CM 209: Joan Williams on Practical Solutions for Diversity

Imagine that fewer people are buying your organization’s product or service. It’s a shift you didn’t anticipate. To fix it, you study the data, identify the problem, and then take steps to address it.

Your plan may include changes in marketing or team incentives. What it won’t include is doing nothing or trying to turn things around with one grand gesture.

Yet that’s how we often approach meeting diversity, equity, and inclusion goals.

Joan Williams is author of the book, Bias Interrupted: Creating Inclusion for Real and for Good. She’s a Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings College of Law, where she directs the Center for WorkLife. For decades, she’s studied structural inequality in the workplace.

What she’s learned is that the most successful organizations treat diversity as a business goal.

I wanted to interview Joan because she offers a fresh perspective on the topic. Through her work, she’s identified the most common ways bias shows up in organizations. She’s also figured out how to make bias training more effective. Finally, she’s learned which question to ask to determine an organization’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

After listening to this interview, I guarantee you’ll walk away with lots of new insights.

Episode Links

Bias Interrupters

Why Companies Should Add Class to Their Diversity Discussions

A Winning Parental Leave Policy Can Be Surprisingly Simple

How One Company Worked to Root Out Bias from Performance Reviews

Data-Driven Diversity

Implicit Association Test

Class Advantage, Commitment Penalty: The Gendered Effects of Social Class Signals in an Elite Labor Market

The Maternal Wall

Matrix by Lauren Groff

 The Team

Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.

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