Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Keynote speaker Devon Harris
The most successful organizations are those who take the care and effort to nurture their most important asset—their people.As Devon Harris wrote in his book, Keep On Pushing: Hot Lessons From Cool Runnings
“It is now much more common than say in the 1950’s to find a workplace where employees are respected as individuals and valued for their contributions in accomplishing the mission. At the same time, more and more organizations are fostering an inclusive, supportive, open, challenging and innovative work environment to enable employees to be positive, creative, and reach their full potential.”
These sentiments strike at the heart of any diversity, equity, and inclusion effort. Admittedly, diversity can be difficult. Attempting to bring together people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives comes with a lot of potential pitfalls, leading to anxiety and conflict. Even when companies make a concerted effort to develop and manage diverse teams, some of them still face discrimination lawsuits.
Notwithstanding, diversity is key if you want to build a team or company that is capable of innovating. Having the ability to look at issues from different perspectives leads to better problem solving and an improved bottom line for companies.
As the International Labor Organization states:
“Companies with more inclusive business cultures and policies see a 59% increase in innovation and 37% better assessment of consumer interest and demand.”
A March 2020 study by Accenture, states that “US companies are leaving $1.05 trillion dollars on the table by not being more inclusive.” This strongly supports the need for companies to embrace diversity, equity and inclusion.
What is diversity, equity and inclusion?
DIVERSITY
Diversity acknowledges the things that are different from one another but respecting and appreciating the differences. These differences are expressed in many ways, including through different races, ethnicities, languages, religions, ages, disabilities, sexual orientations, genders, gender identities, socioeconomic statuses, and so on. Diversity allows for the exploration of these differences in a safe, positive, and nurturing environment. It means understanding one another by moving beyond mere tolerance to ensure that the differences are truly valued.
EQUITY
Equity is about making an effort to understand and give each person what they need in order for them to have a similar shot of success as anyone else. This may mean providing access to resources and services that they may not have had previously; implementing programs and processes that are impartial and fair and provide equal possible outcomes for every individual.
Inclusion
Inclusion is an effort to ensure that despite the differences, groups or individuals are socially accepted and welcome. These differences could be self-evident – race, ethnicity, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, socio-economic status, or they could be more inherent, such as educational background, training, experience, organizational tenure, even personality, such as being an introvert or an extrovert. These groups and individuals must not feel excluded. They must be able to participate in decision making, development opportunities, and other activities.
While the notion that diversity increases innovation is difficult to prove or quantify, there is research that provides strong evidence to back up this claim.
Researchers culled information from a national survey of 1,800 professionals, 40 case studies, and numerous focus groups and interviews. They divided the participants into two different types diversity: inherent and acquired.
Inherent diversity involves traits you are born with. This includes gender, ethnicity, race, and sexual orientation. Acquired diversity speaks to the traits you gain from experience. For example, growing up or working in another country can help you appreciate cultural differences. The same can be said for living in a community that is diverse or where you are in the minority. The family you grew up in could influence your religious and political views in the same way that selling products and services to female consumers can give you gender smarts. The researchers earmarked companies whose leaders exhibit at least three inherent and three acquired diversity traits as having two-dimensional diversity.
Additionally, they correlated diversity in leadership with market outcomes based on the information provided by the respondents. They learnt that companies with 2-D diversity demonstrated a much higher level of innovation and out-performed those who did not have two-dimensional diversity. Employees at these companies were 45% likelier to report that their company’s market share grew over the previous year and were 70% likelier to report that the company captured a new market.
However, 78% of the people in the study worked at companies that lacked 2-Diversity in leadership. The lack of a diverse leadership corps resulted in women being 20% less likely than straight white men to win endorsement for their ideas. Likewise, people of color were 24% less likely and LBGTQ’s were 21% less likely to be supported compared to their straight white male counterparts.
It has been proven time and time again that the lack of a diversity, equity and inclusion practice and policy is very costly to companies. They miss out on crucial market opportunities. It is clear that inherently diverse contributors understand the unmet needs in under-leveraged segments of the market. It has been shown that when at least one member of a team has traits in common with the end user, the entire team better understands that user. A team with a member who shares a client’s ethnicity is 152% likelier than another team to understand that client.
Researchers concluded that 2-D diversity unlocks innovation by creating an environment where “outside the box” ideas are listened to and considered. When leaders in an organization value differences, all employees can find senior people to go bat for competing, compelling ideas and persuade those in charge to approve budgets and other resources to test the merit of those ideas.
While inherent diversity is important, it is only half of the equation. Leaders also need acquired diversity to establish a culture in which all employees feel free to contribute ideas. Researchers identified six behaviors which unlock innovation across the board. These include: empowerment and giving team members decision-making authority, creating a safe environment for new ideas to be proposed, giving actionable feedback; implementing feedback from the team and sharing credit for success. Leaders who are respectful of diverse views and give them equal airtime are nearly twice as likely as others to unleash value-driving insights. Employees in a “speak up” culture are 3.5 times as likely to contribute their full innovative potential.
Change continues to take place at a rapid pace. The rapid advances in technology, the significant impact of the global pandemic as well as fundamental shifts in society have all influenced corporate culture and how we do our jobs. These changes have made it necessary for companies to innovate their diversity, equity, and Inclusion practices and policies.
However, even as companies implement effective, tangible changes to fill in the gaps and move towards a workforce that reflects diversity, equity, and inclusion, Devon Harris believes that employees have an integral role to play in this process as well.
As the marketplace continues to evolve, individual employees can choose to dwell on the injustices and inequities of the past and allow future prospects to be defined by them, or they can remove those chains. Individuals should never stop learning and becoming better skilled. They must also make an effort to develop inclusive habits. At first, these actions may seem inconsequential, however, over time, they will make a huge difference. These include having conversations and making meaningful connections outside of your normal work clique; being aware of your own biases, reconsidering stereotypes and becoming an ally to communities that are different from your own.
Are you looking for an inspiring diversity, equity, and inclusion speaker?
An effective diversity, equity & inclusion speaker is one who helps the audience move beyond simple tolerance to embrace differences. They share ideas that will help your company improve its responsiveness to a customer base that is becoming increasingly diverse.
An effective diversity, equity & inclusion speaker is one who helps the audience move beyond simple tolerance to embrace differences. They share ideas that will help your company improve its responsiveness to a customer base that is becoming increasingly diverse.
The right diversity, equity, and inclusion speaker will help you improve relations with the surrounding community, increasing your team’s ability to cope with change, and expanding creativity. They will also help you to break barriers by exploring power, gender, race, sexual orientation, religious and political beliefs. They address employee engagement and empowerment, individual and corporate responsibility, biases and overall workplace culture.
If you believe a diversity, equity, and inclusion speaker will bring value to your team, then you should consider three-time Olympian and motivational keynote speaker Devon Harris!
Devon brings a fresh look at how diversity in the workplace is not just a legal mandate or corporate ethic – it is fundamentally practical, and brings the best teams to the international playing field.
Whether as a kid from the inner city of Kingston, Jamaica enrolled at the prestigious Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England, an Olympic bobsledder from a tropical paradise or as an immigrant in the United States, Devon Harris often finds himself among the “minority”. These life experiences have provided him with a unique perspective from which to address the topic of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Devon Harris offers a creative and inspiring look at how at work, as in the Olympics, what really matters is performance, attitude and teamwork and ultimately results. With humor and understanding that comes from living what he believes, as an inspirational diversity, equity and inclusion keynote speaker, Devon delivers a compelling inspirational message to groups of all sizes about how to be more bottom-line successful by embracing and applying the innate strengths of a diversity philosophy.
