Transcript:

Mo: Hello, hello, hello and welcome to this week’s everyday inclusion and belonging where we talk about everything, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging related under the sun. I’m really excited this week to be joined by Michelle Gadsden-Williams. We actually even talked about pronunciation of names and how important they are.

Michelle, it’s fantastic to have you here. Please introduce yourself and let everybody know what you’re up to in the world of DEI and then we’re going to dig in on something that I think is going to be a fabulous topic.

Michelle: Hello, hello and thank you so much for inviting me to be here, it’s a pleasure to be here with all of you. I’m Michelle Gaston Williams, I am a lifer in this work of diversity, equity and inclusion. I’ve been a diversity practitioner for just shy of 30 years.

I started my career in marketing and product development and then I transitioned to strategic planning and organizational development shortly thereafter. I’ve lead DEI for a number of multinational organizations around the world and industries from consumer goods to Big Pharma, financial services, professional services.

I also owned my own consultancy practice based here in New York City, specializing in all of the disciplines related to diversity around multicultural marketing, OD, and executive coaching. So, the work that I do in diversity really supersedes a lot of the work that I do for the companies that I work for. I’m on several boards, not for profit.

I have had the pleasure of presenting in front of Congress on all things related to diversity over the years. I’m an advisory board member for gender equity for the World Economic Forum, and I’m also one of the founding members of the Women’s March in 2016, I was delighted to be invited to be a part of that.

So literally, this work has taken me around the world and back again. I’ve lived in three different countries from Istanbul, Turkey, Hong Kong, I lived in Switzerland for 10 years. It’s really a full circle moment for me to be back in financial services with BlackRock and delighted to be here.

Mo: I’m so glad to be here and you all can see why I’m excited to have this conversation with Michelle and I’m going to be really interested to link common threads right, in all those different industries, all those different experiences.

Michelle, I wanted to start us off by let’s just talk particularly in the last 15-16 months, about the arc over all of this evolving role of the Chief Diversity Officer. Having done this work for as long as you have, you know it feels like iteration about 40 and then for some organizations, they’re just getting started.

So, what have you seen that evolution look like?

DEI Work Evolution

Michelle: Wow, uhm, you know diversity of yesteryear as I call it, was really and when I say yesteryear, I mean 30 years ago, it was really around affirmative action. There was a large emphasis on representation, so how many of this, how many of that in terms of the dimensions of diversity and less about the business imperative that it is.

Less about culture initiatives than it’s all about. So, I’d say it’s really changed quite a bit with the convergence of societal injustices, a global pandemic, the discourse and the conversation and the engagement of DEI really has changed. Issues around racial and social justice in the workplace has heightened and that was not really discussed years ago.

We were not talking much about race and or discrimination in the workplace. At least not openly, so with the issues that have taken place over the past couple of years, George Floyd, being one of them, that in my opinion was the real inflection point for a lot of individuals, for a lot of companies.

Issues around race are now a corporate issue and, in some cases, it’s really impacting the bottom line for a lot of organizations. Most organizations are now playing a bit of catch up, but indifference is no longer an option, and so I think there’s been a real shift in terms of the conversation around DEI.

In past years, leaders who don’t make progress as it pertains to DEI, you know that was acceptable, today it’s not. There was a real consequence for not making progress, so I’ve seen a real shift in the conversation, in the trajectory, in terms of how people talk about it, I see a real alignment to the business strategy and so you know everyone treating it like it’s a real business imperative.

And that’s exactly what it is. So, we need to hold ourselves and DEI practice to a high standard like we do any other business imperative and so that’s where the tide is now changing too, at least in my opinion.

So like Mellody Hobson says, you know, in most organizations we need less lip service and more elbow grease, and I certainly would agree with that. So, employees are asking, prospective candidates are asking, board members are asking, they’re demanding, and our clients are inquiring. Regulators are talking, so there’s no escaping this work and the need to do it incredibly well.

Mo: Yeah, I’ll often say, there’s nowhere to hide anymore.

I think one of the arcs that I’m really glad to see as well is you sort of talked about this affirmative action basis many years ago, and then there was a shift to OK, diversity looks like gender, so let’s put all these programs together that benefit white women.

