Recorded Webinar

Transcript

[00:00:00] Laura Mastrorocco: Hello and welcome. So glad you could join us today for Making Equity a Culture Essential. My name is Laura Mastrocco. I am your producer today and I'm joined by a very powerful panel here. I'm delighted to be with these amazing individuals today.

[00:00:25] Laura Mastrorocco: I would like to start off with some introductions. So first and foremost, we have Candice Morgan, who goes by she, her, hers. She is a partner and head equity, diversity, and inclusion at GV, which is Google Ventures. Google Ventures exists to catalyze innovation for enduring impact with extraordinary returns.

[00:00:51] Laura Mastrorocco: They find and accelerate founders that they believe will have a positive and lasting impact on the world and yield incredible [00:01:00] financial returns. Candice has spent nearly 20 years in the DEI space, including the head roles at Pinterest and Google Ventures. She advised companies from founding through global F500s in implementing lasting strategies for equity at work.

[00:01:20] Laura Mastrorocco: Candice has lived in Switzerland and can instantly recognize Swiss German.

[00:01:26] Candice Morgan: Grüezi, hello everyone. Happy to be here.

[00:01:29] Laura Mastrorocco: Candice, tell us in just a few words, what does equity mean to you?

[00:01:37] Candice Morgan: It's a really big question to answer in a few words. But I think I'll define it by by talking about where we are right now. I think we are in a place where So many things that people assume about another individual dictate how they judge, treat, and evaluate that individual and their [00:02:00] potential.

[00:02:00] Candice Morgan: And it's, it can happen consciously, it can happen subconsciously, but it's there. It's very real. And so, when I think about equity, it is the opportunity to show and apply your potential and just be as you are, free of those types of constraints, and there's so much more I can say about that, but is that ability to be and exist and act in the world without preconceived notions about our contribution.

[00:02:29] Laura Mastrorocco: Yes. Thank you so much Candice. And welcome. Thank you. Next I'd like to introduce Brittany Hale Brittany Hale, who goes by she, her, hers, an interim CEO and COO of digital Undivided. They catalyze economic growth through research, programming, and advocacy for Latina and Black women founders.

[00:02:55] Laura Mastrorocco: Brittany has an award winning consultancy that manages a [00:03:00] portfolio of impactful engagements and can demonstrate what equitable environments look like for governments, from governments to enterprises to non profit sectors. And she's committed to merging fun, service, and advocacy. She developed a mock trial program as the first black woman president of her city's board of education, using fairy tales for 4th through 6th grade children.

[00:03:29] Laura Mastrorocco: Tell us why does equity matter to you personally?

[00:03:33] Brittany Hale: Yes, absolutely. So I have come from a background in which it beat the odds, right? So I had a, I'm a happily retired trial attorney, but it, I was one of the two percent of U. S. attorneys who are black women. Moving into the consultancy and later into Digital Undivided I am proud to represent a group of women [00:04:00] founders who together represent less than one percent of investment when it comes to venture capital funding.

[00:04:07] Brittany Hale: And equity is everything. to me, I'm currently leading digital undivided for over a decade. We've been at the forefront of championing Latina and black women entrepreneurs, not only through our national programs and our strategic partnerships, but through insightful research. And the goal is to create an inclusive and equitable.

[00:04:29] Brittany Hale: entrepreneurial ecosystem where all business leaders thrive. And so, as a business leader as an attorney, as a a CEO, again it's crucial that while. equal opportunities not guarantee equal outcome. It's that equal opportunity that we're working hard for.

[00:04:51] Laura Mastrorocco: Amazing. Thank you so much, Brittany, and welcome.

[00:04:56] Laura Mastrorocco: Next up, we have Dominique Reese, who uses the pronouns she, [00:05:00] her, hers. She is the head of the DE& I, Group at Plug and Play Tech Center. So the Plug and Play Tech Center is an innovation platform that connects startups with corporations and inventors to foster collaboration and accelerate technological advancements worldwide.

[00:05:20] Laura Mastrorocco: Dominique is someone who leads with more action and implementation versus words. Action is what creates change, which is why she started Plug and Play diversity, arm called Drive. She is a lover of animals. and just nature overall, and it is her dream to go to Thailand and ride an elephant one day. Dominique, why does equity matter to you personally?

[00:05:45] Dominique Reese: Yeah, I think equity just in general encompasses fairness as well as justice regardless of your background and just having an equal opportunity to succeed and access benefits and opportunities just available to you in society and [00:06:00] Although I'm very young in my career, I just turned 25 in June but I've really excelled in the space that I'm in within the past few years, and that's due to people giving me the access and the opportunities available, and me taking advantage of them so I'm very happy where I'm at in my career, and I want to others that are my age or younger or just coming from my background to have that same access and opportunity.

[00:06:25] Dominique Reese: And that's my goal throughout my career to just provide that and really show what equity truly means.

[00:06:32] Laura Mastrorocco: That's great, Dominique. Thank you so much and thanks for being here. I would like to join you in Thailand to ride an elephant . Next up we have our moderator, Ben Brooks, who goes by he, him, he is the founder of CEO, founder.

[00:06:48] Laura Mastrorocco: And CEO of PILOT, which is the virtual group coaching program that helps HR leaders to retain and develop employees at scale with their award winning [00:07:00] program that involves employees, managers, executives, and HR. So Ben worked to transform a previously LGBTQ unfriendly global firm into a role model for inclusion.

[00:07:15] Laura Mastrorocco: He helped to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and as a founder of a rare, certified, LGBT owned SaaS business with the mission for everyone to feel powerful at work. When Ben founded PILOT with his life savings in 2015, PILOT was remote first. Before, that was cool. And he has made it his own personal goal to do one week of remote work per quarter, He has previously traveled around to Copenhagen, to Montana, to Sao Paolo, and to Mexico, and I am sure that trend will continue.

