, blocking employers’ access to a diverse, capable pool of talent, and the workers who are taking the biggest hit are those who are already marginalized.
And Ginni is a former CEO of IBM who expanded opportunities there for people of diverse backgrounds and who now serves as a cochair of OneTen, a coalition of employers committed to hiring Black workers without four-year degrees into family-sustaining jobs.
Connect with Ginni and look at OneTen
To widen its excessively narrow talent funnel, the company launched what Ginni referred to as the SkillsFirst initiative: IBM overhauled its hiring practices to create on-ramps for people who were previously overlooked and to build a pipeline of capable nondegreed workers. For any organization with the same goals, the process involves action on multiple fronts.
One way that IBM grew its tech talent pool was by creating internships for students and graduates of a program known as P-TECH (Pathways in Technology Early College High School). The program enables students to take classes in STEM fields and earn credits toward an associate’s degree in applied science while completing high school. It started as a partnership among IBM, the City University of New York, and the New York City Department of Education and was launched in a single Brooklyn high school in 2011. Since then it has expanded rapidly: In 2022 more than 300 P-TECH schools in 27 countries provided interns, apprentices, and employees to businesses worldwide. Employing students and graduates of P-TECH has been a key element of IBM’s talent strategy.
Retraining managers.Hiring managers are a critical part of the skills-first equation. It’s crucial to stop them from using traditional degrees or prior work experience as proxies for a candidate’s capability. To help managers effectively assess applicants for jobs that don’t require degrees, companies need to give them appropriate tools—including standardized, job-relevant evaluation rubrics—and train them to recognize interviewer biases.
Companies shouldn’t expect workers hired through a skills-first approach to assimilate to their new environment without appropriate support. Leaders should therefore update their corporate norms and practices to embed skills-first thinking throughout talent management. That’s how they’ll get the most from both their new employees and their existing workforce.
A Skills-Based Culture
Love this term - use in messaging
Fundamentally, a skills-first approach is about building rather than buying talent. Creating entry points and on-ramps for newcomers of varied backgrounds is an important first step. But by taking a skills-based approach to promotion and development for all employees, companies can advance overlooked talent and increase racial and socioeconomic diversity in the entire workforce and the leadership pipeline.
Harnessing the power of a skills-centric approach requires a paradigm shift in how firms think about talent. Maurice Jones, the CEO of OneTen
Sent LI connection -
When we’ve talked to chief executives at companies leaning in to skills-first talent management, all have echoed the need to elevate and legitimize what is essentially a cultural transformation. Tomislav Mihaljevic, the CEO of Cleveland Clinic, told us that he’s tried to make sure that everybody in his organization understands the “why.” A skills-first approach, he says, “cannot be ‘mandated’ in the classical sense of the word. It has to be explained.
reach out to Tomislav Mihaljevic
For too long, four-year-degree requirements have been easy, if ineffective, shortcuts that made managers feel they were weeding out less-qualified talent. Data and time have proven this assumption false. What’s more, it artificially constrains companies’ efforts to advance racial diversity, cultivate employee engagement, and generate strong performance.
hbr.org |
Many workers today are stuck in low-paying jobs, unable to advance simply because they don’t have a bachelor’s degree. At the same time, many companies are desperate for workers and not meeting the diversity goals that could help them perform better while also reducing social and economic inequality. All these problems could be alleviated, the authors say, if employers focused on job candidates’ skills instead of their degree status. Drawing on their interviews with corporate leaders, along with their own experience in academia and the business world, the authors outline a “skills-first” approach to hiring and managing talent. It involves writing job descriptions that emphasize capabilities, not credentials; creating apprenticeships, internships, and training programs for people without college degrees; collaborating with educational institutions and other outside partners to expand the talent pool; helping hiring managers embrace skills-first thinking; bringing on board a critical mass of nondegreed workers; and building a supportive organizational culture. IBM, Aon, Cleveland Clinic, Delta Air Lines, Bank of America, and Merck are among the companies taking this approach—and demonstrating its benefits for firms, workers, and society as a whole.
