Diversity Exchange

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

 

 

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 at Combined

In 2006 and 2007, the African American Networking Group (AANG) and the Asian Pacific Island (API) networking groups have been working together to strengthen the program offerings to the staff members at our 5050 Broadway office in Chicago. Our efforts have included co-sponsoring and jointly planning several activities for the Combined employees at our location. This year, we have already delivered the following activities:

• In celebration of Martin Luther King's Birthday, the African American Networking Group (AANG) in conjunction with the Asian Pacific Island Networking Group (API) distributed bookmarks in the 5050 building lobby on January 15th to recognize Martin Luther King Day and the Start of World Wide Impact Week. Posters and flyers were placed in key locations throughout the building on Friday announcing the event.  During the lunch hours AANG and API hosted a tribute to Martin Luther King and the AON/CICA commitment to Diversity in the recently renovated 3rd floor cafeteria conference room.  This tribute included an audio visual presentation of the "I Had a Dream Speech", along with various exhibits from the AON Knowledge Exchange site conveying the messages of Greg Case and Corbette Doyle. We also featured a first time "Diversity Cookie Table".  There were over 170 staff members involved in the activity across 20 departments. A special thanks to Richard Stanek for his creativity in presenting a visual and audio display of the King speech (people are still asking for copies of the video).
• In honor of Black History Month, the African American Networking Group sponsored two events at 5050 during the week of February 19, 2007.  These efforts were co-planned with API. To kick-off our celebration, there was a Storytelling Event in the Broadway Conference Room located in the cafeteria seating area on Monday the 19th during the lunch periods. Various floors participated by decorating the bulletin boards around a black history theme.  Some suggested themes were distributed to the AANG members to use as a guide in their creativity. The second event was a Black History Trivia competition; eight teams of four people competed during two lunch sessions. All of the scheduled events were planned around the lunch hours to avoid interfering with productivity.
• In May, API sponsored an event that featured David Lum from Motorola and he shared career development strategies and ideas with members of API and AANG. He encouraged or groups to continue to grow together and we took his advice.
• In June, we (AANG) launched a Toastmasters group for Combined that will include members of both AANG and API for the 5050 location.

I would like to thank the leadership of AANG (Kim Waller and Talethea Best) along with the leadership of API (Maria Simon and Alison Sagami) for providing me with the venue to grow the staff here at 5050. I would also like to mention several special resources that continue to share the spirit of inclusion through networking (Darnella McClaney, Mi'Chaela Mills, Richard Stanek and Elaine Tam). Times are changing but one thing remains the same, we can get nothing done without good people, committed leadership and unrelenting passion. I have been lucky enough to work with some really good leaders within the Aon/Combined family and they are very passionate about the opportunity to develop our unmatched talent within the company.

Brian A. Coleman
Director
Operational Control Management
Combined

Strengthening Our Corporate DNA by Diversity

When Bernie Fung asked whether I would represent Asia Pacific on the Aon Diversity Board I had some serious misgivings.

Intellectually I understood the importance of this initiative however, emotionally I was not sure whether I was the right person.  On the face of it my background, as a white Anglo Ex South African, is hardly the best credential for the job even though I was lucky enough to have been brought up with the belief that the prejudices that existed in South Africa would always hold back a wonderful country from becoming a great country. These prejudices militated against applying the richly diverse population towards nation building.

I also struggle with the idea of positive discrimination and compromising meritocracy for the sake of political expedience.

My misgivings about representing the Asia Pacific on the Global Diversity Board evaporated after some serious thought as to what "Diversity" is really all about. Diversity is as much about absorbing different skills, qualifications,cultures and personalities into our corporate DNA as it is about gender and race. The concept of diversity and a meritocracy are in fact complimentary rather than exclusive. After all how often is an appointment made because the candidate went to the "right school" rather than because he or she is the most talented person for the job. This realisation was the tipping point for me. My understanding of diversity is more eloquently outlined in an article by Judith E Katz & Frederick A. Miller entitled "Organisations Aren't Raising the Bar High Enough". They state, and I quote:

" Diversity is not just about having a workforce that looks different...It requires people who think differently about organisational processes and products:valuing different points of view as constructive rather than distracting, understanding the importance of visible leadership and recognising that when people feel compelled to suppress parts of their identity they cant bring their talents and perspectives to the table."

We have a relentless focus on Client and Talent in Aon both of which in my view will not be properly served without a culture that celebrates our differences. The Aon Leadership model has elements which cannot exist without diversity, particularly the elements of "distinctive client value" and "development of unmatched teams". The changing demographic of our client base, our potential talent pool and increasing complexity of our service offering is such that failure to recognise the value of diversity will have the same effect as in-breeding. Aon's corporate DNA will weaken as we hire "clones" of ourselves and Aon as an organisation will be consigned to the ranks of the mediocre. Last time I looked this was not part of the game plan.

