Diversity

"Diversity" and "inclusion" are not synonymous terms, and in this module, you will explore the different meanings of the two words from a practical point of view with Professor Nishii. You will have an opportunity to review a classic case in which the effects of labeling and stereotypes were observed among children and discuss the outcomes with your peers. You will investigate how stereotypes influence people's thinking and perceptions, including "positive" stereotypes such as labeling people "high potentials." You will also examine recommended methods for reducing prejudice and applying stereotypes to decision making.

What's the distinction between diversity and inclusion? It's important to listen carefully to conversations about diversity and inclusion. Although they mean different things in practice — and inclusion mission statements acknowledge that this is the case — the terms "diversity" and "inclusion" are often used interchangeably. Many organizations have yet to adopt practices that truly promote inclusion.

So the question that I just posed to you is whether or not there's a distinction between diversity and inclusion. Everyone refers to the two simultaneously. We are even saying D & I when we refer to this space and in my own personal experiences, talking to people who practice D & I in organizations, it seems to me, when we start to talk about it, there is a distinction that's being made between diversity and inclusion, with the idea that inclusion includes more of the intangibles. This idea of creating the kind of environment where people can be successful, where people feel valued in their work. But as my conversations continue, I start to feel like, actually, inclusion is a very slippery construct. There's a saying that I've heard, which I think is pretty, pretty, appropriate here. The idea that trying to define inclusion is like trying to nail jello to the wall, it's very difficult. And, so, what I want to do is really try to clarify what we mean by that, because often what I find is that as we talk about inclusion, and as I ask questions about what companies are doing to practice or facilitate inclusion, it ends up feeling like we're talking about classic diversity management again. That the focus ends up being on things like targeted recruiting, mentoring programs, being very careful about tracking pay and promotion rates, and providing diversity training and employee resource groups and the like. And so, it starts to feel like maybe it's old wine in new bottles. That is, we've been doing these things for quite a while. These practices have been in place and have been considered best practices for quite a while. So, what is it that's different, about the inclusion tag that we're now adding to the conversation? Do these practices really help to promote inclusion? Once we define what we mean by inclusion, I hope that we'll start to see that maybe these practices alone are not sufficient for also cultivating inclusion in organizations.

Diversity With Inclusion

Throughout this course, you will hear from several industry leaders from the field of diversity and inclusion. In this section, three leaders talk about expanding the focus from diversity to inclusion within their organizations. Listen for cues about where they and their organizations are in the journey from diversity to inclusion — in particular, how they define and operationalize inclusion.

Note: The job titles listed below were held by our experts at the times of their interviews.

Ana Duarte-McCarthy, managing director and chief diversity officer at Citi since 2002, is responsible for the development and integration of Citi’s global workforce diversity strategy for hiring and developing diverse talent, fostering an inclusive work environment, and ensuring management accountability.

Elizabeth Nieto assumed the role of global chief diversity and inclusion officer at MetLife in June 2012. Since then, the company has defined a new global D&I strategy, launched the Global D&I Council chaired by the MetLife CEO, and designed a four-year implementation plan focused on the development of women globally as well as on regional initiatives (e.g., people with different abilities, emerging talent, U.S. veterans, LGBT).

Lucida Plummer leads the Diversity Business Resource Networks and the Local Inclusion Action Teams at MetLife. As such, she's responsible for defining the strategy and ensuring the operating model for all of the networks in line with the Global Diversity & Inclusion office and the entire enterprise.

