Today’s Workforce is not Tomorrow’s Workforce

Presented at the Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce Diversity Summit: October 8, 2013

Before we begin today, I would like to publicly thank Molly and Barry for their very gracious invitation.  I would also like to thank the Chamber for their good work in our region, and I would like to particularly applaud them for the theme of this conference.  A topic which implies “diversity” or, put another way, working towards a goal of “inclusion” and “equal opportunity or access” for all God’s children is not just a moral or ethical imperative; it also makes good business sense in my opinion.  And, while I’m at it, I have a confession to make.

When I first received this invitation, I did what many of us often do and I immediately concluded that I just didn’t have time to do this.  And I don’t; and likely, neither do you.  But when Molly invited me a second time by suggesting that I was somewhat of an “expert” on the topic, then I knew that I had to accept; not because I’m an expert and hopefully not because I’m exceptionally vain person; I’m blatantly not an expert, nor do I claim to be and, well, the vanity; we’ll leave that to the historians.  The point is, I need to work to become conversant in the issues we’re talking about because I’m a leader at the University of Dubuque, and as one of our area’s larger employers, I need to be more aware…as do all of us in this room…in this community…and beyond.

So I began my thinking about this presentation by recognizing that I’ve got some really smart and passionate people on our campus who know much more about this topic than me, so why don’t I go to school on them? Which is what I did.  I’m asking them to help teach me while I, hopefully, also help teach them, and I’ve invited my “teachers’ to be here today.  I hope that you can meet some of them and maybe even hear from them; some of our students and faculty/staff members because they’re really great people, and I’m proud to be associated with them.  Because the reality is that, at the end of the day, we, all of us, know far less than we think we know, and there’s something very peculiar about this topic that maybe makes us a little reluctant to express our inadequacies in the first place.  Any talk about race or inclusion in America seems to be…is…a very, very difficult thing to do.

One of the things that I have learned in my own classroom, and this is no news flash, is that I am a big, Caucasian (white) male, and as a big, Caucasian male I have a defacto place of privilege in our culture; a privileged place by virtue of my birth.  It’s not a privilege that I’ve earned or worked for; it just simply is, and as I am immersed in that privilege over the past 54 years, it impacts how I see the world; or don’t see the world; what I do and don’t do; the decisions I make, and the positions I take.  I am affected, as most all of you are affected, in ways that are such a part of the air I breathe, that I don’t ever think about them.  And, importantly, it impacts how the world sees me.  Yes…I’ve worked hard.  I didn’t grow up in a wealthy family; in fact, I grew up in a challenged environment.  I paid my own way through college, and seminary, and graduate school.  I have more education than any human being should have, and I have the ability to speak and write about things that only a fraction of the world’s population has any idea of what I’m talking about.  And because of all of these things, or despite these things…I occupy, and most of you in this room occupy, a position of privilege, a peculiar position of insight or knowledge in our culture that influences, mostly without our intent, all that we do…all that we are…all that we want to be…all that we expect of other people, how we treat other people; particularly people who may be different from me.  It’s an unwritten code; and most of the time, it’s something of which we are very unaware.

So when I think of “Tomorrow’s Workforce,” or “diversity,” or “inclusion,” I think that I’ve come to learn that all people are really asking…those who aren’t like me, that is; all the people of “Tomorrow’s Workforce Which is Really Here Today” are asking if they are female, or from an underrepresented ethnic culture, if they are lesbian or gay…all that they’re really asking is this:  they’re saying that we’d like to be able to come to the party as well; we’d like try to experience the privilege, the knowledge, the point of view that is yours. And we’d like you to try to experience the knowledge and the point of view that is ours.

I really think, at a very elementary level, that’s what people who are other than me are asking.  “We’re simply asking for a place at the table.  We’d like to learn about you, and we’d like you to learn about us. And we also need to know…that you know…that we’ve been wronged.  Now, given that, can’t we work together to figure out how to love one another; respect one another; care about one another by virtue of the fact that we are, all of us, human?”   And in the process, in the process of making each one of us better people, and improving the quality of life in our community, in the process, we just might have a really, really good shot of making this a good environment for business as well.

