DFW*ATW June Speaker & Networking Series Overview

By Cierra Graham, DFW*ATW ERG Committee Member

On June 9, the DFW Alliance of Technology and Women (DFW*ATW) hosted the first employee resource group (ERG)-focused Speaker and Networking Series event at Gleneagles Country Club in Plano, TX. The event was welcomed and hosted by Aries Webb-Williams, President of DFW*ATW, and Anamika Gupta, Board Member and DFW*ATW ERG Chairperson. It was a lovely evening attended by our DFW*ATW fan club, including our Advisory Council Members, Board Members, Committee Members, and our partners. The event was a huge success with multiple learnings from some of the best and leading ERG minds in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including the keynote by Nate Bennett, Chief Diversity Officer of our key sponsor for the evening, Comerica Bank.

Context Matters

Our Keynote Speaker, Nate Bennett, Chief Diversity Officer of Comerica Bank, kicked off his speech by taking the listeners on a journey into his background, life experiences, and family outside of his physical appearance as a Black man. His father is African-American from a large family in Florida, while his mother is from the West Indies. Both of his parents' backgrounds meld two identities for Nate, unbeknownst to many people. Yet these two identities drive much of his life experience, which in turn influences communication styles, behaviors, values, and the everyday things that drive and motivate us. His children also have two ethnic identities being both Black and Hispanic, which creates unique life experiences and their own challenges. What happens in the corporate environment when individuals bring their respective and varying identities to work, both visible and invisible? This is the root cause of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) challenges in the workplace.?

We must tackle the root cause of diversity challenges in corporate America, which is helping people with varying identities come together for a common cause in the workplace. Leaders incorrectly assume that any new employee will immediately accept, and fit into, the company’s culture and framework of operations. Hiring employees aligned to company values does not guarantee against internal conflicts associated with identity and subcultures. Addressing and developing solutions for this root cause is the key to successfully advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in corporate America. Nate provided some helpful tips to begin effective DE&I conversations:?

• Ask whether your organization is giving its employees the blueprint or playbook to manage these challenges. Think about the impact on their experience.?
• Giving people the opportunity to grow and advance can speed up the progress of DE&I work.?
• Be brave enough to call out inequities and areas to improve within your organization.?

The cost of not conducting business in this manner is loss of progress and the inability to deliver promised change.

For example, Nate highlighted that The World Economic Forum notes that 15% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, making this number the highest representation in history despite being low in comparison to men.

Cookie-cutter approaches to DE&I are not working; it takes real conversations and actions at the heart of an organization to drive change. Having a women-centered Employee Resource Group is a positive step, but requires further planning and action from leadership.??

DE&I for Justifiable Growth

Jigna Vaghela, DFW*ATW ERG Steering Committee Member, moderated a panel session featuring 3 leaders of women ERGs in technology: Indu Jain (Capital One), Meg Dholabhai (NTT DATA), and Kristy Bonner (NCH), who are members of the DFW*ATW ERG Steering Committee. The topic of discussion was DE&I for Justifiable Growth with Indu noting that this has been an opportunity for her to pay it forward to other women seeking to grow in their careers. Kristy shared how she recently started a Women's ERG at NCH Corporation and sought out ways to engage with other organizations to share and learn more. At NTT DATA, Meg described how their ERG started organically and grew into local chapters pre-COVID. Post-COVID, programming became more centralized with a global approach to appeal to a broader group. More members have joined, volunteers come from around the world, and members have become more engaged. Now the key is to create programming that is inclusive of more geographic areas and people. We must also recognize there are intersections to the woman's experience in tech, and we need to be open to allies joining ERGs as well to enhance support. As Indu noted, “don’t exclude people” to maintain support for the population that the ERG mainly serves. A few key takeaways for the successful growth of ERGs are:?

• Express and motivate others through passion;??
• Take every opportunity to share data and impact with executive sponsors;??
• And use your internal influence to help women in your organization through other business initiatives, such as providing guidance and input in the performance management process.??

DFW*ATW ERG Committee members who helped plan the event include Pratibha Aphale, Melani Hughes, Jigna Vaghela, and Cierra Graham, and DFW*ATW Program Committee Chair Tamara Bassam. The DFW*ATW ERG Committee looks forward to hosting a private event for Steering Committee members from Fujitsu, NTT DATA, Capital One, PepsiCo, NCH, plus our newest members from Comerica Bank and Brinks, in September before hosting their next Speaker & Networking Series in November. For more information on how to get involved, please contact Anamika Gupta, Director of ERG Committee, at [email protected].?