DEI Is About People, Not Politics

You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stenovic on Bloomberg Radio.

Tim and I everybody here at Bloomberg. We talk a lot about data. We talked about bias in data, and our next guest thinks a lot about how your unconscious bias is affecting how you interact with your colleagues. According to this woman, she's an award winning diversity consultant and international corporate speaker. Her bio notoe. She is diversity personified. She's a CEO and entrepreneur. She's black, she's a female, she's bisexual. She's an ex preacher's wife, left handed and

Definitely well, first and foremost, thanks so much for having me. This is a topic that's been near and dear to my heart my entire life. You know, growing up in Oklahoma, it's not a place where diversity is celebrated in the way that it should be. And so I don't think that I chose it. I really think that it chose me. You know, from the time I was a kid. This is something that I have cared deeply about, and I'm really frustrated with where we are now in the.

World because I believe that we are.

You know, we're prioritizing politics over people, and that's really really all diversity and inclusion is about.

What do you mean when you say that that we're prioritizing politics over people right now? What are some examples of that.

I think you see it in all the all of the elections stuff that's about to start happening for twenty twenty four.

I think when you.

Look at the LGBT plus community, a lot of bills, like over four or five hundred bills have been introduced right to really stop the growth of that community. And I feel like it's something that is being used as fear. You know, it's being used people are prioritizing LGBT over family values, and you know, it's really especially when you drill down into transgender and it is really something that is getting teeth right now, when really we're just talking

We're talking about allowing people to just be who they are. I am curious.

I am curious about who you are and where you have felt the most stop signs are pushback? Was it as a CEO, as an entrepreneur, being black, being a female, being bisexual, being an athlete? Where I feel like there are still so many gaps between women athletes and male athletes in our world, where have you and forgive me that. I'm like, what's the worst experience, But I am curious where you have felt so much pushback as you know, being in one of those worlds or environments, if you will.

It's definitely for me it's it's been being black, you know.

And again growing up in Oklahoma.

You know, I come from a from a.

State where when we were when we would read about in high school, for instance, we would read about a Huckleberry Friend, Tom Story, you're all those things that you know, they use the N word in this in those books, and instead of you know, really talking about understand we're not going to say that word, the black kids would go out in the hall.

You know. And I remember even thinking then like, wow, this is you know, this is crazy.

It was never the concept of let's not say this, let's talk about talk about why this is a problem. And then as I got older, I still had to you know, I still had to experience being black, like being bisexual, being a woman.

All of those things may have played a part in it.

But I know, for me, I've had many instances where just being a black person has kept me from doing some of the things that I wanted to do in life.

And so what I realized about.

Myself is that I developed a bias toward white people.

And that was something that was the game changer for me.

And because when I started this business, I started the only diversity communications firm in the state of Oklahoma.

And when I got to tell you, it was the most challenging thing I've ever done in my life.

It was insane, and I would get so much pushback, and in my mind, I'm thinking, Wow, it's because you know, it's because I'm black, It's because white people don't they don't want to hear this, they don't care about this. But when I realize that you know what, you're carrying the same bias in to your meetings and in your interactions that you're probably receiving.

So for me, it all starts with the person you know.

And I knew that I needed to recognize how my bias was showing up in my behavior. And so when I begin to change that and I begin to really just look at people for who they are, I noticed a big difference not only in myself but in the people around me.

So we should take So I am curious, like when you go into or google hires you, or wants to work with you, Levi's or P and G or the US military, Like when you go into and I'm sure it's not all the same situations, but I am curious. You know, what are you brought in to do and what is it that's like top of mind or their concerns, their worries that they want you to help them with.

It is really about because for companies, these discrimination lawsuits are still one of the number one lawsuits that companies face. And for them, if their culture is not connected, they don't have cohesion, then you know, goals aren't being met, people aren't happy.

You have to keep replacing people. So most of the companies they want to make people aware of their biases.

Their unconscious biases, and how they're showing up toward their coworkers. And so for me, I help them to identify own and confront those issues because a lot of people still say, well, I don't have bias, but I like to use this audience engagement tool and it's completely anonymous.

So when I ask people where their biases are, it is ridiculous.

Black people, white people, homeless people, overweight people, people with money.

You know, it's like we don't like anybody. We have an issue with with everybody, And.

So I tell people all the time, like you know, there are everybody does not Every white person is not racist, every black person is not to be feared.

Every homeless person is not just lazy.

You know. We have to deal with the person in front of us instead of looping them into a group of people that may have offended you in the past, because that's what happens. We have an interaction, it can be in bad interaction, or we're living through the pains and experiences of our of the people who raised us. So they tell us things about people.

And we carry that for the rest of our lives.

We never even give people the chance. Well, you know, and I try to tell people. You know, I tell companies all the time, you don't have diversity problems, You have people problems. Diversity is not a problem. Diversity is a fact.

Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Because a couple of years ago, I would say, in twenty twenty, in the wake of George Floyd's murder, a company started to talk about this in a different way. But I don't know if they continued to talk about it. I don't know if that kind of went away a little.

Bit A lot.

We agree, what are you seeing in your work?

Oh, it's been this year has been the most challenging really since I started speaking. I've been doing this twenty five years, so way before it was cool, and when I started, it was more apathy. People just kind of you know, they didn't get it. Now it's like people get it, and they get it in a way that scares them. So, if I'm being honest with you, like one of the things the main things that's come out.

Of this year is DEI fatigue.

And I said, okay, please explain that to me. Well, our employees are tired of hearing about DEI. Can we talk about it from a culture standpoint and not say the words DEI.

Well that's what I was happening, you know, twenty years ago.

And the thing is people may be tired of hearing it, but think about the people that are tired of living in it, and they're tired of dealing with it. And so you've probably seen the numbers where I mean, I think it's fifty percent of DEI directors or some really big number like that have lost their jobs, you know, because companies are now they're pulling back.

And the thing is you cannot pull back on people, right. And the biggest fear, the.

Absolute biggest fear that I get when I really get a chance to talk to my audience is.

That white people are they.

Fear that this is going to pull them out, right, this is this is going to exclude them and any company that's doing inclusion.

Right, it is about everybody.

It's not about pulling people out, it's about bringing everybody in.

Right. That's the problem is we've been pulling people out.

You talked about diversity officers. We did a story earlier this year in February hiring for diversity officers stalls two years after big promises. So it does feel like quite quite a change. Listen, we run out of time, but I hope we can continue this conversation in the future because you really have made me certainly think about it. The idea of it's not a diversity issue, it's a people issue, I think is just a big theme and a big way to think about this. Be well, and