How to get serious about diversity and inclusion in the workplace | Janet Stovall | TED

470,413 views ・ 2018-09-13

TED


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00:13
Everybody has that one friend --
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you know, the single-minded one,
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the one who, no matter what the question is,
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always finds a way to make the answer whatever it is she's single-minded about.
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I'm that friend.
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(Laughter)
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And the thing that I'm single-minded about
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is racism.
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If someone were to ask me, "So, Janet, got any plans for the 4th of July?"
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I'm subject to answer, "Yeah, I'm going to binge-watch 'Roots.'"
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(Laughter)
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Or if they said, "Janet, I've got a joke for you:
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Why'd the chicken cross the road?"
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"Uh, was it a black chicken?
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Probably gentrification."
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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But for me, single-mindedness is not just caring about something.
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It's caring about something enough to do something about it.
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It's not just thinking, it's doing.
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It's not just praying, it is moving your feet.
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And the reason I'm single-minded about racism is because I know
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single-mindedness can destroy it.
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I learned that many, many years ago.
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Back in 1984, I was a junior at Davidson College
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in Davidson, North Carolina.
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Now, Davidson is a little-bitty town,
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Southern town, split by railroad tracks,
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with white Davidson on one side, black Davidson on the other side,
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and, as black students lived on the white side of the tracks,
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we got used to being stopped in downtown and asked for ID,
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until the police memorized our faces.
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But fortunately, that didn't take too long,
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because out of 1,200 students, only 52 of us were black.
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There was one black professor
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and one black assistant dean.
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Things weren't a lot better on campus.
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Well, I wasn't OK with this.
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And so, I started writing things.
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And then I started yelling things.
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And after about three years of that,
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I got tired.
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So I decided to write one more thing;
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I wrote something called "Project '87."
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Project '87 was really just a challenge to Davidson:
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in three years, by 1987,
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enroll 100 black students,
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hire 10 black professors,
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create five Black Studies classes
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and hire one black dean.
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It didn't seem particularly revolutionary,
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but what was different about it was,
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we also challenged Davidson to say that if you don't do this,
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we will question your commitment to diversity.
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It was a real problem.
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We put some real numbers to it.
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We gave them some real consequences.
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Well, the campus went absolutely nuts.
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But fortunately, in the middle of this,
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Davidson got a new president,
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and that president was single-minded about racism, too.
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And so, he created a task force
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to address the issues in Project '87.
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And several months after that,
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we produced a 77-page report.
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That report was the foundation for all the change that came after it.
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Now, I wasn't there to see that change,
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because, actually, in 1985,
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I graduated.
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(Applause)
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You are looking at the three happiest people on the planet that day,
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because I am leaving.
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(Laughter)
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However, the change did happen,
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and today, there are 185 black students,
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there are 16 black or multiracial professors,
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there are four black deans,
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and there's an entire degree-granting Africana Studies Department.
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(Applause)
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Project '87 changed Davidson.
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But it also changed me, because what it taught me
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was there's a lot of power in single-mindedness.
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Well, today, I'm an executive speechwriter
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for one of the biggest companies in the world.
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It's a profession that is 92 percent white and predominantly male,
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which makes me a little bit of a unicorn.
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But I'm a single-minded unicorn.
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(Laughter)
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So the thing about speech writing is, it's very personal.
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So I spend a lot of time in deep conversation
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with the CEO and senior executives,
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and a lot of times those conversations turn to diversity and inclusion,
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which, of course, I'm always happy to talk about.
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But after quite a few of these conversations,
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I've come to a conclusion:
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I believe that business is in a position to do something
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that no other entity can do.
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Business can dismantle racism.
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Now, colleges can't do it.
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There aren't but 5,000 of them in the United States
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and only 20 million students enrolled.
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Church can't do it, either --
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only 35 percent of us go on a regular basis,
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and when we do,
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eleven o'clock Sunday morning is "the most segregated hour" in America.
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But business?
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There are a 162 million people in the US workforce alone --
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people of all races,
