THE QUEST FOR BALANCED REPRESENTATION: Maximizing Diversity to Achieve Inclusive Leadership, Cohesive Culture & Peak Performance.
Alex Ihama
Global Strategist, Executive Coach, Inspirational Speaker, Bestselling Author, Executive Director @ Canadian Congress, School of Greatness & Credit Union Transformation (25+ Years of Impact in 300+ Cities in 30+ Nations)
Representation matters.
Nothing can be truer, at least when it comes to the concept of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion.
Since the gruesome murder of George Floyd, the world seems to have woken up to the importance of becoming intentional about Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, popularly known as EDI.
Many are beginning to understand that increasing the awareness of EDI is critical to creating a cohesive workplace and a corporate culture that makes your employees feel valued, appreciated, and even celebrated.
More and more reputable research is confirmed that having an enterprise-wide EDI strategy is bound to increase corporate creativity, innovation, brand equity and the bottom line.
To audit and enhance your corporate policies, processes and procedures from EDI perspectives are critical. However, if there is no balance representation in terms of ethnicity and gender at the decision-making positions in your organization, your efforts are futile.
Since I first learned about the concept of Balanced Representation in 1999, we have worked with and through executives to achieve it in hundreds of organizations, institutions, and government agencies.
Even in the case of the board, we have worked with some organizations to increase ethnic and gender representations as the tenure of board members expires.
Beyond the corridors of power, Balanced Representation is critical in hiring panels, award selection committees, focus groups and any other gathering of people where critical decisions are made.
And now, with the launch of the 50 – 30 Challenge by the Government of Canada in 2020, which is a joint initiative with the private sector to promote diversity in corporate Canada, organizations now have the target and some of the strategic support required to achieve Balanced Representation.
In my fireside chat at the Workplace Equity Congress 2023 with the Hon. Navdeep Bains , the former federal minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry, and now Vice-Chair of Global Investment Banking in CIBC, under whose leadership the 50 – 30 Challenge was created, he indicated that the objective was to influence and empower organizations to reflect and maximize Canada’s full diversity.
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“The existence of systemic discrimination is not up for debate, as we’ve witnessed with intensity through recent events. The status quo is neither sustainable nor beneficial for Canada. The 50 – 30 Challenge encourages companies and organizations of all sizes to embrace the full diversity and talent of their communities, and doing so will bring key insights and perspectives to their decision-making tables. It just makes sense to bring in and nurture the all the right talent, and we are helping organizations do just that. The 50 – 30 Challenge is another step forward in advancing inclusion, diversity, and economic prosperity across the economy from coast to coast to coast.”?– The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry
In this inspiring interview, we talked about his role in the government as a minister and now in the corporate world, how both worlds can work together to eliminate racism and discrimination, his memorable encounter with Barrack Obama, his passion for social justice, how to build an inclusive workplace culture, his dreams and desires for Canada and humanity and of course his humble beginning, coming to Canada with his parents who had only $5 in their wallet!!?
According to Pew Research Center , “46.8 million people or 14% of the national population in 2019 identified themselves as Black in the US and yet represent only about 1% of CEOs in Fortune 500 corporations, according to Fortune Magazine. Fortune Magazine indicated that only 18 “Blacks” have made it to CEO positions in their list of top 500 since 1999, with the peak being six in 2021.
The Diversity Institute at the Toronto Metropolitan University indicated that the story is not different in Canada. Statistics Canada | Statistique Canada indicated that almost a tenth of Toronto’s population is Black, and the Black population makes up 3.5% of the country’s population. Yet not even 1% of the CEOs in corporate Canada identify as Black, according to research by Toronto Metropolitan University ’s Diversity Institute (Formerly Ryerson University).
The Diversity Institute analyzed 1,639 board members in 178 corporations located in Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, and Toronto in 2019, and they discovered only 13 Black board members, which represents 0.79%, while Caucasians represented 91% or 1,483 spots.
Other racialized members held 61 spots.
In a separate study by Corporate Knights magazine, they analyzed S&P/TSX 60 companies and found that “just six of the 799 senior executives and only four of the 686 board members at all 60 companies were Black.”
ABOUT THE 50 – 30 CHALLENGE
The 50 – 30 Challenge is an initiative between the Government of Canada, Canadian businesses, and diversity organizations, with the goal of challenging Canadian organizations to increase the representation and inclusion of diverse groups within their workplaces, while highlighting the benefits of giving all Canadians a seat at the table.
The 50 – 30 Challenge asks that organizations aspire to two goals:
The program and participants recognize Indigenous Peoples, including First Nations, Métis, and Inuit, as founding Peoples of Canada, and underrepresented in positions of economic influence and leadership.