June 1 2022 Newsletter: An Exploration and Celebration of our Unique Differences

More than ever in a world of new realities and conflicts we need to come together, stronger because of our differences. I came to this realisation more than thirty years ago, when I was struck by the vital realisation that my personal and professional journeys would be infinitely enriched if I surrounded myself with diverse groups of people, folks different from me! It became clear that I must dedicate myself to diversity and inclusion efforts, and strive to always enhance my own perspective with that of others whose backgrounds were different to mine. Ever since, I have regarded minority communities such as the LGBTQ+ community and the BME community, as indispensable allies, teachers and friends. I committed to doing all within my power to actively and publicly support and mentor as a passionate ally, the LGBTQ+ global community, and all other minority communities, such that our unique differences are cherished. That it is because of our uniqueness of age, sex, colour, creed, sexuality, gender identity and physical and cognitive abilties that we thrive, not despite them. I have kept this pledge for years, and have never looked back on this truly necessary and life-enhancing battle. To celebrate the upcoming month of Pride, I decided to dedicate this newsletter to our unique differences, which should always be seen as gifts, rather than barriers. I encourage all of you, if you haven’t already done so, to continuously learn from those who are different from you, and truly appreciate their unique perspectives. To always try and understand people’s views, even if you disagree. To never discriminate nor judge, remain tolerant, open minded, and generous with those who are in minority, less fortunate, or more misunderstood.

“Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.” Mahatma Gandhi 

For most of my working life as a colleague and leader, I have sought to be kind, understanding and open minded in the workplace. This starts with learning how to disagree with one another, agreeably. I have always been guided by this old saying that “Two reasonable people can perfectly reasonably reach opposite conclusions based on the same set of facts without each surrendering their right to be a reasonable person!”

The “How” of arguing well and understanding another person's point of view without becoming angry and irrational takes much practice. This great BBC NEWS piece by the wonderful Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker highlights this very well. He discusses 3 common disagreement irrationality traps, and offers advice on how to avoid them. So, inspired by both men I am really learning from their great inputs:

“Being right or getting it right”

Whenever we engage in an intellectual discussion, our goal ought to be to converge on the truth. But humans are primates - and often the goal is to become the alpha debater. This can be done non-verbally: supercilious posture, hard stare, deep voice, peremptory tone, constant interruptions and other dominance displays. Dominance can also be pursued in the content of an argument, using a host of dirty tricks designed to make an opponent look weak or foolish. These can include:

1. Arguing "ad hominem": attacking the person rather than the argument itself

2. Knocking down a "straw man": distorting the other person's argument and then attacking the distortion

3. Guilt by association”: rather than exposing flaws in an argument, calling attention to disreputable people that are sympathetic to it

Intellectual combat, to be sure, can be a titillating spectator sport. But if the point of debate is to clarify our understanding, we ought to find ways to control these bad habits! We can all promote reason by changing the mores of intellectual discussion, so people treat their beliefs as hypotheses to be tested rather than slogans to be defended!

I also loved Emily.Sanders.Therapy’s insights in disagreeing in a respectful and amicable way. Do check out her Instagram account for some thought-provoking reflections and tips on human psychology. 

Being respectful and understanding towards others in the workplace is also about finding the little ways that you can affirm someone’s identity, recognise and validate their experience and expertise, build confidence, develop trust, foster belonging, and support someone in their career. This Ted Ideas Article is so helpful to help you achieve this. 

Here are four Top Tips that I have used on four continents and in five industry sectors have helped me build diverse, inclusive, happy and productive teams. 

1. Mirror the language that someone uses to describe their own identity

Listen and learn how someone pronounces their name, describes their identity and uses their pronouns. Then mirror the language they use to describe themselves — it shows them you’re paying attention and that you care about them. I once hired the unhirable rockstar salesman in the industry because I learnt to say his name Rob Rospedzihowski perfectly, when everyone else wouldn’t. 

