131: How to Write a Statement on Diversity, Race, and Inclusion

Last Tuesday, after deliberating for 10 hours, jurors in the trial of Derek Shoban returned a verdict in the case of the former Minneapolis police officer in the killing of George Floyd. We the jury in the above entitled matter as to count one, unintentional second degree murder while committing a felony, find the defendant guilty. When the verdict was read, many people rejoiced. But then afterwards, likely watching the verdict being read live on on television, executives everywhere wondered, what do we say? Anything? Nothing. Welcome to the Confident Communications podcast where we help communicators create the right response at the right time and deliver it in the right place. In this episode, how other executives and brands responded to the conviction of Derek Chauvin and if you own, work for or communicate on behalf of a business, some thoughts and ideas for how to write a diversity statement and why you should. When George Floyd died after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by Officer Derek Chauvin's knee in an episode that was captured on video, it touched off a nationwide of protests and calls for diversity. No business or organization I'm sure went through the remainder of 2020 without anyone on staff asking, well, what is our take on diversity? Do we have a statement about the death of George Floyd in 2021? They're asking, do we have a statement about the conviction over his death? Now, one thing that I know is certain diversity statements have become an integral part of communications. There are statements on diversity as they pertain to employment and values, but there are also statements about diversity when an event explodes and is rushed into the news cycle. Those are the types of statements that make companies compelled to either say something or think about why they're not. For example, like in the case of George Floyd, his death, and the conviction resulting from his death, there needs to be a diversity incident statement. Do you say one? Do you release one or not? So on the podcast this week, let's talk about speaking out on diversity from a statement that defines your company's efforts towards diversity and how leaders speak up when a diversity incident happens. Now, defining diversity or what constitutes being diverse, it can be challenging. Many people are confused because more often than not there really is very little guidance as to what is meant by the term diversity. Many people, especially this past week, right now, where we are in 2021, really through most of 2020, diversity related to race, racial injustice. When people thought of the word diversity, they immediately thought of George Floyd. It's understandable, but diversity is so much greater than that. Here are some diverse factors to consider. There's race, of course, but there's ethnicity, there's gender, there's sexual orientation, there's religious affiliation, socioeconomic status, education background. Now this isn't the comprehensive list. I'm not a human resource expert by any means, but. But these are just some of the examples about how you need to illustrate diversity in your company and from my point of view, how you communicate it. So where do you begin? When I think about diversity, I think about asking questions. It's really better almost to start with the questions than it is the answer. So some of the questions to think on behalf of your business. Now this is if you own the business, if you run a business, you're a leader in the business. If you work for business or communicate on behalf of one, how do you or your business, how do you contribute to a culture of inclusion and diversity? What does your company, what does your business organization offer for the development of a diverse and inclusive staff? And how you're teaching them about diversity? Where's the learning? What is your company doing to attract minorities? More women, more African Americans, Hispanics, people of other unrepresented groups? How do you define diversity? How do you embody diversity? How has your experience with diversity, your exposures to things outside of your normal day to day operations, how has it impacted your views on diversity? Also ask yourself now in 2021, how will you contribute to increasing the diversity of your profession? So it helps to look internally to answer a lot of those questions, but it also helps you address the misgivings that you may have around speaking out on diversity. My own journey with diversity, you know, starts from the very Lily, lily, lily, lily, lily, lily, lily White Minnesota. I didn't have any diversity. Diversity to me growing up was knowing families who were Lutheran as compared to all the other Catholic families who I knew. Everyone was white, everyone was white. And that doesn't make you close minded. It just means those are your surroundings. Those are, those are the origins. And I think a lot of people are, are like me. They just grow up in their surroundings and they don't think much about it. It wasn't until I moved to Boston to go to school that all of a sudden I'm plopped in the middle of a more diverse environment. There was diversity in race and gender and sexuality. It's like all of these, all of these different forms of diversity. Being friends with someone from Canada. Kidding. But it all comes to the same place. It's just different. And you how you feel about this difference? And my journey with diversity started then because I had no Choice. I had to think about it. But what I also recognize is there are many, many people out there, many people out there who've never been challenged with diversity. They've lived in the same towns or the same county their whole lives. They've mingled with the same people their whole lives. They're always around the same. So when diversity is thrown into their face, they react, they react. They don't want to be told that they're racist or they're bigoted simply because they're not thinking a certain way. As I said, I'm from