[00:07:54] Laura Mastrorocco: Ben says that that boosts his creativity and well being. Ben, share with us, [00:08:00] why does equity matter to you personally?

[00:08:02] Ben Brooks: Well, thank you, Laura, and thank you everyone for joining today. I did put up a virtual background around our value, Vibrance, one of our five values of PILOT. It's already showing up.

[00:08:12] Ben Brooks: We've got recommendations for the Elephant Sanctuary. We've got acknowledgement around, having so many esteemed black women on this panel. We've got a bunch of vibrancy, in terms of what people are looking for, who they want to network with, what their identities are. So, A plus to everyone on that.

[00:08:26] Ben Brooks: In terms of what this means to me, when I grew up, my mom worked in the community college system, and she was a, what they called at the time in the 90s, a gender equity coordinator. And in particular, it was about getting women into non traditional professions. And in particular, it was often women who were victims of domestic abuse and violence.

[00:08:46] Ben Brooks: And the number one reason that they were staying in an abusive situation was financial dependence. And so by helping people have economic independence, they could be in a safer situation for them and typically their children. And so, I learned from a very [00:09:00] young age with my sister and I that anything a man could do, you know, the patriarchy was very present for me as a child.

[00:09:05] Ben Brooks: And even when my grandfather died, my mother and sister assisted at the Catholic funeral that my sister was a pallbearer, which is typically in the faith a male role to carry the casket. And my uncle threw a fit and she said, you get three, three spots on one side of the casket, and I get three on the other, and if I want women on my side, we're gonna have it.

[00:09:23] Ben Brooks: And so. From the very beginning, I just saw that the playing field was unequal. Even as a child, it was a great benefit to have my mom illuminate that for me. And that was only on one dimension, which happened to be gender or sex. And of course, there's many different dimensions. And of course, there's all the iceberg of the different dimensions that may be less visible in our identities or demographics or the experiences that have happened to us.

[00:09:44] Ben Brooks: So it matters to me personally, I've gotten really irritated. Part of the reason I got involved in Don't Ask, Don't Tell is it angered me. I got pissed off and that was, I had a mentor who said, don't join a board unless the cause pisses you off. And I was like, that's a good, that's a good, that's a good strategy.

[00:09:58] Ben Brooks: So I thank everyone for being [00:10:00] here. Now this is building off of a part one conversation that we had in June. StartOut, which is a consortium for L-G-B-T-Q founders in the tech space, and I've been a part of their founders development group, put on an equity summit. These amazing ladies I met through that summit, and it went so well, and we had some of the highest ratings of that entire event, that they said, please do this again. So here we are, and we're pleased to do this. So let's jump right in. Candice, let's start just, some people may not have come in June to hear this, I want to just get a baseline, and anyone else can obviously add, but I'll start with each person.

[00:10:33] Ben Brooks: What do we think the difference between equity and equality is? Are they the same thing? Because they're They sound similar and people use them interchangeably, but help us get educated with a baseline around those two terms.

[00:10:44] Candice Morgan: Yeah, absolutely. And I would say also cross culturally it's used differently.

[00:10:48] Candice Morgan: But I guess to put a baseline to it, earlier I talked about equity and what equity meant to me when Laura had asked. And when we came I'm going to go back in history just a little bit. When we [00:11:00] came through the civil rights movement and in the sixties, we began to see really important legislation around equality in the workplace, right? And we started to hear people adapt this terminology around being colorblind, right? Judge people for their color and I think people almost internalized that as let's not talk about race, right? Let's minimize our differences and let's just treat everyone the same.

[00:11:25] Candice Morgan: And it sounded very innocuous and even now as we look at the sociopolitical landscape and the way that diversity and programs that are built around groups that have been historically marginalized are starting to be challenged, right? Treating everybody the same seems like the easiest thing to do, and logically that sounds right to me, right?

[00:11:43] Candice Morgan: But what we learn is that individuals have different needs. Not only that, but individuals are assessed differently. . And we have to acknowledge those things because they are so real. And we now live in this environment where people are like, well, I'm colorblind. I just treat everybody the same.

[00:11:59] Candice Morgan: We don't need to [00:12:00] talk about these differences. We don't need to talk about race. We don't need to talk about, some of the different, things that define our identities. What we've come to learn is that actually cancelling out who people are is best. We lose a lot of the advantage of innovation and different perspectives that actually make us stronger and make us more creative at problem solving.

[00:12:21] Candice Morgan: So equity is really about, um, so equality, treat people the same. Equity is very much about meeting people where they are to reach their full potential. And so if I know in a workplace, for example, that I need to provide benefits for different types of employees the same way that if people have different work experience backgrounds, I need to train people differently, which people don't necessarily object to, I also need to accommodate people to do their best work differently.

[00:12:49] Candice Morgan: And if that means that some people work better remotely, and some people work better in the office, then, I need to. provide people with an equitable way for them to achieve their [00:13:00] best. And one thing we talked about in the first conversation is there are a couple of visual depictions of the difference between equity and equality.

[00:13:08] Candice Morgan: And I don't know if some of you in the chat might be aware of it, but there's this image, for example, of three people watching a baseball game and there's a fence that they need to see over. And if you treat people the same, they're all different heights. You give them one crate to stand upon.

[00:13:23] Candice Morgan: You're treating them all the same, but the person who can't see over the fence doesn't need the same type of accommodation as the person with long legs like me. So he's in the back of the photo. And that's just logical, right? We need to celebrate those differences. And I feel like equity is about celebrating those differences versus just, pretending like we can't see them.

[00:13:45] Ben Brooks: Brittany or Dominique, anything you'd like to add to that?

[00:13:49] Brittany Hale: I will say one and Candice articulated it perfectly, but one of the things that people tend to believe is in order to be equitable, we tend to think from a lack [00:14:00] perspective, right? For those who are receiving benefits, it means you're taking things away.

