Diversity Exchange

Why You Should Have A Mentor

Do you have someone you can reach out to, someone who can answer questions, offer advice, share expertise; someone to help you hone your business skills or guide you on the path to the next step in your career?  If not, then you are in need of a mentor or advisor.  It’s a proven fact that mentors can positively impact your personal and professional goals.  Results from a Gartner Group study indicated that mentees who have successful mentoring relationships are 5 times more likely to be promoted and 25% more likely to move ahead in job levels.

Mentors can ask you the hard questions, provide feedback and offer a diversity of thoughts and perspectives.  Having more than one mentor can help you look at your development goals from different perspectives.  And multiple mentors enable you to greatly expand your network of professional contacts.

Mentors can offer suggestions, share their own experiences, and provide a listening ear - they can also provide honest feedback you may not receive elsewhere.  Good mentors are essential for sharing information and offering advice based on their own experiences.  They can ask you the hard questions and push you to find the answers. As you realize the benefits of having mentors, be sure to offer your services and experience because good mentoring relationships are reciprocal.  

Aon formally supports these kinds of relationships through a tool we call Momentum Through Mentoring. Its one of the ways that we ensure that all colleagues have an opportunity to gain and share knowledge.

Remember that in our professional lives, we can all learn, teach and grow so go out and start a mentoring relationship today!

Linda Crisanti

Aon Corporation

Manager – Momentum Through Mentoring

We Are Made By History

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

- Maya Angelou

 Last night, I was privileged to attend an event for an organization called Facing History. This is a wonderful organization with a mission to educate children on the past so that they can make better choices for the future.

 

As we look at the work being done in diversity and inclusion within corporate America, we can easily separate it into 3 parts:

• Educating corporate leaders on the importance of a diverse workforce and enhancing their cross cultural competence.
• Developing employees and ensuring a diverse pipeline of talent for future leadership roles
• Connecting to or developing a diverse external pipeline and ensuring that our future workforce have the technical and social skills to navigate in a complex global workplace.

The value of Facing History is in developing empathetic, cross culturally competent future leaders whose decisions can change the workforce and the workplace as we know it.

So I pass on a question that was asked of the attendees at the Facing History event...What moment in history had the most impact on you and why?

Sincerely,

LaShana Jackson

Global Director of Diversity & Inclusion

 

 

Corporate Integration Leveraging Diversity & Inclusion

In July of 2010, Aon announced the purchase of Hewitt Associates, a former competitor for Aon's Consulting business unit. As most people know, there are many articles and lots of research on why corporate acquisitions/mergers fail. So what does this have to do with Diversity & Inclusion? Well, for me as Aon's Director of Diversity & Inclusion and my counterpart at Hewitt, Tyronne Stoudemire, it represented a new opportunity to combine our efforts and leverage our ability to work together to help support the culture integration and change that needed to take place.

Of course, it is very natural for individuals on both sides of an acquisition to worry about the implications of such a huge corporate undertaking. There is also a point at which the integration work begins and you begin to size one another up...defending what you feel is yours and defending your way to be the best. I think the wonderful thing about being in the Diversity & Inclusion space is that you get opportunities to practice what you preach...to reserve judgments, to not just tolerate but value the differences, to work together to overcome obstacles, and to find the similarities that we can build from. With that in mind, Tyronne and I set to work understanding how we could leverage our skills as Diversity & Inclusion practitioners, and the great work that both firms had already done in the space, to be a model for how integration could work.

And to be honest, we have so many great things working for us...two great client offerings around Diversity & Inclusion that compliment each other, counterpart Networking/Resource Groups that were eager to work with each other, Networking/Resource Groups on both sides that the other firm did not have, different language but similar intent around our strategy, and a joint commitment and passion around the work that we cannot do alone. The impact we can have need not be restricted to Diversity & Inclusion...we also have an opportunity to help support the overall culture shift and knowledge sharing that will need to take place to support the success of this acquisition.

The best way to sum up this synergy is to use an example of our two women’s groups, Hewitt's Women In Leadership and Aon's Women’s International Network, who worked together to host an event in December. These two groups quickly came together to leverage their collective strength to host an extremely successful event around Branding and Networking. This event, which was attended by over 250 colleagues, allowed all parts of our business to come together around a common development need of personal branding but to also get to Know Aon so that we can deliver distinctive value for our clients.

