Webinar Replay: The Business Imperative of D&I
Posted On March 30, 2020Blair Taylor discusses how a focus on diversity and inclusion will positively impact your bottom line.
Blair Taylor, partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and speaker for the Camber Outdoors keynote address at the 2020 Outdoor Retailer + Snow Show, expands on how a focus on diversity and inclusion leads to a healthy bottom line. Scroll down to watch the full webinar (Taylor begins speaking at minute nine). For those short on time, below are some common questions we’ve been hearing from CEOs, along with Taylor’s paraphrased answers.
Questions and Answers from the Webinar:
Once we have an authentic voice, how do we begin to build real fluency among leaders? How do we get there with true fluency?
“This is a journey. There are no organizations that have gotten it 100 percent right. Whether you’re coming from an underrepresented group or a majority group, we all have the unconscious biases we bring to the table and we all have to put in the personal work of identifying them. It’s also important to remember that this work is an evolving effort, in terms of gaining fluency, and in terms of the organizational processes that need to be put in place.
It’s like anything else you do: Invest the time. Make yourself intentionally uncomfortable. We have so many people in leadership positions who just don’t understand what your employees go through every day, so you need to build empathy and close the door to ask those real questions—even if you think they’re dumb. That’s how we begin to tear down these barriers.”
Where are the best ways to bring the positive aspects of a culture from a previous organization into a new workplace? What’s the best way to activate a new C-suite?
“Employee Resource Groups are vital. If your organization doesn’t have them, make sure you put some in place. CEOs need to spend time listening and talking to frontline employees and just asking questions. They also need to retain a dose of humility. After all, you don’t know what you don’t know. You have to be able to engage and understand where people are and where they’re starting from, especially when you’re coming from one organization to another.”
What is one thing companies often overlook when engaging in this work?
“Your supply chain! People often understand how this work extends to employees at your company and even your customers, but often overlooked are those in your factories or along your supply chain.”
Watch the Webinar
Special thank you to our sponsors, W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc., for making this webinar possible.
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