It has been interesting the evolution of diversity and the inclusion of inclusion in part of this practice. What we learn is just having people that were different was not enough, if they were not engaged in the company. If they didn't feel that they had a say; they could influence the organization. So that adding of the word inclusion really changed the practice, not just by bringing people into their organization but developing, creating advancement and retention of those people that were different than the normal of each one of the organizations. I believe that in our case at MetLife, we also evolved and in the last couple of years, we had looked at different ways of creating inclusion. Mostly on giving managers the tools to re-think about the way they behave. We usually say, you don't do diversity and inclusion on Monday morning, and then you manage the rest of the week. You really do inclusion every day as a leader when you interact with your employees, with your teams. So, that's how we're talking about diversity and inclusion differently at MetLife. >> And I think that Elizabeth is right. The shift from just on diversity and why we're talking about inclusion, really has started to pull in a lot of different components of what you want to do with it, the toolkit. Breaking down, I think the misconceptions that people have had in the past about what it all means and why we're doing it, why it's important? We've been doing a lot of work around unconscious bias, which to me has really taken diversity and inclusion as a practice to another level. So that people understand not just what people perceive as the nice to do, the right thing to do, the politically correct thing to do, but the reasons why we are who we are because at the end of the day, it's not about having people not be who they are in the workplace, it's about celebrating the differences that people bring to the workplace, but understanding where everyone's coming from at the same time. >> I also think that inclusion has brought the white male into the conversation. Before, they felt that they were not part of this. And now when we're talking about inclusion, they see their role. And when we're talking about diversity, we're bringing diversity in the broader sense. So it's not about one characteristic, it's everything that you bring. It is to say bringing the whole self. And inclusion allows us to create that conversation that this not for some people, this is really for the organization. >> In the last decade there's been a big push to move from talking about diversity practices to diversity and inclusion, and I've been at Citi nearly 20 years. So in looking at the work we've done across those 20 years, the definite shift to inclusion has been more focusing on looking at the mix, which is what diversity has historically looked at. Who are you bringing in? Is that mix bringing in significant representation from the available labor pool? Does it take into consideration groups that historically have been underrepresented? And then the shift to inclusion really supported a mind shift to looking at how are people being perceived? Are they being fully developed? Are there any roadblocks in the way? And looking at it more proactively, sometimes I'd come to talk to people and they would immediately think it's like an audit. Let me get my metrics out, let me show you what we're doing. And what I want to talk to them about are people. How are these people doing? What's going on within the organization? What's the environment like? Let's look at who's being promoted. What's the succession plan look like? Are women part of that? What other diversity is part of that? And so it starts to look at it as a broader ecosystem. So I think it's an important shift because historically again, looking at making sure we're making these good faith efforts. Around the world generally that's women, and then as you start to look at different local countries, there are different groups that might be diverse in that country and historically haven't been part of the labor mix and then once individuals are in, now it's inclusion around are people feeling respected, valued? Are they feeling like they look up and see people that they can see as role models and not necessarily people that look like them but people who clearly value them. So it's an interesting shift and it's a very important one. Otherwise it's really a check-the-box exercise around ensuring that the mix is there, and not really looking at the broader impact of bringing people in who >> One of the things that we've been doing differently to support inclusion is, we're using the word first and foremost. The aspect of including the word creates conversation so, unless a why are you in diversity and inclusion? Why the semantics? So adding the context of the language is helpful because people start to then understand what it is in terms of this continuum. So, we bring in this diverse mix of individuals but the inclusion aspects look at ensuring the environment is supportive and also how we approach the work. So, a lot of what we do now focuses around development of the workforce and the lens that we bring to it is, looking at individuals across various strands, characteristics and understanding the various characteristics and how they might be supported more effectively. So as an example in the last number of years in the United States, there's been a real thrust on looking at the opportunity to recruit military veterans. So as we look at our recruitment and sort of recruitment programs, leadership development programs, even our employee resource groups or networks, are they groups that can just naturally bring in a population that's somewhat different at Citi? Or is there an opportunity to differentiate? So one of the things we've seen in particular around military veterans has been a fabulous growth of employee resource groups focused on military veterans. Open to all employees but there are individuals who become part of it. They themselves might be members of former military servicemen and women. They might be individuals who have children deployed. They might be individuals who had military service members in their family or they might be individuals who just want to learn more about the military or get more involved in for example, community efforts. So that's a pretty good departure from where I'd say we were ten years ago where if someone had said, "What are you doing in the US around military veterans?" We would have had a focus on recruitment, in particular around ensuring just sort of that regulatory purview and what are we doing to support military veterans. We would not have had all those other nuances around the work that we're doing. So I think that sort of illustrates how inclusion has become much more focused on not only what we're doing across the common community, but also what are the things we can do to support these characteristics that are increasingly changing as we go through the years. >> Some of the awards that the process of going through an award that exist there in the market, is important because it gives you an idea of what other companies are doing, as well at some of what the media and the external customer is expecting of our organization. So. It is the process of going through the award that for me, it's the learning for the organization. Looking at what other companies are doing from an employee resource group, can we be looking at that and learning from that. What are they doing from a communication perspective from their leaders? So the process of going through awards are important if you take that as a learning process for your organization versus a check-in-the-box for the organization.

