Suddenly Anything is Possible

Cook Ross 2011 Year-end Thank You and Highlights Letter

Dear Friends & Clients,

As we come to the end of 2011, the words that come to mind are “thank you.”  This has been an amazing year. We turned 22. In a tough economy, our revenues grew by 25% and our staff grew by 50%. We flexed our creative muscles and led transformative trainings, launched powerful new products, worked with extraordinary clients, and gained many new partners.

The commitment of our clients to transform their organizational cultures in order to improve diversity, inclusion, cultural competency, employee engagement, and productivity is the driving force behind our work. We are very aware of how fortunate we are to continue to be able to do the work we care so deeply about with people all around the world.  As 2011 comes to a close, we thank you for your ongoing partnership.

Stay tuned in 2012 for the launch of our cutting-edge Unconscious Bias online course and the announcement for our first Unconscious Bias Learning Lab, April 11-13, which will be an opportunity for participants to take a deep dive into a fascinating and critically important subject.

For those of you who are interested, here is a sample of the things we’ve been up to:

Client Engagements

As you know, we greatly value our enduring partnerships with our diverse and impressive clients.

• We gave Diversity, Inclusion, and Cultural Competency presentations at Delhaize America/Food Lion, VivaKi, New York Times, U.S. Department of Treasury, Accenture, Freddie Mac, Kaiser Permanente, Fannie Mae, The Home Depot, Association of Newspaper Editors, National Science Foundation, Veterans Administration, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, National Security Agency, Baystate Health, Booz Allen, Prudential Financial, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FEMA … among the 97 client organizations we worked with this year.
  
• We facilitated multiple sessions on the Impact of Unconscious Bias on Hiring Practices for the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which were both live and broadcast across the nation.

• We are very proud of our 21st Century Leadership Academy, which is a cohort leadership development program we conducted with four organizations this year: INOVA (in its seventh year), Wellstar (going on its second year), AARP (just beginning), and the Executive Leadership Institute hosted by Leadership Greater Washington.

•  In addition to our annual Diversity and Inclusion presentations for the Applied Physics Lab, we had the pleasure of working on several other projects at The Johns Hopkins University. We facilitated retreats for the University’s Office of Government and Community Affairs and the Urban Health Institute, and Howard Ross gave a presentation on Diversity and Inclusion for JHU’s incoming freshman class and one for a campus wide Diversity and Inclusion Symposium.

• We facilitated presentations on Diversity, Religion, and Spirituality for the staff of Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

• We conducted organizational cultural assessments for AARP, Liberty Bank, and other clients.

• We developed a pilot program for Diversity and Inclusion training for BNY Mellon Corporation.

• At SiriusXM, we facilitated a Diversity and Inclusion training for the staff, and conducted focus groups to develop a more comprehensive organizational transformation program for the radio company.

• We designed a program on Civility & Bullying in collaboration with The George Washington University.

• Our global work includes: ARLA in Denmark, Riksteatern in Sweden, an Executive Female Leadership Program at Novartis in Switzerland, and a presentation at the World Diversity Leadership Summit in Austria.   

• We also delivered keynote speeches at clients such as Actelion, Memorial Hermann, Physician Assistants Education Association, and U.S. Securities Exchange Commission. In addition, we headlined presentations at the World Diversity Leadership Summit in New York, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Linkage, the Multicultural Forum, and the Diversity Woman conference.

Highlights of Growth

• We are very proud of the creation of our Advisory Board, which includes a number of highly esteemed professionals from a variety of areas of expertise.
  
  
• Leslie Traub changed positions from President to Chair of the Board & Chief Consulting Officer, and our former Executive Vice President of Business Development, Michael Leslie Amilcar (a new mommy in 2011!) is now managing the organization as our Chief Management Officer.  

• Armers Moncure joined us as Vice President and Senior Consultant. He brings to Cook Ross and our clients a passion for the intersection of employee engagement and diversity, and over 15 years of experience in training, business development, and organizational transformation.

• Bobby Joe Smith joined us Business Development Associate. He was a 2011 New Leaders Fellow at the Center for Progressive Leadership. He completed a Public Policy and International Affairs & Law fellowship at the University of California at Berkeley and an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College. He is proficient in Lakota, the language of the Lakota Sioux tribe.

