We Need Leaders Who Boldly Champion Inclusion | June Sarpong | TED

When we think of our modern-day, successful entrepreneurs

and corporate leaders,

the thing they all have in common

is they excel at the general cut and thrust of business:

outsmarting the competition,

growing the bottom line,

creating a superior product or service.

But to become a business rock star,

that rarefied category of a name we all know and admire,

you need something else.

General good business acumen isn't enough.

The thing the rock stars all have in common

is they disrupt business as usual.

They look at things the way they are,

and say to themselves, "Nah, that's not it."

Consider how we used to search, and how cumbersome the process was.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page

completely transformed the way we find things and each other,

and even how we buy things.

And what about coffee?

For many of us, our morning brew was a rather dull experience,

until Howard Schultz built Starbucks

for a community of people who wanted fancy, varied, social coffee.

And of course, I can’t forget Bill Gates and Steve Jobs:

two men who took computers from nerdy labs and into our homes

and, in the case of Jobs, our palms too.

Now I know what some of you are thinking.

Don't worry, I will be coming to that in a minute.

So if -- I know what you're thinking.

(Laughter)

So if innovators like these can do all this,

then I believe they are up for a new challenge.

A challenge that no one in business has fully cracked yet.

So today, I want to talk to you about why I think,

why I feel,

we need a rock star of inclusion.

The diversity and inclusion agenda is one that most of us are sold on.

We know it boosts creativity and profits and generally makes our lives richer.

We've known this for a very long time,

but if we're honest, progress has been slow.

Nearly 90 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are white males.

And in the UK, where I'm from,

they account for 90.4 percent of the top 20 roles in FTSE 100 companies.

Now that's the status quo that is ripe for disruption.

Disruptors are not afraid of doing the difficult.

They push through discomfort.

When others doubt, they see a better, more exciting, new way --

a new way that others then emulate,

a new way that eventually becomes the norm.

When it comes to diversity and inclusion,

we need bold disruptors who are uncomfortable with the status quo,

even if the status quo benefits them --

in fact, especially if the status quo benefits them.

Now the general thinking about DEI

is that we have to get comfortable having uncomfortable conversations.

But there's a step before that's often overlooked.

Before uncomfortable conversations must come uncomfortable connections.

And that's something I know a little about.

I get paid -- sometimes, anyway.

(Laughter)

I get paid to do the two things that most people are uncomfortable doing:

public speaking and talking to strangers.

Now the thing is, when I was a kid, my report card read "must talk less."

Luckily, I didn't listen.

So for the past 25 years, I have been working in television --

first as an on-air talent,

more recently as an executive focusing on DEI.

My work as a host has meant

that I've had to learn how to build meaningful connections quickly,

with all kinds of people from very different backgrounds.

But it hasn't always been easy.

There are neurological and anthropological reasons

why we gravitate towards people that remind us of ourselves.

There are unspoken codes of familiarity,

codes that make us feel safe.

We see this everywhere: at conferences, lunch halls, parties,

even places of worship.

Now, there's a palpable feeling you get when you don't connect with someone.

Don’t worry, I connect with you.

It's awkward, it's horrible, and you just want it to be over.

But if you push through to find common ground,

even if it's small,

just to get to the breakthrough,

that's when the magic happens,

and something changes in both people.

A game-changing moment came for me early on in my career,

when I was interviewing a high-profile actress, who shall remain nameless.

She was starring in a movie

that was considered quite controversial at the time,

and as a result had been subjected to countless insulting interviews.

So by the time I got round to her, things were tense.

And to make matters worse,

we had absolutely nothing in common to fall back on,

with her being a high-profile A-list actress,

and me an up-and-coming host.

In that moment, I knew I had two choices.

One, to carry on as we were,

which would have been very uncomfortable for us both,

and probably ended in the interview being cut short.

Or two, try and find a breakthrough.

Now this was a well-seasoned actress,

and it wasn't a particularly big-budget movie,

so I knew there had to be a bigger reason

as to why she'd accepted the role in the first place.

So I decided to focus on the character, rather than the controversy,

and she immediately opened up.

And we were able to have a deep and thoughtful conversation

that was actually enjoyable for us both,

and she even thanked me at the end.

I learned so much from that encounter,

in terms of what can happen when you don't give up

on an uncomfortable connection,

and how powerful it can be for both people.

To this very day, that moment still serves as a template for me

of what to do whenever I find myself in a similar situation.

Now if we are to move society forward, this is a journey we all have to make.

However, I believe when it comes to the workplace,

those with the most power and agency must make the biggest leap first.

Let me tell you about John Landgraf,

the CEO of FX.