I feel like we keep getting it homed in, and actually getting to a place where we’re looking at it strategically, there are budgets, there are you know, we’re measuring against it.

You know, all of the things that are really making it again, strategic imperative, strategic competitive advantage and you know, I don’t care what gets people to the table frankly. As long as long as we get people to the table. So now seeing organizations budgeting for this, measuring against it, I’m thrilled.

Michelle: Exactly, and I’m actually loving, and I think it’s a terrific time to be a Chief Diversity Officer. And I’ve seen many organizations really evolve over the years. Everyone decided to take a more holistic and a strategic approach as it pertains to DEI as a strategy. So, I think it’s a terrific time to be in this space.

Mo: You know it’s interesting, I was in conversation with a small group and we were talking about the idea of there has been a lot of movement in the last year, both with roles being created and people having really phenomenal opportunities from a career perspective.

And really looking at, how do you make sure you’re not going to an organization that’s doing this in a performative way. That they’re putting the title out there, but they don’t have the teeth behind it.

Michelle: Yeah, it’s an interesting comment and I think a lot of us who have been doing this work for many years have encountered that over the years, but I think for a lot of us who have been doing this for a number of years, you know what good diversity practice looks like.

As I mentioned earlier, you know indifference is just not an option. You know I joined BlackRock in September of last year and I chose to join this firm for a number of reasons. Primarily because I was convinced that this is an organization that really wants to get it right, that they really want to do the right thing and amplify their effort.

And usually when I have conversations with CEO’s and other leaders in organizations, there are three things that I typically look for in my conversation. And that is the courage to act, the commitment to lead, and the conviction to change. And if any of those things are missing from that conversation, I tend to look the other way because I’ve seen that movie before.

Mo: I actually want you to repeat those.

The 3 C’s

Michelle: OK, it’s the courage to act, the commitment to lead, and the conviction to change. I call it the 3C’s and so in my conversations, if I don’t see any evidence of any of that, I tend to look the other way because I’ve seen and worked for organizations that really didn’t take it as serious as I did.

And they tend to oversell their diversity efforts or, you know they’ve yet to really demonstrate their commitment in any real meaningful way, or there’s no accountability.

And so, I’ve decided a long time ago that I really don’t want to be associated with those firms. I really only want to work for those organizations that really want to amplify their effort in a meaningful way where I can do the work and leave the place in better condition than when I entered.

And so, during my interview process with BlackRock last year, you know I spoke to just about all of the leaders as you can imagine, within the firm. And there was a level of humility, there was a level of candor and honesty that, with some of the other firms that I was talking to, that was missing. But at Black Rock it wasn’t, and so I was convinced and impressed then.

And I’m convinced and even more impressed now that I’m on the inside, that this is an organization that’s really invested in DEI.

I’ve got to say, I’ve worked for many multinational big brands, big name organizations over the years and this is by far what true chief diversity officer in practice, what it looks like, that we’re not just talking about talent and culture which is really about 1/3 of this work.

We’re talking about fiduciary to clients, which is the second pillar of our strategy, and then the third is around social impact. And so, I think that we see it as a holistic and strategic approach that’s only going to get us better.

DEI Work Is Non-Stop

So, I think that you know our strategy is multiyear, it’s multifaceted. I think that if we continue to go down this path of, you know an unwavering commitment on behalf of our chairman and our president and other individuals, I really think that we can become best in class in this space over time.

Mo: I’m going to back us up for a second because I definitely want to dig in on those three pillars and what that strategy is. I love the multiyear approach because there is no silver bullet, and nothing happens overnight.

Let’s talk a little bit about even just the evolution of DEI, you know, and even a year ago, most organizations there was no E right, like couple years ago there was just a D.

Michelle: Yeah. Like most organizations we’ve evolved in this work and we’ve integrated equity into our strategy, which really symbolizes our evolution and our maturity in this space. We’re not just focused on the D, or diversity, and all the ways that we differ and inclusion, which really speaks to the environment that we’re trying to create.

There’s more of an emphasis on equity, which is really the most important factor in the equation, whereas we are now reexamining policies and practices and programming to ensure that there’s fair access to advancement, to opportunities, and ultimately fair outcomes for our people. So, I’d say most organizations we’ve integrated the E, and that’s a real critical part of our strategy. Like I said, you know, with our strategy, DEI is not just about talent and culture.