[00:14:05] Brittany Hale: But for business leaders on the call and for people who are thinking about, thinking about how to build equity into their culture. One of the lesser known benefits is that it usually is more profitable. And so I'll break it down because I'm from New Jersey and we love an Italian sub or hoagie if you're in the middle, in the mid Atlantic, but let's say if I order a hundred of the best Italian subs for lunch.

[00:14:31] Brittany Hale: And they're each a hundred dollars, or they're each a thousand dollars, right? And I'm spending a hundred thousand dollars on lunch. I'm not taking into account the people who maybe keep kosher. I'm not taking into account the people who are vegetarian. I am not taking into account the people who are pescatarian, right?

[00:14:48] Brittany Hale: And so even though I say I am Spending so much money creating equal opportunity for everyone. I'm not thinking that maybe I, you know, it costs a [00:15:00] little bit less to provide a salad for the vegetarians, right? Perhaps there are different options. And so, I'm speaking about lunch because I'm a little hungry.

[00:15:07] Brittany Hale: I don't know about anybody else, but the point being is when you strive toward an equitable organizational culture the unintended benefit usually you will see a return in your organization's profitability. And that's something that we should also keep in mind. It's great to be open and be great with one another, but at the end of the day, we're in business.

[00:15:33] Brittany Hale: And that also, is something that people should keep in mind as well.

[00:15:39] Ben Brooks: And I'll just add that Ted put a great question in earlier and I'd love anyone that's listening because everyone that is on this call can contribute part of the inclusive environment here. Asked about, career path development for people from underrepresented backgrounds or what had been kind of best practice.

[00:15:54] Ben Brooks: So if you have any thoughts on that, please drop that in the chat for sure. And I, and I think [00:16:00] I remember hearing a CEO of a media company speak once, and he's like, well, I just, the colorblind thing. This was a couple of years ago, believe it or not, recently, and this is a household name company.

[00:16:09] Ben Brooks: And it says, I just, I don't think we should be about race and gender and all this. If you, everyone in this country has opportunity to education, so you just need to work hard. And I'm thinking, what planet are you from? My sister worked in New York City schools for 10 years and Teach for America.

[00:16:23] Ben Brooks: My mom was a community college system. Equal opportunity education is not the same quality education, and all the conditions around whether you make it to school or not, or you have to work to make money for your family, or you're in an environment where you have broadband at home, or you have a family that supports you studying, whatever it may be, getting materials to is different.

[00:16:40] Ben Brooks: One thing we've done at PILOT is we've eliminated, on our job descriptions, college degrees being either required or even preferred. Because frankly, we need people at PILOT that are smart and hardworking and care about people, and having a college degree is not

[00:16:54] Ben Brooks: required for that. And we know from, I have friends that are very successful executives that don't have a degree, [00:17:00] and they will not apply, even that, you know, for senior jobs, if it says even preferred, so part of it too is also just a limiting some of those barriers. Or another thing that we've done is, on equity as an example, is we don't do unpaid internships.

[00:17:13] Ben Brooks: Because guess who can afford to do an unpaid internship? Someone that has a leg up. Right. And so we're, you know, so and I don't believe work should be free in general and people get better outcomes. And by the way, you give people better feedback when you're paying them too. When you don't pay them, they don't learn because you don't give them feedback and it defeats the whole point.

[00:17:30] Ben Brooks: So those are some really key things. Now, Brittany, I know we're talking about where organizations start. When discussing DEI, or diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, I'm trying not to be an alphabet soup as much. Is there a sequence when you think about diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, for organizations?

[00:17:48] Ben Brooks: Because everyone's at a different maturity level. How do you think about that? And we'll hear from the rest of the panel.

[00:17:52] Brittany Hale: Yeah. And I would also add, justice in there too. And it depends on the framework that you're adopting, but the first. [00:18:00] Step in there is, of course, having the courage to be curious.

[00:18:05] Brittany Hale: is in thinking about the feedback, right? Doing some sort of assessment to see where you are. Is it possible that in a major metropolitan area, the only talented people are people who are, 40 plus white males, and they are the only people who are worth investing in? It's possible. Is it probable?

[00:18:27] Brittany Hale: No, right? And we have in house research that shows us it's just not the case. So when we talk about DEIB or DEIJ , together first comes, I think, the commitment to understanding and being curious about what inequities exist, if any. Because then the question is, is it true? Is it possible that we may have a blind spot?

[00:18:55] Brittany Hale: And once you go from there, that's when you can delve into that assessment piece. [00:19:00] I think ironically, I actually think diversity is probably one of the last steps, because if you accept justice, if you accept equity, right. I, will say that equity needs to happen first, right? Can we commit to allotting a certain amount of resources to create a space where people are provided with the resources that they need to thrive?

[00:19:25] Brittany Hale: The next question is naturally what do they need? Right? And then that's when we get to the inclusive piece. That's when we then get to creating a space where we're diverse and ultimately belonging. Belonging, I see it it's a two way street, right? We have to create the environment in which people can thrive and feel comfortable enough to be themselves authentically.

[00:19:47] Brittany Hale: But that comfort, what they choose to share and what, how they choose to show up at work is largely outside of your control. So that is my recommendation to people who are looking to embark on this journey. [00:20:00]

[00:20:00] Ben Brooks: And quick follow up, Brittany, you said what people need, how do you find out?

[00:20:04] Ben Brooks: Cause in my experience, a lot of times there's assumptions made from senior executive tables, often people that have less lived experience in maybe a marginalized background or condition. How do you understand what people need when the people making the decisions around the structures or systems or programs or resources may not have any idea what the lived experience of people are from, different backgrounds?

[00:20:28] Brittany Hale: Yeah, so that's a great question. And because I can tell you all executive leadership thinks that the environment that they create which is of course a form of power, right? Creating that environment, they think it's great, right? Of course, everyone knows our values. Of course, we're doing everything for them.

