Good morning everyone on youtube good morning off-site members good morning everybody from around the world good morning go ahead and put in the chat where you're tuning in from this morning thank you kenu for kicking us off brian's in calgary cal brian how cold is it this morning oh it um let me look and celsius is celsius it's minus eight celsius.
Oh i've got a couple people in in canada i know in in the zoom in the zoom chat too 18 degrees fahrenheit crazy san fran bay good to see you georgina hi amazing everyone we'll get started in just a couple of seconds here grab your coffee grab whatever you need get comfy.
Amazing amazing all right we'll go ahead and get started we still have a lot of people funneling in still getting their coffee uh still getting their tea but i want to thank everyone for joining us for inclusive leadership with brian lanier who should be in the corner of your screen as well over with myself i'm carly i'm our director of community here at learn it and uh we're thrilled to be partnering with brian on all of our programming for february and in celebration of black history month we're really focusing our events.
This month on designing more inclusive uh works workplaces and workspaces um so for anyone that's maybe new to learn it and who we are or these friday events uh we are a learning and development organization based out of san francisco california um but like many of you working from all corners of the globe and our goal is one to really make learning and upskilling more accessible to everybody regardless if you're in a job transition regardless of your job.
Title um and also just to help us learn the skills needed to thrive in today's workplace and and the economy we're all we're all working in so um we host these events every other friday morning at 8 30 a.m pacific time again they're always centered around a theme this month is around designing more inclusive workspaces and they're always based on a learn it uh learn at full length shop so brian will speak a little bit more about this at the end of the session but today you'll just be.
Been over the last year and a half or so integral to the learnet team um and helping us with our clients um in topics of diversity equity and inclusion he has 20 plus years of experience um coaching and leading some of the largest businesses in the world he's worked for starbucks he's worked ksc um on the executive teams um and of course has a amazing educational background as well.
Um with a master's degree in business administration as well um so with that i want to thank brian so much for being here for being so thoughtful in his preparation of this session um and yeah we're all in for a treat so thank you so much brian for being here with us this morning great carly thank you uh and welcome everyone it's great to see everyone uh signing on from brazil and the caribbean and indianapolis and canada i mean it's incredible being with you several of you i remember from uh.
Previous calls i've been on let me bring up my screen here as we get into today's topic so carly am i good to go with a single slide you are good to go okay thank you all right everyone so uh here in the united states or there in the united states i'm in canada and uh in canada and in the uk and in the united states we're celebrating black history month.
And as we're beginning this conversation on inclusive leadership at work i want to take a moment and acknowledge uh one of my own black history heroes now for me those three words black history heroes that's a big deal i don't take those words lightly and for me when i think of black history hero it conjures up my visions of my late granddaddy my great granddaddy was proud that he was the deacon of his church the church of saint delight in bath north carolina.
Population 249. and granddaddy used to say in his raspy and booming voice he'd say give me my flowers now while i'm alive to enjoy him while i can see their beautiful colors well i can smell their great smell and he said give them to me now because after i'm gone i'm too late now when granddaddy said those words it was usually in the hot sweltering rickety old church in buford county the.
Church that had was uh licensed to have 50 people in it but it always had at least 75 people in it and another 50
People outside listening you know in the hot sun listening to that great magical choir that we had and what he would when he would speak it would usually be followed by an amen or you tell him deacon now i'm not expecting you to yell out amen or you tell him deacon because i'm not a deacon but i wanted a presence my granddaddy as one of my black history heroes.Now i've tried my best through my life to live for my granddaddy's mantra and give people their flowers while they're here to enjoy them i've tried my best to acknowledge people who make a difference and i've tried to recognize them right now in the present versus waiting for that perfect right moment you know that perfect right moment that i hope will come later that i can really acknowledge him because if you haven't noticed that perfect right moment it never comes so i'm sharing about my granddaddy as an.
Example of one of my personal black history heroes one of those brave people who led the way for you and me to become the kind of person that we say we are today and over the course of this next hour i'm inviting you to allow yourself to get in touch with your own black history hero as a way of personalizing and celebrating black history month for this february 2022 now another way you know this is inclusive leadership at.
Work i know and you may not have come here even to acknowledge black history month but as a way of actually having this conversation resonate with you another way for you to get in touch with this and personalize this conversation is to bring to mind your everyday heroes bring to mind that person or those people that actually helped shape you into the person you are so just as we're beginning just to set the tone just go ahead and put in the chat for me put the name of who you say is.
One of your everyday heroes or the name of someone that you consider your own personal black history hero okay and carly just read out what's in the chat please so we can just uh presents what's there sorry brian having some trouble coming off mute here um a lot of you folks said their mother their grandmother um nelson mandela my father um girls had dr todd allen lynn fields.
So a lot of different my friends reverend leroy smith um awesome well great well i invite you to uh out of today one thing to do is to look to acknowledge people that have made a difference in your life whether they be black history heroes or people that came before us or someone that you would consider an everyday hero thank you for giving me that moment to presence black history month as we kick off inclusive leadership at work okay.