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Discussion 1: Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes?

In this Discussion, explore your worldview and begin thinking about the values and beliefs that shape you.

Review this week’s Learning Resources, especially:

· Read Diversity Lecture – See Word doc .

· View Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Video – https://youtu.be/dLAi78hluFc

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Assignment:

Respond to at least  two of your peers' postings (listed below) in one or more of the following ways:

· Examine the ideas your peer presented and share whether you think they could have a positive effect on your community?

· How could you take these ideas and implement?

· Share ideas you think your peer may have overlooked in considering any intractable issues within his or her social change ideas?

· How to make the positive change he or she proposed a reality.

· 3 -4 paragraphs

· No plagiarism

· APA citing

1st Colleague’s post – Danielle Felicissimo

I was very surprised that I had not known about this experiment before, however I was not surprised by what happened in this context. I am a special education high school teacher and I also have a son with Autism. I routinely see first-hand the often horrific ways that people who are “different” are treated by society.

In researching the "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" experiment I found a lot of interesting information on the Minimal Group Paradigm, which then led me down a rabbit hole digging deeply into this phenomenon. Most shockingly to me is just how many times these type of experiments have been conducted and that the conclusions are similar no matter the pretext. Even minute or random distinctions between groups, such as the color of their shirts, can create conditions to favor one's own group to the detriment of others, even when it means sacrificing their own gains. (1)

The most interesting takeaway for me from the “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes” experiment was just how quickly and easily people can be influenced by prejudice and discrimination, especially by those they consider to be an authority figure. Even though the children in the experiment were only 8 years old, they were able to internalize the messages of both superiority and inferiority from the teacher. This clearly shows how powerful and pervasive these messages can be, and the importance of finding ways to combat them.

Researching these Minimal Group Paradigm experiments has influenced my thinking about diversity and inclusion in a number of ways. First, it has made me more keenly aware of the subtle ways in which prejudice and discrimination can manifest themselves. I feel like I now understand the concept of ”micro aggressions” more clearly. Second, it has taught me how important it is to challenge these messages, especially when they are coming from people who we trust. Third, it has reinforced the importance of fostering more inclusive environments, where stakeholders are aware of and are actively working on these internal biases, and everyone feels valued and respected.

1. Frank, M. G.; Gilovich, T. (January 1988). "The dark side of self and social perception: Black uniforms and aggression in professional sports". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 54 (1): 74–85.

2nd Colleague’s post – Aleksandra Bookman

I had forgotten that I studied this experiment when I took a Child Psychology class in college and I'm glad to be reminded of it, especially as my own son is getting to the age where we're going to start having conversations about race, ethnicity, gender, etc. 

One of my  main takeaways is that it actually does surprise me, although it probably shouldn't given how children can be bullies, how early this behavior can manifest. And that makes me feel silly and naive because this is peoples' lived experience every day. I've of course heard about the prison experiment  which was also about hypothetical power dynamics, but that one makes more sense to me given the subjects were adults. It's sad that children can so quickly turn on one another over something so arbitrary (like eye color …or skin color). And prejudice truly is arbitrary, despite literal centuries of politicians, "scientists", and religious/public figures trying to tell us otherwise.  

This experiment influences my thinking about D&I by reminding me about how arbitrary is and how quickly perception can be altered when people are given a sense of authority or power (or powerlessness), even if it's based on something that is of no doing (or fault) of their own. 

It also makes me wonder if a school teacher tried to perform this experiment today, would they get fired immediately? It feels like public discourse today, especially in and around classrooms, doesn't allow for these kinds of (incredibly important) lessons.

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