Diversity is overrated Why leaders need cultural intelligence

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diversity

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is overrated

before you walk out

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[Laughter]

let me tell you it’s because it’s often

underestimated

because we keep chasing representation

listening sessions good intentions

but is that enough does that deliver its

full power

and everything we can gain from it

and that is exactly why today

i am going to introduce you

to maybe a new mindset or a new

framework for this

maybe we’ll get some results this time

around

called cultural

intelligence as a new superpower

that each and every one of you can

activate

and that i discovered

who knew from the day i landed in this

country

so here’s a bit about the backstory of

how i discovered this whole notion of

cultural intelligence i’m originally

from colombia

and i came to this country with a

student visa a pocket translator not

speaking a ward of english at the age of

17. and of all places in america i ended

up in the great state of texas

keen texas with 6 000 people in it

now talk about an american experience

right so when you’re supposed to be an

immigrant that speaks spanish guess what

everybody looked at me and they were

like uh are you mexican

and they said lilliana by the way and

i’m like why am i supposed to be mexican

now here’s the catch i didn’t get

offended i guess it’s when you’re young

and oblivious right i’m like well i’m

from colombia oh

colombia pablo escobar

and i’m like okay these people really

need some lessons and i’m like fine it’s

great why is it that nobody’s calling on

colombian coffee

everybody knows it you all probably had

a cup today or most of you did and now

it’s so much easier for the colombians

of today because they can call in

chakita i didn’t have chiquita back then

i’m that old she was still back in

colombia you all weren’t dancing you

know hips don’t lie and all that good

stuff

but here’s the deal

thanks to my friends from netflix i’m

explaining myself all over again after i

had recovered for 30 years of like over

and over explanations about colombia

thank you narcos that’s not colombia

you can visit when the economy opens

whatever

but you may be wondering what is this

stuff and where does the cultural

intelligence come from lily well i

realized that clearly there was a

cultural gap

and i could get offended with people’s

misunderstanding of culture or take it

as an opportunity to fill their gap and

rise above and create a bridge and

actually explain with the facts the

stuff they didn’t really know

and here’s the deal as i was sitting in

my corporate job this was back in the

day i was at j j for 10 years

in marketing and i’m looking at the

numbers and i’m trying to think there’s

something here with this cultural stuff

right

because beyond the obvious and us

talking about labels and the typical

stuff that is very popular these days i

recognized that there was something

powerful with culture

in america as a mainstream not as the

niche thing that you do for a few for

the special program because guess what

tortillas sell more than bread in

america that’s not because every mexican

has tortillas you all have tortillas in

your fridge right now

and here’s the other thing the number

one condiment is not ketchup

it’s salsa

that’s a lot of money that kroger

supermarkets walmart and everyone is

selling and they know it and they track

it and it keeps winning now but there’s

so many other references this is another

fellow colombiana sofia vergara to this

day 10 years in a row continues to be

the highest paid television actress in

the world

making 43 million dollars a year

and she owns our culture and her accent

right and we all love it there’s

something valuable there beets

the analysts here in this town couldn’t

understand the math how in the world was

apple gonna pay 3 billion for this

headphone company did they buy a

headphone company

or did they buy the cultural equity of

this company that had valuation and the

highest rated superhero movie of all

time

black panther

now was it because it was a great black

movie no it’s a great movie that happens

to be black and the world loved it

we still love it

we miss him

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and music from tokyo to sydney london

