Inclusion Revolution

[Music]

[Applause]

keep your head down and work harder than

everyone else

that is the advice that my father has

always given me

but one day in the early part of my

career

i received a different message i was a

junior credit analyst at moody’s

and one afternoon as i was leaving one

of our weekly credit rating meetings

a white male colleague came to me

and set me aside and said in a

sober tone you know we want to hear your

opinion

it doesn’t do anyone any good for you

just to sit there

quietly i was mortified

i knew that every credit rating analyst

was expected to contribute to decisions

irrespective of seniority

in theory a great place to hone your

voice

but i was just learning how to find my

footing

in an unfamiliar corporate environment

it wasn’t lost on me

that in most meetings i was usually the

only latinx

woman and youngest person i was working

so hard to hone my credit rating skills

the hard work that me papa had told me

to do

while trying to navigate an environment

that was

very white white in terms of demographic

representation

across all levels white

in terms of the corporate identity that

i was expected

to adopt in order to survive an identity

that meant

that there was not a trace of an accent

to be heard

or that in my appearance there could not

be a sense of

too much ethnicity or over sexualization

i took a deep deep breath and before i

knew it

started sharing with him all of the

insecurities that i had been harboring

for

months the anxiety that i have felt

at my experience not being quite

as valuable as others because i was

young

the burden that i carried at

not supporting anyone’s stereotypes

about me being a latina and how hard i

founded

trying to figure out how to show up in a

predominantly

white male dominated culture

keep your head down and work harder than

everyone else

that is the message that kept on running

through my head

but it wasn’t enough my body shook

my heart ached i couldn’t look him in

the eye

but he looked at me and in that moment

everything changed i was able

to share my truth with him and he

listened

he really listened and instead of

dismissing me by saying oh that’s all in

your head

he took a moment to hear see

and value me and instead of assuming

what it was like to be

in my shoes he actually took a moment to

dismiss his judgment

to understand where i was coming from

to interpret the information he was

hearing

and then to devise a plan to help reduce

obstacles that i was facing

this is what he said i hear how lonely

you feel

i think what is holding you back is a

fear of messing up

i have felt that too but i get that it

is different for you

but here’s what i also know you’re not

going to get over it

unless you work through it and you’re

going to need someone to support you

he then offered to sit next to me at our

next meeting

and to amplify my comments because the

deal was

that i would speak up this was the

beginning for both of us

the beginning of an allyship journey

much more than an ally mialiado he

became my accomplice

me complicit in challenging the status

quo

i would slowly go on to build my bravery

muscles

by speaking up more proactively in

meeting after meeting

while watching him from the corner of my

eye

encouraging me to go on i would learn

how to confidently share my opinion

even when it wasn’t popular how to hold

space the way others did around me

i didn’t always have the impact that i

wanted

but i found my footing much more than an

ally

this colleague also became my first

professional mayor

he showed me the unvarnished truth about

my fears and my anxieties

and how i could overcome them so that i

could build the career

that me papa had envisioned for me

much more importantly he sacrificed his

own comfort

over mine he sought to

learn whose voices were being heard

and whose voices were being silenced

that

is the true act of solidarity of an ally

instead of sitting in his own judgment

and guilt he sought ways to overcome the

barriers to my success

this life-changing moment inspired me to

dedicate the last two decades of my

career

to designing diversity equity and

inclusion strategies

across global companies it also

reinforced for me

what i always knew deep inside that what

leaders do

matters far more than what they say

creating workplaces that work for

everyone

ah it’s about far more than

public displays on social media

diversity recruiting initiatives

and one-and-done anti-bias and

anti-harassment training

i have been really excited to see that

there is a very special

energy energia vibe mojo

in organizations when employees feel

seen

heard and valued when they feel that

they can contribute

collaborate perform without judgment

and retaliation it keeps organizations

from feeling dark and heavy it keeps the

mistrust

out of the air it keeps talented

employees

from leaving your organizations

and worse it keeps those that have to

sustain

repeated trauma to survive financially

what it does is that it breeds the

highest levels of innovation

creativity and collaboration

i want to share with you three actions

that you can take

so that your organizations are places

where fairness

justice equity and inclusion are the

experience

of all the first is to hold up a mirror

the second to act on what you learn

and the third to persist despite your

discomfort

let’s start with holding up a mirror i

was

lucky to have someone that was willing

to put up a mirror in front of me

i was also strong and brave enough to

look in that mirror

the mirror told me you deserve to be

here

it also said that i needed to face my

fears

and my discomfort i know firsthand that

not everyone is willing to look in that

mirror

when i worked at google i remember

vividly

one meeting where i was set to bring

about our first diversity hiring

strategy

i laid out a detailed proposal of what

it would be like to reimagine our hiring

process

it was supported by an exhaustive

analysis of the hiring experience of

black

and hispanic software engineering