2.  Acknowledge important religious and cultural holidays and life milestones

Keep an eye out for key moments that might be important in someone’s life, and recognize them. You might wish them a lovely Diwali if they celebrate it, or make a note on your workplace intranet about Indigenous People’s Day, Transgender Day of Remembrance, National Coming Out Day, Black History Month, Juneteenth, Ramadan, Lunar New Year, Disability Employment Awareness Day, Pride Month, Yom Kippur, Holocaust Remembrance Day, International Women’s Day, Hispanic Heritage Day, Deaf History Month and so on. Birthdays, births, graduations, promotions and weddings are also nice moments for you to send a quick note. And make sure you check in during harder life moments too, such as deaths and illnesses.

3. When someone isn’t participating, take notice and support them

A person who is feeling marginalised or excluded, tokenized or like an impostor may sideline themselves — by not speaking up, not contributing, not showing up. In the remote workplace, people may turn off their video because they aren’t engaged, don’t have a home environment they want to show on video, feel excluded, or are burned out from inequities and exclusion. Check-in with them, and see if and how you can support them.

4. Micro-affirmation Acknowledge people’s expertise and skill

People with underrepresented identities often find their expertise and skills are regularly questioned and held to higher standards. Make it a point to acknowledge their expertise and skills, and solicit their opinions and ideas. 

Make those who are less represented, and less understood feel seen, heard and appreciated. 

“Diversity is not about how we differ. Diversity is about embracing one another’s uniqueness”. Ola Joseph

I believe in my core that diversity in the workplace is a crucially important prerequisite of success. Lately, we have become so entrenched in generational name calling or conversely so focused on downplaying the differences that do exist, that we have forgotten there is strength in age diversity. In fact, truly diverse teams, with a large and varied range not only of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, but also of age, have consistently and repeatedly proven more efficient in my experience. 

I love this article from HBS by Megan Gerhardt, Ph.D. Josephine Nachemson-Ekwall and Brandon Fogel “Harnessing the Power of Age Diversity”. It has inspired me to share a couple of great experiments that have proved at least to me that age diverse teams are so valuable. Indeed, they bring together people with complementary abilities, skills, information and networks in a way that creates great ideation and laughter!

So here are a few of my key observations and experiences around the power of age diversity, throughout my career:

1. During my tenure as Head of IBM AP, we paired the top 50 leaders across Asia with younger less experienced high potential rockstars from businesses across 14 countries!

Together these pairings offered better decision-making, highly productive collaboration with learning, so much fun and sharing based on their wonderful differences.

2. Also we had a multigenerational team of product developers for the IOT suite of capabilities that merged the seasoned experience and broad client network of its older members with the fresh perspectives and up-to-date networks of the younger developers.

Together, they created what could not have been achieved by either group alone.

3. Today my new CMO is less than half my age but comes complete with ideas, experiences, perspectives and talents that are richly different to my own and together we ideate, create, produce and have fun informing and learning from each other!

Age diversity enables workers to share unique knowledge and support each other in complementary ways. It creates a stable and dynamic workplace, fuels innovation, and increases productivity. I strongly encourage you to be part of age-diverse teams, and build age-diverse teams: diversity should be a given in the workplace, not an option. 

“Diversity: the Art of thinking independently together.” Malcom Forbes

As we emerge out of the Covid-19 Pandemic, we are watching the world slowly return to some form of hybrid working. Colleagues have had to rebuild and develop ties that had been severed by remote working, and the pandemic’s isolation. Research from Microsoft suggests that cross-functional collaboration went down by 25% as interactions within groups increased during the pandemic. We need to get reacquainted with whom we’ve each become. Otherwise, our natural biases that formed about who each of us 'were' will kick in, creating unhelpful dissonance as we react to each other as we did prior to the pandemic.

This is beautifully and sensitively explored in this Harvard Business Review article.

I agree that Humans are naturally tribal beings. We bind with and narrowly identify ourselves as one of our immediate groups. By default, those outside the group are “other” — and likely not to be trusted as much. This type of we-they thinking will intensify if cross-functional connections aren’t strengthened. 

Enabling people to establish new shared identities that bind them to one another more broadly helps reorient their brains to new relationships, seeing colleagues who were once “they” with fresh eyes.

