What is DIBs?

I'm calling dibs on diversity, inclusion and belonging. All three are essential, they're necessary, but
without the other they're insufficient. And so diversity's a fact, it's everything that makes you and I
unique, the seen and the unseen. But if you actually think in totality what makes up each and every
one of us, we cannot separate those aspects when we walk into a door. So I'm a mom, I'm a
sister. I'm dyslexic, so I have a learning-process challenge, I'll say. I come from a big family, I'm
Catholic, I'm this, I'm that. Diversity is all those elements. I'm left-handed, scissors bother me, like
working in a right-handed world is a challenge. And so how you show up, who you are, that is the
diversity. The inclusion part is the action of creating fairness, hopefully. It is the active of including
you to the dance, it's the act of hiring and trying to put in fair practices at work. Inclusion are our
attempts to welcome and acknowledge what makes us diverse and make it a welcoming workplace,
a fair workplace, creating opportunity across every moment that matters. We still haven't gotten
that part right, but I know that if people think about those moments that matter, then inclusive
behaviors start happening, how we coach our leaders, how we lean in to looking culture add not
fit, opening up our aperture for differences, looking for the add not the same. That's inclusion but
only, and I mean this, only when you have that sense of belonging in your heart that you are part of
a community, that you can be uniquely you, is when you unlock the power of DIBs. And belonging is
a human need, it is genetically wired in each and every one of us. We're compelled to belong, and
we're actually compelled to belong in our unique way. And that compelling need to belong has a
light side, meaning unlocking my authentic self and be leaning in and having high engagement. And
there's a shadow of belonging where if I feel in threat I will cloak, I will pretend to be something I'm
not so I fit in. So belonging is an inherent need, and doing it and navigating this gracefully at work is
what is the imperative.

DIBs and the future of work

When people talk about the future of work, it's actually happening now. The momentum's starting,
and the outcome is predictable. So by 2055, there will not be a majority race in the US, for example.
We know that it's happening really fast. We also know that millennials and they're seeking for jobs
or looking for purpose and they're looking for diversity. That's a fact. They want to go, they've been
in university, they've wherever, and they seek diversity of thought and experiences, they find that
rich. So we need to represent what they're looking for. We also know that only 3.2% of the Fortune
500 even show diversity numbers, so how does talent today and in the future discover who we are
as a diverse workforce? That's a challenge. And then, on top of the social trends that are happening
around the world, and by the way, they are different everywhere, different challenges from political
nature, from societal nature, they're coming and the world of work is no longer able to say park that
at the door. It's happening now. We've got to have conversations now. We've got to equip our
managers when to have this conversation and how to do it respectably, but it's now. And it's only
going to continue, and then you add in technology and service of people at work and it allows us to
be both brilliant and remote at the same time, so how do you combat that? Because if we want to
be together as a community through belonging, leverage technology, leverage your video, leverage
Slack and chat and communities, so the introverts and the extroverts can get online and chat. You
can use video, so I can see your body language. 90% of this conversation right now is how I interact
with you on film, and you need to grab that through technology. So if you're in a global company and
you're leveraging video and there's someone in Singapore, and in India, in Germany, and so on and
so forth, what I try to do with my team is have someone adopt them that's sitting in the core
conference room and say, okay, Sally, you get Rada. Tony, you get so and so, and if they're trying to
interject in the conversation, please make sure their voices are heard, 'cause technology has its
flaws. It's so hard to interrupt in technology, unfortunately, and if you are brainstorming how do you
advocate for them when they are not physically in the room but you can pull them in through the
video. If you are sharing ideas around the table, how do you do it in a way that's inclusive? How do
you do it in a way that ensures that the quieter voices have their moment, because 20, 30% of the
table will speak 80% of the time. So what voice's missing? Can you ask yourself that at your staff
meeting? What voice's missing? What demographic should be here to make sure that we are having
the best debate possible to get the best outcome? Maybe we will invite friends into this
conversation because we are not as diverse as I'd like us to be, and teach them how to have a
conversation to explore, to not be perfect, so they can lean in.