[00:20:45] Brittany Hale: And so, To a certain extent, I understand why they believe that to be true, right? At a nonprofit, you're working to build partnerships. You're working to create fundraising opportunities. You it's very easy to get to a point where you are [00:21:00] not connected with the lived experience. And so one of the things that we've actually adopted at digital undivided, we have a monthly health and wellbeing survey.

[00:21:10] Brittany Hale: where we ask about stress levels in anticipated workloads, shifts in workloads. We have weekly updates where people can highlight, what challenges or roadblocks are you facing? And what do you perceive to be the resources that you need to overcome those roadblocks? And it takes time. Time to go through and look through that, right?

[00:21:33] Brittany Hale: And it takes an intentionality. It takes truly committing to upskilling your directors and managers who, without a strong. organizational culture without that strong framework for decision making, they are going to rely on what feels natural to them, which is informed by a completely subjective experience.

[00:21:54] Brittany Hale: And so that is truly why we focus on operationalizing values. [00:22:00] We focus on gathering the information, asking questions. So that way we provide a space where people can anonymously share some of their concerns and frustrations and then develop the strategy toward allotting resources to support them.

[00:22:19] Ben Brooks: And for anyone that's an ally out there, As an LGBT person myself, there's a lot of curiosity around things, especially transgender issues, etc. People, but often don't, people don't know the right way to ask those questions. I'm wondering, since we have three black women here, you know, just, and this is an impromptu question, so I'm taking a risk here.

[00:22:37] Ben Brooks: But, what is a way, because each of you have three very likely different, unique, experiences, right? And so we don't want to be reductive around any demographic, no matter what that demographic is. How does someone who's not from a demographic respectfully or thoughtfully learn or engage?

[00:22:56] Ben Brooks: What's a best way for people to approach? Because I know [00:23:00] sometimes people have good intention, but it can be off putting in how they do that, or it can seem unsafe, or they can bring in stereotypes or all sorts of other things. What are your thoughts on, how would you respond best if someone wanted to learn and be ears open?

[00:23:14] Dominique Reese: I think best approaches in which I've seen and storytelling in general is something that helps people connect. So I'd say like usually when you have a question that you're a little iffy about asking, use an example of instances where you've seen it done so that it helps. Relate and it helps people understand more of where you're coming from.

[00:23:38] Dominique Reese: Rather than just generalizing and asking a question just off of what's on top of your head, but really tying in an example with your question to have that humanistic aspect is one way to do so.

[00:23:51] Ben Brooks: Candice, any thoughts from you?

[00:23:52] Candice Morgan: Yeah, first of all, I completely agree with Dominique. I think that.

[00:23:57] Candice Morgan: There are a couple of factors to think about. Um, [00:24:00] you know, talked about power. And I believe Nicole in the chat brought that up, right? And so think about the relationship between you and the person that you're asking. First of all I'll often tell managers in a work context let's say something is happening in the world that majorly impacts someone on your, who's majorly impacts a group and someone from your team is part of that group.

[00:24:23] Candice Morgan: Now, it could be geographically it could be demographically, it could be a lot of different things. If you are their manager and you come and you place the burden of education on that person, that puts them in a Very uncomfortable position, depending on the relationship you already have with them, right?

[00:24:38] Candice Morgan: And the level of safety. Research shows, for example, that black women can be some of the most guarded about one's personal life at work. And it is an adaptive mechanism because of because of how being open has been perceived as a way to, it's a survival technique. In some ways. Now you can't assume everybody's like that, right?

[00:24:55] Candice Morgan: If you have this close relationship with psychological safety with someone, it's a survival technique. [00:25:00] And you believe that they're interested in engaging in the conversation, that's different, but a lot of the, a lot of the time that's not going to be the case. And so what I'll usually say is if something is, something's happening, acknowledge what's going on in the world and how it impacts people.

[00:25:13] Candice Morgan: Don't necessarily go up to someone and be like, you're Black, so what, tell me about, let's talk about your trauma, right? And I'm, I'm being a little facetious, but I think it's really important to say, this matters to me too, and if anyone wants to talk, I am here. And it's really important to educate yourself right now.

[00:25:29] Candice Morgan: I've been almost a couple of decades now in diversity leadership positions. I've put myself in a place where people can come to me with questions and I would much rather they come to me with those questions than a person on the team who's just trying to do their best work and is now concerned because you've just opened up like this is the lens I see you through and et cetera, et cetera.

[00:25:49] Candice Morgan: And so in that case understand like who to go to and how to go to someone, but there is so much information online, right? There is so much. If there's someone [00:26:00] who is going through something or their community is affected by someone and you have the closeness and the type of relationship where you can be like, I see you, I hear you.

[00:26:09] Candice Morgan: That's one thing. But what we're seeing a lot of times is when people don't have that relationship and they're like, I want to do something. So I'm going to do it through this person. And it's kind of misdirected, if that makes sense.

[00:26:20] Ben Brooks: What I hear in both of your suggestions here is the thoughtfulness and the kind of slowing down, right?

[00:26:25] Ben Brooks: Don't come in hot. Oh, I saw a thing on the news. I'm asking right now, or this came up in this, or oh my gosh, it's February. It's Black History Month. I better do something. Look good, whatever it is. And so I think that just really slowing down and also taking in the context. Do we know each other that well?

[00:26:42] Ben Brooks: What is the power dynamic? here, and I think sometimes the curiosity can come off to folks as an a interrogation or inquisition rather than an invitation. What I'm hearing also is putting the invitation out there on both sides, but having that be something where people come to you rather than [00:27:00] you go at someone, because that also could be, not everyone's ready.

[00:27:03] Ben Brooks: I know for me I'm out I'm comfortable talking to people that are not LGBTQ about it. Sex, about HIV, about violence, about drugs, about trans things, about gender reassignment, I mean, you name it, I feel very comfortable, but Not everyone is going to talk about that. And I don't always talk about my personal thing, but I can, but so many people are in a different place about where they're at and who they are, which we can't see.