It’s really at the heart of everything that we do, and we’ve integrated it in terms of how we think about the various business functions within our company and keeping our external stakeholders at the center. And so, when I think about our strategy, and I think about you know, how we’ve been able to coalesce a global multiyear strategy, it’s about all dimensions of diversity and not just some.

We’ve been incredibly intentional about moving beyond gender and race and ethnicity. The development of our strategy was really a collaborative effort and I socialized it with a number of BlackRock leaders, but also on the outside, academe missions and external experts and thought leaders, our employee network members and analysts, and other individuals across the organization just to solicit their perspectives in terms of, how we were going to shape and execute on the strategy.

So, it’s really, you know, top down bottom up middle out, like we’ve been able to include every single individual perspective in terms of what we were embarking on. But more importantly, how are we going to operationalize on the work?

Mo: So, there are so many things that you said in there, right. Just in terms of OK, the perspective taking and the perspective gathering right, making sure that you looked, and you said, this isn’t just one stakeholder group, this is a diverse stakeholder group. Let’s make sure they’re all involved, and I love the way you said that top, down, side.

How long was that process Michelle? When you were really looking because you didn’t come into a completely blank slate, right?

You came into, you know Black Rock’s got a history here and then saying, what do we need for now? Because I think sometimes that organizations can be a little bit like, where do we start on strategy? And I love that you said, OK, we’re bringing in internal, external, up, down

Was that a multi month? Because there’s so much good change management that I hear you saying here and right, this is fundamentally change management you know, when you’re operationalizing everything.

Michelle: Correct. So, I started in mid-September and we unveiled the strategy in March.

So, it didn’t take long. It was several months of really fact finding and keeping my ear to the ground, listening to our people, interviewing our leaders and talking about you know what’s going well? Where are the opportunities? What does good look like? What measures do we need to have in place?

It was a multi month type of an iterative process. We really wanted to make sure that we had all of the voices integrated into what we were doing, and we were pretty deliberate around that. But we were also moving along with a sense of urgency around our work.

The foundation was already laid. My predecessor did a wonderful job of that, but I knew that I had a job to do in order to get us to our next.

So, after we conducted all of our internal fact finding and all of those kinds of things, we decided to just, you know, frame the strategy. So, we unveiled that by way of a DEI town hall that took place internally with all 16,000 plus of our employees and that was like the indoctrination. And you know, Larry Fink was there, and our CHRO Manish Mehta was there, and I presented the strategy and we had the voices of our people also talking about their lived experiences of being diverse within the organization.

So, I think we did it the right way. We really did, and so you know, we’ve designed a multiyear, multifaceted comprehensive DEI strategy that’s global with local relevance.

It’s actionable, it’s measurable, and it will, in my view, position us as best in class in our industry over time, not overnight.

Mo: I love like any strategy, right? You start with this strategy and you have all of those things. You’ve got the metrics, you’ve got the actions, and then knowing, that you’ll iterate along the way.

When you say multi year, I think that’s the other piece of this. Like any strategy, whether it’s your product strategy or your you know whatever it may be, you’re never done.

It’s going to be, here’s what we’ve learned, and here’s what’s worked and here’s the traction, now what’s next?

What are some of the things that in the strategy itself, that you are most excited about?

DEI Strategy

Michelle: Well, just the entire strategy I’m excited about. I just enjoy this work so much. So, starting with the first pillar of talent and culture, you know there’s a lot of good work that’s going on from a sourcing perspective, development, advancement and retention of talent we have.

Representation goals for women and other underrepresented individuals within the firm, but we’re also talking about increasing other dimensions of diversity that might not ordinarily get the same level of attention as some other dimensions of diversity. So, disability, veterans, LGBTIQ communities respectively. We’re really being intentional about making sure that we’re inclusive of all dimensions of diversity, and not just some.

We’re also focusing on things like strengthening our employer brand in diverse communities and building, cultivating, maintaining, and sustaining external partnerships.

Designing leadership development programs for women and people of color and sponsorship programs. That’s exciting to me. I just love that that kind of work where I can ideate and build something from the ground up.