So what can we do?  Well, I have a few suggestions.

In my theological tradition (and I know that I might be treading on sensitive ground here, so please bear with me!); in my theological tradition, we believe in confession; open, loud enough for the world to hear confession.  None of this teeny-weeny-keep-it-all-to-yourself intimate confession.  That’s too easy!    One of the ways that I recently experienced that kind of loud confession was in a workshop that I was able to take part in hosted by one of our staff members, Mishereen Ellis.  There were some very probing exercises that we participated in together that made all of us very uncomfortable.  What we learned, together, though; I’d argue, what we confessed together is that, at our core, we all harbor elements of racism, or sexism, or homophobia.  As human beings, there are some of us who are more outwardly demonstrative about our bigotry than others, but it’s here…. deep inside all of us…uncomfortably inside all of us…you and me.  And what we learned together is that we have to begin by owning that fact; that little theological fact I would argue.  But we also have to come to understand that it doesn’t have to own us; it’s not necessarily determinative of our future, in other words.

So, after we’ve owned the fact that makes us uncomfortable we can, secondly, commit to not being defined by that fact.  In other words, we can do what we’re doing here today.  We’re gathering together; meeting, and talking and learning about a topic…an issue…a challenge that affects all of us, albeit in different ways.  But why are we gathering together?  Is it because it’s a good lunch?  Is it because our employer expects us to gather; to be engaged in our community?  Why “here” when we have so many other opportunities to pursue or places to be?

Fundamentally, I believe, we’re here because there’s also a little something inside all of us that says we can do better.  We’re also here because each one of us is a “difference maker” in our own sphere of influence.  The other way to say that is that we’re all leaders.  Noted sociologist James Davidson Hunter in his book To Change the World helpfully reminds all of us that leadership isn’t restricted to the likes of Presidents, CEO’s, professional athletes, or Army Generals.  Rather, for Hunter, each one of us leads…within our own sphere of influence and, for most of us, that sphere of influence begins with those closest to us.  As everyone in this room certainly knows, racism and intolerance are not something that most of us are taught in a classroom.  No, not at all.

Racism and intolerance are often absorbed behaviors and attitudes that develop around the proverbial kitchen table which is what Rodgers and Hammerstein expressed through the lyrics of the tune “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught” in South Pacific the last stanza of which reads:

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,

Before you are six or seven or eight,

To hate all the people your relatives hate,

You’ve got to be carefully taught!

You see, we don’t come out of our mother’s womb as bigoted, hateful, terrible human beings.  Though in my theological tradition we believe in this little thing called “sin,” or “human depravity,” behaviors like bigotry or intolerance; the acquisition and knowledge of racial epithets, or slurs because of one’s sexual orientation all first begin among family members; among classmates at school.  They are absorbed.  They are behaviors and attitudes and beliefs that are formed in our environments; in the cultures in which we live, and play, and work.  And if you’ve learned anything in your role as a son or daughter, parent, grandparent, employer or employee, you’ve learned that culture matters.

As President of the University of Dubuque, I am, of course, responsible for many, many things.  But my first responsibility is to do all within my power to influence our organization’s culture so that it is in alignment with our organization’s Mission.  More than anything else, my primary responsibility at the University of Dubuque is to facilitate the kind of culture…the kind of ethos…that our Mission invites us to be; a culture where, in our case, the Mission reads “…we aspire to be a community where diversity is appreciated and Christian love is practiced.”  Practiced.  Practiced.  You see?  What does practice imply?  It suggests that we never get it quite right.  That if we want to improve, we have to keep working at it, and that in working at it, we will get better.  Practice is an extremely important word here; I’d even suggest that we might want to think about it as a virtue.

So, how can we impact culture in our own sphere of influence?  Think about that.  How do you influence the culture of your organization?  As a leader, are you setting the tone where “diversity is appreciated?”  Are you finding ways to make your organization more welcoming to those who may be different from what has been the dominant culture in your organization?    I am positing that our primary responsibility as leaders is to establish the kind of environment, the kind of culture in which we recognize that tomorrow’s workforce is, in fact, here today.  It’s not a thing of the future.  It’s not something that is coming down the pike.  It’s here.  The world, in all of its diversity; in all of it’s complexity; in all of its potentiality is here…now.