Minnesota. A lot has been happening in Minnesota. The Derek Chauman case was Minnesota. The idea of diversity of black men, young black men being killed by police officers has been a running news story in Minnesota for the last year. So this has been a conversation from back home. So now let me give you just like a quick little story that has nothing to do with diversity. But it tied in to this episode. As I was putting it together. I was speaking with a family member about gift giving. So it was a conversation about giving money to teenagers. So it led to a conversation about sending checks and birthday cards versus using digital means like Venmo to send money. And I was suggesting that it might be easier for the gen, you know, the Gen Z generation, they like their transactions to happen in their hand, you know, the. On the digital form. And I was being told that they like to give cards, they like to give checks because that's how I've always done it, that's how I want to do it. Kind of that status quo mentality. And it's understandable, people are just used to doing a certain thing a certain way. Well, anyway, this person, this family member agreed to try Venmo. Well, just this morning I get the voicemail about Venmo. It went something like this. Well, I tried it and I got to the page where there were all the names and people buying things for other people. And I don't know what that is with privacy, but I couldn't figure out how to press the button to have someone pay someone else through whatever this is, the phone. And I went to the chat and in the chat they said they couldn't help me, but if I paid $5, that someone could answer my question. So I just said, you know what, technology, it's just not for me. So I'm sorry, if they can't handle a check, I'm sorry, I'm going to send it. Hopefully it can cash. But it's just, you know, it's just too much trouble. I'm sending a check now. That conversation, many people probably listening to this probably had something similar. You could pull some similar episode in your life with this conversation. So when I listened to that voicemail in my head, I said, okay, Boomer, I get it, you don't want to use Venmo. But the story, as much as it makes me laugh, it also made me think. It made me think about this topic and the topic of diversity. Everything kind of came together, whether it's embracing diversity or technology. It starts with a mindset. Are you open to change or are you resistant to it? Change isn't easy if you're someone who's used to writing a check at a grocery store or if you all go out to dinner with all your girlfriends, all your friends, and then the bill comes and you all write, you know, seven different checks and you've been doing that your whole life. Change isn't going to come easy. But what is that resistance to change? The answer is in the viewpoint. Think about where the struggle is. Is the struggle about yourself or is about other people? In the case of the Venmo incident, that's what I'll call it, the Venmo incident. I absolutely could have predicted the challenge, the baby boomer, the okay Boomer block that was happening there. But there was no openness to trying because it wasn't their idea, you know, it was suggested by me. So the change was almost thrusted on them. And I notice a lot in diversity people. I don't know if it's my personality or just originally being from Minnesota, but people will are very open about their opinions with me and they'll say, you know, I want to share this with you now. I, I, I, I know you won't get offended. I know I could. You can be pretty open about this and I can be pretty even keel about this. So let me share this with you. I get that all the time. I got it all the time during the Me Too movement. Like men would tell me this and I don't, I don't know what it is about me that people think that they can Dr. Bombs and that. I'm not going to say anything back, but I don't know, maybe I was a diplomat in former life, but when I hear these types of challenges, you have to look to yourself and recognize where that struggle is. So with an okay Boomer, it could be technology, it just could be change. And what does it come down to? It comes down to fear when you don't understand something. The same is with diversity. When it's forced on you. When times have changed and you've done things a certain way for many, many years, decades, and all of a sudden you're being told, you have to think this way, you have to be diverse. You need diversity in your organization. People don't want to be told what to do. They're not doing it on their terms. But is that the struggle that's preventing you from communicating truly who you are and what you believe in? So the bigger question is, ask yourself this. There's ever struggle about anything, and this episode happens to be about diversity. If you are someone who is responsible, or the final word on if your organization makes a statement about diversity, why aren't you doing it? What is the reason? What truly is the reason? So the bigger question is, is the reason about you or is it about them? And you can apply that sentence to anything, to any situation. Are people people to you, or do you call people them? They. Those people. Originally, being from Minnesota, I've heard a lot of comments over the past year, especially over the past two weeks, about them and those people. The more impersonal the language, the more problematic I hear that language. And that's the language that can lead to trouble. Because those people and them, they become a mob, a mass, a thing. They're not even people. So how does this tie into writing a statement about diversity? It's when you act on behalf of others, when you think about others, it clears a path to the answer. When you think only of the risks to yourself, to your business, it may lead you to making the wrong choice. A diversity statement, choice about speaking out on diversity is going to be a lot easier to write if you are writing on behalf of a person, of people, of humans. Eliminate the them, eliminate the