Authentic Diversity

How to Change the Workplace for Good

Michelle Silverthorn

• Publisher: Productivity Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780429663031
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Management

The nation has transformed. The calls for racial equity are loud and insistent and they are now being listened to. And yet, companies across the country are still far behind when it comes to equity in the workplace. For decades, we've heard variations on the same theme on how to increase diversity and inclusion and we have still not moved. If we want equity to matter inside and outside the workplace, if we want to be real allies for change, then we need a new approach. We need to stop following trends. We need to lead change.In Authentic Diversity, culture change expert and diversity speaker, Michelle Silverthorn, explains how to transform diversity and inclusion from mere lip service into the very heart of leadership. Following the journey of a Black woman in the workplace, leaders learn the old rules of diversity that keep failing her and millions like her again and again, and the new rules they must put in place to make success a reality for everyone. A millennial, immigrant, and Black woman in America, Michelle will show you how to lead a space centered on equity, allyship, and inclusion and how together we can build a new organization, and nation, centered on justice.

Chapter 1

Hello from the 70th Floor

It’s 9 a.m. on a Monday morning. I walk into the 70th-floor lobby of a steel and glass skyscraper in, well, it could be any city in the world. But let’s say this one is Chicago. It’s where I live. Beautiful view of the lake, standard. Glass doors, oak desks, pictures, prizes, and awards. And look, it’s you, workplace leader, walking out to greet me. We’ll be spending the morning together because you, workplace leader, just got some very bad news.

Maybe you released your diversity numbers on Friday at 4 pm because you knew what the reaction would be and you did your best to hide the numbers as much as you could.

Maybe your organization is being sued by a woman who was harassed out of the workplace.

Maybe you had a superstar group of employees of color who told you last week that they’re all leaving together.

Maybe a client called and said they wanted more diversity on the team you’re sending them and you realized you had no one to send. Or you did have one person to send (and just one), except you’re already sending them to the other client who made an identical request earlier. Or you did find someone to go and they explained how offensive it was to only ever be used as the token, and you didn’t understand what that meant.

Maybe a minority executive you were heavily recruiting turned you down, and when you asked her why, she was frank: “Why would I come somewhere where no one looks like me?”

Maybe you read the news that morning and saw that one of your stores had a problematic product, or an offensive commercial, or kicked out someone who just wanted to sit down and read a newspaper. Except that person was Black.

Maybe someone made a comment in a meeting. Maybe someone sent an email. Maybe someone sent a dozen emails. Maybe that someone was you.

All of these are possible. Sometimes they happen. But sometimes you are someone else. You are an Indian nurse, a Black manager, a Latino executive, or a woman partner, and you want others to see what you’re seeing, to understand what you go through every day – especially the White men who dominate the management and executive positions at your workplace. You want them to see that no matter how much they say inclusion matters, diversity counts, or how many programs, dinners, and scholarships they have, leadership looks the same as it did 100 years ago.

See, most of the time, the reason I get a call from you is that you have had enough. You may be the CEO. You may be the head of talent development, people, recruiting, or even diversity, inclusion, and belonging. You may be a mid-level manager. You may be a straight, cisgender, White male executive without a disability. No matter who you are, and whatever level you are at in your organization, you are a leader, a leader who sees the problem with workplace diversity and wants to know how to solve it.

That’s when you meet me. I walk up to you, you shake my hand, and we head into your office to try to change the world because that is exactly what we are going to do together.

I am Michelle Silverthorn. I specialize in equity, inclusion, and organizational change. In the next few chapters, I am going to outline precisely why we are stuck on workplace equity and what actions you as a leader can take to change that. I don’t care what your title is. I don’t care if you started 30 years ago or this morning. You are a leader in how you act with, talk about, and deliver results to the people you work with. You have the power to make diversity matter for good.

This book applies to all leaders. However, many of the lessons we will discuss – including ones about race, anti-Blackness, and privilege – especially apply to the leaders who have long been running the American workplace – White men. The changes I want to see leaders make start at the very top, with people who have the clout to bring others on board and the resources to make change happen. Throughout corporate America, those people are almost always White men. If you’re one of those White men reading this book, then recognize that much of what I say is intended for you.

Giving You the Right Tools to Solve the Problem

I don’t have any cute acronyms. I’m not here to sell you anything. I’m not going to make you sit through 180 pages of fluff to read 5 pages of a half-baked solution – because I’m tired, too. I’m tired of attending the same meetings, getting frustrated at the same stalled progress, sitting on the same ineffective panels, and hearing the same complaints over and over again. It’s not enough to see a problem or acknowledge that a challenge exists. I don’t want leaders who stand back and complain; I want leaders who stand up and make a change.

In these pages, I’m going to deliver to you the tools to successfully transform your stalled diversity outcomes. These are the same tools I share with leadership teams and organizations across the globe. I study their companies and their culture. I tell them the challenges I see based both on my experiences with similar organizations and on my research, writing, and professional work. Then we work on designing solutions together centered on equity.

My work delivers results. Whether cultural shifts, honest conversations, strategy design, hiring plans, or talent development models, the work I do with my clients produces the change they are looking for and change they didn’t know they needed. What I share with them is what I’m going to share with you today – the new rules for equity.