I am excited by the opportunity this synergy presents and look forward to the continued success Aon will have with Aon Hewitt as a business unit moving forward. With 59,000 colleagues around the world, there is much work to be done but with Tyronne’s leadership within Aon Hewitt in partnership with me, supporting our overall Firm, we have a great platform for success.

 

LaShana Jackson

Global Director of Diversity & Inclusion

 

 

I am happy in Holland....

As a parent of a child with special needs, I know the toll it can take on any parent...especially a parent who works full time! To help support working parents at Aon who have children with special needs, we have been piloting a Share Point or internal collaboration website to allow these parents to share information, resources, and sometimes just to connect and know that someone else is going through the same thing.

In honor of all of those dedicated parents who spend hours researching the best doctors, finding the right schools, and in general just fighting to give their child the opportunity to thrive, I share the following. This story was shared with me by my son's wonderful and dedicated teacher. I hope it gives you the same sense of peace it gave me.

 

Welcome to Holland

 by Emily Perl Kingsley (1987)

 

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this...

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, the Michelangelo David, the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After a few months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland".

 "Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a new group of people you would have never met.

It's just a different place, It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy that Italy. But after you've been there for a while and catch your breath, you look around....and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills...and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know if busy coming and going from Italy...and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away....because the loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss.

 But....if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, very lovely things....about Holland.

 

LaShana Jackson

Global Director of Diversity & Inclusion

 

Logic and Prop 8

As I read about Judge Walker’s decision, released Wednesday, I couldn’t help feeling elated that he was validating my equal right to marriage.  It was a gut reaction and an emotional one to a subject that is often debated using emotions and personal beliefs rather than logic and the premise that we are all created equally and as such should be treated equally.

 

Recently,  I read the commentary by Eric Zorn, in the Chicago Tribune, where he talks about the issue, and the logic that Judge Walker used when making his decision.  I want to quote some of his article and hope this will encourage you to use the link below and read the rest of it:

 

“Walker’s ruling is a stirring reminder of the central component of the American ideal of freedom:

 A person or group may be unpopular, their beliefs or actions widely reviled, their appearance or manner of speech considered offensive by the majority. But to crack down on such people or groups or deny them the same basic rights and opportunities other Americans enjoy, we need a reason – a good reason, a reason based on evidence, not tradition, conjecture, fear or faith; a reason that trumps the fundamental guarantees of liberty and rises to the level of “compelling government interest.

 

The arguments against allowing same sex couples to marry have never met this basic threshold test.”

 

Although I have only read small sections from Judge Walker’s ruling, I have to say I greatly admire the man – he listened to the arguments, looked at the data, looked to the law and told me I deserve the same right to marry as my heterosexual counterparts.  That there is no “rational” basis for Proposition 8.

 

Visit the Chicago Tribune blog to read more:  

http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2010/08/gay-marriage-ruling-speaks-to-our-nations-highest-values.html

 

We are not there yet, we still have a long way to go, but I do believe that we will get there - as more Americans consider the facts and realize that we don’t want anything special, we have no intention of interfering with a heterosexual’s right to marry someone they love, we just want that right as well.  Equality – I believe that I should be treated the same as anyone else, yet for me inequality still exists.  Thank you Judge Walker.

 

Regan Lewis

Program Manager - Talent Development

Volunteer - Aon Pride

Aon

Prop 8 Declared Unconstitutional

On August 4, 2010, Judge Walker declared that Proposition 8, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California,” was unconstitutional in that it violated the civil rights of gay and lesbian couples. While an appeal is certain, there is hope for justice for all loving couples in the foreseeable future (at least in California and a few other states).

 

Aon has a good record of supporting GLBT issues: Sponsorship at the Chicago Gay Games (where several Aon employees competed); three years running of scoring 100% on the HRC (Human Rights Campaign) Corporate Equality Index; even asking the Hawaii Business Roundtable to take Aon’s name off of the letter to the Governor of Hawaii that asked her to veto a civil union bill (HB444). I applaud Aon and all the other organizations that recognize the importance of equal rights.

 

You may think that you are not affected by discrimination. However, I ask you: Can you talk freely about what you did over the weekend or on holiday or who your boy/girlfriend is? Can your school-aged child talk about who her parents are without fear of being teased (or worse)? When the subject turns to sex, do you hide or lie? Are you able to bring your full self to work every day?