those people. See the people, see their challenges, see their fear, see their hurt, see their oppression. When you see it, you can feel it. And when you feel it, you can write about it. And if you can write about it, it's a lot easier to communicate it. If you can't tell, I feel very, very passionate about this. I feel a kinship to the oppressed. I cannot tell you what it feels like to be a black person, but I can tell you what it feels like to be a parent. A parent with kids who drive. And when I tell my kids to worry about driving, I tell them, don't speed, don't text, don't listen to the radio when you're driving. But I can feel. I can imagine what it would feel like to a parent the same age as me, but they're black and they're telling their black child as they get into a car, the first thing they're not going to say to them is don't text when you drive. They're going to say if you get pulled over, especially if they're male, if you get pulled over by a police officer, this is what you need to do to not get killed. That is understanding the oppression. That's understanding and feeling the injustice. If you start to think like that, you can start to write like that. And again, you can start to communicate like that. So how do we write a statement about diversity? First, create the statement of values. So how do these values relate to your understanding and commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity and justice or justice. We can make that an and or but and would be better. Second, you can pull from examples of experience, anything that demonstrates your commitment to fostering the success of the underrepresented consumer, employee, staff, peers, anyone who supports a perspective of diversity, whether it's in your business, your boardroom, your local community, the extended community, any type of examples. And next, the future plans. What are you doing to continue and to advance an inclusive environment, inclusive excellence, diversity or equity in your service or your business or your campus or your restaurant or your car dealership or your town, whatever it is, Those are the three steps. It's like the framework for building a statement about diversity. Now, if they sound familiar at all, if you listen to this podcast, it's the template and the framework that I use as a response framework. It's the same framework I'll help clients put together when they have to respond to something. Number one, own it. Number two, explain it. Number three, promise it. Own it. What is your statement of values? Own where you are. This is where we stand on diversity. It could be very strong, but it could also be very weak. Maybe you're in a place where you haven't done anything yet. And you know what? Instead of being afraid of that, take that as an opportunity for change and be okay. Be confident in admitting that there is a lot of power. There is a lot of positive reputational power behind a statement that owns it. That says we're not there yet. But two, explain it. We're going to explain the experiences. We're going to explain what we've done. We're going to explain the experiences of what we haven't done because it hasn't been an issue yet. This is the part where you can explain, even though we're in a community that we don't have a large representation of minorities, it's not something that we've done before. You explain the situation, you explain the mix, whatever it is. This is where you're telling people where you stand. And then the third part is the promise. It is the future plans. What are you going to do to continue or to start advancing an inclusive environment or culture? This is where you're going forward. This is where you send people and you have them look away. Remember, like the, the blow up is to the left. Okay? The crisis is to the left. All the negativity is to the left. What we want to do is point you to the right. We're going to point you right here and keep going straight. The template works and you can apply it to anything. Now what should you look for in a diversity statement? The best diversity statements include the company's mission. This would also be a call to update your company's mission. A lot of mission statements that I see now are, they're perfunctory. They just explain what you do. They don't explain about what you care about. So it's a good exercise when you're writing a diversity statement is to start looking at your mission statement as well. And the statement should also have a commitment to diversity. Your diversity statement should, and you should mention the specific, specific underrepresented groups that you want to reach out to should have positive inclusive language and it should have unique information and benefits for diverse groups. This is not where you want the just the general Mad Libs template where you just plug in the words the best company statements. And there are many, many out there for you to, to look at for inspiration. They use 20 to 75 words for their main diversity statement. So this is like the first paragraph. This is, it is the workplace diversity statement. It could be on your wall in your office, which wouldn't that be a great idea? Put it on the wall in your office, put it on a prominent page on your website. And if you have an entire page dedicated to a diversity statement, you can go on to elaborate beyond 75 words to support it. Now, it's also important when you write a diversity statement is to write it at a very readable level. In communications, you know, we say it's best to write at like an 8th grade level. You know, you don't have to write like you're the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. You want to write at a level it's not just that people understand it. That sounds somewhat demeaning, like we're writing down to you. It's not about writing down to people for comprehension. It's about the energy they have to expend to understand it. Think about burning calories in your brain. You're just making it easier for someone to understand what you have to say. Now how can you