Reality

Building deeply innovative organizations should replace the more simplistic view of creating organizations that are technically innovative, but perpetuate a toxic and destructive company culture. Too often this is ignored until legal, financial or public relations consequences are in hand. As a result, innovation in brand risk management still, in most companies, has to expand beyond this limited framework to assess and address toxic and destructive problems. Brand risk management is still primarily viewed through the lens of risk aversion and exposure to legal liability, and innovation is primarily understood exclusively through the lens of technological innovations. This is how the obvious blind spots remain present in the cultural mindset and become institutionalized. Alternatively, those who embrace the importance of including diversity in fostering innovative organizational cultures reap its rewards.

• 85% of CEOs whose organizations have a lived diversity and inclusion strategy say performance has improved.

• Highly inclusive organizations rate themselves 170% better on innovation

• Improving organizational cultures means less absenteeism from employees

• These organizations also have higher employee retention

• Intentionally encouraging inclusion makes companies 45% more likely to increase their market share.

Step Up: obstacles and challenges

Innovation requires the ability to see things in an unexpected way. Bringing together unique perspectives from different backgrounds is often the catalyst for forward-thinking solutions, and this is where the inclusion of diversity is required. Furthermore, research shows that innovation requires an environment in which all ideas can be considered regardless of their source. Opposition issues generally manifest as lawsuits and public embarrassment on social media following people within an organization acting on their own personal bias. Despite having policies that denounce discrimination and prejudice, companies like Hilton, Starbucks and Toyota have paid a lot this year … both in real dollar terms and in the lost equity that brands had built in previous decades. At the same time, even some of the tech industry’s movers and shakers have been dethroned by reports and allegations of sexual misconduct and discrimination.

So why do we see this over and over again in companies that have policies that promote inclusion and respect?

Because the people within your organization, the ones who literally define what the organization is in real terms, have not (in too many cases) been able to identify their personal bias and choose a better course of action to experience personal growth transformation.

What we have had are corporate cultures shaped by societies that still struggle against the legacies of oppression and exclusion.

The cost of the status quo on innovation

Because business decisions are driven, in many cases, primarily by profitability and risk aversion. This is part of the flaw in that approach to brand risk management and one of the reasons innovation is so much needed sooner rather than later.

There was an experiment in which a resume with a name that sounded black received half as many callbacks as the same resume with a name that sounded blank, even when it was sent to corporations with a strong reputation for diversity. Technology has made the world smaller and has also increased transparency in many cases. Given that diverse perspectives have been clearly established as key to innovation, what is the value to be gained when discrimination is essentially normalized?

“There is a price to pay for discrimination in the workplace: $ 64 billion.

That amount represents the estimated annual cost of losing and replacing the more than 2 million American workers who leave their jobs each year due to injustice and discrimination. “

Okay, Michael. “Discrimination in the workforce is costing businesses $ 64 billion every year”

What is more difficult to determine are the impacts on discriminated people. The waves set in motion continue as evidenced by the current state of affairs. Looking back at the technology sector which is typically where people turn to get an idea of ​​what is on the cutting edge of innovation. There are disturbing consequences, beyond the obvious, of the toxic and discriminatory tech culture seen in places like Silicon Valley.

“If we don’t do this now, all this prejudice and discrimination will be rewritten into the algorithms, artificial intelligence, and machine learning that are powering the technology of the future. Already, facial recognition technology is basically sexist and racist. It recognizes women. and people of color in the same way that he recognizes white men. That’s very important. “

McGrane, Claire. Emily Chang on Silicon Valley’s ‘Brotopia’ and How Businesses Can Address a Toxic Culture

The past is connected to the present. Today is the basis for the long term. And since the response of various leaders is often a band aid approach, progress has been slow and painful. The truth is that hearts and minds cannot be legislated by outside forces, new policies and laws will have painful limits. The way forward is deeply personal, as all of the outcomes mentioned here arise from a deeply personal place within the people involved.

The solution

The simple solution starts with the leaders. Smart leaders must embrace personal innovation in order to lead by example. Policy statements or diversity training that make things worse or provide short-term solutions no longer pass as solutions. Too many studies have shown that these approaches don’t work. But a leader who shows the courage to step up with personal innovation can cultivate a significantly innovative organizational culture that seems to naturally increase market share, implement products and services that lead their industry and play a vital role in creating a better world.