The Power of Coming Together to Drive Change

Throughout my career I’ve prioritized gathering my team together each month to talk about our business and discuss topics that are important in our work lives. It’s an incredibly valuable time for me and seeing everyone from our org in one room was always special. Since our campus closed down in March, this time together has become even more important, and now I can’t wait for our ‘Virtual Team Huddles’ where we all join on Microsoft Teams and take the opportunity to connect, share, discuss, and learn.

This week we had what I consider one of the more thought-provoking and inspiring Team Huddles of my career. We were joined by Dr. Tommie Smith, an Olympic gold-medal winning athlete, seven-time world record holder, college professor, and an icon in the civil rights movement for over 50 years.

Many of you may recognize the photo at the top of this article, but may not know the full story of what happened before and after this moment on October 16th, 1968 in Mexico City. For the best account of what happened, I highly recommend you read Dr. Smith’s autobiography Silent Gesture, but as you can see, both Dr. Smith and his teammate John Carlos stood on the podium as the National Anthem played…no shoes and black socks representing black poverty…the scarf around Dr. Smith’s neck representing black pride…beads around John Carlos’ neck to protest lynching in America and black gloved fists, one each, pointed towards the sky representing unity and power. Silently. Solemnly. Protesting for human rights and how they and others were treated at home in America. The reaction was immediate. They were kicked off the Olympic team, banned for life, and sent home. In 2003, Dr. Smith reflected on coming back from Mexico City saying, “we left with nothing, and we came back with less.” Both men suffered greatly and even received death threats standing up for human rights.

The idea of inviting Dr Smith to our Team Huddle was brought to us by Justin Holmerud, a member of our team who had met Dr. Smith back in 2003 while studying broadcast journalism at their Alma Mata, San Jose State University. Justin was covering a ceremony to unveil a statue on campus honoring that moment at the Olympics 35 years prior. Both Dr. Smith and John Carlos were in attendance, and it was here that Justin first learned about their story and their journey since. Seventeen years later, this past July, Justin saw a Tweet that reminded him of this moment and he went back to look at the story and reflected on how his perspective had changed and thought about what has been happening in our country this year, specifically the lack of equality and injustice. He took a good look at what he had done in the past, what he was doing now, and what he could do in the future. He knew he hadn’t always got it right, or called out racism or inequality, or even understood what it meant to be an ally and bring about change. But, those days were now over for Justin, and having Dr. Smith join our Team Huddle, share his story, and help educate our team on how we can drive change was an important part of Justin’s allyship journey, and I want to thank him and acknowledge his courage in stepping-up to make a difference.  

The hour we spent with Dr. Smith was fascinating, and among many things I learned during that discussion, there were three that really stood out for me and encouraged me to work harder to make more of an impact as an ally:

Progress does not equal change

Today is 52 years to the day that Dr. Smith and his teammate John Carlos made their silent gesture. The challenges that they were protesting against then still remain in our society today. Yes, there has been progress, but that hasn’t reflected necessarily in change. We can sometimes have this false sense of progress and that change is happening, yet as we have seen in this incredibly difficult year with cases like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and even more recently Jonathan Price, it is clear that there is still so much more that needs to be done. Every one of us are responsible for contributing to a transformation in society, and we need to look at what we can all do to act inside and outside of our communities to drive change.

You can start a race by walking

These are powerful words that Dr. Smith said in a New York Times article this year, and we learned from him this week that we’re not always going to get things right, and that we are not always going to know what to do. But to bring about change, it’s going to take all of us. All of us on our own journeys of education, reflection, and action. It’s going to take all of us being united. This really resonated with our team, and what made me incredibly proud is that the team united and took action right there during the call with Dr. Smith. During the discussion he had mentioned his charity, the Tommie Smith Youth Initiative and the link to donate through the Microsoft Giving Tool was posted in the Teams chat by a team member and people began to donate immediately. There was suddenly a flurry of activity in the chat window of people posting ‘Donated!’, and although this was totally unplanned and happened organically, by the end of the meeting thousands of dollars had been pledged which would also be matched by Microsoft. It was incredible to see the team come together inspired by the words of Dr. Smith and share their generosity that will have a positive impact on many marginalized children around the country.   

We all have a platform to drive change

Dr. Smith and John Carlos risked everything and used their platform at the 1968 Olympics to make a powerful gesture that was seen around the world. When we consider how we can be an ally, we can look at our own platforms, whether that is as a leader at work, a coach, a parent, our social media channels – anywhere where we touch other people’s lives. We can use these platforms to drive positive change in society. Talk to our friends, family, educate our children, and spread messages of equality, justice, and inclusion. Justin used his platform as a member of our team at Microsoft to facilitate this discussion with Dr. Smith, and I encourage anyone reading this to look at what your platforms are and use them to make society and the world a better place for us all.

When we look back at 2020 and consider all of the challenges people have faced around the world, I hope we can also see the places where positivity and inspiration have shone through. We learn the most from the toughest times in our lives, and I think I have taken more learnings from this year than any other in recent memory. This week was a time for great learnings for my personal allyship journey and I hope you can also be inspired to continue yours as well.