make something easier? You can use a lot of positive power words. So as a communicator, if you're a communicator, keep a library of these words. This is something that I do. I pull out these power words when I need them, depending on the topic that I'm talking about. So the positive words as it relates to diversity, we want them to be strong positives. So these words are like inclusive. Celebrate when you're thinking, when you're writing something for Juneteenth, when you're writing something for Black History Month. Grow, freedom, commitment, purpose, spirit, give, learn, improve, welcome, comfortable, authentic, guiding, create. Start with the words, start with the idea, start with the framework, all of these things. And then think about yourself and think about how you feel about others. If you are being more empathetic as opposed to someone only thinking of themselves, this statement is going to right itself. Now some examples of diversity and inclusion mission statements. I'm going to give you just a couple, some of the sentences from them. So this is Amazon's example. Amazon's mission is to be the earth's most customer centric company. And this mission is central to our work in diversity and inclusion. Diverse and inclusive teams have a positive impact on our products and services and help us better serve customers, selling partners, content creators, employees and community stakeholders from every background. And it goes on from there. You could hear the positive power words in there. Here's Ford Ford's Foundations for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. At the Ford foundation, diversity, equity and inclusion are at the core of who we are. Our commitment to these values is unwavering. That's a strong power word across all of our work around the world. They are central to our mission and two our impact. So you see there two big companies talking about diversity, equity, inclusion. Both of them use the word mission. The third one, Apple Inclusion and diversity are cornerstones of the global Apple community. We're proud of the foundation we've built and clear eyed about the challenges that remain. How's that? Clear eyed. I love that. Together we're committed to continuing this journey with humility and resolve. Now that was from Barbara Wise. She's a vice president of inclusion and diversity. Now what's interesting, if you go to The Apple website, apple.comdiversity you will see that statement at the top and then you'll see photographs of employees. And then you'll see photos and links and charts and graphs and all the progress that they've made within the last year. And it's bells and it's whistles, but it brings you right in. It is an entire website page committed to it. Think about your website. How difficult would it be to create a webpage specifically to diversity and inclusion and equity? How hard would that be? So now let's talk about the executive statement. When the George Floyd verdict came out, when it was released, it was live, had that OJ Feeling to it. And OJ Seems like such a long time ago. That's because it was a long time ago. Oh, my goodness. I was at Boston University when that happened. Oh, that's interesting. You know, this just came back to me. When the O.J. simpson verdict was read, I remember being in the room, in some general room there, and I remember sitting, oh, wow, this is all coming back to me. I remember sitting and thinking and looking. We were watching the big televisions, and I remember looking at the white students, and I remember looking at the black students, and I thought, I want to see the reaction of both. And if you remember back to that news coverage back at the time, the news coverage, they would show black people cheering. And every, you know, when OJ Was found not guilty and, you know, black people were chilling, and the white people, when they would show the footage, the white people were stunned. You know, so however long ago it was, it was the 90s, early 90s. But when you think about change, if you're someone who's reluctant to change, but look where we are now. When the George Floyd, when the verdict was read for Derek Chauvin, how many people were cheering? It wasn't just black people cheering. So many people were cheering. White people, people of all color, all background, a diverse background of people were cheering. Because, I mean, yes. Was it a race issue? Certainly. But it was a human decency decision. It was based on decency. More people see that. So I use that story to illustrate the change and how far we've come. So when that verdict came out and happened to be on a Tuesday, when I send out a weekly email, I was late with my email. I was very late. Usually I send it out in the morning, but when the verdict was coming out, I thought, I have my weekly email. This is going to be about this topic. It's going to be about diversity and what someone should write about it, especially a leader. So I pulled some examples. Actually, my assistant Paige did. She was wonderful. I told her I just threw some names in the boxer. I said, find these statements. And she came up with this great list to show what some of the CEOs and leaders were saying. So Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook, he posted a status update to the site and this is how we do it nowadays. All you really need to do social media, one graphic, one post. You can put it across all. You can put it across one or just put it on one. His statement Right now I'm thinking of George Floyd, his family and those who knew him. I hope this verdict brings some measure of comfort to them and to everyone who can't help but see themselves in his story. Huh? Who know Mark. And I think in the same way you see yourself, we stand in solidarity with you knowing that this is a bigger struggle against racism and injustice. On the Microsoft blog, the president Brad Smith wrote, our nation has a long journey ahead before it establishes the justice and equity power words that black Americans deserve. Black capital B a capital A. In the AP style