Mo: That is pillar one, your talent and culture. Talk about pillars two and three.

Michelle: Yes, so Pillar #2 is really anchored around our role as a fiduciary on behalf of clients, and so this, in my view, is where the business case for DEI is brought to life. But we as an organization we think it’s our responsibility to engage with our clients and to promote workforce diversity and leadership diversity.

So, we’ll do that by not just focusing on the diversity of investment teams, but also leveraging DEI as a differentiating engagement topic to strengthen our relationships with clients. Because I’ve been doing this work for so many years and in so many other industries, I have stories to tell and best practices to share.

And so, I just love that that part of our work and really sharing elements of our strategy and best practices and problem solving with our clients.

In addition to all of that from an investment stewardship perspective, our teams are you know, they continue to grow the depth and the breadth of our stewardship expectations for boards of directors and for executive management.

And so, these teams will continue to promote workforce diversity and leadership diversity by engaging with companies on their human capital management.

With the focus on progressing their board diversity, including gender, race and ethnicity and also improving disclosures on a company’s DEI efforts and developing a standard set of metrics that they can benchmark themselves against.

So, a lot of good work on that particular pillar, and then our third and final pillar is around policy and social impact in underserved communities. And here, we’re going to continue to lean into this notion of public disclosures and leveraging our force, our voice for public policy, and outcomes, and social impact.

And so, there are a number of actions around that. From focusing on financial security in underrepresented communities, making sure that we’re advancing our supplier diversity initiatives, and programming, and holding our suppliers accountable to our standards and expectations around suppliers, supplier diversity and becoming a vendor with us.

Accountability Is Key

So, lots of great things that are happening. But you know, having said all of that, I think the important piece of all of this is really around accountability. So, across all of those pillars, we know that none of this is possible without holding ourselves to a high standard in terms of commitment and accountability from our perspective. Effective DEI needs to be owned by all of us, and not some of us, that we all have a role to play in delivering on the promise of the strategy.

So, we hold our leaders at all levels accountable to DEI, and we do that in a couple of ways. We have some very specific, business specific goals around representation and those goals are implemented through action plans that are focused on recruiting and development and retention of talent.

We also have institutionalized recently mid-year and year end accountability measures by embedding an assessment in terms of how well our employees are supporting an inclusive and equitable work environment. So, that’s really the crux of it all, you can have a wonderful glossy strategy, but if you don’t have accountability measures to go along with that, then all of your efforts go for not.

Mo: Right, yeah, it’s like great, it felt good.

You know what I love, I love everything that I’m hearing Michelle and I love, particularly in pillars two and three, I could just feel the ripple effect.

The ripple effect out into all these other companies, the employees right, in the communities. And I love when we think about, we always talk about the work that we do that we want to have a ripple effect that turns into a positive tsunami and the accountability to that.

Oh my gosh, we’ve just talked about a lot. Is there anything that you’re finding interesting just sort of outside of Black Rock itself, but just in DEI work in general? How you’ve seen any evolution, and then you sort of hope that you have based on what you’ve seen.

Michelle: I think it goes back to the 3C’s that I shared with you earlier and I think that we as practitioners need to keep those principles in mind. And for any individual that is interested in pursuing an opportunity within an organization, multinational or not, where they’re going to invite you in to talk about diversity in practice that you know, look for those things.

Look for evidence of the courage to act, the commitment to lead, and the conviction to change. I think that’s where the rubber meets the road, indifference is not an option. Change is a choice, and so you have to pick the right organization where you’re going to have the right support systems in place, the right measures, the right accountability, but moreover, I think leadership starts at the top, so that would be my final thoughts around all of that.

Mo: Oh my gosh, I was going to ask you for a final truth bomb, but I think you just gave it to me Michelle.

Michelle: I don’t know if it’s a truth bomb, but at least it’s my truth bomb.

Mo: I love it. Thank you so much, I’m going to go back and I’m going to be re-watching and thinking about this.

Keep doing great work, and all of us, you know I usually wrap this up, do the next right thing, everybody.

And if we all just keep doing the next right thing, the momentum that we all create in all our organizations, we really do start to create this positive tsunami. So, Michelle thank you so much.

Michelle: Thank you for having me.

Mo: And everyone, we will see you next week.

 

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