• Minjon Tholen joined us as our Training & Development Specialist. She has a Master’s Degree in Gender & Women’s Studies from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and an undergraduate degree in communications from University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. She is currently a Pipeline fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, a new platform for young professionals to advance their big ideas for progressive change. She was born in Sri Lanka and is fluent in Dutch.

• Anne Ferrier joined us as a Coaching Consultant. She is formerly the Cultural and Linguistic Competency Coordinator at Sarasota Partnership for Children’s Mental Health. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and a certified personal and executive coach. A native of Suriname, she has lived in numerous countries and is fluent in four languages.

• Nicole Martin joined us as Office Coordinator and “Chief Fun Officer.” She is formerly a travel agent and a master of paying attention to details. She lives on a farm and is a professional choreographer.
• Robby Gregg, our former Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Alliances, has assumed a new position as Associate Director of Equality & Diversity Partnerships at Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), and also continues to help coordinate our external partnerships and relationships.
• We also had the pleasure of welcoming interns from Maryland, Florida, The Netherlands, Rwanda and Kenya.

Transformative Products

In addition to our best-selling tools such as the Cultural Communication Guide, the Diversity Toolkit, and CultureVision, we developed some new and exciting products:

• This year was especially exciting for us with the publication of the book Reinventing Diversity: Transforming Organizational Community to Strengthen People, Purpose, and Performance, written by our Founder and Chief Learning Officer, Howard Ross. In his book, Howard presents interviews, personal stories, statistics, and case studies to explain why most diversity programs fail – and how we can make them work by transforming organizational cultures. As he argues, only through challenging our own preconceived notions about diversity can we build a productive and collaborative work environment in which all people thrive.
• We published the Disability Etiquette Guide, which conveys critical information to increase employees’ confidence that they are being courteous, but not condescending when interacting with people with disabilities. The Guide supports readers in identifying key barriers that, when unknown, may compromise inclusion, trust, and cooperation, and in questioning assumptions and judgments about all people—not just people with disabilities.
• We also created the Unconscious Bias Workbook, a transformational tool that engages readers from across the entire workforce spectrum in a process of education, exploration, self-analysis, and action planning. It is designed to help reveal personal and organizational values and norms, where those values come from, and how they impact the quality and effectiveness of our business and talent management decisions.
• We are also happy to announce that Cook Ross’ publications and consulting, organizational assessment, training, and facilitation services are now listed on the GSA schedule.

And, of course we jumped boldly into the social media sphere and encourage you to follow us and dialogue with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

We thank you again for your continued partnership and shared commitment to diversity efforts in your organization, and wish you joyful and relaxing holidays, and all the best in 2012 and beyond!

Best regards from the entire Cook Ross Team...

Howard Ross, Leslie Traub, Michael Leslie Amilcar, Laura Malinowski, Armers Moncure, Anne Ferrier, Howie Schaffer, Caitlin Saunders, Minjon Tholen, Bobby Joe Smith, and Nicole Martin

 

Examining Our Biases--Reinventing Diversity

For the past year on this blog, there have been a variety of articles that have discussed everything from athletes and steroid use (or denial of usage) (A Cheater is Just a Cheater 10/8/07) to political figures caught in scandal and our examination of them (Room for Compassion) to hate crimes and our often passive or indifferent attitudes towards them (Let's Stop Pretending). A common thread to all of these articles is the underlying question of:

How can we understand bias when we are unable to see it in ourselves?

It is in fact one of the critical questions that we are leading with as we stand, share, and deliver our work in 2008 and beyond; we are in the process re-tooling, re-framing, and Reinventing Diversity.

We are excited about sharing conversations about our personal/individual biases and those found within the organizations that each of us are a part of. We are in anticipation of exploring with our clients and others how organizational and individual unconscious biases intersect and interact with each other and the transformational possibilities and organizational growth potential that can be captured from thorough exploration of our underlying assumptions about the world, ourselves, our clients, and one another--our colleagues.

In 2008 we are Reinventing Diversity with you. We encourage and invite you to join us for one of our web seminars starting again in January. In all of our web seminars you will see examples of unconcious bias and we hope to share and expand our learning with you. Visit our website at CookRoss.com to register.

Thank you for a great 2007 from me, Amri, on behalf of the Cook Ross Team! We are looking forward to a transformational 2008. Make it a Great New Year!

Values (based/driven/added) business

Whew! Between new clients and a little time off we have not written for a while, but we are back today talking a little about value and values in business. Of course, there is a lot more to cover than what is below, but I will touch on it a few times over the next couple months in various forms.