guide, they're both capitalized now. The murder of George Floyd is a tragedy and a crime. And no jury can bring him back to life or reverse the pain and trauma experienced by his family and still felt across the country and around the world. General Mills chief Mary Barras said the verdicts were a step in the fight, her first sentence here. While the guilty verdicts in the trial seeking justice for George Floyd are a step in the fight against bias and injustice, we must remain determined to drive, drive meaningful, deliberate change on a broad scale. So she posted that on Twitter. So as you can see, the statements, they almost have to be made, right? If you're a brand, if you're a big brand, if you're a CEO, if you're wondering, do I say something, just look, look at. You can call them a peers. If you're a gm, look at the GM of gm. Look at what if you're an NBA fan, if you love the NBA, look at the NBA statement today. So Dwayne Wade, he is now a minority owner in the Utah Jazz and he said today showed me the power of the community. You can't celebrate this, but if there was any win today, to me it was a win for accountability. One person, he's a leader talking about his thoughts. The NFL. Even as we identify reasons for hope, we must continue to help move our society toward a more equal and just tomorrow. We are proud to partner with the NFL players and clubs to remain committed to do the important work needed to make positive change in our society. This is from the same organization that ran a Quarterback out of the league because he took a knee. Look how far we've come. The last one I'm going to post is or mention is from Ben and Jerry's because Ben and Jerry's, they're very progressive. Vermont, okay? People call them liberal, but man, they are always ahead, always ahead on any type of these issues. I mean, if you want to look towards corporate responsibility, accountability, someone who, some brand who is that is not afraid to speak up and out this. They posted this in four tweets on Tuesday. Justice requires accountability. Again, that word's a great work, but accountability alone must not be confused with justice. Derek Chauvin now faces accountability. George Floyd was denied justice the moment Chauvin's knee took his last breath. That's really standing out and making a stand about what is happening. So the question for you is, what do you think? What would you do On Twitter on Tuesday, someone asked me, you know, do you really doesn't she asked. She posted as this and she said, this is a serious question. I wonder, does every brand have to say something? Do you need to say something just for the sake of saying something? And it was a good question. And it also happened to be for my, for my roommate at bu. She's up in Toronto. And I appreciated the question and I responded to it. I was, I was on a walk or just getting in the car with my dog, and I responded to it right away and I said, no, I mean, of course you don't have to respond to respond, because that's the worst response. An empty response is insulting, it's horrible. And it also doesn't serve any purpose. The idea is not the response first. The idea is the action behind it, the mindset behind it. How do you feel about it? What are you doing about it now? I'm going to talk about it. When you do those first things, then the response, it's easy. Now, here's a fact. Many of the tweets from last Tuesday from The leaders or CEOs personal accounts were retweeted by the corporate account. So fewer messages were sent from the company handle. It came from the leader. So there's an analysis that was out there from this fact that said in the hours following the verdict, 21 of the largest 200 companies in the Fortune 500 had made a public statement about the trial results. Of those, over half were made directly by the company CEO or senior executives. There's a statement right there. So if you're a CEO, if you're a gm, if you're a business owner. If you are running something, there's a trend for you that it's not just the brand, it's the people behind the brand. Okay, so the top three takeaways for writing a diversity statement takeaway 1 It demonstrates your company's commitment to building, supporting an inclusive workplace and a place where your consumers, any stakeholders, should feel welcome. Takeaway number two your company welcomes people of all backgrounds as employees as of customers. And three because the message you are sending, if you don't send a message can cause more harm than good. The unintended consequence could come from lost profits and lost talent. But the message you could be signaling is that your business overlooks discrimination. And in 2021, and as we move towards 2022, that is a business value system that is becoming increasingly out of step. When you write the statement, just remember the template. Own it, explain it, promise it. And before you decide on this diversity statement, if you're going to put one out as it relates to diversity in the workplace or relating to a diversity incident or even a holiday or something that pops up on the calendar, before you decide, ask yourself this question Is the decision I am making about releasing or not releasing a diversity statement, Is it about me or is it about others? Am I thinking about myself and my company only or am I thinking about other people? Am I thinking about what's best for other people? If you answered others, then the rest it's easy. It writes itself. This is another part of being indestructible is creating that indestructible brand for yourself. No one can bring you down when you are communicating for others. If you want to keep extending the conversation, you can follow me on Twitter Molly McCarthy. You can also go to my website mollymcpherson.com subscribe. You will get my weekly emails about the podcast and also in addition, information about my book Indestructible. Reclaim control and respond with confidence in a Media Crisis. And also coming soon, Indestructible Hub. That's all for this week. Thanks for listening. Bye for now.