76: The Black Lives Matter Movement: An Opportunity for Positive Change in Your Business

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You have this natural talent, this unique ability. Well, hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of DSO Secrets. I'm your fearless host, Emmett Scott, and today is. This is a special podcast I'm really excited about. I've got Shantessa Russell here with me, who is the human resource manager at Community Dental Partners, and Andrea Grice, who is the facilities Director at Community Dental Partners. And to give a little bit of context to this, with all of the social events happening and everything around Black Lives Matter, I reached out to our human resource team and Shantessa and said, what do we need to do? What actions do we need to take? And I'll be honest, in some ways, I wanted to take no actions, partly because I wanted our results, our activities to be judged for themselves. I didn't want to feel like we needed to do something different because we have our nine pillars and our value system. And I feel like we, if anything, we just continue to reinforce those on the other side. It just felt like something needed to be said and something needed to be happened. And so I invited a meeting, and these two women, along with several others, started giving great feedback. And as we talked, I said, we've got to do a podcast on this. We've got to. This is a gift we could give is to have some of this conversation, because there's lots of individuals out there, I believe, who are like me. They want to take action. They feel like they'll embrace whatever positive change they can, but maybe they don't know what to do, and maybe they're in a position, like me, where they're a leader and they have the opportunity to create some influence. And so, anyway, Shawn, Tessa was awesome of like, yes, Emmett, we need to get this done, and there's much more we need to do. And I loved the feedback. So, ladies, thank you so much for being here today. So, you know, let's just kind of dive right in if we can. And I'd love for you all to just Kind of give your thoughts and feelings on a personal level here, because I think all of this really drives down to a personal level conversation. And Shantessa, you probably said it best is people just don't know how to talk about it. There's an awkwardness to it. So could you kind of talk about your feelings around this and some of your thoughts?

Absolutely, Emmett. And first, thank you for us being able to come here and have this conversation and utilizing your platform. And I think that is something to definitely enjoy in this moment and to take this conversation and hopefully allow it to be something for someone to get their starting point on how to jumpstart this conversation. But for me, just the entire movement itself and understanding how difficult it can be to communicate on a regular level and then to heighten it when there is such a huge. There's such a huge movement going on that's trying to change something that's been in place for a very, very long time. Racism is not new. Discrimination is not new. So I think that there's this fear of saying the wrong thing. There's this fear of not saying enough. And then there's also just, you know what? It's a little uncomfortable. It's too uncomfortable. I'm just going to remain silent. And that is where a lot of those areas. So you go from the extreme of, well, I don't want to say the wrong thing to the extreme of I'm not saying anything at all when ultimately it's not helping the situation because it's not happening around us, it's happening with us and right in front of us. So ignoring it is just not an option.

I love it. I love it. And, Andrea, give us some of your thoughts around this, too. I know you're just as passionate as Shantessa, but you also have some mixed feelings that I absolutely love because I think it represents the reality and complexity sometimes of the situation.

Yes, Emmett, and thank you, too, for the opportunity to have this platform to even talk about this and talk about what's going on right now in. But, yes, I do have. I have these mixed feelings because one, I am an African American woman, and then I have family members that are police officers. And I know we're talking about, like, what's going on right now with the police officers and everything that's been happening for a while now. It's nothing new. But, yeah, there are good police officers. So, you know, and I want police officers to be supported by the community, but we also want the police officers to support the community that they serve. And Everyone in the community, not just, you know, their own color, just everybody in the community. So I am passionate about that because about this whole movement. I saw something the other day that said silence is not an option. So, you know, we have been silent about these things. You know, it's been like. It's been the elephant in the room for a long time. And like Shontessa say, no one really wants to talk about it and want to address it. And so that's why we've gotten to the point where we've had these extreme, you know, protests where people are burning and looting, which I am not for that. I'm for peaceful protesting, but getting results. I want to protest where we're going to get results. I want to be a voice where we're going to get results. So that that's going to change. And so I'm just. That's why I'm passionate about both sides, because, one, I want my family members to be safe when they go out and protect and serve. But at the same time, I want my son, who is. I have a son, and I want him to be safe whenever he's out driving, when he gets old enough that he's not going to be just, you know, profiled for who he is. And so, you know, I am passionate about both sides, and I just want to see a change. I just want to see a change, really, on both sides. I want to see a change.