DIBs as the foundation for equitable workplaces

When people talk about equity, they intermix that with equal, and it's not. Equity is about fairness,
and if you're thinking about fairness, it's not just about pay. We talk a lot about fair pay. Dollar for
dollar for the same job with the same output. That seems reasonable. I agree, but what if, what if 1%
bias creeped in your organization and you didn't have the same opportunity that I had? What if that
bias interrupted our path and so, you got the promotion and I didn't? That's not fair, that's not
equitable, so how do you level the playing field at work? How do you help in those moments that
matter to make better decisions in a fairer way with transparency? That's the challenge and the
opportunity about creating an equitable workforce and an equitable place to work and equity of
opportunity, because without that, fair pay is almost meaningless because we can be paid the same,
but my opportunity was held back, and that is the shame. You want people at work to realize their
full potential and have the same opportunities. And so, in those decisions that matter from hiring to
promoting to coaching to providing feedback, it needs to be fair and equitable. Then, you need to
start listening. Listen in those bigger moments that matter and then, listen to the nuance. Your
employees will tell you where they feel things are not fair. You yourself can look at pay, you can look
at benefits, you can look at the perks and the environment in which people work, and say, is this fair
in approach? Do you have guiding principles that make it fair? Or is there a bias that's creeping in
there? And if so, fix it. So, you ask some questions, you see some opportunities, and that becomes
your roadmap. And then, you'll learn other things. What I caution everyone not to do, and I've tried
this before and you can't do it this way, is attack everything at once. As an organization, you will fail
because you have to keep your eye on the ball until it's healthy. So, if you're worrying about healthy
pay and fairness of pay, get that right. Then, look at how you do promotions. Then, look at how you
make hiring decisions, and then, look at how you give feedback. Look at how you do job postings.
One by one, and over time, you'll make a healthier organization. You don't have the bandwidth, it's
too much of a journey, and what you want to do is go in the right direction, and with that, you build
trust. A common signal in every organization about equity of opportunity, just look at your own
promotion rates. Look at the representation. Just pick gender. Gender is usually the first step most
companies go for because they can measure globally. Ethnicity and race you can't for various
reasons, but gender, sure. And if you look at the feeder pool from beginning of the stack of
employability all the way up your food chain, look at the representation of women going up your
organization. If there's disparate representation that was in the bottom to the top, one can assume
there's bias. Especially if it's statistically different, then go look at that. And then, understand what is
unconscious bias. Don't fear it. Lean into it, and realize that speed is your enemy in every decision.
And so, if you pause, you have the right data set in front of you and ask, just ask simple questions, do
you think there's bias creeping in here, you'll have better outcomes. If you ask yourself at recruiting,
do I have a diverse slate, do I have enough diversity culture ad in my team with this slate? And if you
ask that, you'll make better decisions, because we all want to do the right thing.
Convincing others: Combining facts and emotions