[00:27:25] Ben Brooks: And we can't know. So thank you everyone. Well, Dominique, we want to talk about equity also, maybe beyond inside the walls of an organization. This is a point you brought up in our last conversation. And I wanted to open that up, Can we think about equity as we think about customers or supply chains or communities and we operate?

[00:27:43] Ben Brooks: How do you think about it in a more expansive way, Dominique?

[00:27:46] Dominique Reese: Yeah and I think I brought this up in the last webinar just because it's very in line with the work that I do for Plug and Play. I work with both startups as well as big name corporations within my role. I've [00:28:00] slowed down a little bit now, but for the past three to four years I accelerated about 500 startups per year within the supply chain industry and then I work with bigger name brands like Walmart, Nike.

[00:28:11] Dominique Reese: And other brands just helping them internally with their own internal D& I practices as well as how they can use their tools and resources externally in terms of social impact and really doing the good work versus what we mentioned before, just looking good because it's Black History Month or it's Pride.

[00:28:29] Dominique Reese: So, I did take a little bit of notes to make sure I really give a little bit of context, but I think it definitely does apply outside the walls and it should apply outside the walls. Whatever you do internally, you should make an effort to do it externally. So when it comes to the supply chain aspect, really looking at your supplier diversity programs and having a diverse supplier network really leads to innovation within supply chain, which is the most important.

[00:28:54] Dominique Reese: But on the other side of supply chain is just the different labor practices. So we mentioned [00:29:00] working from home and making sure people are paid fairly based on who they are, where they're located, and what their circumstances are. Maybe someone is a single mom and they don't have the ability to afford care during the summer or, you know, they don't have anyone to rely on watching their children. So having that in mind versus anything else I would say like for bigger name brands, or if you're really appealing to customers, making sure your products are equitable as well as in terms of marketing, making sure it's inclusive marketing to different groups. I know a lot of our corporate partners, we've pushed them to, understand if you're having an event, maybe having a interpreter to really reach different audiences if if you're on a platform that's online and, maybe Other people want to listen in, but maybe they don't have the ability to listen in.

[00:29:54] Dominique Reese: Really just hitting all those different areas of access is really important when it comes [00:30:00] to customers and making sure that you're reaching as many people as you can. And then as well as like just community engagement, making sure. if you are doing good for the community and you're interacting and trying to provide help and assistance to people from the community, it's rather than just assuming, asking those people within the community is what they need so that you can do everything to the best of your ability and just actively engaging with them.

[00:30:23] Dominique Reese: I think this also goes on a global scale. Things mean different things where you are in the world. So educating yourself on the different policies that are there, but not even just the legal side, but also the social side of what is acceptable and what is not versus just looking at the legal aspect.

[00:30:43] Dominique Reese: So really looking at things from a holistic approach and using the tools and resources that you are doing internally within your organization. and just broadening that out a little bit to help you do that externally.

[00:30:58] Ben Brooks: So if you're in the chat [00:31:00] right now, I'd love just for our panelists just to hear what you're taking away so far.

[00:31:04] Ben Brooks: I'd love any insights, because sometimes the way that we learn is something will pop for someone else and be like, oh, that's a great point, we build off of it. So let's drop some thoughts in the chat as we continue this conversation. Candice, I want to bring up, the unfortunate culture wars that DEI has gotten wrapped up into.

[00:31:21] Ben Brooks: Now, there's this, you know, certain politicians and other people and groups are talking about woke culture or they're penalizing people or they're cutting things at state universities. There's all sorts of, backlash in legislation. How do we make progress with equity now that DEI in some circles has been politicized.

[00:31:43] Candice Morgan: Yeah. And the irony is people talk about identity politics in, this pejorative way. And yet so much of what we do is around identity and and people can use plausible deniability that, that, that is part of what's being considered. But when we look at anything, redlining, home [00:32:00] loans incarceration, certainly, there, these things matter quite a bit.

[00:32:03] Candice Morgan: I think from a legal perspective the types of challenges that we're seeing to legislation is when a program is for a specific group. So for example, we know that only 1 percent of funding goes to black founders, and we know that probably 0. 35 or so percent of that funding goes to black women.

[00:32:25] Candice Morgan: Brittany had put some data in the chat earlier to be up on the latest numbers, but Just really minuscule amounts of capital. Only 2 percent to all women founded teams, even though we're seeing about 17 percent to founding teams with at least one woman, right? And then you've got to imagine all social dynamics happening in there that as well.

[00:32:44] Candice Morgan: From a legal perspective, those, the types of programs, for example, historically around like a mentorship or an acceleration program for women in your tech organization or for, underrepresented groups in your internship organization, those [00:33:00] are the types of things that are being challenged.

[00:33:02] Candice Morgan: That said, if an organization can prove that there is discrimination, it's always been the case that that is illegal, right? So if you have data. And from the very beginning, Brittany talked about being curious and finding the data, right? If you have the data that shows that your retention levels look pretty different depending on the background or there's really fascinating data around performance scores and you know, systemically over time, seeing certain groups get different types of performance scores, right?

[00:33:29] Candice Morgan: These are the types of things where if you have established that a baseline is not, there's, there's grounds to investigate. Then you can work on programs that are designed to create more equity and equitable programs. That said, if there are programs that are more around a certain group that you haven't established necessarily the data or the baseline, then they're being challenged.

[00:33:51] Candice Morgan: We don't know what's going to happen with those types of things, but we know that they are being challenged. That said, all the letters we were talking about earlier, right, the CEIB justice, [00:34:00] if you're doing work around equity, right? Making sure that, people are getting the different things that they need, or, you're doing work around inclusion and belonging.