Yeah, I love it. I love it. So I'm going to be, like, just real transparent and open a lot about what our initial conversation was like, because I think that's where most people are going to be starting from, and so they can learn from where I was awkward or where maybe I was trying to learn and where I wanted to take action, obviously, initiating this. But one of the things. And then we can go beyond that as well. But one of the things that I brought up is what's the right slogan to get behind? What's the right hashtag? Do we want to create T shirts? What do we want to do? We were kind of opening it up, and I said, one of my concerns is that a hashtag of some kind gets hijacked, and it's used in different ways. And so I said, I'm very comfortable getting behind Black Lives Matter, but I don't want it to get hijacked. Andrea, to your point, to be anti policemen or something like that. And Shantessa, you just had some great thoughts around that. And I think even just communicating on this podcast is important to me. But Just give us your thoughts around what Black Lives Matter really represents to you. And I'll tell you internally, that's what we're going to adopt as a company as we roll things out, right?

And so for me, when you think of. When I think of Black Lives Matter, I think of it having to. It's really just reminding people that, hey, just in case you didn't realize this or understand this, our life is just as valuable as anyone else's. And I think the example that really brings home for me is the example of the burning house. So there's a. You know, there's this movement of, well, if you say Black Lives Matter, then you're trying to say that no other lives matter. And that's not true. What we're trying to do is bring attention to the lives that are being targeted. So with the house scenario, it's a neighborhood that is filled with homes, and there's one on fire, and someone says, oh, my gosh, this house needs attention. We need to call 911. We need to get the fire department out here to put this fire out. Well, if the other neighbors come out of their homes and say, well, what about my home? My home matters as well. Well, your house isn't on fire, you know, so there. There's just this understanding that needs to be put out there that this is for positive change, this is for positive movement. Because when you have a system that's set up to devalue a certain group of people, then it does need to be voiced that, hey, these people matter, and that the minority should not be treated poorly and should not have their lives distinguished because of racism. So I actually am completely on board with Black Lives Matter because I know what it means, and I know that it's not meant to take away from other people's lives.

Yeah, that's what I loved about your explanation, too. One, I love the neighborhood analogy. Number two, I think as an entrepreneur, as a father, as a husband, it's about focus, right? Where is the priority today, and where does the focus need to be? And because I need to focus here, it doesn't discount everything else. And I think that's really what you're saying is, here's where the focus needs to be. And we could argue the focus is needed to be there and around minorities for a long time. But right now, we've got the right movement, we've got the right energy that we can all get behind, and let's help push this boulder up the hill, so to speak, right? And see how far we can move the pendulum. And let's not waste what this opportunity is providing for creating more social justice. Right. Anything you'd want to add to that, Andrea?

I would just say for me, when I think about Black Lives Matter, it's just that knowing that consider me, consider me as a human, not for, you know, my color of my skin and because of, you know, cultural things or things that you've heard about my culture. Because everybody is not the same. We assume when we see people that they are a certain way just because of the color of their skin. You know, I always used to hear my family say, oh, you know, your kids talk white. Well, what is talking white? This is where they were raised. They were raised in. They've been raised in Frisco. They don't even talk like me because I'm still, you know, a country girl from Louisiana. But, you know, what is talking white? I mean, just consider me for how I talk and who I am without seeing color. And my kids have lots of friends that are not black. Majority of them are not black. And I don't ever say, well, no, you can't have them over because they're white. We look at the kid as an individual. So I want, you know, I just want things to be considered for who you are as a person and your humanity, like my humanity matters because I am a human and I'm living in this world. So I just want to say that about the whole Black Lives Matter.