candidates

my team was so excited to present bold

and innovative ideas

including significantly expanding our

hiring markets

and rebuilding our interview process

but after hours of pushback on our

suggestions

and this repeated line of questioning

from my manager

about a seemingly unknown root cause

of our inability to hire black and

hispanic software engineers at scale

i nearly lost my mind and blurted out

racism the root cause is rasismo

our recruitment process was designed

with a racist

lens and we need to re-examine and

rebuild

every stage of our hiring journey if we

are to achieve

different outcomes

the room went quiet

the discomfort was palpable

this was the mirror no one wanted to

look into

the truth no one wanted to see

but it was the truth the truth being

reflected at them

and they chose not to act

awareness without action means nothing

we have got to act on what we learn

here’s the thing about looking in the

mirror it fundamentally requires you

to recognize your personal cultural

and systemic sore spots you are going to

have to reflect on your identity

in relationship to someone else and

you’re going to have to ask for feedback

that you may not want to hear you’re

going to have to build new muscles

including the ability to interpret new

information

to sit in ambiguity conflict

and discomfort and to figure out what

you will do

when you witness bias or when you

discover

that you have been perpetuating the bias

all along

this work this work comes with pain

this work comes with conflict discover

comes with discomfort

but if you want to drive change you’re

going to have to work through that

discomfort

many of us want to change conditions in

our workplaces

but sometimes we don’t know how to do it

we get stuck in getting worried about

are we going to get it wrong are we

going to mess this up

are we not going to do enough

it’s that place where many of us often

dwell that paralyzing place of

fear and anxiety where we numb ourselves

into an action

privilege is the ability to be able to

look away

to not act when you are confronted with

your bias

and complicity but

sitting in awareness is not enough

you’re going to have to act on what you

learn and you’re going to have to

persist

through that discomfort when i worked at

disney

i was part of a group that helped launch

our first women’s initiative

that first week when we were planning

our programming for women’s history

month

i took a bet that paid off

i sat around the room of mostly

well-intentioned white women

and realized that the lens through which

we were looking at the advancement of

women

left out the experience of women of

color

women like me i knew what it was like

to feel left out and excluded from white

social networks

and that also when i was invited there

was always this unstated understanding

that i was there to fulfill a quota

not there to share my whole truth

but i had an opportunity to change that

with all of the corporate charm and

bravado that i could muster

i proposed designing a program that

would focus on the workplace experience

of women of color

by this point in my career i had earned

a decent

level of confidence but even then i knew

that i needed to propose this framework

as a limited risk proposition

how much attention could this program

possibly garner

how many women of color could i possibly

bring together

well it was one of the most attended

programs that month

the women who attended to this day still

recall it as the first time

that many of them felt seen heard and

valued

i’ll never forget the manager who called

me up to say

hey daisy i have no idea what you just

did

but this young woman on my team just

came back from one of your events

and she has a pep in her step that i

have never seen before

please do more had i not

acted on what i knew women of color

needed to experience in the workplace we

would have never moved beyond the

pervasive blind spot

of women’s programs only catering to

white women

instead of reducing the barriers and

clearing the advancement path

for all women but again

this work is hard it is challenging and

full of discomfort

when we move past our discomfort we get

to the place of true change

but for some of us we know that that

change

comes at a high risk

some of us know that there is danger in

doing so

so instead we let go of small parts of

ourselves

we let our courage shrink and our voice

diminish

i have been beaten into submission so

many times that i have forgotten

the count i have been layered

under toxic managers who have

put up roadblocks to my success taken

ownership of my ideas

and questioned my value on a daily basis

even as i was actively working to bring

more seats to the table

i have had to fight to earn and keep

mine but i persist i refuse

to give up and i know that you can too i

know we

all can but creating workplaces

that work for everyone is hard complex

and at times emotionally triggering but

it is

necessary it is about reducing the undue

burdens

and the marginalization that we have

allowed to exist

that we have tolerated for hundreds of

years

to a place where the emotional energy is

vibrant

where employees feel that they are

valued that they matter

that they are essential when they walk

in every day knowing that they have a

clear path

forward we can do that

if we hold up a mirror if we act

on what we know and if we persist

despite our discomfort so when my father

said

keep your head down and work harder than

everyone else

he was partially right this work it

requires

all of us to work harder it takes daily

actions

like questioning the lack of diversity

on your team

refusing to tokenize black indigenous

and people of color

and standing up against injustices in

your workplace

if we all start being the allies we

want to be to show up and for

our colleagues to do the work we can

drive

lasting and meaningful change

gracias

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

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