Take Five with Diversity and Inclusion Innovator Cisco’s Marilyn Nagel

Marilyn Nagel is the Senior Director of Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) at Cisco, where she leads the global I&D team on projects that require large-scale change management, talent planning, and learning. As Cisco’s Chief Diversity Officer, her responsibilities include facilitating the global I&D council, which sets the I&D agenda and strategy for the company, and measures progress toward I&D goals. Prior to joining Cisco, she worked in academia, leadership development, and organizational development for nearly 30 years, in both the private non-profit sector and for Fortune 500 companies. Marilyn’s personal connections to diversity and inclusion include growing up Jewish in a community that was not always welcoming,  supporting her lesbian daughter as she has encountered prejudice, and having a disability that impacts her hands.

Recipient of one of Diversity Best Practice’s Diversity Officer Leadership Awards, Marilyn is a frequent speaker on the topics of developing women leaders and building a culture of inclusion. Marilyn and I have been on panels and Councils together, have heard each other present, have brokered meetings between different leaders within our two businesses, and have exchanged many ideas. She is a savvy business professional and brings to her diversity leadership role honed business and talent development skills and a passion for diversity whose rivers run deep.  Recently she took 5 with me between real and virtual meetings that span the globe to talk about Cisco’s cutting edge work in diversity and inclusion.

Take 1: You are an effective practitioner of established diversity best practices — but in addition, you  explore and develop innovative practices. What are some examples in which you have made the most of Cisco’s technology to advance diversity and inclusion there?

MN: I view our use of technology as a core channel to deliver programs, communicate, and forward our focus areas. Our employee development strategy for inclusion and diversity heavily leverages our collaboration technologies in so many ways, but let me provide one specific example.

In November 2008 we piloted the Inclusive Advocacy Program (IAP) to open doors, create new networks and enable the organization at a very senior level to help develop a diverse talent pipeline across the enterprise. Thirty-two high-potential employees in 16 countries were identified and paired with an “advocate” in a different function and two levels above. Because all of the meetings were virtual, a variety of Cisco collaboration technologies, from creating a program-specific website to using TelePresence, was used to help the pairs build lasting relationships. The resulting relationships exceeded expectations. When the program began, it was given a timeline of 18 months to produce any measurable result. In less than a year, one of the high-potential employees received a promotion and two got new geographic postings. The program continues in 2010 with a new set of participants.

Take 2: You recently led a global diversity session that involved hundreds of Cisco employees who interacted with each other and the CEO. Can you tell us more about what that experience was like and what came out of it?

Each year Cisco holds the global Inclusion and Diversity symposium, bringing together employees to discuss top of mind I&D related topics. From year to year, the focus and format of the symposium evolves to fit the needs of the business climate.

In 2009 the virtual event was broadcast over Cisco TV to a worldwide audience taking place over the course of 10 sessions with more than two dozen speakers, presenters, and panelists.  Sessions were offered for topics such as optimizing relationships with generation Y, working in a virtual environment, and a fireside chat with our Chairman and CEO, John Chambers.

The chat with John is always a favorite session among employees because of the open nature of the conversation. More than half of the time is spent taking questions directly from the employees. John welcomes their candor and always closes with the question of, “What can Cisco do differently?”

This year the symposium includes the Cisco TV chat with John as well as a series of live events. With the challenging economy this past year, we want to bring employees together to celebrate our success while investing in personal development and building community locally. For example, in September our Richardson, Texas campus will be hosting an all-hands celebration with author Keith Ferrazi as our featured guest speaker. Keith will be teaching our sales and engineering teams about igniting their career growth through the diversity of the professional network.  And similar events are planned around the globe.

Take 3: Cisco is at the cutting edge of exploring the ramifications of how people, space and technology intersect. How is technology changing how corporations need to think about physical space and how people work, whether they are at the office or somewhere else?

We use technology to keep people connected and to bridge geographical differences, and it lies at the core of how all Cisco employees conduct their day-to-day jobs. Because Cisco has more than 68,000 employees globally, we have to ensure we can optimize our travel spend, and utilize our collaborative technologies such as WebEx, and emerging ones such as Cisco TelePresence.

Our collaborative culture means that employees from different teams, organizations and geographies often need to work together. Many employees prefer to take conference calls at home in order to accommodate time zone challenges and family obligations. In addition, employees are able to use Cisco technologies such as our softphone software, the Cisco IP Communicator, on their laptops to make and receive calls from wherever they may be. Employees are empowered to have control over how and where they work.

We have also taken into consideration the different ways Millennial employees like to work, in collaborative work spaces. As we re-outfit our campus buildings, and build new locations, we are focusing on collaborative work spaces with large white boards that can be shared across locations, TelePresence group rooms, and other accommodations that promote interaction and a variety of work styles in informal and formal ways.

Take 4: Much has been said and written about work/life flexibility. What have you learned about how technology enables greater work/life flexibility, as well as its limitations?

Today’s employees have diverse workstyles, lifestyles, and personal needs. They want more options for where, how, and when they want to work.

To accommodate these employee preferences and gain the benefits of a satisfied workforce, Cisco created the Flexible Work Practices (FWP) program. It offers multiple work options such as flex time, off/on ramp, part time, remote work and telecommuting that allow all Cisco global employees to work more productively and extend their careers with Cisco.

FWP balances wide-ranging employee needs with the needs of a Fortune 500 company. Additionally, it gives employees the benefits of using Cisco IP phones, WebEx, TelePresence, and other productivity-enhancing Cisco technologies. Flexible Work Practices are important to Cisco’s culture, because we want to retain our employees long term and continue to make Cisco a best place to work. Through the use of our own technology, we can enable productivity and contribute to work/life integration.

Take 5: Given its location in Silicon Valley, Cisco employs many GenXers and Millennials. What has been the greatest learning experience for you personally working with Gen Xers, and Millennials?

For the first time there are four generations in the workplace. Each has a fairly unique leadership, governance, communication and overall work style. Generation X is the largest generation at Cisco, representing more than half of our employee population. Our Millennial employee base is also growing rapidly, nearly doubling from 2007 to 2010.

We formed the Early in Career ERG [employee resource group] to help our Millennial employees transition into the workforce. But we have found the benefits of the new ERG to be bi-directional. Early in Career members, with their passion for social media and cutting edge technology, have influenced new approaches to working and collaboration.

As with the Generation X employees, I love working with the Millennial employees and find they share many of the value systems of the Boomers (where I fit). And of course, I greatly appreciate their natural crosscultural fluency.

 Print This Post   Email This Post