new york despacito i bet you all have

danced to it and you probably don’t even

know what it says it’s pretty raunchy if

you look at the

what the chorus is it’s

it yeah yeah but just keep dancing it it

broke every record the first video to

hit five billion

youtube streams and last year’s most

streamed artists according to spotify

was bad bunny let me remind you bad

bunny sings in spanish

now all of this is a new mainstream so

much so that latin music is more popular

than

country music in the united states i

gotta tell that to my friends back in

texas they’re gonna be like what but

that’s exactly right now i’m telling you

this because i’m not here to talk about

the altruistic nature of culture that is

beautiful i live it i breathe it but

there are cultural economics

that if we pay attention to the numbers

graduate us from the usual construct of

what diversity and inclusion means

because the numbers are there to back it

up

by the way anyone can google this chart

but most of the times when i show it

people are like what by the year 2040

america is going to be a majority

minority

nation now that means again back to the

numbers any wall street analyst is going

to tell you you bet on growth you want

to win in the market you look at a trend

you jump ahead maybe there’s some of you

all here in this room that’s what you do

to win

to deliver profits to grow

so you tell me

how else are you gonna drive growth if

not tapping into the segments of the

population that are driving all

the growth

it’s just pretty dumb not to

but here’s the catch a lot of people get

comfortable when i show these numbers

they’re like well 2040 seems so far out

when we look by generation

the younger

the generation the more diverse it is

so when i hear people talk about the

general market i’m like what does that

mean when i’m looking at millennials

agencies who already are majority

minority this is the new mainstream

this is the total market

and if i talk to any marketer who tells

me once again how important millennials

are i’m like well here look at your

charts let’s know where the numbers are

but here’s the deal

all of that

makes it quite simple for us to realize

that it’s mathematically impossible for

us to achieve our full potential as an

economy in growth for anyone who wants

to win for anyone that wants to capture

a market without an inclusive approach

to their strategy

and this is math

but here’s what’s happened and i don’t

want to be disrespectful 2020

sucked

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and we learned a lot from it