 

Results of HRC’s 2009 Degrees of Equality survey indicate that even with corporate policies in place prohibiting discrimination, 51% of GLBT employees hide their sexual orientation at work and even more report hearing derogatory things “at least once in a while” not just about gays and lesbians, but other minority groups as well. Even such a small thing as the word used to describe one’s life partner can make a difference: “Spouse” indicates the right to be married, ignoring those who do not have that right, as opposed to “partner” or “significant other.”

 

We all know that ignoring evidence does not make the situation go away. What steps have you taken to make your workplace safer for yourself or your co-workers? Civil rights are an appropriate discussion topic for the workplace, for as far as we are not able to be ourselves at work, our employer suffers to that extent. Only when all employees are able to talk freely about themselves without fear of repercussions in the form discrimination, jokes, hatred or personal attacks, will we experience a workforce at full production. And full participation and production is what is needed to excel, especially in this global economic climate.

 

I invite your comments and suggestions.

Rejoicing at my desk,

BethLynn Cardall Leehy, M. Div.

Broker/Senior Account Specialist

Chair - Western Region Aon Pride

Aon Risk Services

 

Diversity Can Happen, Inclusion is Intentional

In May, Anderson Cooper presented a four part series to discuss the results of a recent study on children and how they view skin color. Go to CNN to watch videos about the study. This series connects so well to Kara Burrell Wright and her concept of Mindhearted because, as this study showed, almost 70 years after the Kenneth and Mamie Clark Doll Study, a significant number of the children who participated in this current study are forming opinions on the "value" of skin color. During interviews with the parents of these children, many of them were shocked to know that their children had shown a bias because they believed they had been raising a color blind child. 

What does this mean?  It means that at any given point, diversity can happen but inclusion is intentional. What do I mean by that? Many times we assume that we are teaching our children certain values and beliefs, but without supporting behavior they can model, children will disregard those words. More importantly, as with any skill, being more open to different cultures, religions, skin tones, sexual orientation or any number of diverse factors takes practice. It is normal to experience fear, rejection or even disgust as an initial reaction to something that is foreign or different. It is how we elevate ourselves to control that response and embrace these differences that matters...and ultimately takes more than a verbal agreement to do so. It takes exposure beyond the surface which makes true inclusion a much more difficult thing to execute.

When we look at what surrounds us at home, in our communities or who we have as close friends you can begin to see how easily we become comfortable engaging only with others like ourselves. And why not? On the surface, they are more likely to have the same values, engage in the same activities, like the same TV shows, eat the same food...there is common ground to connect on that surface level. So you begin to see that stretching your children, and more importantly yourself, by experiencing inclusion in an intentional way is the only way that you will begin chipping away at the idea of "value" linked to skin color or exclusion based on a disability, or fear based on sexual preference or anger based on religious affiliation.

This exercise in stretching ourselves is not exclusive to one group but something that we all must be cognizant of. So I ask, how are you increasing your and your children's' ability to be inclusive?  I welcome your thoughts!

 

La Shana Jackson

Aon Corporation

Director - Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity at the Dinner Table

In our culture we often subscribe to the idea that we should leave our personal “stuff” outside of the work place. But when we come to work, we are not empty vessels. Some may choose not to disclose certain aspects of private life, but we still maintain all parts of our identity, even if we choose to hide them. We bring with us our values, beliefs and behaviors that impact the way we experience our work, our relationships, the things that excite us, challenge us, and keep our minds occupied. Because of this, I reach out to organizations that are finding ways of supporting employees who are parents and want and need to bring their whole selves to work to fully contribute authentically and effectively on a day-to-day basis. This is where Aon’s Working Parents Group and my organization, Mindhearted, Inc. intersect. The Working Parents Group exists to foster a supportive work environment to provide resources and support (among others things), to parents within the Aon community. Mindhearted, Inc. is a diversity education resource for parents offering ways to create personal awareness, skills and strategies to raise and support children to effectively navigate our diverse and amazing world. I bring diversity to the dinner table. I help parents learn how to create open dialogue and meaningful conversations with their children without creating prejudice or bias around topics such as race, gender, sexual identity, concepts of beauty and other ways in which we segment ourselves. I call this skill “mindhearted.” (In your work environment it may loosely translate to being culturally competent or diversity competent). Our children learn from what we do, as well as what we say. They have the incredible ability to reflect our real beliefs and values by modeling our behavior. How we live, who we live with and around, who our friends are or are not, and how we treat people—especially those we perceive to be different or “Other,” are ways in which children are learning their own values and beliefs about themselves and others. My hope is that parents recognize the power that we have in helping to shape a new generation—really a new world where we are able to live, work and play in ways that truly honor and celebrate our similarities and differences in ways that impact all of our lives for the better.