I always been thinking about what's the opportunity or where's the pain and how do I solve that?
But with diversity, it's a whole nother gig. It's visceral, it's emotional. It's personal, it's very personal.
And if a business leader doesn't understand the importance of DIBs, at first I get really frustrated
'cause it's so self-evident to me. And I realize the magic it gives and I remember that the period in
my own career where I became authentically me. And that was the most powerful moment. It
literally changed my career trajectory. And I remember a moment in time that I was imagining a life
where I would have purple hair and wear my Converse High Tops and where like really bright colors
and just like do art, I love art. And laugh every day, and have a lot of fun while making the world
hopefully better. And I'm thinking to myself, why can't I do that today? Why can't I be who I am
today, and like what's holding me back. And it changed how I showed up. It changed how I led others
and role-modeled. It brought more joy to me. And it was so obvious to me, how do I turn that for
business? How do I make succesful companies pause? How do I give companies that are struggling
optimism and how do I stay in the conversation long enough for them to get it? It takes different
things. So one, I call it holding up the mirror, right. So I've done this before, where I've for the first
time for a leadership team, I might say, "We're doing talent review. "We're looking at promotions.
"We're looking at succession planning." All things they normally care about. And then I'll just throw
in this little dashboard of diversity. Here's a promotion rate and here's who we're hiring and here's
what we look like today. Then I'll say something like, "Ugh!" Like that or not too pretty or "Hm,
there's some opportunity here." And then I'll keep going. And if you're working with a high
performing team, they won't like that response. "What do you mean, it's not pretty? "What do you
mean, it's ugly? "What do you mean, there's a problem?" I'm like "Well, there's bias obviously in
these numbers. "But if you're cool with that, then that's all I'll say." And they'll say, "Well, what do
we do? "What's the problem? "How can you fix it?" And I'm, I'm not going to fix it. As soon as HR
tries to fix it, we have lost. As soon as one person says I got this, we have lost. And so my whole
intent of holding up the mirror is to get some agitation, uncomfortable, lot of uncomfortable dialog
and say, "You all make the hiring decisions. "You all make the promotion, the comp decisions. "I
enable you. "I give you frameworks. "I should educate you and I'm educating you today. "It's ugly. "If
you want to be ugly, that's great. "You decide and I'll help you if you want to get better." And all of a
sudden, it becomes self-aware. And you get one or two to say, wait a minute, that's not okay. I'm a
father of daughters or I have a brother who's gay. I have this or that and you see the world
differently all of a sudden. Like what can I do to impact change? You'll still have people. At some
point go, "We have a business imperative. "We are driving sales and we have this problem." Or,
"we're about to do an em, "this DIBs thing is a distraction. "This does not help us," in other words.
And then I have to go back to the drawing board, take a deep breath first. (laughing) And then I go,
"Well, help me understand "how this is additive. "Shouldn't it be in your DNA?" Like you think it's
okay to have bias and treat people poorly? Do you think it's okay to demean people at work or put
up your hand and go, "Not now." And they'll still fight me. They still will resist. Another tool you can
use, which I find very impactful for leaders that do care, 'cause most leaders, 99.9% leaders really
care about their employees. If you actually survey your employees in different demographics to find
out how are they experiencing work? Where do they bump into bias or fear, uncertainty? You get
their quotes, their experiences. You hold that in front of them. That is irrefutable evidence of
something wrong. And I've had friends of mine take that and they had actors and some employees
do the voice over of their comment, of their situation without identifying them. He took his
leadership team into a room, turned off the lights, and played this recording. When he turned on the
light, about half of his leaders were crying. They were not aware. Their commitment to Diversity
Inclusion Belonging, completely changed that day, Completely changed. So I think in touching the
elephant, which is being aware and being healthier, I got to show numbers. I got to use quotes. I got
to make it personal and visceral and real. And then give you tools on how to navigate it. If you do
that over and over again, you create a moment and a path forward. But it takes a lot of time. And it
takes energy and it takes courage and resilience 'cause you're not going to get it right. But if you
don't do those things well, you leave opportunity on the table. You can disenfranchise people.
There's stats out there. I think it's 70% or plus people are disengaged at work. That horrifies me.
That is so sad. And when you're asked why, it's 'cause they don't feel appreciated, heard, respected,
safe. They don't have a community. They don't have a sense of belonging. And I want to change that.

