How to Be a Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador: Everyone's Role in Helping All Feel Accepted, Engaged, and Valued

By Celeste R. Warren and Kenneth C. Frazier

Using a proven three-part framework, this book shows how anyone-from a CEO to frontline employee-can play a pivotal role in creating a diverse and welcoming workplace.

Creating a diverse workplace needs to be an ongoing effort, not just the subject of occasional training. As Celeste Warren says, needed change won't take place unless all employees feel that they have a role to play in creating the culture they would like to see in their organization.

Regardless of what position you hold, you have the ability to impact change and create a more inclusive environment. Anyone can commit to becoming an unofficial Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador in his or her organization. Warren offers a straightforward three-stage model:

Become aware of your strengths, weaknesses, and conscious and unconscious biases.
Take an inventory of your surroundings: what is getting in the way of there being an inclusive environment in your organization?
Develop a personal action plan.

Depending on your position, the actions you take can be as simple as consistently raising DEI-related issues in staff meetings or as far-reaching as leading an Employee Resource Group or developing a new hiring policy. In separate chapters, Warren offers specific advice for chief diversity and inclusion officers, C-suite leaders, first-line managers, human resources practitioners, and individual contributors. This book features examples, exercises, and practical tools that show you how to assess where your organization is at and develop a purpose and strategy that can make diversity a workplace reality.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9781523001477

Celeste R. Warren

Celeste Warren is vice president of the Global Diversity and Inclusion Center of Excellence at Merck. Prior to joining Merck in 1997, Warren worked for nine years in human resources at Kraft Foods and General Foods. She has been honored with many awards, including Black Enterprise's Top Executives in Global Diversity and Inclusion, Savoy magazine's Most Influential Women in Corporate America, Women's eNews's 21 Leaders for the 21st Century, and Diversity Woman magazine's Elite100 List. She is also a member of CNBC's Workforce Executive Council and World 50's Inclusion and Diversity Impact Community.

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Cover: How to Be a Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador: Everyone’s Role in Helping All Feel Accepted, Engaged, and Valued

How to Be a Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador

Copyright © 2022 by Celeste Warren

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

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First Edition

Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-5230-0145-3

PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-0146-0

IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-0147-7

Digital audio ISBN 978-1-5230-0148-4

2022-1

Cover design and illustration: Sophie Greenbaum. Author photo: Aliza Schlabach Photography. Book producer and text designer: Leigh McLellan Design. Copyeditor: Kate McKinley. Proofreader: Mary Hazlewood. Indexer: Ken DellaPenta.

I dedicate this book to my parents, who taught me what it means to be a leader in times of adversity, and my family, who have supported me throughout my journey.

When Celeste asked me to write the foreword for her book, I immediately said yes. During my decade-long tenure as CEO of Merck, I was one of the few African American CEOs in the Fortune 500. I understood what it was like to be different. I understood what it meant to see the world through a different lens. That lens came with different perspectives, ideals, beliefs, and challenges. It also came with opportunities; opportunities to contribute to creating a diverse and inclusive environment around me.

The value of diversity is not new to most companies. Fundamentally, most businesses are about meeting the needs of their customers. In no uncertain terms, we see more and more each day that we live in an interconnected and highly mobile world where diversity, shaped by globalization and technological changes, has become the fabric of modern society.

At the same time that we’re more diverse, there is also increased polarization. We’ve seen a resurgence of ideals and perspectives in the work-place that make it more challenging and dynamic than in past decades. We have to ensure that we leverage the diversity within our organizations so we do not stifle organizational innovation and productivity and leave employees feeling disengaged, powerless, and disenfranchised.

So, what will it take to lead a more diverse workforce in the future? How can we create an enduring and tangible culture where everyone feels welcome and empowered to do their best work? How can we leverage the differences in our workforce to drive growth and innovation?

In Celeste’s book, she shines a light on the fact that everyone has a role to play in order to drive not just diversity but also greater equity and inclusion throughout the organization. Both in the public and private sector, it is becoming more important for individuals to understand the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion and the role they can play to drive a more equitable and inclusive environment. Diversity and Inclusion Ambassadors are needed throughout organizations at every level for there to be true progress.

Diversity and inclusion in the workplace cause all employees to feel accepted and valued, which contributes to high retention rates within organizations. They also allow us to harness the talents of all our people at a time of significant volatility and change, when companies need their full engagement and creativity in order to build a more resilient and sustainable future. Whether one is a senior leader, a middle manager, or an employee who does not manage people, all of us are important in developing an equitable and inclusive culture.

This book will provide individuals with specific guidance on how to leverage their abilities to create the culture they want to see—where everyone can feel engaged and empowered.