16 minutes Engaged reading, read (05/26/20)
ideo.org |
In 2007, when I first joined IDEO as an anthropologist-turned-business designer, a lot of the mindsets and methods of design were foreign to me. I had to embrace new ways of working. Perhaps the hardest one was that of showing work in progress. Opening up unfinished work to critique, feedback, and collaboration demands copious amounts of vulnerability. But often the very feedback we’re nervous to get is what strengthens our work, surfaces blind spots, and helps us create more empathic solutions.
7 minutes Engaged reading, read (04/30/21)
medium.com |
You might think it’s helping — it’s not You’re not supposed to talk about how frustrating it is to watch children screw things up. You’re supposed to be patient when it takes them 17 minutes to tie their shoelaces. You’re supposed to applaud their migraine-inducing attempts to play the violin. You’re supposed to give your undivided attention as they tell stories that somehow lack a beginning, a middle, and an end.
3 minutes Engaged reading, read (07/30/20)
"Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble."
nytimes.com |
Supported by Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. By John Lewis Mr. Lewis, the civil rights leader who died on July 17, wrote this essay shortly before his death, to be published upon the day of his funeral. While my time here has now come to an end, I want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life you inspired me. You filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great American story when you used your power to make a difference in our society. Millions of people motivated simply by human compassion laid down the burdens of division. Around the country and the world you set aside race, class, age, language and nationality to demand respect for human dignity.
7 minutes Engaged reading, read (06/27/22)
4 minutes Engaged reading, read (06/27/22)
thriveglobal.com |
On the face of it, diversity and inclusion might seem like similar concepts, but there’s a distinction there that’s worth understanding. For most organizations, diversity is about numbers. How many people of color do we have? How many women? How many people from the LGBTQ community? Historically, this is where organizations have put most of […]
7 minutes Engaged reading, read (06/30/20)
As one Silicon Valley consultant summed up in a recent article on the Washington Post, "We joined the ERG because we needed help, but we became the help."
triplepundit.com |
It’s overwhelming for many Black Americans to be inundated with questions about their take on race relations during the COVID-19 pandemic and as the chorus to defund the police grows louder, especially during the era of Google. After all, many of those questions can be answered with a few Web searches and the reading of a few well-argued, well-written articles. Suddenly, white people are discovering their one Black friend could be a font of information of anything related to racism, diversity, inclusion or even the Confederacy.
25 minutes Engaged reading, read (03/20/23)
Dr. Marc Spencer
Chief Talent Development and Support Officer at OneTen
tytonpartners.com |
Tyton Partners interviewed Dr. Marc Spencer on how OneTen is addressing Black income and wealth inequality.
14 minutes Engaged reading, read (06/27/22)
11 minutes Engaged reading, read (06/27/22)
washingtonpost.com |
Facebook is embarking on a major overhaul of its hate speech algorithms, reversing years of so-called “race-blind” policies.
25 minutes Engaged reading, read (01/09/21)
100% agree that ERG's should be a driving force in advancing the careers of the individuals they are set up to help. Albrey uses the term, "career development hubs". We're hoping that Readocracy can be one of these tools by recognizing and elevating diverse voices in a professional setting.
fastcompany.com |
I’ve worked in DE&I for nearly a decade, but I know I still have a lot to learn. So to prepare for 2021 I wanted to hear directly from my colleagues on the ground. I wanted to know what their pain points were and how they were innovating anyway. I made a list of over 150 DE&I experts. The list spanned industry, company size, and tenure to ensure a broad perspective. I specifically targeted folks who are the owner (for better or worse) of their companies’ approach to DE&I. I facilitated the conversations like a researcher—attempting to stay unbiased, asking open-ended questions, and focused on listening. I started with broad questions such as “What’s your biggest pain point?” or “What keeps you up at night?”, then eagerly went down any interesting rabbit hole that came up. By the end of the month I’d ended up having 27 conversations with 20 leaders. I noticed some common themes and emerging trends. Here’s a little bit of what I learned:
13 minutes Engaged reading, read (11/18/21)
fastcompany.com |
For months now we’ve all been reading the data about the setbacks this pandemic has inflicted on women’s equality in the workplace. It’s now a well-worn narrative: “COVID-19 has driven millions of women out of the workforce”; “Coronavirus sent women’s progress backward”; “The pandemic has derailed working mothers.” Like many women in tech, I’ve been scared and concerned for the women I work alongside, invest in, and mentor. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I’ve also been concerned for myself—and for my daughter.
