A Free Webinar for Professionals Who Lead DEI&B Efforts
The DEI&B landscape is continuing to shift in large and small ways. Coming out of the pandemic, we have been stuck by repeatedly hearing similar themes/challenges as we have talked to many of you. Some of those themes are:
- Increased expectations from employees (particular early career ones) that company leadership take public stands on many hot button social issues.
- The threat of consumer boycotts to your brand/products based on these stands.
- The heightened politization and polarization of all things DEI- both externally but also internally with any number of current social culture war issues now regularly intersecting the workplace like heightened transphobia, war on wokeness, threasts of book banning, voter suppression, Roe v Wade & Affirmative Action being overturned by SCOTUS, etc. The list is long and is affecting work relationships and employee partnerships & wellbeing.
- Senior execs and leaders (many of which are white men) becoming more anxious and/or reluctant to speak out and, as a result, often choosing the safer privilege of silence.
- The increased pressure and often isolation for the DEI&B leader who must navigate this changing and volatile landscape.
All of this turbulence has magnified and often reinforced the silence of many senior leaders (especially white men), leery of speaking up out of fear of saying or doing the wrong thing. The old adage, “If I don’t say anything, nothing bad will happen” seems to be the current mantra for many.
We have noticed that our work these last several years, probably like yours, has become both more challenging and urgent. It became clear to us as we talked to many of you, there was a real need to build an intentional support community, particularly to help in the engagement and development of more vocal and courageous (white male) senior execs and leaders willing to examine and then shift their partnership stance with you as your company’s DEI&B expert.
From our 25+ years of being in the thick of this work, we know how alone, tired and overwhelmed it can sometimes feel to be tasked with being the primary point to make progress with your company’s DEI&B efforts. Add to it that many in our industry as front-line DEI&B change agents are women, people of color or out LGBTQ+ folk, the critical change work and bridge building becomes even more challenging.
So, as a first step, we invite you to a conversation to explore how to strengthen the partnership between you as a DEI&B professional and P&L senior leaders (many of which are white men). The agenda will be simple- what is top of mind for you in your efforts to better strengthen and evolve your partnerships with your senior execs (many of which are white men)? What is working, what is not and how are you faring with it all — both longterm and in light of recent news such as the overturning of Affirmative Action?
Wednesday, August 9
9 – 10:30 am PT | 12 – 1:30 pm ET
via Zoom
Hosted by cofounder Bill Proudman and VP for Learning and Consulting Mark Williams