[00:34:08] Candice Morgan: If you're doing work around mitigating bias, none of that is impacted by these types of things, right? Because you're creating programs so that everyone has important understanding and marginalized groups who, face even more challenges, perhaps in bias, for example. Let's say around performance review time.

[00:34:26] Candice Morgan: If you do a training around de biasing performance reviews, that's something that cannot be challenged, right? And so this type of work, I believe, will definitely continue to go on despite these difficult challenges. The dangers are really when people get scared, right? The chilling effect that we're talking about and move away from these types of programs, right?

[00:34:49] Candice Morgan: Almost none of for example, a lot of the workplace programs because it's always been It's not always, but it has been illegal to discriminate in terms of the workplace since, [00:35:00] the Civil Rights Act, right? We're talking like, 150 years of legislation, another 50 years of employment legislation.

[00:35:08] Candice Morgan: And Yeah, essentially, you're able to continue doing the type of work that is making sure that people aren't facing discrimination and that people are learning how to be inclusive. Most people also, when they set goals, their goals are really around diversifying pipelines. They're not necessarily outcome quotas, if you will.

[00:35:27] Candice Morgan: And so those things keep doing them. And I feel like that's the education gap that we need to confront for people. Is that this work, most of this work will continue as is. Don't let the challenges scare us and desist.

[00:35:41] Ben Brooks: Yeah, I think that is that icing effect that I'm hearing from a lot of folks that are just not sure how to read the room and people want to keep their jobs and do all these things and yet there's a real imperative still to drive progress.

[00:35:54] Ben Brooks: And that's really, I think, contextual, right, about where you're at in your life and what you're able to do, what the kind [00:36:00] of, what the organization is at, what geography you're in, et cetera. But I'll also bring up that we sometimes think of these things in these big organization wide, societal, state, national law, amicus briefs, impact litigation, which is great at the structural strategic level.

[00:36:15] Ben Brooks: But there's often these moments. that each of us can affect. I'll tell you one, one happened two hours ago with one of my colleagues that we were looking even at two vendors that were both going to do some work for us and maybe having both of them. And he brought up pay equity. They're both minorities, both of these vendors.

[00:36:32] Ben Brooks: And was saying, Hey, here's how we're going to assess both. And they are actually charging differently, but we actually should actually pay the same for the same work. Even though we could have saved money by paying one less, He knows that's not my values and that's not his values. And this is two guys having this conversation, but that's not something we're not putting that on our website.

[00:36:52] Ben Brooks: We're not putting that on LinkedIn. We're not going for awards. We're not, that's just a values based thing. And it's a small thing that no one other than [00:37:00] speaking about this in vague terms today, we'll know about, but that's still the right thing. So I think also, as you see the big changes in the broader thing, also don't forget what you can do at the smallest level Because each one of us, probably on this call and panel have had people do small things for us that wound up having a big impact.

[00:37:18] Ben Brooks: And so I think that's a very important thing. Brittany, it looked like you had something to say.

[00:37:21] Brittany Hale: I did. And I wanted to, um, Candice, you actually mentioned identity politics and Maddie, I see that you mentioned that in the chat too. And it's an interesting journey that we've gone through with this country for identity politics, right?

[00:37:34] Brittany Hale: Because at the beginning of the 20th century, when you had whole neighborhoods, Right? We had a little Italy, right? I live close to a neighborhood in New Jersey called the Ironbound, which is a Portuguese stronghold, right? And the development of these neighborhoods allowed us to forward the American economy to create pathways toward [00:38:00] generational wealth and opportunity for people.

[00:38:03] Brittany Hale: So, To now see identity politics used pejoratively in an increasingly globalized world is, it's quite ironic because we have more opportunity now than ever to diversify our investments, to diversify the markets in which we have some sort of presence. Again, as we talk about identity politics, as we talk, as we, you know, have these conversations I think there is a space to you know, Candice, to your point, to no longer be afraid, but embrace that. Absolutely. We are focused on this, right? We have founders who've come. We have. We're 100 percent remote. I have staff in Brazil and they bring a unique perspective. I have staff, we have founders all over the country who provide unique insights into certain markets based upon their backgrounds and are providing macro [00:39:00] solutions based on these micro problems within their very specific life experiences.

[00:39:07] Brittany Hale: So this is a challenge that I would pose to everyone on this webinar is how can we use that to our benefit and embrace it in a way and at a time where it's something that, that we we no longer seem to value.

[00:39:25] Candice Morgan: I love it. And I, if I could just very quickly say, earlier when I was talking about equity, right, it's If you're a manager and you've got you got two individuals, they're, they have different styles, right?

[00:39:34] Candice Morgan: One likes to check in very regularly with you and wants to know hey, how am I progressing towards these goals? Let's write it all down. Another person is more, hey, if I have a problem, I'll come to you, but I know what my goals are, and I'm just going to work toward them. If you have someone who is an extrovert in meetings, and we have a very extrovert team, Extrovert focused culture in the us especially the further west coast you go and the more in tech, right?

[00:39:57] Candice Morgan: You have other people who prefer to listen in during the [00:40:00] meetings and then provide their insights after the meeting, right? Those are different styles, right? We hire people, we interview people for their identity and their perspective and the background that they bring, right? And those gifts. And then it's just a very common trope to then use those things to say that they don't matter.

[00:40:15] Candice Morgan: We've got people now who are talking about diversity being a distraction if you're. taking an hour to do an interview about diversity being a distraction.

[00:40:23] Ben Brooks: Yeah,

[00:40:23] Candice Morgan: kind of interesting that you spent all that time writing a book or an article or etc about it being a distraction, right?

[00:40:28] Candice Morgan: Clearly, there's some sort of threat that's being perceived here, and so that kind of language just seeks to relegate all of this richness into something that is irrelevant, and we know that that's not true.

