You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet – Diversity Big Bang Around the Corner: Take Five with Author and D&I Guru Mary-Frances Winters

Throughout her career Mary-Frances Winters has made it her business to see what others don’t and prepare organizations, executives, and teams proactively prepare for the inevitable. Sure she helps them steer clear of the pitfalls, but even more powerfully she counsels them on how to harness the change in an engaging and profitable way. She is the author of several books — the latest, CEOs Who Get it: Diversity Leadership from the Heart and Soul — and the founder and CEO of her own woman-owned business, The Winters Group now celebrating 25 years. She is also a good friend and an esteemed colleague. We have partnered on various projects and every time not only does she stimulate me intellectually we also laugh a lot together. I recently took five with this D&I rock star.

Take One: We are witnessing an explosion of activity and interest in diversity and inclusion not only in the U.S. but also around the world. What’s going on?
Lots of key issues are converging to make D&I and even more important business imperative, but let me surface just three of them: globalization, corporate social responsibility, and generational diversity.

Globalization.  Organizations are doing business everywhere on the planet and quickly finding out that being in tune with cultural differences is the big kahuna when it comes to how successful the venture will be.  Everything can look great…the business synergy, the market opportunities, the cost structure but if you don’t get the human factor right, everything else is a mute point. It still takes people working together effectively to achieve the business goal. Cultural competence is no longer a nice to have it is an imperative!

Global Corporate Social responsibility. Organizations are increasingly focusing on sustainability and the triple bottom line concept of people, planet and prosperity/ profit.  In Andrew Savitz’s book, The Triple Bottom Line, [link to book] he says that a company’s sweet spot (where sustainability happens) is the intersection of it financial goals with its citizenship goals. One definition of sustainability that I particularly like is “the parallel care for the eco-system and the people within it.”  For a top notch example of this check out Dell’s YouthConnect, a global initiative designed to support education and digital inclusion opportunities  for underserved youth.

Generational Diversity. There are four generations in the workplace now and for many of my clients this is the biggest diversity issue that they face. Gen Y have very different workplace expectations than baby boomers (who are staying longer in the workplace,) and these differences manifest  around the globe. The common bonds for Gen Y globally are: more environmentally aware, used to getting what they need, highly pragmatic, totally “connected” (cell/IM), like to know reason “Why?, more gender-equal, and more accepting of globalization. Working across generations is challenging our ability to develop policies and practices that work for all. The potential for increased misunderstandings and conflict make this a critical diversity issue.

Just looking at these three major trends you can easily see why the conversation and work around diversity has become much more interesting and even more relevant than ever hence the increased interest.

Take Two:  The ways in which  we communicate and get our information in society is metamorphosing. Newspapers are disappearing; Tweets are proliferating. The watercooler conversations are taking place on Facebook. Video on YouTube is worth 10,000 words. Clearly corporate practices in general are woefully behind in these trends. How can companies harness this revolution?
The technological revolution is advancing faster than even the most savvy could have predicted. The ways we communicate and get information (and misinformation) are growing exponentially. I think that in the not too distant future the role of the chief information officer will radically change. The role will have to include understanding and incorporating social networking into the business in ways that enhance performance and productivity.  This means that the Chief Diversity Officer and the Chief Information officer will have to work together to explore issues of global access, learning style differences, generational attitudes towards technology, etc.  Additionally, there is more opportunity for inappropriate communication (e.g. sexual harassment, derogatory remarks against certain identity groups ) to be promulgated electronically. This may require different types of scrutiny, policies and procedures.

Take Three: In the Obama Era what does it mean to be “a minority”?
The word “minority” is really passé.  For one thing in 10 states in the US, the “minority” is now the majority.” By 2040 the entire country will be half “minority.” Gen Y in particular balk at checking a “box”( e.g. Black, Latino, Asian, White, Native American) that might only cover part of their heritage.  The Census Bureau is wrestling with how to expand categories so as to minimize those who choose “other” because the current categories just don’t seem relevant.

So, in the Obama Era, I think we are recognizing that we are individuals with multiple identities that defy stereotypical groupings to suit political and social constructs.

Take Four: What do Chief Diversity Officers need to do right now to lead the way to the next generation of diversity work? 
The skills needed to be an effective CDO in 2010 and beyond are very different from those of even a decade ago. So the first challenge is to ensure that CDO’s are culturally competent, understand the business thoroughly, are critical systems thinkers and have global acumen.  CDO’s need to be leaders who have had experience running a global business unit, have lived in at least one other culture, have been recognized as thought leaders and are no more than two steps removed from the C suite. 

The next generation of diversity work is global, borderless, functionally boundaryless and all encompassing from an internal and external perspective. 

Take Five: For all the transformative changes in society, in the workplace, and diversity and inclusion work, is there unfinished business we could be neglecting?
I think there is the risk of neglecting some of the traditional “isms”.  Racism, sexism, homophobism are still big problems in the workplace. Some of it is more subtle and may result from unconscious bias but in my consulting practice I am still hearing about blatant issues that sound more like 1979 than 2009. So with all of the new issues (e.g., generations, globalization) we cannot forget that even with an African American President, we have not achieved Dr. King’s vision yet of  the beloved society where one is judged only by the content of his or her character.

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