Sleepless in Seattle

On a call the other day, a colleague asked me what keeps me up at night. I think my answer surprised her.

It’s not the $45 billion in revenue, nor the points of market share that we have to deliver to Microsoft. Ok, maybe that makes it tough to fall asleep sometimes. It’s definitely not our company’s technology portfolio – we are innovating world class technology in every category in which we choose to compete. And thinking about our market position before bedtime is as calming as taking a melatonin ??.

So what keeps me awake at night? Inclusion. I think about it all the time. This topic is especially relevant during Black History Month, but it’s something we should all be thinking about year-round.

First, I’m afraid we conflate diversity with inclusion. It’s a mistake to assume that a diverse team is an inclusive one. Focusing on representation is obviously an important first step, but it’s just that…the FIRST step in a lengthy and demanding process of building a high performing team that harnesses the power of all voices and perspectives.

Second, I’m concerned we aren’t intentionally doing the hard work of inclusion. To quote Microsoft’s Chief Diversity Officer, Lindsay Rae McIntyre, in her recent LinkedIn post, “Inclusion is a choice, and we’re making the choice to do the work”. It reminded me of this powerful poem called “Diversity” from UPS’s recent publication “Black Voices From Big Brown" celebrating Black and African American executives at the company:

Inclusion is hard work! Even if you could create a work environment that was a perfect vacuum—devoid of any conscious or unconscious bias—the pace and volume of work today make inclusion seem like another item on our overwhelming to-do lists. This became clear to me recently when we merged several teams into our customer success field organization to enhance communication and simplify the customer experience.

After the organizational change, some teams saw customer satisfaction scores rise materially, with commensurate revenue growth. Other teams struggled. During a best practice sharing session, the common denominator to success became clear: teams that included all voices saw greater success. Even more interesting was the fact that teams that were not hitting their numbers had at least one member complaining that their voice wasn’t being heard. And the number one reason for not including all voices? “We didn’t have enough time…”

Alone, representation and organizational proximity are not sufficient conditions to create an inclusive environment. Inclusion requires BOTH the recognition that diverse perspectives drive better performance and the commitment to do the work to access those perspectives via empathy, allyship and deliberate action.

In celebration of Black History Month, I’m focusing on being more intentional about inclusion. Share your inclusion ideas with me here and let’s practice together!