Malcolm Steingold
CEO
Aon Re Asia Pacific

Gays No Longer Miss Best Jobs

A colleague recently asked me why Aon had a GLBT networking group.  In particular, they wanted to know if it meant Aon wanted to hire more gay and lesbian employees.  The answer?  Yes. 

The reason?  We want to hire the best talent, we want the best talent to want to join Aon, and once they get here, we want them to bring their talent, their creativity, and their authenticity to work every day to help us build a more successful, more client responsive, organization.

And, we’re not alone.  Two recent articles highlight the focus, particularly on Wall Street, in attracting GLBT talent.  The first is an article on Bloomberg, a traditionally very conservative industry that has been difficult for women and minorities to break into and flourish.  For those seeking to understand what it's like to be in the proverbial "closet", Lisa Kassenaar does a nice job of profiling a few individuals and what it was like for them before and after the cultural change. 

The second article from Time Magazine outlines why coming out can help make gay executives better managers.  Andrea Sachs expands this point by relaying information from the recent book by researcher Kirk Snyder about why gay executives are prospering.  Coming out of the closet isn't always risk free but the rewards can be tremendous.  The "pink ceiling" still exists but it continues to fade as GLBT employees bring their authentic selves to the workplace, including Aon’s workplace.

Corbette Doyle
Chief Diversity Officer

Mentoring Question from Inaugural Diversity Webcast

Question: What metrics have been established to measure our progress in achieving success in the area of diversity?
Kim Waller, Chicago IL

Answer: The old adage, “what gets measured gets managed” certainly applies to diversity.  On the other hand, we don’t believe; (1) that “quotas” are the best way to create a high performing, inclusive environment, or (2) that forcing unattainable goals on our leaders will help them build a more diverse workforce.

However, more progress needs to be made. So, we’re taking a different approach – and using some of our own consulting talent to do it.  We are building a “flow” model based on our historical representation data that will help us evaluate alternative strategies for improving the diversity of our workforce.  From those “what if” scenarios, each of our senior executives will establish business goals that will become part of their performance criteria.  This will give us meaningful metrics by which to chart our path to a more diversified workforce and measure our progress.

Corbette Doyle
Chief Diversity Officer

Guidelines to blogging at Aon

When I was asked to contribute a few tips for blogging at Aon, I wasn’t sure how much I would be able to add, since there’s already a fairly comprehensive guide (handily located in the list of links on the left). However, having blogged in the past, I thought I’d share a few rules of thumb that I like to stick to:

Respect your audience and your coworkers
Yes, a blog is conversational. However it shouldn’t be an abusive conversation. We welcome relevant comments, positive or otherwise, but please refrain from attacking ideas, individuals, or organizations. If you wouldn’t say it to someone’s’ face, it doesn’t belong on a blog.

Add value
As in everything, posts should add value to the discussion. Be honest, passionate, and knowledgeable about the subject matter. Blogs are successful as a medium because authors forge meaningful relationships with their consumers. Blandness and blogging are a horrible mix

Be who you are
Although some bloggers might prefer to post under pseudonyms, we encourage contributors to honestly represent who they are and if they work for Aon. Nothing screams controversy in the blogosphere like dishonesty. Always be transparent about vested interests you may have in a particular topic, while being intelligent about protecting your personal information.

Aon’s blogging guidelines cover a lot what you need to know as a corporate blogger. But if in doubt ask a manager.

Matt Singh
Online Marketing Coordinator

Why Should I Care?

“What’s with all this diversity stuff anyway? First Aon makes a big deal over appointing a chief diversity officer (don’t we have enough chiefs in this company already?). Then, we all get “invited” by Greg to watch a global diversity Webcast. Now you want me to read a diversity Blog? What’s the big deal? Aon’s  a meritocracy. If you’re good enough, you can go anywhere in this company.”

I’ve heard comments like this more than once lately.  I say, great.  I’m all for meritocracies. They work well when talent supply exceeds demand.  The question is:  what happens when you flip that coin and have too many jobs chasing too few people? You don’t think it’s a problem? Think again.

Global demand will exceed supply next year for the first time in decades.  According to AARP, the time the last baby boomer reaches retirement age, France, Italy and the UK will see their workforce decline by 7% and Japan’s will drop by a whopping 15%. Even the US, with one of the highest growth rates, will have a shortage of 35 million professional workers.

So hiring the best talent won’t be enough. We have to retain and nurture all of our employees. We have to offer opportunities to grow and encourage people to reach out and ask for help. But we isn’t the executive suite in Chicago. It’s all of us, from Atlanta to Montreal to Zimbabwe.

What can you do to help? Continue to recruit broadly in the communities where you live and work. Build an inclusive environment that encourages your peers to bring their authentic selves to work. And provide role models and mentors to our peers.

Check back soon to learn more diversity tips and about ideas you can use – like how to establish a local diversity council or employee networking group, how to access diversity training or flex strategies, or for tips for an upcoming business trip to China.

Corbette Doyle
Chief Diversity Officer