So our intended outcome for today is and our agenda for today is as carly said this is a an introduction to understanding the value of inclusive leadership and how practicing acts of inclusion will empower a diverse workforce we're only going to give you a taste of it today in this one hour if you if you want more we'll give you access to some reference material in this hour we'll also let you know when we have our upcoming full sessions available as well in the whole area of d e and i.
So today is about you'll discover how inclusive you are in your current role i'm going to have you uh give you an opportunity to do a self-assessment in a few minutes so please grab a pen and paper or have your computer handy because you'll discover how inclusive you are or how inclusive you're not in your current role another intended outcome for today is you'll discover the warning signs and the unintended consequences of failing to create and foster environments of belonging and inclusion.
In your organization and a third intention is you'll learn immediate actions you can take that will leave people with an authentic experience of being included now from experience i know that when we're talking about this topic inclusive leadership and we're talking about who i'm being and we're giving people an opportunity to do a self-assessment we could be touching on some topics that hit a nerve with you and i'm inviting you to step into a space.
By um poet mickey scott bay jones some of you may have heard of mickey scott bay jones
And her poem that she has called an invitation to brave space an invitation to brave space is really the foundation from which we lead all of our learned diversity equity and inclusion programs from so please allow me follow me as i read this poem and at the end i'm going to ask you to share in the chat what about this poem resonates with you and i'm going to ask you what do you hear with this poem.And inclusive leadership so i'm inviting you to brave space together we will create brave space because there's no such thing as a safe space we exist in the real world we all carry scars and we've all caused wounds in this space we seek to turn down the volume of the outside world we amplify voices that fight to be heard elsewhere we call each other to more truth and.
Love we have the right to start somewhere and continue to grow we have the responsibility to examine what we think we know we will not be perfect this space will not be perfect it will not always be what we wish it to be but it will be our brave space together and we will work on it side by side so if you take a moment what do you uh are you willing to take on brave.
Space today just put it in the chat and uh what about this poem resonates with you or another thing you can comment on is why do you think we're starting off a conversation on inclusive leadership by inviting you to brave space go ahead carly yeah a lot of folks are saying we have uh we must be aware of our feelings and it's important that we examine what we think we know um and kanye said we also carries scars and.
We all have caused wounds so acknowledging that none of us are perfect um and we're all here to learn together so a lot of affirmation that i think we're all in accordance on on this today brilliant great thank you for that everyone all right well let's jump right in here's our agenda for today we're going to jump into in a moment giving you an opportunity for a self-assessment how inclusive are you so have your pen and paper ready or have your computer ready to capture that in a few moments but also define inclusive leadership.
There's a lot out there on that term and we we want to have a working definition that we can work from and why inclusive leadership matters and we'll look at the warning signs and we'll actually look at the unintended consequences and then we'll look at the dominant traits of an inclusive leader and we'll also leave you with actions and tactics that you can take on to practice out of today's session all right so here we go brian before you get started i just wanted to just i know we'll get this.
Coming into the chat i just wanted to um emphasize that we are recording this so we'll be available afterwards just in case people miss this and they want to go back to their exercises um so we'll speak on where that's available after the session and two if you have a question throughout the session please use the q a session uh section down at the bottom of your screen um and i'll be capturing those so that we can address them throughout and at the end um and then we'll use the chat for comments things of that nature so thank you everyone sorry to interrupt you brian.
But i think it's okay thank you we're in this together carly so you're my partner feel free you're not interrupting thank you all right everyone so let's jump in how inclusive are you so before we get to the uh the conversation and give you an opportunity for self-assessment here are some guidelines and some important notes first this is not a test all right so.
This this is not intended to be a test like you're going to pass it you can run down the hall hey i passed i'm inclusive or i failed no this is not bad also there are no right or wrong answers another thing to keep in mind is the questions that we're asking are intended to provoke your thinking and they're intended to stimulate your self-awareness as we'll come to see later on self-awareness one's ability to be self-aware their strengths as well as their weaknesses and their opportunities.
Is a key attribute of being an effective inclusive leader so we're out to provoke you another thing to keep in mind as we go through the self-assessment is be authentic avoid the pull to try to look good or avoid the pull that you don't want to look bad no one's you don't have to share this with anybody this is only for you now to make this real and not to have this be hypothetical i request you.
Literally pull out a piece of paper or start typing down list of names of specific people you work with that is write down the name of people you directly report to or write down your colleagues or write down your boss's name i recommend that you have at least five names of people in front of you as we go through these self assessment questions why because it'll be real i want you to think of harry in accounting.
I want you to think of rahim you know in finance you know as we're going through this all right so here we go so first doing the self-assessment on how inclusive are you i'm going to ask you 10 questions on the following two slides and from each of the questions you'll pick from either the column on the left with your response and your response will be you always do this or you sometimes do this or you never do this.