Research from NYU’s Jay Van Bavel found that our brains quickly shift away from previously held biases when we work together in solidarity. In one experiment using brain imaging, a set of people whose amygdalas revealed a variety of implicit biases about certain types of people showed that those biases were dramatically reduced when participants were told those same types of people were now “on your new team.” The closer we affiliate with our “we” tribe, the more outsiders become “they.” 

One of the most important steps in allowing yourself to be more inclusive and tolerant, is spotting your conscious and unconscious biases. The key is recognising them for what they are, and then counterbalancing the bias, auto-correcting if you can. I’ve known for a while that I have a bias that kicks in around times of big change ~ pro-innovation bias! 

I get very attached to Innovation led growth ideas and plans, and overemphasise all the positive elements that will create winning solutions and delight our teams. Now that I understand my bias and my over-excited, passionate, early-adopting response, I calibrate! 

I deep dive more into the risk case, push back on the short, medium and long term returns and turn my advocacy into the Grand Inquisitor to keep the Bias at Bay!  So I encourage you all to have a search within yourselves, and try and dig out any of your conscious or unconscious biases, in order to avoid any risks of discrimination, or fear of different perspectives and culture. 

In our celebration of diverse, minority groups, it is important to acknowledge the violence and hatred that they face on a daily basis. The world still faces unacceptable levels of violence against BME communities, and I wanted to highlight three organisations that were funded to prevent young people from becoming involved in racist violence: Leap Confronting Conflict, Working with Men, and Searchlight Educational Trust. Raising awareness around identity issues, and challenging racist attitudes and stereotypes, can help to prevent involvement in racist violence. Training young people themselves to act as peer educators around race and identity issues can make a major contribution to preventive work. Read more about these fantastic organisations here. 

In addition, violence against women has remained largely unchanged. We all watched and wept at the horror of Sarah Everard’s murder, and her mother heart-breaking tribute. Tragically, and most unbelievably,  over 130 other women were murdered in the U.K since Sarah’s death and I was deeply affected by these alarming figures. In my Buddhist Class, it was shared that our first thoughts, words and deeds matter centrally to the lives we live and the good or harm we do.

I have deep resonance in interpreting these horrifying insights and preventing the potential devastating escalation. Abusive thoughts, words and acts must be acted upon at the moment by all of us in authority and leadership positions and those who are not.

It’s a small step but I am very pleased to find out that Twitter is now testing its safety mode feature to silence abuse: "Twitter is launching a feature that it hopes will help crack down on abuse and trolling; Safety Mode will flag accounts using hateful remarks, or those bombarding people with uninvited comments, and block them for seven days. This is to improve the health of the public conversation."

A recent study on hate speech produced by “Facts Against Hate” on behalf of the Finnish government found that Twitter was "the worst of the tech giants" when it came to hate speech. The answer, according to study author Dr Mari-Sanna Paukkeri, is to utilise artificial intelligence systems which have been trained by humans. "There are so many different ways to say bad things, and it is rocket science to build tools that can spot these," she said. “Simply highlighting certain words or phrases, a technique many social networks rely on, was not sufficient”, she added.

It’s certainly a start, but just a start in dealing with abuse and hate statements on the platforms that we all use daily. Building a more tolerant, open-minded and kinder world starts with everyone challenging their own behaviour, and their own words towards others. Have you ever been insensitive? Slightly rude? Have you ever lacked empathy? Do you regret being harsh with someone in a moment of weakness? No one is exempt from self-examination. As we celebrate the beauty and uniqueness in each and everyone of us, it is important to remind ourselves that history has more often than not been unkind to those who are unique and different. Hopefully a time will come when diversity will be consistently and globally seen as a key value driver, and not a threat. 

As an EDI activist, I love  “International Day of Pink'', an event held annually that seeks to end all bullying, especially towards the LGBTQ+ community. This day  started when students David Shepherd and Travis Price saw another student who was wearing a pink shirt, being bullied in their school (in Canada) and deciding to show support for the student by getting everyone at their school to wear pink the following day. Don't you love them! 