Use storytelling to backup the facts

The best tool in our arsenal to drive change is a great story. People remember how you make them
feel, not necessarily what you said, and through a storyteller, through someone that tells a personal
story from beginning, middle, and end, we release chemicals in our brain. We start to have
compassion and empathy for the other human being. We put ourselves in their shoes for a moment
in time, and say, "What if that were me?" And it's a teaching tool because you can tell the moral of
the story is don't go in the woods, you're going to get eaten or blank. When you tell a story for work,
what it does is let someone into you about who you are as a human being, how you were raised,
when things worked or didn't work, your biggest surprise at work and oh my gosh, and like, oh I
want that surprise, and you pull people in with that story. If you are a master storyteller, you are a
master at selling because you tell the story of your company. You tell the story of why it's great to
work at your company, and you can be an amazing recruiter. So storytelling has been a tool for a
long time to sell products, to hire and recruit. Why aren't we using stories as fully as we can to
create a healthier experience? I don't know, but I want everyone to tell the story, and if you tell a
story and you tell it from how it means to you, then you've created a bond with this other person
that is forever there. And I remember learning about this from Greg Walton. Greg Walton is a
professor at Stanford and he did a study and has been doing a study now for well over a dozen years
about uncertainty. And uncertainty happens when you move, when you go to college, when you get
married, when you become a parent, like these are big uncertainty moments. Every human being
goes through this big arc, and he was looking at studies about people with lower economic
opportunity, people of color coming into a dominant white affluent university, huge uncertainty just
going into that university, and then not knowing your own path. Like will I fit in, will I thrive? And so
these students, he would discover, would try to mask. When you're even a majority in the room,
you're masking 20 to 25% of your time in your brain. You are adopting language, you are adopting
your clothing, you're adopting your use cases to fit in to be heard. If you are a minority or in fear,
you might mask anywhere from 50, 80% or 100% if you fear for your life. You will never tell your
company that you are gay if it is illegal to be gay, so you make up a whole other life every day.
Imagine the emotional energy it takes to do that. So if I can tell stories about how I came out at work
or how so and so navigated something and showed their journey, then people like that will say
there's an opportunity for me to be great. I can be successful. So Greg Walton realized that pretty
quickly, and so what he ended up doing is creating this cohort of storytellers in these universities,
people that have been there for two, three, four years, graduated even, and come to these
freshmen and say, "Here's how I navigated this university. "Here's what I discovered, "here's how I
show up", and just by seeing someone else that looked like me navigate this bigger world, this crazy
world in a successful way increased courage and confidence. And through these storytelling, he was
able to track those that got that story, higher graduation rates, higher GPA, and most importantly for
me, more friends. They had more joy. Emotional wellbeing was way off the charts. Those that did
not have the story statistically difference in graduation rates and GPA, and emotional wellbeing. You
have to be intentional. You have to create the space, and you can kind of sneak it in. You can do an
icebreaker. How many teams do icebreakers? We all do, so here's 10 questions, pick three of them,
and show case what was your most, your biggest mistake at work, your biggest career risk that you
took, what's your favorite family moment? So a little business, little personal, and by telling stories of
who I am and being a little more vulnerable in the risks I've taken, you create the bond, and it's a
great icebreaker. And I know the person, not their job. So storytelling is powerful.

Reinforce the story using other leaders

When I think about this topic, it is, can be intimidating. It is challenging. It does evolve. It's a journey,
not a destination, and for managers, they want the checklist. If I do these three things, then I'll be
successful. This algorithm, if this, then that. We kind of have some of the algorithm. We don't have it
all, and unfortunately, algorithm keeps changing on us 'cause the world's changing. So the attributes
that I look for, vulnerability, a growth mindset, because you're going to make mistakes and how do
you learn from it? A mistake is not a failure. How do you seek feedback so you're more self aware?
And how do you lead with compassion? So if you have these elements and the vulnerability is to
show your own journey, if you can tell your own story of discovery, then you become the role model
for others and they open up to you and they become more vulnerable, and there's this beautiful gift
of humanity that happens and the trust improves, and if you think about Amy Edmondson talking
about psychological safety or Brené Brown talking about the power of vulnerability and leadership,
these things really matter, and if you have those elements, you will be an amazing leader. And I
know it's hard, and so you take small bites. You seek to understand, you listen more attentively. Get
a coach. If you are making mistakes, figure it out. Ask, how could I have done it better? And then
practice that. If you can have a leader tell their story, not only their career path, which is nice. I can
look at your LinkedIn profile and find out what you did, but I don't know why you did what you did. I
don't know your struggles, I don't know the opportunities, I don't know what made you go from A to
C, and by telling the story, one, you allow others to envision their possible paths, which is a great
gift, but if you think about the moments when you learn the most, it's not when things are perfect.
And so if you have a leader tell those moments when they didn't belong, the biggest challenges,
their mistakes, who helped them and how. Did you have a mentor, an advocate? How did you pick
yourself up? 'Cause we all fall down at work. It's how you pick yourself up. How did you own it? Did
you have a growth mindset or not? Did you have a fixed mindset? Did you just repeat the same old
pattern? Like, how'd you get where you're going? Those stories, inevitably, unlock opportunity in
someone else's brain. And if they're authentic, if they're real, they're humble, and they're personal,
that's a huge gift. And so I do seek my leaders to share their story. I seek others, I bring people in all
the time to talk and share, and what I find that happens is that the leader becomes more reflective
about those moments where they made their mistakes and they become more compassionate to
their employees, as well. More patient, more of a coach advocate. Because you don't, like raising a
family, you don't want to take away every roadblock in front of them because when they're an adult,
they won't know how to operate as an adult. And so at work, I have to give my employees enough
leeway, rope, to stumble a little bit, hit a plexiglass wall, and then say, "What'd you learn from that?"
Yeah, you're right. Let's pick it up, let's move. Don't let them fail, but allow enough bruises along the
way so they feel challenged and grow. And so storytelling from a leader's perspective, getting them
to open up creates part of the foundation for culture change. It gives permission to be more
vulnerable. It shows people opportunities for career pathing and should increase engagement of an
organization. And so the more you tell those stories, the more you showcase those things, it gives
people an optimistic point of view.