By Kara Burrell Wright

©2010 MindheartedSM, Inc.

NY Talent Development & Inclusion hosts "Speed Connection" mentoring

The New York Talent Development and Inclusion Committee, founded and chaired by Nancy Settergren (National Practice Leader of PSG), with support from Tom Morris, Regional Managing Director of GNY, recently hosted a “Speed Connection” mentoring event.  Pearl Wong and Peter Webster, members of the Talent Development and Inclusion Committee and co-leaders of the GNY Mentoring Committee, developed the “Speed Connection” theme to bring mentors and mentees together in a fun, casual setting.

 

The event opened with three active Aon mentees sharing the benefits of their mentoring relationships.  Then, mentors and mentees currently enrolled in the Momentum Through Mentoring (MTM) online tool participated in a “Speed Connection” exercise.  During this exercise, mentees were given three minutes to interview potential mentors from various practice groups.  The mentees were then charged to follow up with a potential mentor in pursuit of developing a mentoring relationship.

 

An advocate of mentoring, Pearl Wong said, “we realized the issue was people who wanted to have mentoring relationships were not connecting and this event allowed mentees to meet with potential mentors.”

 

For more information on Aon’s Momentum Through Mentoring (MTM) program, contact Aon_Mentoring@aon.com.

 

How High Must Women Jump?

The ski jump is scored on distance and style.

On distance, women have come a long way.  Ski jumping is the single remaining Winter Olympics sport closed to women.

On style, women will severely fall short.  No female competitor will bring home Olympic gold in 2010 from a ski jump event. 

In November 2006, the Executive Board of the International Olympics Committee (IOC) rejected the establishment of a women's ski jumping event in the 2010 Olympics on the grounds of a technicality involving the number of "qualified" women ski jumpers and the number of countries representing the sport.  The point of contention lies in the exception made for men's ski jumping. 

According to the International Ski Federation:
Number of registered male ski jumpers = 58% of the required universality under Rule 47 of the Olympic Charter.
Number of registered female ski jumpers = 52% of the required universality under Rule 47 of the Olympic Charter.

Both do not meet the minimum participation requirements, but men's ski jumping is "grandfathered" as part of the Olympic games, having been admitted prior to 1949. 

Consider 1949, when women were widely excluded from competing in many Olympic sports due to gender-biased beliefs and descriptives such as "inappropriate" and "at risk."

Fast forward fifty years to 2009.

15 female ski jumpers from five different countries brought their case to the Supreme Court of British Columbia, citing gender discrimination.

The decision by British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon denied a challenge to the Vancouver Organizing Committee's ability to reverse the decision of the IOC.  In her ruling, she expressed that "the plaintiffs will be denied this opportunity for no reason other than their sex," but that the IOC was subject to neither the jurisdiction of the British Columbia Supreme Court nor the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

There are questions of civil rights and discrimination issues taking place around the world on a daily basis.  This particular case has received a great deal of attention due to the nearness of the 2010 Olympics and the documented progress of International Women's Ski Jumping since 1994.  This is bigger than the sport, however.  This and every cause brought to light will allow future generations of men and women of all backgrounds to compete on equal platforms of distance and style.  And when they jump, they shouldn’t have to ask, “how high?” 

As of the writing of this entry:
Women will not be allowed to compete in the category of ski jump in the 2010 Olympics.
The plaintiffs have not declared whether they will seek to appeal the court ruling.
10,953 people signed the petition to "Let Women Ski Jump in 2010"

References & Links of Interest

Judge Fenlon's 42-pg ruling:
http://www.vancouver2010.com/dl/00/69/78/-/69784/prop=data/1y2401t/69784.pdf

To sign the petition:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/let-women-ski-jump-in-2010

To support and fund the U.S. Women Ski Jumpers:
http://www.womensskijumpingusa.com/

The IOC's response to the BC Supreme Court ruling:
http://www.olympic.org/uk/news/olympic_news/full_story_uk.asp?id=3064

Amenda-Ming Chen
Aon Consulting
WIN- Los Angeles