good bad and ugly right i don’t have to

go there you can see it you can feel it

we’re still trying to get over it

and here’s what happened corporations

had an awakening

if i see one more letter and tweet and

instagram post about this

i’m gonna ask show me your receipts

because that’s not me harvard business

review is saying it here

is your company actually fighting racism

or just talking about it so this is why

i want to talk about it today and when

people are reading the titles like

what’s she going to talk about with

diversity being overrated because

we keep tapping into the heart

and guess what trying to build

consciousness having one more listening

session trying to understand the context

that we cannot deny

gets people a certain

way towards progress but it kind of

leaves us stuck in emotion

and i honestly

rather motivate people instead of guilty

guilty them to reaction and motivate

them really really for action

now how do we do that here comes

cultural intelligence that’s the

superpower that i wanted to tell you all

about codified in three words

it’s the ability to be aware of

understand and apply cultural competence

and inclusive data insights the numbers

into your everyday business

not the person with the diversity ward

on the title that’s everybody’s business

because the numbers don’t work any other

way

i just showed you the numbers show me

any other path to growth to winning to

self-sustaining and future proofing your

existence

in this country

and guess what

there is a dance that comes with it i’m

latin i’m gonna teach you some

dancing i’m very visual i forget you

know definitions whatever cultural

intelligence can be learned with the

business macarena right here us kids of

the 80s yay so the

macarena goes in three moves you first

this is how you check your strategy or

how you’re thinking about this whole

stuff you have to first get to the heart

to have awareness consciousness are we

empathizing are we having that human

connection check that’s important but

then you need to get to the mine and

then the wallet and if you do it quick

enough it kind of becomes a macarena

so the marketing macarena or the

business macarena should be our code for

getting this right all the way to the

finish line beyond the reaction into the

sustainable action of the impact on

results that we can generate as an

inclusive nation

and guess what this works because we are

selfish

philosophers since the era of plato and

the republic talk about this even when

we are doing things that are great for

society and social good

we humans have an instinctual kind of

underlying selfish motive behind it you

want to be noticed you want to be

accepted you don’t want to be judged

well in this case especially in

corporate world i want to get my bonus

at the end of the year

and guess what compensation drives

behavior if all of a sudden the only way

you’re going to get your full market

share and achieve that growth and

whatever you told the street guys during

the earnings call

you’re going to do this because there’s

something to be gained

no i’m not being the capitalist

heartless i’m a conscious capitalist i

told you there’s a macarena starts with

the heart

so with that

we need to pay attention because we keep

talking about diversity every news

outlet every headline every ceo with

their letters

but when we do a sentiment analysis of

how americans feel about diversity this

based on 20 million data points for the

last 12 months we are split

even our people

black and hispanics 1 in 4 say you know

what this sounds really cute but it’s a

lot of optics and not so much of real

change this is our own voice it’s

unsolicited digitally when nobody’s

asking

and one in two whites are saying you

know what there’s other things that are

more important and let me just focus on

those because you know this is going to

generate exclusionary outcomes

now that’s pretty objective see you’re

looking for outcomes for results but

what if i show you once again you will

not get that bonus at the end of the

year unless you tap into the full size

of the market

it’s shifting the conversation it’s

going from the heart mind wallet it’s

activating on cultural intelligence

so we gotta reset

reset for growth because the numbers

just make no sense

i was talking to a silicon valley

company we’re looking through their

strategy and they’re telling me well

we’re doing mentoring programs with

underprivileged children in silicon

valley and i’m like

that sounds like an altruistic mission

that is very kind

but what if i told you

thirty percent of kids in the high

schools of silicon valley are hispanic

yet only four percent are hispanics in

the silicon valley careers and if those

kids are the ones that are driving all

of the growth if we don’t set them up

for success today we’re not going to

have a pipeline and we’ll lose our

competitiveness as a nation so are you

just being kind and so good in your

mentoring program or are you just

fueling the workforce of the future

it’s different

it takes a different energy it kind of

empowers you it doesn’t guilt you into

it it motivates you

because we want to win

we want to win we want to stay ahead

again maybe this is a bit of a business

twist to this topic there’s many other

human things that need attention i don’t

want to undermine them but we gotta

graduate

because once again one more listening

session that really people walk in and

out without any results real budget

allocations it’s gonna be like

it’s gonna take another decade for us to

get this right

this is a fundamental shift this is what

cultural intelligence does

to the people looking at the budgets at

the new product development pipeline at

who to hire and where to invest

because it’s not doing multicultural

marketing and the special little project

over here

it is about winning and marketing in a

multicultural america

and that is fundamentally different

it goes from small to big it goes to

from niche to mainstream it’s

everybody’s job to get this right

because the numbers don’t work any other

way

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so here’s my words to those that are

watching

i don’t want to be your charity project

i want to be your growth project

because there’s much to be gained and

everybody wins

the numbers are there it’s return on

inclusion

and not doing anything is returned on

ignored

because you will be leaving opportunity

money

votes profits whatever you’re chasing on

the table

it’s a different formula

and instead of just chasing that check

on the box of your diversity scorecard i

want you to unapologetically cash in

that check

that comes with return on inclusion when

everybody wins

because guess what and maybe this sounds

weird it’s like what she’s saying yes

you can generate purposeful profits why

not we can do well and do good

and then our communities are not in the

the ones in the rescue mission of

somebody’s agenda but we’re in the

winning mission together

because the numbers don’t work any other

way and that takes cultural

intelligence

so hopefully and thankfully you didn’t

walk out of the room

when i said diversity is overrated and

maybe you can say it now with me

because anyone that has diversity in

their titles today in the world of

corporate america should be

going

from the csr discussion and the talent

discussion into

the m a discussion the budget allocation

discussion the earnings call discussion

because the numbers don’t work any other

way

that is why i say

that is

overrated because it’s often

underestimated

and until we get this right

and activate and elevate the power of

cultural intelligence being aware of

understanding and applying

the numbers the consciousness the heart

mind wallet embedded into everyone’s

decision

we will miss out on the greatness

that this country has to offer to the

world

and it’s beautiful it’s colorful and you

all

can turn on that super power too

thank you so much

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you