How to hire diverse talent

 So, if I'm a recruiter, and I'd just had this conversation with an exec recruiter, and she said, "I know
you talk a lot about "diversity inclusion belonging. "I think that's meaningful, "but as a recruiter, I
always get asked "to hire that female." I'm doing a search. I'd love more diversity. I want the female,
I want this, I want that. And I can help them find those things. I can help recruit. And then what
happens is they send me a contract that says, "I will adhere to non-discriminitory practices. "I'll
ensure everyone has an equal opportunity." But they just told me to hire a basket weaver, and now
they saying I have to be open to every kind of craft there is. I don't, these two are incongruent. What
do I do? That in a nutshell is what happens all the time at different skills. So you'll have a leader
going, "Well, "my gender balance isn't there," or "I'm missing this," or "I'm missing that, "I don't have
enough international," whatever the case may be. "But I want the best talent. "Get me the best
talent," and then they default on what they're used to having as the best talent because it's
comfortable. And the reason why it's comfortable is 'cause it's, there is a success pattern. If you
always hired someone from company X with a degree of Y and then you're actually de-risking failure,
you're not ensuring success. I know at a minimum what they're capable of doing. Therefore, they're
going to survive, maybe thrive. But if you turn the knob a little bit as a recruiter and say, "Look, I get
that pattern, "but you already made that choice. "You've already hired three of those. "If we hired
different shades of this "or a new pottery maker, "what would that do, the debate at your team?
"How would that show up in making us a better, "at making blank?" So, teaching a recruiter how to
have that conversation about what is the add will change the dynamic with the manager. So, sit
down. What's missing? Then talk about how do you do inclusive interviewing. Make sure that you
have a diverse panel that's interviewing this candidate 'cause remind you millennials, everybody's
looking for a diverse company. 67 percent of millennials say they will only work for diverse
companies. So now when they come in, they want to see difference when they walk in your
hallways. They want to feel that you are accepting of uniqueness. So now you got to make sure the
panel reflects that uniqueness that you offer at the company. And then you got to teach the
manager how to reduce bias when you're making that final call because, again, they're indexing on
reducing risk of failure 'cause they have a tight timeline. If you slow their neurological roll, you'll
make better decision making and you ask them to really discern what is the best value add to their
team, they'll make the right decision. A recruiter is a coach. It's a confidant because the manager has
to be a little vulnerable with you to open up. And if you come to them with data, saying, "I already
know your team makeup. "I kind of know you. "I've been with you. "And here's what I think the
strengths are "of your recruiting team. "Here's where I think we can add value "and show better
respect. "These people were late to interviews. "That show disrespect. We will lose candidates if
we're late to a meeting. There's data that shows that. And you can make them a better them. That is
amazing. I think my recruiter team is my canary in the coal mine. They are the selling motion of the
company. They are the reflection of who we want to become and they are the leaders in that pact to
culture. So I think they have amazing opportunity and power to help evolve dibs in any organization.

