Staying Curious: New insights on how to continue to support LGBTQI+ employees

One of the things I love about Microsoft is how curious everyone is here. I’m always meeting and connecting with people with a real hunger for knowledge about any number of topics. That curiosity is something you need a whole lot of in the diversity and inclusion space. There’s always more we don’t know, always a perspective we haven’t heard, and always an insight we haven’t picked up on.

Microsoft and many other companies are making real strides in the global landscape, but there’s still so much more to do. To build on this momentum, we’ve recently sponsored two pieces of research to help us more deeply understand how we can continue to support the LGBTQI+ community as needs and expectations evolve. This week, a group of Microsoft employees participated in the Out & Equal Workplace Summit in Washington, D.C., joining our research partners to share some insights from the work. In the spirit of sharing, I wanted to share some of our learnings here with you.

The first piece focuses on the transgender, non-binary and gender fluid communities. Gender Identity and the Dynamic Workforce: Creating an Inclusive Workplace, developed in partnership with WFD Consulting, helped us learn about how we can continue to take thoughtful steps to ensure the workplace is even more supportive and conducive to employees in these communities.

As I reflected on the stories shared here, it struck me how we have rhythms built into our casual encounters that show how we often default to thinking about gender in the binary. When I knew I was having a baby, for example, “is it a boy or a girl?” people would ask, making light conversation thrilled with the news of new life and expanding families. Yet, we know for some people, and some families, one’s assigned sex at birth doesn’t always align to our true gender identity. For others, the binary categories of gender don’t accurately represent the fluidity of our identity. The process by which people come to understand and embrace this is unique to each person. The understanding, empathy, and support we provide as colleagues, peers, managers, and loved ones must be equally unique.

Once we understand this, we quickly see how something as “simple” as pronouns are ingrained in our unconscious and conscious transactions with one another. Therefore, unless we make a conscious effort to rethink our interactions, we can easily make mistakes and misgender. How we engage, learn, take accountability for our mistakes, and strive to acknowledge the pain we can cause, says a lot about the workplace climate we are creating for others and the culture we are working to uphold. This paper shares stories, insights, and some important terms to help us all become more thoughtful about these topics.

The second piece of research is focused on sparking a discussion on how multinational organizations can show up in various jurisdictions for the rights of those in the LGBTQI+ community. Opening Up the World How Multinational Organizations Can Ascend the Maturity Curve On LGBT+ Rights, was developed by the Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at the NYU School of Law through joint sponsorship from Microsoft, EY, and Dow.

The paper speaks to how multinational corporations, when operating in anti-LGBTQI+ jurisdictions, tend to choose among three models of engagement: When in Rome, Embassy, or Advocacy and explains why corporations cannot simply operate consistently in the Advocate model across the globe. It then provides guidance on how such organizations can determine their readiness to move along the maturity curve from one model to another, and, if unready, how they can build capacity for a future move.

This topic is one that resonates with me personally as I reflect on the privilege I’ve had throughout my career, to live and work in 10 cities, each in very different parts of the world. In doing so, I’ve had the opportunity to understand the deep importance of truly learning about the social values and cultural nuances that show up across different regions of a country or of the globe. It has exposed me to the challenges my coworkers and friends in the LGBTQI+ community face, who have a different set of considerations as they navigate their work, life and identity in a global marketplace.

By sharing the perspectives included in these two pieces of research, along with the education from so many organizations and experts leading the way, we hope to spark a new, open conversation that allows us to help everyone in the workplace understand where we are in this part of our inclusion journey. Only then will we all be able to see how far we actually have to go, and to dedicate ourselves to closing the distance – with intention and speed. 

We are deeply grateful to the employees both in and out of Microsoft who were willing to share their lives with us as individuals, leaders, employee resource group members, parents of LGBTQI+ children, friends and colleagues striving to make a difference. Like any other change worth leading, it will take thoughtful effort and consistent commitment. But in the end, it may just allow us to show what is possible when all employees have the space and support to shine. Whether we’re advocating for bathroom bills or driving the necessary changes inside our own workplace, the only way forward is together. So, with gratitude and optimism – we push onward.