Diversity Woman Magazine

SUM 2014

Leadership and Executive Development for women of all races, cultures and backgrounds

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equity will not be achieved until the 22nd century. Meanwhile, women and people of color are making slow progress in ris- ing into the most senior leadership posi- tions. Tere are currently only 23 women and 23 people of color among Fortune 500 CEOs. Considering the disparities between dominant and nondominant groups in health care, unemployment, incarceration rates, housing, and virtu- ally every other major area, the statistics are sobering. Decades of movement? Yes. But more recently, there's been a leveling of of growth. And of course, acts of intolerance con- tinue to make the headlines, which af- fects the mood and mindset that people bring to work. Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, is recorded making racist com- ments. Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher under scrutiny for illegally using park- land to graze cattle, adds to his notoriety by making comments glorifying slavery. Robert Copeland, a New Hampshire po- lice commissioner, unapologetically uses the "N-word" in referring to the presi- dent of the United States. Phil Robert- son, the scion of the Duck Dynasty clan, makes derogatory comments about gays and African Americans. Te owner of the Washington, DC, National Football League team refuses to entertain the no- tion of changing the team name from a racist slur against Native American peo- ple. State legislatures around the country pass highly restrictive anti-immigration covenants. Social media explodes with vile comments in response to a Cheerios commercial featuring a mixed-race child and an Indian American Miss America. And the list goes on. While these high-profle examples that dominate the media and the blogosphere are indicative of our struggle with diver- sity and inclusion and should be aired— the "noise" that they create actually may serve to distract from the much deeper and more important work that still needs to be done around diversity and inclu- sion issues: the systemic, everyday biases that keep people in nondominant groups from being included fully in the daily lives of their organizations. Ater all of these years, activities, and eforts, why does the conversation seem to be stalling? It is easy enough to blame "resisters," and there are certainly plenty of those, but isn't it also fair to inquire whether the diversity professionals need to try some new approaches? For years, the conversation about di- versity and inclusion has been based on several paradigms that need to be shifted in order to move the needle signifcantly. Te predominant one is the "good per- son/bad person" paradigm that has per- meated the conversation. It is important to understand where this approach came from. Generations—long sufering from the efects of racism, sexism, homopho- bia, and other like beliefs—have created an ongoing conversational network of contention that consistently pits "them" against "us," and in doing so avoids deal- ing with a system that is bigger than ei- ther "side." Although the emotional underpin- nings of this paradigm are understand- able, it ofers little relief from the core systemic issues that anchor the current reality. Te push for more diversity in hiring, for example, can have a negative impact on inclusion when it is not con- ducted in an appropriate way. Neurocog- nitive research confrms that when dif- ferences between people are emphasized, the empathy centers of the brain are less active. As a result, if people feel forced to bring in people without being adequately prepared or understanding the reasons, they may become more shut down and less inclusive. It is necessary to create some basic shifts in the way diversity and inclusion are approached in order to cre- ate new possibilities. New Strategies for a New Era It is important to recognize that the con- versation has expanded well beyond the limited perspectives of advocacy. In a global economy and within organizations in which globalism has increased the di- versity of employee groups dramatically, simply focusing on age-old strategies will no longer transform the nature of organizational life. Like a seesaw, they may produce short-term results only to be brought down by the corresponding backlash against those very same results. Strategies designed to "fx" people or push them to "get it" can often backfre because they fundamentally undermine the sense of self and leave people feeling judged and diminished. Similarly, strate- gies that work to strengthen a disenfran- chised group without also working with the dominant group to generate support and alignment can only ofer limited suc- cess. Terefore, strategies that focus on the development of cultural competency can create a greater sense of connectivity and inclusion because they reinforce that all people have distinct cultural lenses that infuence their perception and be- havior. We also need to cultivate a deeper understanding of what neurocogni- tive science is now teaching us about the subconscious mind and how it impacts the way people form biases. Our brains seemed to be designed to quickly sort those whom we encounter into either "friend" or "foe." From an evolutionary standpoint, this makes perfect sense. Tousands of years ago, people had to quickly determine whether the people they met at the watering hole were "them" or "us." Te development of that rapid internal dan- ger detector was crucial to safety and survival. More than 1,000 studies in the past 10 years have confrmed that people have bi- ases in virtually every dimension of human identity. More importantly, the fnding of this research is clear: Everyone has these biases, and overwhelmingly they are sub- conscious. We Mean Business > Neurocognitive research confirms that when differences between peo- ple are emphasized, the empathy centers of the brain are less active. d i v e r s i t y w o m a n . c o m S u m m e r 2 0 1 4 D I V E R S I T Y W O M A N 25 THINKSTOCKPHOTOS

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