Engage and retain diverse talent

When we talk about engagement of diverse talent or retention of talent, people tend to
disaggregate the two as two different problems, and they're one in the same. And here's how I think
about it. Imperfectly perfect. You can recruit great, amazing talent into the door with all their
diversity, and if they don't see themselves being successful, surviving and thriving in the
organization, that sense of accomplishment and future growth will diminish the time that they spend
with you. So it's what Professor Greg Walton talks about in uncertainty in his research that if I walk
in, I don't see signals of others like me being successful and thriving, then I'm already one foot out
your door. It's just a matter of time. So we spend a lot of money on recruiting other, looking for
culture add, whatever those things are, and then if we're not worried about our own culture inside,
we have missed half that equation. And so the best way to retain that talent is to have high
engagement. And the way I know how to do that is increase belonging, and so if you increase
belonging, performance for those, there's correlation. So if I have a high sense of belonging, even a
moderate sense of belonging with my team, that I matter, that you care for me, then my
performance, this data shows, goes up 56%. That's huge to a business. It also correlates my intent to
stay increases by 50%, so now turnover gets reduced, performance increases through belonging. So
if you start looking at those stories that you tell in the front when I'm courting you, that you, in all
your uniqueness, can survive and thrive with me, you take a bet, 'cause how much do you know in
advance? You take a bet, I treat you beautifully in the front end. I give you a very fair package, you
feel very welcomed. You're looking for signals along the path to see am I real or am I fake? You're
looking for the authenticity of that story of that sell. If you have been bruised in the past, if you have
been treated with discrimination, if you've been treated in a not such a great way, then it takes, like,
10 x more positives to outweigh the negative, right? And so you're looking around for signals and so
the way to reengage you is to make sure I'm telling those stories from day one, that I introduce the
human, not your title, and I continue to, you know, celebrate who you are. Because your job title
hopefully changes over time. Your journey with me should last many cycles before you move on to
something else that's even more amazing, so I shouldn't fixate on the job that you do today. I should
fixate on the talent and the amazing things you bring to bear. That's when you get engagement.
That's when you get that sense of belonging, and that's when turnover decreases 'cause you can
manifest what Reid Hoffman would say, your tour of duty, multiple times because you believe and
care for me.

How to listen to your employees

Listening is so much harder than talking, and I think that's probably why the world is created of both
introverts and extroverts. I had the privilege to meet Susan Cain, the author of "Quiet," and I started
sharing who I am as an introvert and how it manifests. I think that it, partly a superpower, 'cause as
an introvert, you tend to listen more. You're quieter, you're absorbing, you're processing many
voices in your head, not one, but many different things, and then when you're speaking, it's about
that one thing you're trying to narrow down into. Extroverts tend to have this stimulating creativity
of throwing out ideas and brainstorming and creating energy, which I envy completely. But I think
the powerful combination of the two is amazing. But what I've learned is that listening, even for an
introvert, is extremely hard and tiring, so if you care deeply, if you start your day with intentionality
and say, okay, when I have gratitude, my health, my family, work, whatever those things are, I may
be a leader, I may not, but I care about the people I work with, and I care about what we're working
on and serving our employees and our customers. In order to best serve them, I must be present. I
must learn, I must be aware, I must listen. And so, if you're going to listen, then really listen, please.
Put down the device, close the laptop. Seek to understand. Process what you're hearing. Echo back
what you thought you heard. Calibrate. And once you truly understand what they're saying, then
you can move on to how you're interpreting it, not before. And what is amazing, how often we want
to be heard, we want to say our piece without actually listening to the other. So, there's lost IP. If
you just think about IP as an intellectual property with a price tag, you're missing a lot of money. If
you listened, absorbed it, you'll get smarter. Person that's talking will feel really heard. It is the most
attractive trait to be heard. What an amazing leader that puts everything down for you. Now, what
do you do with the listening? If you talk about the power of listening, and it's an attractive moment
in time, it makes me more engaged, I think you get me. But then what? I need to listen to
understand. I need to listen to figure out, are we aligned or not aligned? I need to listen to make
sure that if there's white space, a problem, an opportunity, that I have enough awareness in how to
fix that opportunity. And if you have a development, Agile methodology in your organization or in
your head that, you know, perfect is terrible, what you want is, iterate and learn along the way, then
you only iterate once you learn and listen. So, an active part of learning is listening. Then you have to
tell your audience what you did with what you heard. And when you close that loop, this is what you
said, this is the interpretation, and this is what I did, thank you, you build trust. You build a better
organization, a better thing, whatever that thing is, and you give them permission to speak up more,
and you're role modeling the right thing. But at the end of the day, take a nap, because it is tiring.