I think we all agree that a company’s fundamental driver for success is its workforce. As leaders, managers, and employees, it is incumbent upon us to help move our companies and our society forward rather than leaving gaps of opportunity and social disharmony for future generations to solve.

Kenneth C. Frazier

Executive Chairman, Merck & Co., Inc.

It’s just so overwhelming. I don’t know how I can be of any help.

I had just completed speaking at a conference and was walking off the stage. A short break in the conference followed my talk and I walked into a small group of attendees waiting to ask a few more questions. A young woman broke from the group and asked if she could talk with me briefly. I knew from the look on her face that it was not going to be a brief encounter. The look could only be described as desperation, as if I were her last hope. I listened empathetically as she introduced herself and quietly asked her question. Thank you for your talk, Ms. Warren. You’ve been able to work with leaders to drive change within your organization but I find myself in a situation where I want to do more, but I don’t have the abilities that you do and I’m not at the level that you are to be able to drive change. What can I do?

It’s a statement that I have heard frequently throughout my career as a diversity and inclusion leader. It’s not uncommon for individuals to feel powerless in the face of trying to make a difference. They might feel encumbered by an out-of-touch manager, uninspired by the company’s leaders, or worse yet, the environment in which they work is one that does not empower its employees. Together these factors cause a barrier that can be challenging for employees working toward diversity and inclusion, but it is something that certainly can be overcome.

As difficult as it may sometimes appear, in any organization everyone must play a role in creating a diverse and inclusive work environment. It doesn’t make a difference whether you work in a small company, a large company, a for-profit, a nonprofit, a government agency, a private company, or a public company. All employees must feel that they have a role to play in creating the culture they would like to see where they work, or the needed change will not happen.

Regardless of what you do within your place of work, you have a role in creating change. You may be an employee who does not manage people, you may be a first-line manager, you may be a senior leader, a human resources practitioner, or a person whose role is to lead diversity and inclusion within the company. Everyone has to play a role in driving diversity and inclusion across the workplace.

A very wise mentor once told me years ago that the only thing that is constant is change. The ability to either drive or impact change is an advantage. In addition, having resilience to weather change is also critical. The changes we have already seen in the importance of diversity and inclusion to organizations, governments, communities, neighborhoods, schools, and society in general are only going to amplify in the future.

I think it is important for people to know that the increase in diversity, equity, and inclusion is not something that is going away. It’s not a crisis that you can weather by simply keeping your head down and waiting for it to go away. It is a part of who we are as individuals and its growing importance is highlighted in a few ways.

First, there are several global trends in diversity and inclusion that will impact all organizations in the future. The workforce of the future is going to increase in diversity globally, across all dimensions of diversity. Each generation is more diverse, more interconnected, and more blended culturally than any generation before it. The global migration of people from country to country also contributes to a more globally diverse workforce.

Second, economic inclusion will continue to grow in importance. Economic inclusion means that all consumers have access to safe, affordable financial products and services. Companies will need to understand the role they play in ensuring that their products and services and external partnerships contribute to closing the gap of financial inequality that exists across the globe due to political, economic, and social conditions.

Third, corporate social activism will increase as a competitive advantage for companies. Years ago, topics such as religion and politics were not openly spoken of in the workplace. Also, corporations focused almost wholly on the bottom line, with social responsibility relegated to their philanthropic efforts. In this day and age, those unspoken rules aren’t tenable in the workplace. In fact, with the awakening we see in the workforce and in the world, they aren’t even possible. Employees and candidates want to know they are working for a company that has the same values and standards they have as individuals. And social responsibility has moved beyond the Corporate Responsibility department within companies. It has moved into the ledger sheets and annual reports as a bottom-line consideration, given the impact of a company’s reputation and brand on shareholder value.

These trends are shaping the future of diversity and inclusion within companies and have amplified the importance of diversity and inclusion. They have an impact on employees throughout the organization, even if those who believe they can just shut their eyes and wish for the discomfort of discussions of diversity and inclusion to just go away.

I was speaking at a conference recently and during the audience question and answer portion, a young woman shared that when she comes to work, some of her co-workers shy away from discussions about diversity and inclusion. She said they don’t feel that these issues should be talked about in the workplace and they talk with the management teams to shut the conversation down. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon in organizations. The issue of diversity, equity, and inclusion is not going away. Companies are simply microcosms of the entire nation and the whole globe. The demographics of the world are quickly evolving, and the issues employees face in their respective communities do not simply vanish when they step through the doorways of the places they work.

Leadership capabilities that may have made one successful in the past may not be enough to ensure success in the future. During this time of employee awakening, leadership skills have evolved beyond just understanding your organization’s financial performance, and now include understanding the people who are driving that performance and understanding them in a much deeper way than in the past.

The workforce and workplace of the future are going to be different than we