PLANO, Texas–The Cornerstone Credit Union League said it continues to move forward with its diversity, inclusion, and equity plans, with the latest effort an “open conversation with all staff.”
That conversation was moderated by President/CEO Caroline Willard and included a panel discussion with Monica Davy, director of the Office of Minority & Women Inclusion at NCUA, and Ronaldo Hardy, owner and chief diversity & inclusion officer at CU Strategic Planning.
According to the Cornerstone league, Davy and Hardy helped lay some foundational building blocks during the discussion. “It is critical when doing this diversity and inclusion work that you make sure at the foundation that you are connecting with the business,” Davy said during the online discussion.
Hardy describes an environment where employees speak frankly.
“To see results, you must have a culture of candor, and this is where organizations get scared,” said Hardy, according to the league’s report. “They don’t really want people to speak what they feel. I think that candor also has to be combined with respect. I think a candid environment helps organizations move to becoming more inclusive, and it helps improve performance.”
What Research Shows
Davy and Hardy further cited decades of research that show that companies that have racial and gender diversity outperform homogenous organizations by two to one.
“It (the data) demonstrates that when you have diversity, companies perform higher,” said Davy. “You have a higher level of engagement, and it impacts your profits and your bottom line.”
The Cornerstone league said another key topic during the discussion was “unconscious bias,” with Davy saying it is one of the biggest inhibitors to DEI.
“Let’s say I work with someone like Ronaldo,” the league quoted Davy as saying. “He wasn’t a great boss. He was pretty rough with me, and he didn’t treat me fairly. So, the next time I interact with someone who reminds me of Ronaldo, my brain is going to say, ‘Be careful. This person is not going to be fair to you.’ That’s the way unconscious bias works. You make decisions based on what your brain is telling you. So to mitigate that, you need to catch yourself. Slow your brain down from making that judgment before you make a mistake.”
Why Some Feel Ignorant
Hardy told the meeting that sometimes people might feel ignorant because we don’t have enough exposure to difference. “For example, you may have been told a particular area of town is dangerous. As an example, I am from Baton Rouge, and people told me that New Orleans was scary. They may have been focused on the crime there. So, even if we were driving through New Orleans, I would view it as a scary place. When unconscious bias becomes dangerous is when someone in power makes decisions through that lens. Then we could be excluding people as a result.”
Diversity is not easy and can be uncomfortable, the league report noted.
“It’s more comfortable to surround yourself with people like you,” Davy said. “Tension brings good results. If you want to get to better results, it’s better to surround yourself with people who are different than you or who have different ideas. By establishing an inclusive team, you solve business problems.”