In 2015, Variety magazine wrote a scathing article

about the least diverse networks in America,

in relation to directors.

And at the bottom of what was a pretty bad list

was FX.

Out of the 168 episodes that had aired on FX and FXX

between 2014 and 2015,

88 percent were directed by white men,

five percent by white women,

seven percent by men of color

and zero percent by women of color.

What happened next was interesting.

Instead of doing the usual corporate thing of trying to defend the indefensible,

rather, Landgraf held up his hand

and pledged to diverse creatives that he was going to act,

and act quickly at that.

So he and his team set about putting together a concrete plan,

which included a significant financial investment in diverse creatives

and in their suppliers,

to find, hire, nurture and develop diverse creatives

from industries where there were transferable skills,

such as music videos, advertising and theater.

Within a year,

Landgraf had turned FX from being the least diverse network in America

to one of the most.

And they had also managed to increase their diverse directing pool

to just over half.

Critical and commercial success would follow,

with hits such as "Atlanta" and "Better Things."

And there would also be an upsurge in paid subscriptions.

All because Landgraf stopped following the crowd

and instead decided to disrupt in an inclusive way.

I would call that rock-star behavior, just saying.

(Laughs)

Now someone else that I think is already a rock star in more ways than one

is Gareth Southgate,

the current England men's team football manager.

Now before becoming England manager,

Southgate was a soccer player himself, in the early 1990s and 2000s,

and witnessed firsthand the racist abuse

his colleagues of color were subjected to,

with monkey chants being screamed at them during matches,

and banana peels thrown onto the pitch.

This searing knowledge would serve Southgate well

when he became the custodian of the careers

of a new generation of England players.

He knew he wanted to create a better world for his players,

so he educated himself on racial injustice,

and then did the same with the whole team,

by bringing in Owen Eastwood, a New Zealand performance coach

whose modern-day interpretation of the Māori philosophy, whakapapa --

"we are all connected, therefore we all belong" --

would become embedded in the psyches of the whole team.

Now, this England squad was like nothing the country had ever seen before.

Vibrant with swagger -- as the young people would say --

ethnically diverse and aligned to movements such as BLM.

So when American players, led by Colin Kaepernick,

decided to take the knee,

Southgate’s players did so too, in solidarity.

A public backlash ensued.

Rather than bow to public pressure,

Southgate penned an open letter to the nation,

saying,

"I have a responsibility to the wider community

to use my voice, and so do the players.

It's their duty to continue to interact with the public

on matters such as equality, inclusivity and racial injustice,

while using the power of their voices to help put debates on the table,

raise awareness and educate."

There would soon be another moment of truth.

When three of his Black players --

Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho --

missed their penalties in the Euro's finals.

A barrage of torrid racist abuse would follow.

Again, Southgate stepped up and not only defended his players,

but took the blame, as coach.

And the beautiful thing that also happened

was, because of the education piece that had gone before,

the whole team rallied around the players,

seeing an attack on one as an attack on them all.

The unequivocal solidarity

that Gareth Southgate has been able to create within this England team

is truly a profile in courage.

The level of emotional intelligence and understanding

that he has displayed

means that he is now leading one of the most unified sports teams

in modern times.

There's no reason this can't be a template for business too.

There are hierarchies of inclusion that exist in every society,

with those at the top on the inside,

and those at the bottom cast outside.

I grew up in London as the daughter of African immigrants,

so I know what it feels like to disrupt the world the way it is,

and to break through.

As a working-class Black woman,

somehow, I had a different vision for myself

than the one the world had created for me.

Fortunately, we are now starting to see more and more women of color progress.

But it shouldn't be on us.

Now I know many of you will have noticed --

because I saw your faces, I know you did --

that the list of business leaders that I opened my talk with

were all white men.

And all white men from mainly affluent backgrounds, at that.

That isn't a coincidence.

No one group has a monopoly on talent or ability,

but as a result of the detrimental impact of imperialism and colonialism,

up until very recently, at least from a Western perspective,

this group has had a monopoly on access and opportunity.

We are heading into some very turbulent times economically,

and socially we’re at a crossroads, too.

In the past, difficult times

has often meant that diversity and inclusion

have been put on a back burner.

I would argue now is the time for us to dig deeper.

We know inclusion grows the bottom line,

and the leaders who truly understand this will be the ones that not only win,

but win the right way.

So these innovators, these guys,

these rock stars who have taken on everything

from computing, to commerce, to coffee --

wouldn't it be cool to see them disrupt inequity too?

To look at the world the way it is,

just like Gareth and John did,

and say to themselves,

"Nah, that's not it."

I don't know about you,

but those are the kind of rock stars I want to see.

Thank you.

(Cheers and applause)