I have been giving a lot of thought to the idea of what we mean when we say "value added". In the process of a sales conversation, it is used a lot. I hear "value-added" and "at the end of the day" as two of the top two cliches used when a vendor is talking to me. I use them myself, too (unfortunately. . .I do my best not to over use them along with "win-win". . .I am on jargon watch constantly!). What has come to me recently is the question of how one actually defines what a value added benefit actually is.

In the April 30 "American's Largest Corporations" (the Fortune 500) edition of FORTUNE magazine one of the columnists discussed some of the trends for large corporations being environmentally and socially conscious. He mentioned Dupont and their environmental concerns, GE and their Ecoimagination initiative, Starbucks buying "fair trade" coffee at above market prices, and the money that Gap and Nike spend monitoring their global supply chains for compliance with labor standards. While he touted the benefits of companies taking a position of responsibility for global environmental and social concerns, the author's (Geoff Colvin) intention was not to praise these companies.

In fact, he talked about the potential challenges companies taking this position could have if these initiatives (which many are positioning as company core values) that are right now cost centers on paper with little to no tangible ROI, need to be cut if profit margins drop. What does this do to the ground work laid? Is this really so much a part of who they are now that cutting the programs is not an option?

The article also clearly laid a foundation for one to consider the idea of values based or values driven business. Many authors and business people have theoretically and practically talked about and have practiced this concept for years. However, the platform for doing so has not been as visible and communicated as well as we are now seeing.

In the aftermath of the WorldCom, Enron and other corporate scandals, companies are recognizing that their bottom line is affected by their values, truly affected. My observation of the past was that many companies had their values attached to their mission and vision, but were not externally investing in the values that they puported in those written statements. I am sure some companies are still in the process of aligning internal mission and external action. I have spoken to people in the job market that are actually looking for this alignment and weary of companies when they don't see. In fact, they go into job interviews with at least one, but often a series of questions probing to discern where companies stand in making the alignment happen. And if they get an offer and weigh it against others, the responses to their questions are considered in their decision.

While not all would agree to what corporate intentions are around the acts that could connote values-based business, the sentiment amongst many others including prospective employees is overwhelmingly positive. Take Google for example. For the past 3+ years this ubiquitous (in less than 13 years) company started by a couple gen Xers has been touted as the best place to work in the country and high potential and performance candidates all over the world are in their talent management system database. Why? Well, no one can say exactly, but if you read about them and note everything from their comprehensive campus where you can have the meal of your choice prepared the way you like to having facilities to train for a triathlon, you have reason #1.

Then you have the reflection of values that came from their IPO-inclusivity. Now, they made boatloads of money from that IPO. More so, they created tons of good will with the public that could not be measured by dollars and cents immediately, but given stock growth since then, it is safe to say that the good will and values translated into bottom line growth. Does this mean Google is values-based or driven intentionally for the sake of the bottom-line or because it is who they are or aspire to be? I don't know the answer to that. In fact, I don't know that answer for any company who shares their goodwill publicly. Quite frankly, I am not sure if it is the question that is most important.

What I think is probable however, is that whatever the rationale, the effort to go beyond business as usual to present the concept that doing things that benefit humanity benefits your company short and long-term is a worthwhile and viable direction for businesses. I see it as a growing trend especially as the leadership of companies changes/blends generations.

So, what constitutes value based/driven/added where our work in inclusion and cultural competency is concerned? Stay tuned and if you are so inclined, send me your thoughts.

The Virtues and Diversity of a Messy Desk

I was reading the in-flight magazine of AirTran Airways the other day and found an interesting article on the merits of having a messy desk.  In fact the author quotes a research study that I found surprising:

“Only 11% of those earning $75,000 or more claim they are ‘neat freaks’,” says Bernadette Kenny, senior vice president of human resources at Adecco North America in Melville, NY. “Perhaps this is because they are in higher positions and are inundated with more work."

This may be true or not.  For me, it is more of a diversity conversation.  Some people have clean desks that reflect their personality, personal style, and attitude that adds richness to the environments and workplaces they reside in.  On the other hand some people have less clean desks which reflects, not the diametric opposite of clean, but instead the virtues that accompany "strategically" oriented piles and placements of papers and possible solutions to a challenge.

