Diversity Links

Discrimination in the workplace is a pressing issue that employers  face every day. Discrimination simply means treating a person unfairly  and illustrating prejudice. Many types of workplace discrimination leave  employees feeling unsafe, threatened, uncomfortable, and prejudiced  against at work. Unfortunately, situations such as these occur more  often thank you think. In fact, the EEOC issued a press release in April 2019 announcing that 76,418 charges of workplace  discrimination were reported in 2018. Race, sex, and disability  accounted for over 90% of the charges filed.

Employers are mandated by law to protect their employees from  discrimination in the workplace. While the employer can cause prejudice,  they are also caused by other workers. It is still your duty as an  employer to prevent discrimination in the workplace. There are a few  simple measures that you can take and policies that you can implement to  avoid discrimination in your workplace. They are simple and provide for  a pleasant, discrimination-free work environment. Read more here.

OnBoard is all about increasing the pool of potential independent directors, with the aim of increasing diversity of thought on startup boards. As a leader in the field of diversity of thought and decision making, we quizzed Lloyd how this can be maximised in practice, along with demystifying some common terms and hearing first-hand how his tool works.

Lloyd spends a load of his time working with boards and executive teams to help them make better decisions by uncovering ways they can optimise for diversity of thought. In between, he has a handful of directorships, including in startup world as the Chair of Ministry of Awesome, an organisation based in Christchurch focusing on growing entrepreneurs and world class innovation locally. Read more here.

David Landsman: A narrative has emerged that COVID-19, for all the obvious tragedy,  has a “silver lining” in that it has restored the rightful relationship  between experts and populists.   We have progressed from the public  having “had enough of experts from organisations with acronyms…” to  hanging on the every word of the scientists. Brexit gives way to  COVID-19, with climate change to follow.

Before we jump to  conclusions, it might help to ask which experts we should listen to, on  which subjects, and on the basis of what criteria. It turns out that  expertise is something of a paradox, if not several paradoxes rolled  into one. Some three months since we started listening to Coronavirus  experts, the paradoxes are becoming harder to ignore.

Read more here.

Lloyd W. Howell, Jr., CFO of Booz Allen Hamilton: The positive impact of diversity in all its  iterations, is particularly powerful as we come together as a team to  consider larger issues that directly impact financial performance. Take  capital deployment strategy as an example area that would be reviewed  through the lens of a crisis: In my group, a respected, credentialed  treasury team looks at balance sheet capacity, tax experts review those  considerations, accounting and reporting teams have a role, and the  operational staff weighs in on issues of banking and payroll. In capital  deployment, many decisions are of a highly judgmental nature — it’s  never black and white; there are many options. To get to the right  answer requires diversity in personal and life experience layered with  diversity in deep professional expertise, along with the willingness to  be inclusive of other ideas. Read more here.

Emma Bryce describes how these words are often used interchangeably, but technically, they're  defined as separate things. Nina  Jablonski, an anthropologist and palaeobiologist at The Pennsylvania  State University, who is known for her research into the evolution of  human skin color says "Race is understood by most people as a mixture of  physical, behavioral and cultural attributes. Ethnicity recognizes  differences between people mostly on the basis of language and shared  culture." Read more here.

“Group-level decision making is ubiquitous,” says Karpowitz. It ranges  from the highest level, where men and women work together in Congress  and the U.S. Supreme Court, on down to juries, town halls, PTAs, and  work teams. It applies even on Church ward councils and in families, he  stresses. In one realm or another, no one falls outside the scope of this research.

Rather than outright misogyny, she says it’s usually cultural norms and  gendered messages that subtly—and profoundly—shape the rules of  engagement. Individuals who suppress female speech may do so  unwittingly. “They may love women,” says Preece. “They may even be a  woman!” But as a society we have been “slowly socialized over years to  discount” female expertise and perspectives. Read more here.

Kaley Childs Karafa, Director of Board Engagement at Nasdaq: Board composition – and diversity, in particular - has been a top  governance topic not only among boards themselves, but also among  investors, state legislatures, employees, and the public. The board  chair of a small cap corporation recently remarked, “diversity is in the  DNA of our board, and it’s why we have more robust discussions and  better board dynamics.” On the other hand, some boards may still view  diversity as simply checking a box in the composition matrix. The  perception that having one or two women on the board means the board has  achieved diversity does not reflect an enlightened understanding of the  value true diversity brings to a board. A diverse board is one where  there is diversity of thought, experience, and background.

Read more here.

Management teams are responsible for making sense of complex questions. Maybe it’s estimating how much a market will grow next year, or finding  the best strategy to beat a competitor. One popular approach for  navigating these questions is turning to the “wisdom of crowds” – asking  many people for their opinions and suggestions, and then combining them  to form the best overall decision.

Evidence suggests that the combination of multiple, independent judgments is often more accurate than even an expert’s individual judgment. Research by Harvard's Brad De Wees and Julia A. Minson identifies a hidden cost to this approach. When someone  has already formed an opinion, they’re far less likely to be receptive  to the opinions of others – and this can lead to evaluating other people  and their ideas more negatively. Read more here.

In the wake of major social and political changes over the past decades,  leading companies are taking steps to increase diversity, equity, and  inclusion. Yet progress in most sectors remains tepid. Programs designed to increase diversity and inclusion in the workplace often fail. So that leads to a natural question: What’s actually working?

Devah Pager and David Pedulla dove into these promising areas and produced a report,  titled “What Works? Evidence-Based Ideas to Increase Diversity, Equity,  and Inclusion in the Workplace.” Here, David highlights five key insights  that can serve as tools for those looking to make their workplaces more  diverse, more thriving places.