[00:40:40] Ben Brooks: Absolutely, and I think that, what I'm hearing in all of this is, you know, talk about the bigger picture, too, of whether if you're in a commercial context, it may be competitiveness, right?

[00:40:48] Ben Brooks: If you're NGO context, it may be around efficacy or mission. And that a lot of this is like how do you succeed with people around the world or from different markets or different segments or [00:41:00] products that serve different needs or types of people? Because we live, if you're in the United States of America, we're arguably the most diverse country in the world.

[00:41:07] Ben Brooks: And, we're going to have a majority minority demographic by 2040, I believe. So we're going to be, and that's been part of what's made America, really fabulous. I almost said great, but fabulous country. But we've got a lot of work to do in that regard.

[00:41:21] Ben Brooks: I'd like to, do two things because we've got about 10 minutes left. First, I have a last question around kind of objections we might hear and how to handle them when we think about equity. And I'm gonna start with Dominique on this. And, but I'd like to hear from each of the three of you, we'll do Dominique and then we'll do Brittany and then Candice, and then I want to talk about, an actionable tip or something people on this webinar that are fired up by the three of you could go do so Dominique, when we think about potential objections we might hear around equity.

[00:41:45] Ben Brooks: What's, how do we, what do you think about, overcoming or being prepared for some objections?

[00:41:51] Dominique Reese: Yeah, I think some people may say these inequalities don't exist because maybe they haven't been affected by them and they're just thinking, because I haven't been [00:42:00] affected, they don't exist.

[00:42:01] Dominique Reese: That they don't exist for you, they may exist for other people or another one I've heard is people fear that these equity initiatives will lead to reverse discrimination which is affecting the majority groups, but really, again, equity means leveling the playing field, so that doesn't mean it's taking away from what you have, it's just adding to those that may have less.

[00:42:24] Dominique Reese: So I would say like the key to that is just education, educate yourself, learn hopping on webinars like these, maybe you're not one that's into reading and you're into listening, listening to podcasts, having like different perspectives of things. But again, like really driving home, like having conversations with people as well, like I'm.

[00:42:44] Dominique Reese: Again, I will say it again, storytelling is really something that you learn from, and I think there's a group called TLC Lions that does it perfectly, where they bring in different lions as people into an organization and it's people that have [00:43:00] gone through different experiences that have prevailed through those experiences, whether in the workplace or whether through dealing with something at home and still having to come to work to perform.

[00:43:11] Dominique Reese: And so it's people that have really profiled through those challenges and are telling their stories of how they got through it in order to relate to different employees that may be going through those similar experiences.

[00:43:23] Ben Brooks: And so there's TLC lions for anyone that wants to check them out.

[00:43:26] Dominique Reese: I'll put the link in the chat.

[00:43:27] Ben Brooks: Okay, and there's so many great books that have been mentioned, links, graphics, images, consultants, just if anyone else has other resources, everyone on this webinar is hungry for them. So feel free to drop them in. Brittany, what do you think about when you think of equity and potential objections, either what they might be or how to handle them?

[00:43:45] Brittany Hale: Yeah. So I'll speak for entrepreneurs specifically. So when I reach out to VC firms, and we talk about our founders again, many of whom, so we know that when it comes to yielding the [00:44:00] highest rates, returns for an investor that usually is Black women. When we talk about the lowest fail rates in the industry, we're looking at Latina and Black women as well, right?

[00:44:11] Brittany Hale: So when I hear, well, we can't find founders or these founders are just not interested in us and we don't know where they are, um, that's when I lean in with, again, curiosity, right? I'm an attorney. I like to ask a lot of questions. So that's what I think, really? Wow. Okay. Have you checked out our resources?

[00:44:28] Brittany Hale: Have you looked at our research? Wow. Okay. So what's important to you if it's maximizing your profitability and you want to truly diversify your portfolio, are you telling me that you're open to diversifying in, in industry and approach and everything except for the founder? That's interesting.

[00:44:47] Brittany Hale: Can you tell me why that is? So that is, that tends to be my approach, right? That tends to be the approach to because I see it as a learning opportunity. And yes, there are going to be some people who want to dig their heels in and just say, No, I'm [00:45:00] not interested in that. I would rather you say that.

[00:45:04] Brittany Hale: Than to lack knowledge. And when I get curious and when we can engage that's a learning opportunity and that's when I can, facts are important. That's when I can substantiate my perspective with the research that we do.

[00:45:20] Ben Brooks: Candice, how about you

[00:45:23] Candice Morgan: In terms of things that we hear the common Yeah.

[00:45:25] Ben Brooks: Objections around equity. Maybe either ones that people should be anticipating or how to handle them or both.

[00:45:31] Candice Morgan: Yeah I think so. First of all, completely just my co panelists have said said so many gems. I think, uh, I guess maybe repeating a little bit of what I just said, but like the idea that this stuff is irrelevant to business, right?

[00:45:43] Candice Morgan: And I think we, we're actually all saying that, right? It's we know that economic arguments because, so many things that happen in our world are economically driven, right? We've had wars, we've had the way we address things like climate change, so many things are driven [00:46:00] by economics.

[00:46:00] Candice Morgan: If we pin economic failure on distractions, right, it's a common way to get people to not pay attention to what is real. And I think that that is something that we have to resist. I was having a conversation actually just earlier today with with a GP at an investing firm, and we were talking about this in terms of what is the role that investing plays.

[00:46:22] Candice Morgan: And what is the role investing should play? Like what can we impact? Right? And, at first you're well, there are so many things you could impact, right? But if you really think about it, what is the mandate of your business, right? You are trying to grow your returns. You're trying to find great ideas.

[00:46:37] Candice Morgan: Yeah. Okay. Depending on the funding mechanism and venture, right? These are great ideas at scale. These are solving problems for people that are going to lead to scale. we literally know that you know, we know about consumers, we know about businesses, we know that people have different needs, and the better we're able to assess those different needs the better our ideas will represent a broader market.

