From the course: Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging

Personalizing your storytelling

From the course: Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging

Personalizing your storytelling

- 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 or 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 voiceover of their comment, of their situation without identifying him. 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 diverse 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 momentum 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. And when you ask 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.

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