I’m fascinated by colour psychology which suggests that different colours can have an impact on our moods, feelings and even behaviours. Some shades of pale pink are described as relaxing, while very bright, vibrant shades can be stimulating or even aggravating. Interesting fact: one shade known as "drunk-tank pink" is sometimes used in prisons to calm inmates. Pink also happens to be one of my favourite colours! 

Although events like the “International Day of Pink'' are wonderful opportunities to champion the LGBTQ+ community, it should be a daily, constant effort! As I gaze at the beautiful colours of the LGBTQ+ flag, which was inspired by the “Flat of the Races'', popular among the World Peace and Hippie movements of the 1960s, I am reminded that the world is made more beautiful and more interesting by the infinite diversity of voices, personalities, sexualities, gender identities, cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds, etc. Embrace these colours! 

TACKLING THESE ISSUES WITH LITERATURE, ART & FILM

I believe that the issues the world faces are often best tackled through artistic and meaningful expression. The power of art, whether it is literature, theatre, film, music or dance, is often underestimated. With Pride month coming up, I wanted to share this article with some amazing reads you may not have discovered yet.  These books will “make you feel strange in the pit of your stomach”. They will “make you feel a part of something.” In my opinion, they speak of deep love.

I first read “Maurice” when I was 15.  It is a go to read for me on so many levels. Concerns about public and legal attitudes to same-sex love stopped EM Forster from publishing this tale of young infatuation in his lifetime. I love how the beautifully drawn Maurice ultimately stays true to his notions of love, while those around him bow to the pressures of accepted society. “Maurice” is available to purchase here. 

When I first started my career in the mid 80s the impact of going to see “Kiss of the Spider Woman” by Argentine-Brazilian filmmaker Hector Babenco, starring John William Hurt, Raul Julia and Sonia Braga, was totally incredible. The story is breathtaking: in a prison cell somewhere in Latin America, two very different men warily confront each other. Molina (William Hurt) is first seen wrapping his head in a towel, in the shape of a turban, while Valentin (Raul Julia), bearded and classically macho in appearance, watches with a mixture of fascination and revulsion. During the time spent together, the two men come to understand and respect each other, and an unlikely friendship develops between the two. 

After watching the film “Operation Finale”, by Chris Weitz, the story of a manhunt for Hitler’s henchman Adolf Eichmann, I was reminded of the tragedy of war, and the importance of remembering what hatred and violence cause to the world. What we must learn and never repeat. One of the most heartbreaking accounts of this period is Anne Frank’s diaries, an important and life-changing read. Her words will never die: "The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!". What an extraordinary woman who embodied courage and faith in Humanity. 

I also wanted to highlight my friend Furkan Karayel’s best-selling book “Inclusive Intelligent”, available to purchase here. Would you like to build a happier workplace culture? Are you struggling to start your workplace diversity and inclusion journey? Would you like to take your leadership to the next level? This book will teach you how to use “Inclusive Intelligence” as a leader. You'll learn the skills great leaders have in common, how they implement inclusion daily, and how they have become role models in their fields. Inclusive Intelligence is a journey! 

This is a fantastic read for those who wish to practise true inclusivity in the workplace, and in their personal lives. 

On the 7th of July, at 1pm BST, I will be delighted to interview Furkan through a Linkedin Live event, and discuss her fantastic book. Do tune in - more details to come on my Linkedin! 

Those of you who follow my content know that one of the authors I admire the most is Maya Angelou. To me, she has a truly unique and beautiful way of expressing feelings we all share. As we all work on being more inclusive, diverse, and equitable in our thoughts and deeds I am driven to share one of my favourite poems by her, “Still I Rise”. 

"Still I Rise” is one of her most famous poems, written in 1978. It has a central message of resilience strength, and beauty that black communities continue to show through hundreds of years of oppression and discrimination. She uses powerful images of gold mines and oil wells as symbols of wealth and confidence. Plus Maya’s natural imagery, including the sun, the moon, the tides, and the air, bring to mind the inevitability of her continued rise beyond the reach of oppression.

As a woman, at very tough times in my life and career, I have stood in front of a mirror in my best dress and highest shoes and read these verses out loud.