[00:46:59] Candice Morgan: Okay, [00:47:00] if you want to just, let's, we want to talk in economic terms, that knowledge is really vital and so I think it's just really important to constantly reiterate the relevance here for people that are trying to decouple it. Only when it comes to this particular technique.

[00:47:15] Ben Brooks: Absolutely. And I think, the last thing we're gonna do in the next five minutes.

[00:47:19] Ben Brooks: First of all, some people wanna network. 'Cause it seems like there's a lot of people here who care about these topics and these issues and are very impressed with the three of you all. I feel just lucky to be in this conversation and learn from you all. Feel free to drop LinkedIn links or other resources or people.

[00:47:34] Ben Brooks: I just dropped an organization that, that I volunteer with that lobbies Congress to create more level playing field from an equity perspective for startups, in particular from diverse founders and backgrounds. Google has funded some of this as well, so thank you Google for that. And what I'd like to do is probably go the same order, DBC, Dominique, Brittany, and Candice.

[00:47:52] Ben Brooks: You know, if you got a like a single sort of like hot tip action suggestion for people that are [00:48:00] fired up right now. What is that? And if you got more, drop them in the chat while your colleagues are sharing. So Dominique what comes to mind is something people could, go do this week, this month, but before the end of the year,

[00:48:12] Dominique Reese: I would say talking like bringing this conversation up to individuals within your organization and starting that within having casual conversations and, Also being persistent, if you don't, maybe you're not getting the answer that a answer just in general, don't not ask the question again, continue to ask the question and be persistent until you feel like you've gained knowledge in that area and then move on to the next subject.

[00:48:42] Ben Brooks: Brittany, how about you?

[00:48:44] Brittany Hale: Yeah, again, I'll just repeat, have the courage to be curious, the world will not implode if you need to shift your perspective or have an opportunity to to learn something different or approach your [00:49:00] business or your organization's culture in a new way.

[00:49:05] Candice Morgan: And I'll just say yeah we're being so actual and flexible right now.

[00:49:10] Candice Morgan: We can do this, right? I would add there's a woman her name's Ayo Magwood and she's an economist, and she just, She has unearthed some of the best data sets I've seen around structural racism, as well as a number of, educational differences and inequities, right? So we've been talking about equity quite a bit today.

[00:49:29] Candice Morgan: Her site's called Uprooting Inequity. And so I've been using some of her data. She has some data sets around affirmative action and like education and equity and things like that. So definitely check that out if you want to refill your coffers in terms of some of the research.

[00:49:42] Ben Brooks: And I think. It can lower the temperature a bit when we start with data or numbers rather than narrative, because, and I often find, with PILOT, we have employee development programs, and we get people, business executives involved in DEI because we start with numbers. They're comfortable with numbers.

[00:49:58] Ben Brooks: You meet them where they are, which [00:50:00] is great. Spreadsheets and graphs and things and then you get to the heart of the matter, not just the head of the matter on some of the narrative and lived experience. So leverage that data and that research because it helps show that there is a problem. There are gaps.

[00:50:15] Ben Brooks: You look at, wealth generation in the country or, it's different health outcomes or all sorts of different things. So certainly leverage the data. The other thing I'll say is that that, um, and thank you, Kayla said that by far the best PILOT event you've attended. Well, that's a function. We're the constant. These panelists are what made the difference there. So Kayla, thank you to the panelists. The thing I would say is invest in your people. This is the HR person in me. Part of equity is just hiring people is not enough. Just because they got in the door doesn't mean that they have equal opportunity in your company.

[00:50:48] Ben Brooks: One of my dear friends growing up, immigrated from Taiwan. He visited me in New York City a few years ago. He's a senior vice president, went to a great school, all this stuff, but couldn't ever make managing director, the [00:51:00] top title at his bank. Because culturally, he was not comfortable fraternizing with people that are 10, 20, 30 years older than him, which are the other MDs, going golfing, those things, but they wanted to have someone they feel like that they could, be with him, be with his spouse, etc.

[00:51:14] Ben Brooks: And we talked about that, and I talked about the importance of, essentially creating, personal relationships with some of these people at the highest level. He's now an MD. right? But, sometimes you need to help decode or help people work through things, and it may not be the technical skills to do a job.

[00:51:30] Ben Brooks: It's often the leadership, the empowerment, people learning to advocate for themselves, to speak up. This is what we develop and train people with PILOT and why we often work with Chief Diversity Officers, because just having enough diversity in your organization is often towards the bottom of your pyramid, your underrepresented data, right?

[00:51:46] Ben Brooks: You know, metrics and people. You need to create pipelines for opportunity for people and giving them a lug up is not just, that they can scrap for a job, but really that you help teach the unwritten rules of work because that's another form of inequity. So [00:52:00] thank you to our panels. Thank you to Startout for being a great partner on this.

[00:52:03] Ben Brooks: Thank you to Laura for setting this up amazingly. Thank you for all of our guests and panelists. If you got any love that you'd like to show our panelists, drop it in the chat now Or additional thoughts or insights, but thank you for really, an amazing event. We'll get the recording out for anyone.

[00:52:18] Ben Brooks: Please share this. I think your colleagues and your friends and people in your community can benefit from what we learned from our panelists today. There's a lot of wisdom. I think it was a very informative. insightful, but yet approachable conversation, which is a, which is an artful balance. And so I just really want to thank our panelists.

[00:52:35] Ben Brooks: Candice was just got off a plane. She's on Paris time and she's in California right now, right? So this is, you know, she's battling jet lag and this is her second speaking event today. And Dominique and Brittany have jam calendars being executives that they are. So thank you so much for your time, everyone.

[00:52:50] Ben Brooks: And thanks for joining. Have a great rest of your week.

[00:52:53] Candice Morgan: Thanks everyone.

[00:52:55] Ben Brooks: Thanks everybody.