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united in the spirit of wanting a paycheck and having to show up to get it.
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(Laughter)
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Now, I'm aware that diversity is bigger than race,
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and racism is bigger than America.
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But racial discrimination is the most prominent form,
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and Lord knows America is the absolute best at it.
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So what if, though, what if
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we worked in diverse and inclusive environments
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that we had something to do something with?
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And since we spend one-third of our lives at work,
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what if we did that with people who didn't look like us?
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I think the world would be a totally different place outside of work.
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That can happen if business gets single-minded about racism.
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But the question is: How is that supposed to happen?
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Well, I think there are three things that business can borrow from Project '87:
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real problems,
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real numbers,
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real consequences.
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Like it or not,
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diversity is not really a problem for business -- yet.
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I mean, it's a nice thing to have, it's the right thing to do,
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but for decades, we've been trying to make the case
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that diversity fuels innovation and customer insight.
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I mean, at this point, it's kind of a no-brainer,
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a little bit like hearing a smoke alarm going off
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and standing with your hand on the hot door,
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waiting for some data to tell you that your house is on fire.
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Because the data is already there.
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Ethnically diverse companies perform 33 percent better than the norm.
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Forbes's best workplaces for diversity enjoy 24 percent higher revenue growth.
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And yet, here we are in 2018,
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and there are only three black CEOs in the Fortune 500.
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And if your name is Molly or Connor,
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you've got a 14 percent better chance of getting a callback on your resume
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than if your name is Shanice or DeShawn.
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And all of this, despite the fact that by 2045,
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America is projected to be a minority-majority country.
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Here's the thing:
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the business case for diversity, as it stands today,
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doesn't really speak to any problem.
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And the only way business is going to get single-minded
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about racial diversity
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is if it has a problem that is urgent and relative to somebody
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other than people of color.
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I got one:
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How about employees and customers?
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Because no matter what business you're in,
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you're going to need those, right?
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Well, let's talk about some real numbers.
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If you have employees and customers, wouldn't it make sense
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if they looked a little bit like the people that work for you?
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So if that's the case, maybe your employee base should be 13 percent Black
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and 18 percent Hispanic,
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because that's what the population looks like.
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Maybe that's what your customer base looks like.
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But let's be clear:
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diversity and inclusion are not the same things.
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Diversity is a numbers game.
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Inclusion is about impact.
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Companies can mandate diversity,
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but they have to cultivate inclusion.
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And if inclusion is what you're after,
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you've got to calculate some slightly different numbers.
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How about 30 percent?
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Because that's the point that research shows
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at which the voices of minorities actually begin to be heard.
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If you want a real problem,
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you're going to need real numbers to fix it,
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and if you're not willing to set real numbers,
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then maybe you're not real serious about diversity and inclusion.
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That brings me to my third point:
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real consequences.
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Think about this:
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when salespeople forget what they're doing and don't come up with their numbers,
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what do we do?
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We give them a little time, maybe we give them some training.
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But then if they don't hit those numbers eventually,
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we fire them.
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However, when you start talking about diversity and inclusion,
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we use terms like "accountability."
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And maybe we scold, and maybe we hold back an incentive or two.
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But you know what the best incentive is?
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A job.
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And you know what the best disincentive is?
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Losing it.
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So if companies really want accountability,
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they should assume that that is a given.
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Consequences are what happen when you don't do what you're accountable for.
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Imagine this:
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imagine a place where people of all colors and all races
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are on and climbing every rung of the corporate ladder;
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where those people feel safe -- indeed, expected --
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to bring their unassimilated, authentic selves to work every day,
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because the difference that they bring is both recognized and respected.
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And imagine a place where the lessons we learn about diversity at work
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actually transform the things we do, think and say outside of work.
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That is what happens if we all work together
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to fix what's broken.
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That is what happens if we stop praying for change to happen
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and actually start moving our feet to making it.
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That is the power of single-mindedness.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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