Racial inclusion needs to be based on metrics, says Fed VP

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“Measuring matters”, sums up American executive Desiree Coleman-Fry when talking about strategies to increase racial, social and gender inclusion in companies. But this measurement needs to take into account several factors to guarantee a good result, she argues.

“People say ‘I have a diverse team’. But compared to what? If you were measuring that you didn’t have diversity, and now you have one person, you didn’t win a victory”, he questions. “And if everyone is in entry-level roles, you still have work to do.”

Coleman is Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion at the St. Louis, a division of the US central bank. Previously, he worked as Vice President of Miscellaneous Segments at Wells Fargo, one of the largest banks in the US. She was in Brazil at the beginning of November and visited Salvador, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

“It was beautiful to see the preservation of African culture in Salvador. It would be so amazing if other African Americans could feel what I felt when I got there. It was more than just feeling welcome. I felt that my culture was celebrated”, he commented.🇧🇷

How do you see inclusion in Brazilian companies today? People now think about how to operationalize this, make it part of everyday life. Now the hard work begins. You need to use data and metrics to measure year-over-year progress. Look at the composition of representation among employees, on the board, consider how they are delivering their products and services and whether they are serving everyone, given that more than 50% of Brazilians identify as black, brown or indigenous.

What data and metrics could be used? I always say measuring matters. If you’re doing something and you’re not measuring it, it’s debatable. You need to start by looking at your representation, not just the percentage of people. People say, ‘I have a diverse team’. But compared to what? If you didn’t have diversity and now you have one person, you didn’t win a victory. The gold standard is really representing the communities where you are located.

But representativeness can be deceiving, because you look and say ‘we have X percent of category Y. That’s great’. But if everyone is in entry-level roles, you still have work to do, right?

Leadership is an important place to start this conversation. After the murder of George Floyd, many organizations came to me and said, ‘We would like to hire a director of diversity. Are you interested?’. I met a Silicon Valley CEO and he said, ‘My problem is the leadership team. She is not different. What should I do?’. I replied: ‘you should change it. Why not? It’s on your list of possibilities’.

How to act in practice to increase diversity in leadership positions? Organizations need to be creative. Rearrange things. Create a new command position, divide tasks in leadership to make room for hiring. Representativeness in governance affects how employees feel. People don’t leave companies, they leave managers.

Any policy a company wants to adopt depends on the highest level knowing and understanding the information, and passing it down. But there is a bottleneck at the middle management level. This is where employees have their daily interactions.

There will be challenges if managers and leaders do not understand how to promote belonging and inclusion, and how they can create work environments where people feel seen, heard and valued. From a risk mitigation point of view, someone can have a bad experience and go around telling about it. If that’s your only concern, fine. But really, how do you make sure the acquisition, talent management, and all the money you’ve invested in people don’t go to waste?

Inclusive leadership is a 21st century skill. In the 1980s, nobody cared. In the 1990s, it was ‘cultural awareness, DEI [diversidade, equidade e inclusão] are important’. Today, you cannot ignore this. You have to be able to manage a multicultural, multinational and multigenerational workforce.

It would have practical examples of how to be a leader inclusive? This year, for the first time, we are including in the year-end assessment a metric on how our managers need to act in an inclusive way. And we’re creating some other metrics on how our leaders can drive inclusion.

I also reach out to young people from underrepresented groups to try to establish a relationship, and make myself available. Every leader should have one-on-one conversations with everyone who reports to him on some regular basis. I have it once a week, and as people face challenges, they know there’s a dedicated time to ask for support or help, or for us to think together.

In the 500 largest companies in Brazil, only 5% of directors are black. So it will take white individuals to be proactive in building relationships with people who don’t look like them, defending their name when they’re not around. Record their accomplishments at work. This helps to create new opportunities and paths.

How to facilitate the arrival process at the company, especially in remote work situations? I try to get our leaders to understand that we don’t want them to just be managers, but to be invested in people’s success and able to help them maximize their potential. Salesforce says that people with a sense of belonging, who feel heard, respected, and valued, are 4.6 times more likely to do their jobs better.

This comes from the ability to build relationships. Remote work makes this more difficult, so you have to work a little harder. There are simple things you can do like messaging to see how people are doing. ‘How’s your day going?’ in the sense of ‘I’m interested in you as a human being. Are you okay today?’.