It’s Time for New Rules

We have long been trying to make progress using the old rules of diversity, but it’s a new decade in a new century in a world permanently changed by a pandemic, and today we need new rules of equity to truly transform the workplace into one of inclusion. These new rules center on one simple truth: people matter. That woman who just quit her job isn’t a statistic, a number, a minority, or a beneficiary of affirmative action. She isn’t “the diverse one.” She is a person – a person who wanted to succeed – and you, as a leader, failed her. You’ll keep failing her, and everyone who comes after her, if you’re not willing to change the old rules of diversity you’re leading with.

Try to read this book all at once. On your lunch break, after dinner, on a flight, in your office between student visits, on the elliptical, on the studio back lot, after you’ve put your kids to bed – whenever and wherever you can. People are struggling, suffering, and leaving. The more time we waste, the more people become statistics, and the more hopeless change seems to be.

Let’s get started. And I do mean “start”: I will give you your shoes, your walking stick, and your map, but the hike is all yours to take. You know the terrain. You know the people walking with you. The question is, “Where are you going?” That’s what this book is for.

Diversity is Where We Start

You’re about to read a book on diversity, equity, and inclusion. What do I mean when I say those terms? In the broadest sense, diversity refers to the many ways our individual identities differ. These differences affect our perspectives about the world, how we are perceived by others, how we are included or excluded in our environments, and whether we are given or denied certain benefits of membership in the society in which we are in.

One way to think about diversity, but by no means the only way, is through three main dimensions of diversity: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Let’s focus on the primary dimensions of diversity. Primary dimensions of diversity are the ones we typically have no control over, like age, ability status, race, ethnicity, gender and gender identity, and sexual orientation. Here, for example, is how I, Michelle Silverthorn, might break down the primary dimensions of my identity.

Age: At the time of this writing, I am 37 years old, which in and of itself can lead to bias. Ageism in the form of negative bias against people older or younger than us is a common issue in the workplace.

Ability status: I am currently not a person with a disability, which means I do not have any cognitive, developmental, intellectual, or physical disabilities that make it more difficult for me to do certain activities or interact with the world.

Race: I am Black. Race is a construct based on observable physical characteristics, like my skin color, that have acquired socially significant meaning. Because I am married to a White man, my children can be considered biracial, multiracial, or mixed – although in the United States they might simply be called Black.

Ethnicity: Ethnicity is made up of cultural factors such as language, religion, and nationality. Although people might call me African American, this term is often reserved for the descendants of enslaved Africans who were forced to come to the United States prior to the 20th century. My background, however, is Jamaican and Trinidadian. I immigrated to America when I was 17 years old, so I identify ethnically as a West Indian American.

It can be easy to confuse race and ethnicity because they are both constantly evolving constructs. Is “Asian” a race or ethnicity? Are people from Bangladesh and Russia both considered “Asian?” Many Latinx people will check either White or Black on the U.S. census, not based on the color of their skin but based instead on how they counter discrimination.¹ Do they counter it by identifying with a racial majority or a racial minority? As a leader, pay attention to how discussions of race and ethnicity evolve over your life, who determines which words are used for which groups, and whose agendas are being promoted when they do.

Gender and gender identity: Gender refers to the attitudes, feelings, roles, and behaviors a particular culture associates with biological sex. Gender identity is one’s innermost concept of oneself as male, female, a blend of both, or neither. I identify as a cisgender female, which means my gender identity aligns with the sex I was assigned at birth. Only one person gets to determine my gender identity, and that’s me.

As a cisgender woman, I use the female pronouns she, her, and hers. If I were non-binary, I might use gender-neutral pronouns like “they” and “them.” The best way to learn what pronouns someone prefers is to ask them. Even better, create a norm in your workplace that people identify by the gender pronouns in their email signatures, website bios, or meeting introductions.

Many people choose not to identify as either male or female. They are non-binary and may identify as bigender (having two or more genders), agender (having no gender), third-gender (having a gender that is neither male nor female), or gender fluid (moving between genders). Those whose gender identities match the sex opposite to the one they were assigned at birth are transgender. Please note that people can be transgender without taking hormones or having surgery. Transgender identity goes far beyond medical change.

Sexual orientation: I am a straight or heterosexual female, which means I am attracted to men. That is my sexual orientation. Other people are gay (men attracted to men), lesbian (women attracted to women), bisexual (attracted to both men and women), pansexual (attracted to all gender identities), asexual (lacking sexual interest), and so on. The full spectrum of gender identities and sexual orientations outside of straight and cisgender is known as the LGBTQ+ community.

Intersectionality: Taken together, all of the above elements constitute intersectional me: Michelle, who is Black, female, straight, an immigrant, and a mother, all the overlapping and interconnecting identities that construct me. Kimberlé Crenshaw, who was the first to name and formalize intersectional theory, has defined the term “intersectionality” to mean the ways various components of our individual identities intersect and are viewed, understood, and treated in relation to one another.² Intersectionality is how we get specific about identity.

Inclusion is Where We’re Going

My focus in this book is on making the workplace both fair and welcoming to those who have historically faced discrimination for any one aspect of their identity – which is where inclusion comes in. Inclusion means creating environments where any individual or group can feel welco...