Yeah. I love represents the individual, a nature of every individual. Right. And I told in my family, we sat down and it was very similar to my post that wasn't around this. It was around, you know, with everything happening in COVID 19 also created, whenever there's this stress, there's the they and thems and then there's us's. Right? And part of leadership is to eliminate the they's and them and the US's and start to see everyone as that individual human. As you laid out, Andrea, and I explained to my kids, I said, as this starts to divide, you have to recognize that what will happen is there will be finger pointing to, let's say, police officers. There will be finger pointing towards African Americans. There will be finger pointing towards whites. And there is no such thing as each group. And there shouldn't be. In your mind, there are good humans and there's bad humans in every one of those groups. You have the leadership capability, kids to be able to see past the shortcuts and really talk to the individual and see the individuals. And I think that's what both of you are saying. And that's what Black Lives Matter represents. Now, to give a little bit of transparency to our process, it was brought up and I think, Andrea, you said, hey, with our Hispanic population that we also serve here, should we go ahead for us and expand it to black and Brown Lives Matter? And then others said, well, we've also got a lot of mental disease and other things that are happening in the world. Suicide is up, et cetera. Do we keep expanding it? And I think we decided we were going to kind of stop for today at Black and Brown Lives Matter as our focus for right now. Because, and I bring this up because that compassion to start including everyone, though appropriate, may start to use your analogy, Shantessa, now you're kind of considering the neighborhood and maybe the fire isn't getting the attention that it needs. Right. And so what we ended up deciding is, you know what, this is just where we need to step up as a company in general. And whether it's every month, every quarter, whatever we can do, let's have a focus. And this is the focus right now. And maybe mental disease, depression, health, whatever it might be, might be appropriate in the near future, but I think that's helpful for listeners to hear is a focus. One doesn't exclude the other. And two, let's not make this event. And that's what we decided. Let's not make this an event. Let's not make this just a social media post. Let's integrate this actually as a change of us and a change in our processes and so forth and see where we can take ourselves as a company. Yeah, Shontess, anything you want to add to that?

Yes, there is a change as you're saying that it needs to happen where this conversation is not just a moment in time. It is something that continues to have momentum. And one of the things I continuously say in conversation is continue to apply the pressure, continue to make people accountable for the things that they say and for the stereotypes that they have already structured in their minds and to challenge them to get over those things and to learn from different groups and to be open minded about different groups of people. Because we have such a great opportunity to be diverse and to be inclusive and to be able to gain something from different individuals of all walks of life. And the comment that you made, Andrea, stuck out to me with talking white or behaving a certain way. That is a really just. It's not a great mindset because at the end of the day, proper communication doesn't have a color you know, intelligence doesn't have a color, just like ignorance doesn't have a color. So as someone who grew up in Dallas, Texas, specifically in the Oak Cliff area, I was always the person that kind of stuck out like a sore thumb because I didn't talk a certain way or I didn't behave a certain way. And generally speaking, in the workplace, we have those same microaggressions where the comments are, oh, how did you know that? Or oh, how are you familiar with this? As if the expectation is that I know less or that the expectation is that I shouldn't be in a certain position or I shouldn't be in certain conversations. And I think as individuals, especially in the HR space, we have to be the leaders in making sure we're educating and that we're helping people to overcome the stereotypical way of thinking, because I think we're better than that. At the end of the day, I think we are much better than what is currently happening, and we have a great opportunity to push forward and really see some change happen.

I love it. I love it. Andrea, anything you want to add to that, or.

I was just going to say that I feel like with the company that we have and the percentage of black and brown that we do have in the company, I would like to have our company as a safe haven for employees because our nine pillars really cover everything that we really should be doing in the company. I love our pillars. I love our pillar talks that we have because we do talk about some of these things in our individual groups. But I just think that we should have an open and let people feel free to share their experiences. I know I have learned more about my team and some of the things that they've experienced in life by just talking through the pillars. So just give people the freedom to feel comfortable enough to talk about the things and not be silent anymore. Because I'm quite sure there are stories out there after stories, after stories that we all can share and the experiences that we've had with racial injustice or social injustice, whatever the case may be. But just I just want our environment to be that environment where it's a safe haven for people to talk about it and see, okay, what can we do as a company, maybe to help, you know, get better results or to help you in that area, something that you're dealing with.