Now, I am not trying to make excuses for having a messy less clean desk, but I am saying that those that are clean should not be treated differently than those who are less clean (desk-wise that is).  I cannot say if I would be more productive if I had a clean desk most of the time because I have had both clean and less clean.  Now while I have had more less clean than clean, I have a pretty good idea of my productivity with both. In my case, I have crafted a poem about it:

Once had a really clean desk;
I couldn't take the stress.
My instinct struck, things went amuck:
Once had a really clean desk.

Twice had a really clean desk,
the stress was nonetheless.
I got to working my mind a churning:
Twice had a really clean desk.

Third time my really clean desk:
really, I had no stress,
but couldn't mind my "never can finds"
There went my really clean desk.

Once had a really clean desk
Now, I can confess:
my desk is messy but I'm not stressed see: :-)
I just say "what the heck!"

If you want to read more about the good, bad, and the ugly of a messy desk, you can read the story at this link

http://airtranmagazine.com/contents/2007/05/messy-desk/

Sometimes Statistics Don't Lie (Part II) Howard Ross

I was with Dr. Mahzarin Banaji at Harvard last week. Dr. Banji is one of the creators of “Project Implicit,” an extraordinary long-term project (at least 10-15 years), which is collecting incredible data about the subtle and invisible impact that various forms of difference have on human beings. She and her researchers administer a series if psychological tests called the "Implicit Association Test," which will tell you whether you prefer one group to another. I recommend that you take some time and take some of the tests. I also warn you to be prepared...you may be surprised by what you find out about yourself. (https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/)

Project Implicit is not the only place these kinds of results are showing up. Sam Sommers and his colleague Keith Maddox at Tufts have shown that people make courtroom decisions in ways that are similar…rejecting black jurors with the same resumes as White jurors they accept.

Ian Ayres, a Professor of Law and Economics at Yale has done several of these kinds of studies, the most well know of which is probably the car sales study that Malcolm Gladwell wrote about in his brilliant little book, “Blink.” While at the University Chicago in the 1990s.

Ayres sent a group of actors and actresses out to buy cars. . .Until next time.  Stay tuned and Send comments if you are so inclined.

Sometimes Statistics Don't Lie (Part I) - Howard Ross

Statistics.

We treat them as if they are sacrosanct…as if they tell us the “truth.”  But the “truth” is that statistics can tell a story that’s not the whole story. Yesterday I was reading in the newspaper that our national unemployment rate has dropped to 4.5%. “Historic lows,” the paper read. Clearly the economy is getting better, except…

What the article, like seemingly all of the articles that I’ve read about unemployment lately, didn’t say is that unemployment among African Americans is 2-3 times the national rate. Now, to anybody with his or her eyes open, this should come as no surprise. It’s not much different then the fact that so many more African Americans are below the poverty level; that so many fewer own houses; that so many more young Black men are incarcerated; that African American rates of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and virtually every other major disease are higher then those of Whites.

And we need to realize that it is no accident. The pontifications that we hear so often about people “taking responsibility for their own lives” are not enough. Yes, of course people need to take responsibility for their own actions, but it is much more difficult to do so when you have an entire culture that communicates to you, and everybody else, every day and in all kinds of ways that you’re not as good as other people.

Yes, of course things are better then they once were, but the fact that some people survive, or even thrive, does not justify the fact that many more then their share, do not. While these dynamics play out across a panoply of differences in our society, I want to focus here over this and a few different blog entries later on how they play out between Blacks and Whites, because, I assert, that relationship is still the primary laboratory for race relations in the United States.  We still live in two distinctly different Americas. 

Stay tuned for more on Statistics. . .

We are officially in the Blogosphere

There is so much to talk about that we decided that we would start a blog.  My name is Amri and I would like to Welcome you to the Cook Ross Blog, Suddenly Anything is Possible.  Please drop in regularly (or just sign up for our feed) for notes and quotes and other things we wrote or are writing that may be exciting or boring, but hopefully informing you of what's "Out there" in the world of possibility.  Of course, shoot us things that float your boat or shipments of ideas.

We will talk diversity, cultural competency, change and resistance to it, leadership, work and life and balance, and expanding our perspective and respective lenses of what is and can be.  We will talk about the possibilities for you, your organization, and some days the world, to create a vision that approaches your ideal.  Whatever you are into, we know it touches on what others that live, work, and play in the places we touch are experiencing, and we want to hear from you.  You will definitely be hearing from us. 

Stay tuned!