When I was hired, I was given a list of people I needed to meet. The next day they gave me a stack of 30 papers and waited for me to start producing. I was given a few months to breathe, absorb the materials, and use the time getting to know people. They said, ‘We really want you to focus on building relationships.’ This is a key element of the success of effective teams.

In addition to leaders, how can co-workers help with inclusion? People need to recognize discomfort and have emotional resilience for difficult conversations, like having to pull a colleague aside when you hear something offensive or derogatory. The best way is to correct it on the spot, such as saying ‘I don’t think this is appropriate’. This sets the example that this is the expected pattern.

Nobody likes to be embarrassed or exposed. In many cultures, we are nice and polite. Having direct and honest conversations is difficult, but necessary. It’s resisting the urge to just go with the flow, especially when the status quo may not be working for everyone.

So if you’re in a meeting and you see a colleague get interrupted, wait for the intervention to end and say ‘thanks, I want to go back to something Wesley said’. Another example: a woman brings an idea to a meeting. Nobody answers. And three minutes later, a man presents the same idea in different words and everyone says ‘brilliant’. You can say ‘thanks Tommy, I think that’s something like what Gretchen said. Could she say more?’

Thus, you create space for people to be recognized and supported. In the US, there are many mentoring programs. But I hear many colleagues, who have achieved great things, saying ‘I don’t need another mentor. I need a supporter, an open door, an indication. I already have the experience’.

How do you see the adoption of quotas in universities? Would you make changes to the current model? Before we talk about affirmative action, we have to ask why this policy exists. If we explore history and our structures, a segment of the population was systematically discriminated against, subjected to slavery, intolerable conditions and had limited access to education and health. He was denied the opportunity to build wealth.

It’s important to say this because there are even black leaders who say ‘well, I did it. I stood up for myself’. They are the exception, not the rule. It is necessary to look at the concepts of equity and equality. Many people say ‘everyone should rely on their own merit’. This is equality.

Equity is using the data to understand the results and examining whether numbers vary across groups. When looking at the percentage of people who are hired by a company, is the total number of men and women similar? If they are not the same, why is that? There’s something about the way we’ve set up the system that has resulted in fewer women getting the same opportunities as men.

When you apply this to a racial concept, the difference in wealth between whites and blacks is very substantial. White Brazilians earn twice as much as black Brazilians. Among black individuals with a university degree, the gap is even greater. So don’t talk about equality. Equality does not take into account what happened: there is systemic racism.

In Brazil, we have more than 50% of black, indigenous and brown people. Do the institutions have 50% of students with this profile? If not, why? The system is not working. There is a discrepancy, and this needs to be resolved. The quota system is one way, but it doesn’t have to be the only way.

What are the other ways? Equity is the process of identifying solutions to close that gap. It can be problems in the education system, transportation, family issues. It could have been any of the painful things that happened in the story. And it is necessary, when you see this gap, to identify solutions. If Brazil recognizes its history, sees the results and does nothing, what a shame!

It is difficult for people to understand because they are situated in the present. They say things like ‘I studied, I worked hard, why are there quotas?’ You have to consider history. What happened, whether you like it or not, created the impact we see today. People need to get out of the zero-sum mentality of ‘if I win, you lose’. If you lose, we all collectively lose.

Imagine a basketball shooting contest. One of the contestants has a new Air Jordan, coached by LeBron James, well-balanced, chef-prepared meals, a good night’s sleep. A driver took him to the court. And he’s going to make the pitch.

On the other hand, what would be the experience of someone who doesn’t have tennis shoes, is homeless, didn’t have access to a trainer, adequate food, or even breakfast. He had to take the subway, he was late, so he will have to make the half-court shot. Would these two people have the same condition to compete?

Fairness is saying ‘OK, I’ll arrange transportation so you’re not late’. A store donated you a sneaker. Some former players will help you train. That would be a little fairer, right? That’s what quotas are trying to do.


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Desiree Coleman-Fry

He is Vice President of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, a division of the US central bank. Previously, he was Vice President of Miscellaneous Segments at Wells Fargo Bank.

He holds a master’s degree in public administration from Syracuse University and a degree in international relations and marketing. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with husband Jason and four children.

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