It's great. Now, to give context, you mentioned the nine pillars. Those are our value systems. And I know this wasn't planned. Andrea, you jumped into a conference room, but right behind you is the nine Pillars there, which our value system. And in each of our conference rooms and offices and Shawntessa, you've helped roll out with the HR team what we've called pillar in a box. But basically, every month, we're taking our values, you're breaking them down with the rest of the HR team into questions and applications so that in morning huddles, every team. If we're talking about humility, Right. There might be a question around. Where have you had, you know, where has humility helped you in your life, et cetera? This has created some amazing connections with our team. But this was about, you know, when we all met, I was like, okay, so how do we step it up? Like, again, we're doing some awesome things, but here's the burning house, here's the focus. And so do you want to talk a little bit about some of the ideas that came out of. Hey, if you're having morning huddles, maybe, you know, either using a pillar in the box concept or other ways you could integrate this in.

Absolutely. And we want to integrate this in. Especially for our July release. I've already spoken with the HR team about wanting to put some language in there that holds people accountable for their part in the movement. And it could be something as simple as a question that says, have you checked on your minority team members? Have you checked on your minority friends? What ideas and thoughts do you have about what's happening? And what conversations do you think that you should be a part of in order to spark change, in order to help someone learn from a different. So we're already getting the ideas rolling because we want to make this July pillar in a box very much so involved with what today's events are, and not just the movement, but also we're dealing with the pandemic as well. So we want to embody a lot of this information by pulling those answers out of people, by asking them, how do they feel like they can make a difference? Because the truth of the matter is not everyone knows, well, what do I do? Like, I believe in this. I'm for this, but what do I do? And so we also want to put some suggestions in there. When it comes to local community events, there are donation options. There are voter registration education that you can do in your local community. There are several different organizations that are accepting donations when it comes to. To minority groups and groups that are there to help the advancement of minority groups. So I've just been collecting a ton of information and wanting to pour as much as I can into this next pillar to really give people the opportunity to have a roadmap of, okay, this is how I can spark the conversation and this is how it can possibly get me past my discomfort and really help me to own what I can do to help contribute to the cause.

Yeah. As you're talking, I think a critical principle that you're explaining is as leaders, our team members and ourselves can sometimes be paralyzed by all the things that we feel like we need to take action on. Right. And something of this magnitude, there's no doubt that we want to see change, but it's like, so how do I create change? Right. And what you're doing and what the team's doing is they're breaking this down into bite size, consumable pieces. Right. So if people can say, I don't know if I can change what's happening in our law enforcement and police force. Right. But can you have this conversation? Right. Can you check in with a team member? Okay, this is in my circle of influence. This is in my power of control. I can take that action. I can ask, hey, how are you feeling about this? I can hear that feedback. I can be empathetic, I can be listening. That I can do all day long. I love that. And I think that's a great thing for our leaders and listeners is where can you break this down for your team members so that they can start taking some action and they can feel. I think personally, everyone has a little bit of an itch here to scratch of, like, where can I contribute? Right. And I've done the social media posts, maybe I've done this and this, but on a more consistent basis, what can I do?

And I just had a thought too, Amy, when you were saying that, I started thinking about, I think a big, major impact of what I can do will start in your home and with your surrounding friends. You know, I'm not saying that you have to convince everybody to be, to be, to have the same thoughts that you have, but when you hear conversations of people bashing police officers or bashing, you know, something that you, you know, that you feel that's good or that's moral, then don't be shy to say, well, you shouldn't say that. Well, why do you say that? Why do you say like they're saying, what is it? Defund the police. You know, why are you saying defund the police? Are you just saying it because they're saying that on tv? How do you feel about the police officers in your community? You know, so when people start having these personal conversations around you start Asking them questions like, why do you feel that way? What. You know, just to see how, you know, why are you coming up with these thoughts? And why do you think like that? And because a lot of people, I mean, like you said, there are good people that are evil people. There are good officers, there are evil officers. So you have the good and bad, but don't just focus on the bad, but you can focus on the good as well. So I want people to call people out in conversations when they're talking about things that, like, why do you say that? You know, before my kids repeat anything I say, why do you say that? Why are you saying it? Are you saying it because your friend said it? Or what do you believe about this particular topic? So I think it should start our immediate, you know, friends.