So what can we do?  Well, I have three suggestions that are more like training wheels getting us started in learning how to ride a bike, but here they are:

Suggestion #1:

“Be kind to people.”  That sounds kind of simple, doesn’t it?  Be kind to people.  But as leaders and as employers you should know that the kind of tone that you set in your organization is the kind of organization that will be created.  Be kind to people.  Be genuinely interested in their lives.  Take the time to learn their stories; to understand what makes them tick.  Admit your faults, not in a manipulative way, but in a human way.  Confront the difficult topics in your organization with kindness and courage, and don’t bury them, or let them go underground.  And work to have a special sensitivity for people who aren’t like you.  Try to see the world, just a bit, anyway, through their lens.  But understand this: if you look like me, understand that our privilege affords us the opportunity to enter into these discussions if and when we want to.  As one colleague rightly pointed out to me, “Jeff, you and I have a choice.  We can choose to be engaged or we can disengage any time that we want to.  But students of color don’t have a choice; people of color don’t get to choose.  They must engage every single day if they want a prayer of making it in our society.”  Work hard to understand what that difference means in your organization.  Kindness goes a long way in helping to understand what makes us different, and what makes us similar, and it builds the kind of culture that people from most all backgrounds want to invest in.

Suggestion #2:

Listen.  Though it sounds trite, there’s a reason why God gave us two ears and one mouth.  Listen in your culture to what is said…and particularly to what is not said.  If you establish a climate of kindness and generosity, compassion and caring, your people will begin to open up to you and to each other.  They’ll begin to tell you what’s on their minds; what they like about their work environment and how they believe that that environment might be improved.  If it’s a healthy culture, they’ll want it to stay a healthy culture, and if you’ve demonstrated that you don’t’ have all of the answers but believe that, as an organization, many of the answers to challenges lie within the people of the organization; well, you’re going to facilitate some healthy, productive, committed, appropriately competitive employees.

And finally, suggestion #3:

Always, always, always tell the truth.  In other words; be honest.  Tomorrow’s workforce, which is really here today, has a very, very intolerant B.S. barometer.  If I’ve learned anything from being around a very eclectic, diverse, energetic and engaging group of people over these years it’s this:  you don’t need a Ph.D. in Psychology to know whether the organization’s leaders are being truthful; are operating in an honest way.  Be daring enough to be appropriately honest about your strengths and weaknesses.  Encourage a culture of healthy honesty.  I’m not suggesting a culture where everyone hangs out his or her dirty linen. Rather, be truthful; be honest in acknowledging that we can do better, that we don’t have all the answers, particularly as it relates to this topic. And communicate that you’re committed to being the kind of place…the kind of culture…where, together, we can thrive.

My colleagues will tell you that I am certainly no expert on this topic, as I’m not an expert on a lot of topics.  I do know, though, that the members of “Tomorrow’s Workforce Which is Here Today” want at least two things in their work environment; two of the things that, I hope, are evident the minute every person steps foot on the campus of the University of Dubuque.  They want to know that their lives matter; that their work matters; that they matter.   In other words, they want to know that they are valued as human beings.   And, secondly, they genuinely want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.  All that the members of tomorrow’s workforce which is here today are really asking for is a chance to be at the table.  They want to earn their way.  They want to contribute to the success of the organization.  And they want to be respected and be respectful as human beings.  Many of us in this room occupy a position of enormous privilege and influence in our respective organizations, and in our community.  Whether we understand it, I believe that we have benefited from that position, and we now have an opportunity to extend that privilege, that knowledge base, to members of one of the most amazing and complex demographic shifts that our country has ever known.  We can continue to be part of the problem or, with grace, confession and humility, we can pay it forward, and can become part of the new tomorrow which, as I’ve already suggested, is here today.

That’s the opportunity that lies before us in this community.  And, from an “n” of one, I hope that we continue to pursue it.