 One book that has totally shaken me was Pamela Fuller’s outstanding work ”The Leader's Guide to Unconscious Bias”, available to purchase here.  I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to interview her, and talk about her truly outstanding perspective on diversity and inclusion. This book is fabulous in helping us recognise, manage and actually combat our unconscious biases. It is one of the most up-to-date and crucial works I have come across recently, so do get your hands on it! 

Do also watch my  full interview with Pamela here. 

I also wanted to champion one of my favourite authors and playwrights, Oscar Wilde. I was first introduced to his works through the drama club I attended when I was young. Acting has played a pivotal role in my life and there were many special unexpected skill sets that I garnered whilst going to my drama club, and participating in school plays. From a young age, Oscar Wilde inspired me immensely with his witty repertoire and playwriting. He was another truly unique voice and perspective, and I have huge respect for his work. I particularly like a few of his quotes, that I have often used in my life in times of darkness, or self-doubt: 

“Be Yourself ; everyone else is already taken”

“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes”

“Success is a science; if you have the right conditions, you get the result”

Another artist whose vision was totally unique and superb is the Dutch post-impressionist painter Van Gogh, who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. He was once so eager to attain true happiness that he swallowed the yellow colour! Van Gogh cut off his left ear on 23 December 1888, the first of several serious breakdowns that plagued him as he sought to find love and stability in his acute depression and brilliance as this article highlights. Yet, it is Vincent's great gift and humour that begs my questions: 

1. Where does your natural talent lie, and what will you nurture  in terms of perhaps a creative learning both in and out of the workplace?

2. How have you found humour in crisis or darkness?

To me, Van Gogh had a beautiful, unique mind and way of seeing the world, and I have always been inspired by his lifelong determination to create beauty, even through dark times. Here are a few of my favourite quotes by him: 

“The way to know life is to love many things.”

 “One must work and dare if one really wants to live.”

“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”

Having spoken about some of my hero artists, I also wanted to highlight extarodinary voices and minds in my personal and professional life. My friend and colleague, Joy Dettorre, is one of them. I had the great pleasure of working with Joy, who is the global talent partner and global leader for diversity and inclusion at IBM, for several years. She's an incredible human resources professional, a beautiful storyteller and I remember how she once moved a whole room of executives to silence, reflection and in my case, tears. 

This interview, as part of the International Women's Day #ChooseToChallenge series with extraordinary everyday women, shares wonderful stories about lifelong learning, families and the importance of love, and loving what you do! You can watch the interview here and the full series here. 

I also truly appreciate the voice and perspective of Cheryl Cole, who is incredibly knowledgeable on the importance of diversity and inclusion for both leaders, teams, around the world and the key actions we all can take as we bring 200% of ourselves to our workspace. Here is a link to an article which explores how diverse teams lead to more innovative solutions. 

If you think that your voice is exceptional, unique and brave, you can apply for the annual Equity, Diversity and Inclusion HERoes Awards. I have been part of the judging panel since the very start in 2014, and I am very excited to be once again sharing this exciting project with my colleagues Suki Sandhu, founder and CEO of OUTstanding, Audelis & and INvolve, as well as creator of the HERoes awards. Thank you so much, Suki, for including me in such an important and enriching event. My special thanks also go to the incredible Neha Vyas, marketing & communications manager at INvolve! 

Another way that we can counteract discrimination and build a more diverse, inclusive world is by reforming our technology to make it less biased, and more representative of people in all their richness and uniqueness. This is extremely important to me, as I have dedicated much of my professional work to technological development. I have shared inputs before on bias in AI image-generated algorithms, and it is increasingly proven that our biases are being allowed to inform AI algorithms, as this amazing Technology Review article reveals. 

As an example, the image of a man cropped below his neck will autocomplete with him wearing a suit, with a woman it will autocomplete with a bikini!

Language-generation algorithms are known to embed racist and sexist ideas. They’re trained on the language of the internet; the dark secrets of Google's algorithm are explored in this article. Researchers have now demonstrated that the same racist and sexist ideas are being used by image-generation algorithms.

This has implications not just for image generation, but for all computer-vision applications, including video-based candidate assessment algorithms, facial recognition, and surveillance.

