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
- 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