Integrate DIBS into the employee experience

The reason why I fixate on the emotions and the opportunity is because the thing I call belonging
gets threaded throughout everything. It's not a destination, it's a journey. It's personal; it ebbs and
flows; and over time, with different proof points, it gets stronger and richer, like your family. And if
you just talk about diversity as a point in time, like diverse slate, let's use a Rooney Rule, let's look at
diversity of pay parity. You reduce this whole thing in such a small way, like it's a process and not a
human thing. And humanity deserves to be in the DNA of every company. It deserves to be part of
how you think through how I court you, how I welcome you, how I just straight talk. What's the job?
What's good, what's bad? You're going to come in and know I'm lying if I think everything's great and
then you walk in like, "I don't have tools. "I have no process. "I have no one to talk to." Oh, did I not
mention that? So I think if you approach DIBs at the highest level as if it's an initiative, you already
failed in a major sense because you disaggregated it from running a company. You made it this other
thing and it's not another thing. You already have it in your DNA. Now your choice is do you make it
a healthy body, an ecosystem that is fair and equitable along its whole lifecycle? Or do you treat it as
other and therefore ignore what you already have. Because if you listen to what you have, you're
going to find opportunities. And the world keeps changing. The social, political climate changes. The
battles that happen around us change the dynamics and how we show up. And company is always
evolving and so diversity, inclusion, belonging, and nurturing all that in the right way is in every
decision point and every behavior we take every day.

Measure with a DIBs index

When I first started talking about DIBs, it happened by accident. I was asked to speak at a
Professional Business Women's conference about diversity inclusion. I'm an introvert. I was asked to
be on a panel. That's super easy for me. I just do this Q and A thing and I'm done. I don't overstress,
perfect. Well, then the moderator pulled a fast one on me like two weeks before the event. She was
like, "Hey Pat, "do you mind doing like a Ted-like talk on diversity?" Then I started sweating. I'm like,
"I don't, I'm, why?" It's a diversity event, they should know what diversity is. I don't need to do it.
She goes, "No, I want to talk about how you feel. "How do you feel about D&I as a talent leader?" No
one in my career has ever asked me that, ever. And I was appalled I didn't have an answer. And I
said, "I'll get back to you." It was that night when I was thinking about diversity inclusion, myself as a
female with a learning difference. I have a daughter that has special needs. I've, you know, have
friends and people around me that have had different experiences and I realized that D is a fact. I
can't, that's an immovable object. It is there. You have acts of inclusion that are underperforming,
shall we say, in terms of its intent. And I realized in that moment that the D&I were necessary, but
not sufficient until you grab my heart in this. You leave so much on the table, like momentum, like
real movement happens when you grab the brain and the heart. And so then DIBs came to be and I
shared DIBs at PBWC event and they're like, "Wow, I never thought of belonging" and told my story
when I didn't belong and when I did, and it triggered learning for me. And I want to know, was I
alone? Was I alone in needing this? I am craving community. You have no idea. I want to belong. I
want to know I'm needed. I want to know that you seek me out 'cause I'm different, that I'm a little
quirky, whatever that is, but I want to know that you want all of me and not just a portion of me. So
that day, I turned around to my team. Now mind you, I had the privilege of having a team that run
the survey, so I said, "I want you to research for me "the belonging questions." Every company does
diversity questions, inclusion questions. Do you feel respect? So and so forth, but find out the salient
questions that really drive home belonging. They gathered the different research from universities
and different institutes. They offered me like, 10 choices. I picked five, and we created a DIBs index.
So we had five questions on diversity, five on inclusion, and I snuck five in on belonging. I was blown
away 'cause when you pull them in totality, and you looked at the correlation of information around
the world of a company 10,000 plus employees large, growing, that the two biggest correlations to
engagement and intent to stay was a sense of belonging. And the questions were, when something
bad happens, I know someone cares about me. And two, I have friends at work. And I was blown
away. Like, I knew belonging mattered, but to have all my employees tell me that, I was like, amazed.
Like, people will take less pay, a lower title to do their best work and be purpose driven. And if you
unlock that diversity, if you look at how you treat them and really respond to them, you get huge
loyalty and you uplift them and give them this power that without that would be shame. So the DIBs
index gives you the compass for action.