4 minutes Engaged reading, read (06/29/20)
"Inclusion has to be understood as very different from diversity because simply having a wide roster of demographic characteristics won't make a difference to an organization's bottom line unless the people who fall into any one demographic feel welcomed." "Inclusion refers to a cultural and environmental feeling of belonging."
gallup.com |
The past two years have been marked by an uptick in awareness of the many challenges organizations and society face in identifying and truly understanding the unique differences among people. From the #MeToo movement to various headline scandals, diversity and inclusion have been brought to the forefront of workplace dialogue. However, the words "diversity" and "inclusion" are often confused. There is little attention paid to the nuances of the two and the implications each has on people-related strategies and practices.
6 minutes Engaged reading, read (07/09/20)
npr.org |
If you're white, you may not think of yourself as racist. Maybe you hardly think about race at all. But Robin DiAngelo, the author of White Fragility, says white people need to think about how they fit into racist systems if they want to be anti-racist. She calls for a more nuanced and informed understanding of racism so white people can take accountability for the ways they benefit from these structures:
11 minutes Engaged reading, read (07/23/20)
nytimes.com |
Supported by The acronym, which stands for black, Indigenous and people of color, is suddenly everywhere. Is it doing its job? By Sandra E. Garcia Black Americans have been called by many names in the United States. African-American, Negro, colored and the unutterable slur that rhymes with bigger. In recent weeks, as protests against police brutality and racism have flooded the streets and social media, another more inclusive term has been ascribed to the population: BIPOC.
23 minutes Normal reading, read (03/28/22)
Andrew Sullivan exemplifies the deluded white male beleife toward race. Most may only think this with their inside voice but Andrew's tropes ring in my ears, as familiar as any racist chant. Lisa Bond, "this is why we don't even emgege with white men..." Chip Gallagher, "Status is a resource"
youtube.com |
Watch now on AppleTV+ https://theproblem.link/RacismEpisode White people say they’re ready to listen and learn, but Black people have been saying the same thing for centuries. Jon talks to Race2Dinner’s Resident White Person™ Lisa Bond, Yale professor Chip Gallagher, and writer Andrew Sullivan about how white Americans can take responsibility for upholding racist systems. It goes about as well as you’d expect. Subscribe to The Problem with Jon Stewart podcast: https://theproblem.link/ApplePodcast Subscribe to The Problem with Jon Stewart’s YouTube channel: https://theproblem.link/YouTube Follow The Problem With Jon Stewart Instagram: https://theproblem.link/Insta Twitter: https://theproblem.link/Twitter Follow Apple TV: Instagram: https://theproblem.link/AppleTVInsta Facebook: https://theproblem.link/AppleTVFacebook Twitter: https://theproblem.link/AppleTVTwitter Giphy: https://theproblem.link/AppleTVGiphy Follow Apple TV+ Instagram: https://theproblem.link/AppleTVPlusInsta Apple TV+ is a streaming service with original stories from the most creative minds in TV and film. Watch now on the Apple TV app: https://apple.co/AppleTVapp #TheProblemWithJonStewart #Podcast #Racism
9 minutes Normal reading, read (07/07/22)
youtube.com |
Thank you to Squarespace for sponsoring today's video! Head to https://www.squarespace.com/anna to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code ANNA thank you for your support! https://patreon.com/annaakana connect Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annaakana Twitter: http://twitter.com/annaakana Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annaakana Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2MvmYjE starring - Melissa Macedo http://instagram.com/melissamacedom Michelle Macedo http://instagram.com/michellemacedom shot by Auden Bui http://instagram.com/AudenBui grip - Melissa Gasca, John Lee sound - John Lee edited by Timothy Hautekiet https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkxA_F2rjRprjCDgjbwBT6Q