Read more here. 

This  excellent article by science writer David Robson brings together  research showing that people with greater humility are better learners,  decision-makers and problem solvers.

Humility is especially  important for leaders, with evidence that displays of humility can  improve strategic thinking and boost the performance of colleagues  across an organisation. This fits with the well-established models of  servant leadership.

Here are a few points that resonated with me:

- You need confidence to be humble
- Leaders humility creates space for others to disagree with decisions, reducing the risk of "groupthink"
- Humility builds trust, which is critical for engagement (see https://lnkd.in/gmwkKhZ)
-  Expressing humility through asking questions does not undermine your  authority (unless you've otherwise incompetent of course...) 

Read more here.

NYU professor Lisa Leslie says that the reason  many diversity initiatives don’t work isn’t always about the content or  about specific policies.  

Despite the billions of dollars U.S. companies spend on diversity  programs each year, current strategies will not necessarily achieve  their goals, according to an Academy of Management Review article.

Read more here.

Cross-institutional, almost cross-cultural, work is very much at odds  with academia's usual way of doing things. Prior to the pandemic, it was  rare that any of us ventured outside the bubble of our own universities  and hospitals. Over the decades, this siloed approach to research has  shaped the way science gets done—and who gets to do it. The system tends  to favor the career advancement of those who belong to a select few  institutions over all others, irrespective of the depth of their skills  or training. A growing body of literature suggests that underrepresented  minorities are less likely to attend prestigious universities, even  when they are equally qualified to do so. As a result, scientific  research suffers from a lack of diversity—despite the fact that deeply  diverse teams appear to produce better solutions to problems.

Read more here.

The analysis of the top 100 Singapore listed companies illustrates a  strong relationship between board diversity and company performance. In a diverse society, a diverse board can provide multiple perspectives,  helping increased social acceptability and, in turn, ensure that the  board conducts itself appropriately. It is critical for boards to ensure  they have diversity of experience, background and thought. 

Read more here.

According to Hays’ Staff Engagement: Ideas for action report, which is based on a survey of 1,196 employers and employees,  93% of employees want a ‘voice’ and the ability to share their opinions  at work and the same percentage want to work in an inclusive culture  where differences are valued.

Read more here.

Kathy Caprino interviews Any Edmondson – the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, to learn more about how an organization can move away from promoting a culture of fear, to one of psychological safety.

Read more here. 

In today’s world, it’s hard to imagine a more important skill for CEOs than the ability to create and develop high performing teams in their organizations.

According to Google’s work on teams and research from The Power of Peers (2016) on groups, neither high performing teams nor groups were  necessarily comprised of the most talented individual members. The best  teams/groups were those whose members collaborated most effectively. Read more here.

Dr Akshaya Kamalnath outlines how more women on boards can important indicator of gender equality and board effectiveness but gender is only one facet of diversity.

In the longer run, investors, employees, customers and wider society can all benefit from companies taking a broader approach to board diversity that aims to get multiple viewpoints into corporate decision-making.

Read more here.

Dr Darleen DeRosa outlines how modern board governance is a far more  proactive undertaking, and many organizations are taking steps to change  the composition of their boards to encourage a greater diversity of  thought and promote the agile leadership qualities necessary to compete  in a business environment beset by disruption. 

Read more here

There is ample research to show that diversity, when harnessed properly,  can improve corporate performance. In cases of CEO succession, a board  with diversity of thought, backgrounds, and traits benefits the  organization by staving off groupthink and increasing the breadth of  perspectives. Constructing a quality board is about the caliber and perspective of  individual directors as well as the deliberate rules of engagement that  allow for productive debate and effective decision making. 

Read more here.

Ziena Jalil, former New Zealand Trade Commissioner to Singapore and  consulting partner at SenateSHJ, says organisations that embrace  diversity and inclusion outperform their peers in profitability and  productivity. Jalil said diversity was not just about ethnicity, it is also about  gender, race, sexual orientation, physical ability, age, socio-economic  background and beliefs, which organisations need to represent. Read more here.

An aspect of diversity that is getting greater attention is “diversity of thought”. This is the concept that people who have had different experiences, hold different beliefs or use contrasting ways of addressing problems, will think differently to each other. Diverse thinking allows people to frame problems in different ways, generate different potential solutions, and even creatively build on others’ ideas. It holds great promise if used in the right settings.

Read more here (on page 5).

Recently published in an HBR article,  a study by Catherine Tinsley and Kate Purmal found that prior to  becoming a US public company CEO, women were significantly more likely  than men to have served on a corporate board. More than half of the  female CEOs (59%) served on a public company board, as compared with 42%  of the men. Almost twice as many women (23%) as men (12%) served on a  private company board.

Might this be applicable to CEOs and other C-Suite Executives in NZ?

Read more here.

Black and white thinking may die hard, yet never has society been  quite as comfortable with the concept of the spectrum than the present.

According to researchers at Merriam-Webster, use of the word  “spectrum”, in a wide range of contexts, has grown dramatically within  the current decade. Coined by Isaac Newton in 1672 to describe  refractions of light, today referencing a “spectrum” is almost always  shorthand for acknowledging a metaphorical range of nuances.

Read more here.

Bart de Langhe and Philip Fernbach outline the risks of relying too much on categorical thinking:

• Compression - disregarding variation within a category
• Amplification - exaggerating differences across category boundaries
• Discrimination - excessive focus on some categories at the expense of others
• Fossilization -  difficulty escaping entrenched ideas

Read more here.