I feel extremely passionate about making our technology more inclusive and reflective of the world in all its diversity. We cannot appreciate each other’s uniqueness if the technology we use on a daily basis does not reflect this quest. 

Being inclusive, loving and kind crucially means remaining calm in situations where you might feel out of your comfort zone, and cutting out the drama in your life. This is what I have been doing for years! I am cutting out of my mainstream life those individuals who constantly create drama out of any situation. I find those that drain you with their obsessions or epicentres of regular panic are best to be managed to the sidelines, kindly, thoughtfully but definitively.

I also had a real revelation, which is perfectly captured in this brilliant article. Dr. Derek Roger spent 30 years researching why some people in difficult situations become overwhelmed, while others persevere. The process described starts with understanding that stress is caused not by external events, but by your reactions to them. Many people blame their high anxiety levels on a boss, job, deadlines, or competing commitments for their time. But peers who face the same challenges do so without stress.

Pressure is not stress. But the former is converted to the latter when you add one ingredient: rumination.

Rumination can be ongoing and destructive which diminishes your health and well-being.

I love the top tips from the brilliant compassionate open writer of the piece, Nicholas Petrie.  

1. Wake up - People spend most of their day in a state called “waking sleep.”Since all rumination happens during this state, the first step is to break out of it. You can do this physically: By moving your body. You can do it mentally by connecting with your senses. The idea is to reconnect with the world, which I love. 

2. Control your attention - When you ruminate, your attention gets caught in an unproductive loop, like a hamster on a wheel. You need to redirect yourself to areas in which you can take useful action. Remind yourself that you can care about externalities, without worrying about them.

3. Put things in perspective - Ruminators tend to catastrophize, but resilient leaders keep things in perspective for themselves and their teams. We tell people to try three techniques: contrasting (comparing past stress to the current one), questioning by asking yourself “What’s the worst that could happen?” and reframing looking at your challenge from a new angle: “What’s an opportunity I haven’t seen yet?”.

4. Let go -The final step is often the hardest. If it was easy to let it go, we would have done it already. We find that three techniques help. The first is acceptance. The second is learning the lesson. The third is action. Sometimes the real solution is to do something about your situation. 

You cannot practice daily tolerance and kindness towards others if you do not yourself have a healthy state of mind and routine. Appreciating the world in its immensity and richness, accepting all perspectives and giving back takes effort and courage, and it is important to maintain a healthy body and mind if you wish to become a true advocate and practitioner of diversity and inclusivity. 

EXCITING NEWS… 

Finally, I wanted to end this newsletter on an exciting piece of news! To celebrate the month of Pride 2022, I will be hosting a Linkedin Live on the 16th of June at 2pm BST, with an incredibly diverse panel of individuals whose perspectives will account for many different cultures and industries. I am overjoyed to announce that among my guests will be the wonderful Nikki Symmons, Ankit Bhuptani, and Ella Slade! During this live event, myself and my guests will be engaging in thought-provoking conversations on the importance of Pride, what it means to us, and how we can best celebrate it. We will delve into the issues that the LGBTQ+ community faces in sports and beyond, challenges within the trans community, and how to support those who are underrepresented in the most efficient and respectful way. 

The final, official line-up will be confirmed soon, so keep your eyes peeled for updates on my Linkedin! 

I hope that throughout this newsletter, I have demonstrated my genuine commitment to diversity and inclusivity, in a world where difference is not only a crucial asset, but a necessity for success and innovation. I passionately encourage you all to embrace your differences, delight in the differences of others, be proud of who you are and your uniqueness! Have fun being different and circumnavigating the rules, enjoy misbehaving and acting out a little against the status quo! Those who behave and stay within the lines have rarely made history, right? I have always believed in thoughtful, respectful “misbehaving”: actively changing the world, and fighting for what feels right, and necessary. I wanted to end the newsletter with one of my favourite graphics: a list of outstanding, brave women who “misbehaved” to make the world a better place. 

Do share your thoughts, experiences and actions with me, I am always interested in hearing your perspectives! As the vortex of change around us presents new realities and challenges, we need to embrace each other, stronger together!

With love, ??????

Harriet Green