And you can abbreviate a s or n or you'll respond with yes or no the column on the right so the first question is this have you spent time in the last year identifying your own personal biases have you spent time in the last year identifying your own personal biases it'll be either yes or it'll be no if you have a question what do i mean by personal bias then it'll be a no.
Okay if it wasn't in the last year then it'll be a no okay and then number two how often do you deliberately seek out and act on feedback from people with backgrounds that are diverse from your own it'll be a for always as for sometimes or n for never again keep in mind those five people you wrote down.
Have this be real number three you actively create environments that all team members experience being respected and included by one another and when you sense even one person may not feel like they are part of a team you check in with them as soon as possible yes you regularly pay attention to that and when you sense that someone might.
Not be part of the team you check in with them or no you don't thank you next oh i'm sorry did i skip number three i think i skipped number three carly yeah if you want to go over it that would be great brian thank you yeah i apologize you actively create environments where people genuinely feel they can speak freely and explore differences productively so always do that sometimes do that or you don't.
Never do that so that's number three and then you see number four i'll just pause there for you to catch up sorry about that everyone and number five how often do you speak up when people behave in ways that are not inclusive or respectful of others a for always as for sometimes and for never okay.
Number six you were seeing by most of your colleagues as an advocate of inclusion at work yes you are seen by most of your colleagues as an advocate or no you're not seven looking over your specific list of work colleagues you've taken time in the last six months to discover something unique to them yes you've done that in the last six months and you've discovered something unique to them or know you have it.
Eight in the last six months someone at work has acknowledged you for being empathetic yes or no and nine you're confident in your ability to initiate conversations about sensitive topics as they arise in your organization always sometimes or never and 10 you consistently view challenges around social issues in the workplace as.
Opportunities to innovate improve and or include others always sometimes never okay let's debrief let's hear what you came up with just put it in the chat please um what opened up for you what are you noticing about how inclusive you are from having done that exercise who's willing to share just put it in the chat please.
We have a couple people brian sharing carlotta says really interesting reflective reflection questions um maria is honest and says i'm not as inclusive as i'd like to have thought i was and thank you maria for that authenticity and nothing wrong with that maria great starting point yeah dee says she's happy with her outcome but yeah a lot of people are saying there's there's room for growth they're doing okay but.
Uh interesting room for growth as well great okay thank you everyone all right and as carly said we'll send that out so you can uh reflect on that you can revisit that in another month or three months or however often you'd like so we've gone over how inclusive you are let's now look at defining inclusive leadership why inclusive leadership matters so i'd like for someone to put in the chat just how do you define inclusive leadership anybody what's your definition of inclusive leadership when you hear that term what's it mean to you.
Those of you watching at home you know on youtube or wherever you might be just take a moment to write down you know how do you define inclusive leadership and we'll give you a working definition here in a moment do we have something coming in carly or should i continue yeah yeah we have a quite a few um really nice ones they're coming in really quickly but uh a couple people are saying an environment where everyone can bring their best and have it acknowledged as such um i've seen the word listening coming up a lot so making sure everyone has.
Heard and listened to yes and being mindful and aware brilliant brilliant great everyone thank you for that yeah so we offer that let's start looking at inclusive leadership let's break it down it all starts with inclusion and inclusion and this is from the society of hr management inclusion is defined as the achievement of a work environment in which all individuals are treated fairly and respectfully have equal access to.
Opportunities and resources and can contribute fully to the organization's success so another practice you could take you can look at your list of five people you work with you could ask yourself okay if i look at every single one of them from their perspective how inclusive would they say that they are how much would they say each of them say that they have an opportunity for all the resources and that they can contribute fully to the organization's success you can be honest with yourself.
To see where you're at there so inclusion is an environment where one experiences what we have here on the slide and from a business standpoint you limit your customer base if you don't have an environment where all people experience being included and all people have the experience of it yeah you know what i feel at home here so inclusion includes organizational efforts to make employees and customers of all backgrounds feel welcomed and equally treated if you have an inclusive organization.
Organizational culture people will feel respected and they'll feel valued for why they as an individual or group are here and studies have actually shown that employees who feel welcomed are often much more committed to their work they're often much more motivated and they're often they have higher levels of employee engagement so our definition that we're working with on inclusive leadership is here and this is from workable they're a talent uh and recruitment agency.
So the definition that we're working with is inclusive leadership the capacity to manage and lead a heterogeneous group of people efficiently while respecting their uniqueness in an empathetic bias-free way now heterogeneous is a big word i had to look it up so it is uh diverse in character or content and using heterogeneous in another sentence is if you uh with many ethnic groups represented the.
Student body is very heterogeneous so inclusive leadership if you want to see how inclusive of a leader am i what's my capacity to manage people and also lead them lead what kind of people a diverse and character content group of people a heterogeneous group and how effect efficiently can i do that and how do i do that while representing their uniqueness in an empathetic and bias-free way.