Embedding DIBs in your company culture

The first step to looking at DIBs in your company is just take a pulse. How is your company doing?
What does the culture feel like, look like? Listen to your employees, do an EBS survey. There's many
ways to take a pulse on the organization. Then look at the health metrics, turn over your diversity
footprint, where you're growing, how you're growing, the makeup in your management team, so on
and so forth. And then you'll see some glaring opportunities and then you have to decide how to
prioritize them and how they get addressed. And so, if you're hiring but can't retain, it's a culture
thing and if it's a culture thing, think about belonging. Think about where it impacts every moment
of an employee's journey and then survey those moments, survey at hire, how was your greeting,
how was your day one, how was your ramp-up, do you feel supported? That first transition as a
manager, did you feel supported, do you feel like there's someone cares about you? Those DIB
index-like questions along the way and then calibrate. Find where you're trending, fix it. Find where
you're trending, fix it and you're going to find lots of opportunities, but don't try to fix them all at
once. You'll be overwhelmed. Focus, one step at a time and the journey really creates trust. The
journey is the object, not an end result, because employees just want to know that you care, that
you want to create a health, healthy-like vibe, where you're respected, that I can be authentically
me, and do my best work. And so, so what if you're a little wonky here and there as long as they
know the path forward is healthy. When DIBs is an initiative in a training course, you've already lost.
It's got to be in how you walk the hallway, it's got to be in how you make your decisions, it's got to
be in how you sell the company, and evolve as a company 'cause without DIBs you stagnate. So, with
DIBs you can fly faster and further.

Role modeling

Role models for DIBs. I think it's everybody and I think there's a disproportionate burden on
management and rightfully so. I think there's also a disproportionate burden on recruiters, on HR. I
think it is a responsibility across the organization to try to get this right and around the world.
Thinking about DIBs in India is different than how DIBs will manifest in Singapore or Japan in
recognizing their culture and how they listen. I think that getting on the journey is fascinating, but if
you try to make one-size-fits-all on DIBs, you also will fail, you'll stumble more frequently. So your
role models have to be diverse in nature. They have to be around the world. They have to be from
top to tail in your organization. Hopefully your CEO's doing some of this work with you. Even if it's
only on gender, even if they pick one sliver of what is a diverse world, that helps tell the story and
model something. And then pick some other senior executives, be it an LGBTQ, be it an introvert, be
it a mom, be it a dad, returning from parental leave. How does that manifest in an organization?
How do you stay human in the world today at work is everyone's imperative and I think you need
role models for different things around the world so I can see what that looks like. So, yeah, we need
role models. We need to see what works and what doesn't. I learned from my mistakes but I can
teach others through my mistakes. So role models also have to be really vulnerable and brave to say
not only did this work and why it matters to me but this is why I learned this lesson. It was hard and
this is where I stumbled so you won't run in the same potholes or the bruises that I had. You can
make your own mistakes but you don't necessarily have to make mine. So it's how you welcome
someone. It is being there when you're needed. It is asking for differences of opinion, giving
permission to play devil's advocate. Give me an opposing point of view. It is learning how to be
advocates for others on the video. Turning on your video. For goodness sakes, if you have
technology, turn on the video. Don't show me emoticon as your video. Show me you, I want to see
you. Model that so as a leader if you're not turning on your own video, even if you're on your
iPhone, let them see you. People want to connect. So I think those are the things you can do in
everyday moments that thread across the organization and create momentum. And I think it's asking
the question, this is where I struggled originally, especially as an introvert. How are you, how was
your weekend? And then shut up and listen. (chuckles) I used to say, "Hi, how are you?" and keep
walking. That is an anti-belonging moment. I don't suggest anyone do that. If you're going to ask
someone how they're doing, please care enough to listen.