Yeah. I mean, Andrea, really, what you're saying is, let's not follow a herd, let's not follow a tagline. Let's do some critical thinking here. And again, let's ground it in individual compassion, right? And there's really no tagline out there, especially negative ones that are going to be connected to individual compassion. And so I love. Obviously, I love you, too, bringing it down to the family environment, because that is our future. And as much as we can leverage these events, though, we probably won't solve it all. In our generation, our children having these experiences, and if we're leading them, they could take even farther steps than we have of, hey, I speak in individual, not in taglines and groups. That's awesome. Now, another thing that we came up with that I like for companies to maybe to think about is we have something called a hotline, right? So if any team member has an issue and talking directly with their manager isn't solving that, we've given them a path around that. And I'll tell you honestly, we usually use the example of sexual harassment or something else that is common that we're nervous, you know, could get oppressed, and they wouldn't have a path to communicate that. So we have a hotline, 1855, tell us. Right? And part of the discussion that I really liked is maybe some of the current things we're doing. We just need to reframe them a little bit and remind people, hey, if you're feeling some level of oppression based on being a minority and so forth, that's another great use of this hotline. Right now, obviously, we first want you to use Straight Talk, which Shawntessa, we need to do a podcast on that because we have more people are like, oh, I need to Learn that straight talk that Shantessa and Jackie have put together. But we encourage people to use that first. But if that's not working, this is another piece. And again, I just encourage you. You might have resources already. Whether you have some kind of morning huddle, you're doing some kind of other HR training and activities you're doing. In what way could you maybe frame that in small pieces around black lives matter, around minorities matter, and how to have better conversations there?

I think the platform that you have given us also I would like to mention that because having us be able to create a committee that is going to focus on being vocal about the things that are affecting and attacking minorities, it's going to help in communication. Extremely. I know that myself and Andrea, our plan is to take this committee, run with it. We have ideas of possibly doing a town hall. I've seen some successfully done. And I think once you open the door to communication, once you can say, here is this line for you. If you just do not feel comfortable with the sources that are given to you, if you in any way feel like there's some behavior that's being thrown your way due to the color of your skin, due to your culture, your background, please use this number. And I think it's because the conversation itself has not happened. And that ability to know that, oh, I can use this resource for this as well. I think once our committee gets rolling and we're having these proactive communications, it'll be an easy lead in to let them know that this is also a source for that.

Yeah, you can't solve problems you don't know about. Right. So we've got to first open up those can of worms as appropriate there. And I think you bring up a good point. You know, I came to you all and said, I don't know that I'm. I'd love, as a leader to say, guys, I understand the situation. Here's the game plan. And we're going to execute on that game plan. I lost my camera here, so I'm going to switch over. Luckily, I have a backup that will bring it in. There we go. So I would have loved to come and said, hey, as a leader, I know what we need to do. Here's the plan. You guys go, oh, Emmett, thank you for being so empathetic. You knew exactly what we needed, et cetera. Instead, I had to humbly say, I don't know what to do, but I know we should do something. And I think you guys are in a great position. And whoever else you think is in a good position, and I'm willing to support that. So for those of you who maybe are like me and say, okay, I want to do something, but I don't know what to do, but I'm nervous to go say, I don't know what to do, and someone will say, well, it's obvious what you should do. You know, maybe just humbly go in and say, could I use some help? Like, I really want to support. Should we do T shirts or does that not align? And every organization is going to be different, but how can we leverage the resources that we have? Maybe they don't have resources to do some of the things we've done. Maybe they don't have pillar in a box and hotlines and other things, but they've got something. And they definitely have team members who are passionate and can organize around this. And so I kind of give that as a gift to our listeners to say, just go in with humility and ask for help and then. And let your team, you know, take it from there. So.

And I can say, Emmett, that I have been bragging. I was like, I talked to my CEO and we had a meeting, and he was very humble. And, you know, it really makes you feel like I already knew that you care, you know, but it was just the idea that you said, you know, I need help, you know, and what. What can I do? You know, you were very open, and you just don't get that every day. So I really appreciate your support because I know that there are companies out there that are not going to be supported. They're not. There are going to be CEOs that are not going to be as supportive and open as you are and humble as you are. So I am very grateful to be a part of cdp, and your leadership has been great since I've been here. So I thank you for just all that you do for the company and for the employees.

Well, thank you very much. So hopefully that's encouragement for those who might feel awkward or not know what to do is doing something, you know, doing something makes a difference. So good. Any parting thoughts? And Andrea, thank you so much. That's very kind of you. Any parting thoughts that you'd give to our listeners? I mean, you guys have shared some wonderful things. You know, Shontessa, I'll start with you.

I think just to piggyback off of what Andrea was saying, I had the opportunity to say my friends, and there's been a lot of conversation around how difficult it is to deal with the fact that they go to work every day and the leaders that they believe in and admire aren't saying anything. So I am very grateful for the fact that you wanted to spark this conversation and that you want to do something more than an email and that you actually want to see change. And again, like Andrea was saying, we know you care because we're all about serving the underserved community. So for you to take it a step further and open up this platform and also open up the ability to do, to have a committee and to hear the voices and to voice the fact that we're here and we stand with what's right is very major. So to me, I think that really, as long as the leadership is forward thinking and that leadership really cares and has a true concern, we can really lead through this and we can remove the discomfort and make it more about how we can each come together and that's every color, that's every background and really spark some change that will really happen. And it starts at the top. And I will continue to say every single person is going to take every single person. It's not this group get together and make it happen. It's all of us together. So again, thank you, Emmett, because we really, really needed this. It's very much so appreciated.

Well, thank you all so much. And this won't be the last time we talk about it because that's our commitment. Right. So we'll keep a cadence around it, both internally within the company and as we come up with other ideas too, from an HR perspective or maybe as we run into issues, you know, that we have to navigate and decide what the best path is, we'll try to share those out with everyone. And hopefully through that education and that vulnerability, then they can build on where we're doing well and where we've failed and continue to move this forward. All right, Andre, I'm going to give you last word here. Anything else you'd like to say?

The last thing I would say is that for the results that we as a black and brown community is looking for, I think it's going to have to be a lot of systematic changes. And I think that once we get these systematic changes in place from the top, then that's when we're going to see a lot of changes in our communities. And so that's. I mean, I think that's the biggest part of having something in place that's going to cover both sides, you know, and I just think that that's going to be the thing that really makes the change. And I'm looking forward to working with you, Emmett, and the company and all the things that we're going to do inside of our company.

Well, thank you. And I think you bring up a good point. I'm going to add something to it because I think it's important for those who are politically involved. You know, one of my concerns is anytime the government as a whole starts to gain more and more control, that control feeds down to our police force, where there are good people and there's bad people, and minorities are the first to feel the effects of the bad. And so I would also say, you know, let us as citizens be careful about who we elect, what laws we allow and what control that we allow. And we need to be careful as we navigate through some of this. COVID 19 and other things that though we want to keep everybody safe, when we see rules like you can arrest somebody over the age of 10 without a mask, we got to think to ourselves, that's not going to play out well. And especially our minorities are going to feel the impact of those people who aren't good, who are now in powerful positions to do bad things. And so we can start at the top in our voting process. You know, someone reminded me as I was taking a constitutional law class once, that America is set up for every government official to be replaced within four years. In other words, if you want to change the entire American government, you think about that. We can do that. As a people, we sit with a lot of voting control to decide a totally new group of people. And I'm not saying that that's what needs to happen, but we have that kind of power. So to sit back and say, I don't know if we can do anything when we have that much momentum and that much power as Americans, we're cutting it short there. So we need to take our steps, look at our circle and influence, think about our government officials, and make sure we support the things that help every citizen enjoy our freedom. So thank you, both of you ladies, so very much for being on here. I appreciate your vulnerability, appreciate your confidence and boldness. We needed that. And for all our listeners, if you have any other questions, feel free to come over to our DSO Secrets private Facebook group, post questions. There it is a safe place. And if you have questions specifically maybe around HR or some of these campaigns that we're doing internally in our company and you'd like to copy us, we'd like. This is something we definitely want you to be copying and we're happy to share those with you. And until next time. Keep smiling.

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