Skills-based hiring and workforce diversity are important when it comes to performing workplaces. When we focus on hiring based on skills rather than just traditional qualifications, we open the door to a wider pool of talent. How can we make these practices more widespread in our workplaces?
In this special episode, I’m joined by Maria Putnam of the DEI Leadership Institute and Stephanie Knight, the CEO of Colorado Inclusive Economy. We discussed the upcoming event on October 11 at the Hyatt Aurora, the 2024 Annual Summit. We talked about the event overview, partnerships, mission, and the progress and challenges in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Don’t miss the date—join us! See you there!
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2024 Annual Summit: Collaboration of Colorado Inclusive Economy and DEI Leadership Institute with Maria Putnam and Stephanie Knight
Welcome to Action’s Antidotes, your antidote to the mindset that keeps you settling for less. As you probably know if you’ve listened to some of my other episodes, I’m based here in Denver, Colorado, and probably about half of my guests are in the area and I do like to promote events that are happening in person, especially events around the things that people around town are doing that they’re passionate about. As you know, Denver’s a city with a lot of passionate energy, a lot of people that are starting things up, a lot of people that are putting things together, a lot of people that are thinking through the world and how we can kind of even improve upon humanity, to get a little bit woo-woo and high level. One such event coming up in October, I believe in October 11th, is a partnership between Maria Putnam of the DEI Leadership Institute, who you probably already know from one of my earlier podcast episodes, and Stephanie Knight, the CEO of Colorado Inclusive Economy.
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Maria, Stephanie, welcome to the program.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Yeah, glad to be on.
Well, let’s, let’s start out by talking about the event in October 11th. What are you putting on? What you were exposing to everyone? And what would people expect if someone might be interested in such an event?
Yeah, well, the event is going to be in October 11, as you said. We’re going to be hosting this event at the Hyatt Aurora and we are expecting to have 350 people from all the industries. So, this is a really good event to go and to meet leaders, actually, who are really proactive and working in diversity, equity, and inclusion.
I would just echo what Maria said, it’s going to be a wonderful event. It is on the 11th, it’s 8 AM to noon, and so, again, it’s going to be two distinct tracks of learning with two separate sessions each and we have engaged wonderful subject matter experts to lead these sessions. They’re highly topical and things that are on people’s mind, like diversity and AI, again, healthcare, inclusion, and scarcity. We’re also going to talk about some legal things, not too deep, but talk about with everything that’s happening in our larger world around diversity, equity, inclusion, how can companies stay the course and stay safe legally so it’ll be a lot for everyone. So excited to host with the DEI Leadership Institute and combine audiences. So we’re really excited about it.
And what type of audience are you specifically looking to reach in this event? Is this the CEOs? Is this other leaders, division heads, more kind of small business entrepreneurs? Is there anyone in particular you’re looking to reach more with a lot of the advice that you have for these companies?
I will say all together, you just said business owners, CEOs, students, people who’s actually doing the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion at whatever capacity they are.
Yeah. It’s open to the public. Colorado Inclusive Economy is a membership organization so we engage C-suite leadership and their teammates and what we call learning journeys. And so, again, it’s open to our community as well as the public at large as well as DEI Leadership Institute affiliates so we want to see a good cross section of everyone who finds this to be of interest. Again, there’ll be a lot of learning. So, again, no matter what stage or phase you are in your leadership or your journey with diversity, equity, inclusion, there’ll be something that connects with you and resonates with you when you attend.
Now, tell us a little bit about Colorado Inclusive Economy. What is the organization all about and how do you operate?
Sure. Yeah. So Colorado Inclusive Economy was started in 2020 in response to the activities around George Floyd. As you know, we all kind of witnessed together collectively something that was very disturbing publicly and, again, it spoke to many communities and many persons, specifically in the leadership community. So we started out with a faithful five or seven Colorado companies, prominent leaders who authored a letter of commitment to participate in making Colorado the most inclusive economy in the nation. As I said, it’s a membership organization. We’re up to nine cohorts. We have hosted 180 companies through our curriculum and program, engaged 130,000 employees, and what we do is a series of learning journeys. So, they’re typically eight sessions in length, 90 minutes in duration, and each one is led by a subject matter expert. So we tackle some tough and courageous conversations, do a lot of learning, and then last year, we launched additional pathways that are very specific so they’re deeper dives of learning. So, they include topics around supplier diversity, workforce development. We actually developed a leadership equity guide based on the eight prevailing attributes of an equitable leader. So that’s a little bit about the Colorado Inclusive Economy. We are local. We are growing statewide. We do have a high representation of Denver metro companies at this point but we do engage folks across the state, and that’s growing. So that’s a little bit about us.
And what does an inclusive economy look like?
An inclusive economy really is where every member of our state is participating and they’re actualizing what we would call a good paying job, which is a little subjective, but, again, it means a job where there’s upward mobility, where there’s ongoing opportunity, where there is a good living wage for you and your family and household, and, again, stressing on opportunity. So, to attain inclusivity, we really need to see folks from all areas of our community, again, our BIPOC community and everyone, reaching some opportunities within organizations of good salaries, again, benefits and bonuses and incentives and ongoing training and professional development. If you look at a mid-management role for some of our communities of color, there is a disparity of about $15,000 to $20,000 between black and brown communities in a management role versus those in the white community. So, again, some good work to be done. Again, similar skill sets, education, and background but there is a difference in the salary rate.
Now, in the roughly four years since all this was started with the George Floyd murder that we all saw, has, in your view, any meaningful progress been made in Colorado or nationwide?
So, again, that’s subject to debate and it’s quite a topic of discussion right now. We’re in the backdrop of an election so DEI is being very interestingly messaged by some members of our community in our nation and certain parts of the country, to be an honest, so it has taken quite a hit. Again, those like Maria and her Institute and folks that we align ourselves with in the Colorado Inclusive Economy want to stay the course, they want to continue this work. This work really does fall under the umbrella of change management. When you’re looking at things that we’re talking about, there are very, very substantiated business case for having a diverse workforce, which bubbles up into a diverse economy. If we don’t have all the minds and hearts and belief systems around the table, we will not be able to reach, when you think from a business standpoint, if you’re trying to engage a market and you have a product or a service that you want to get to the masses, again, you need to have voices from every community, from every background, from every age range at the table because that informs how you roll out your products and services, it informs what you offer, it informs your pricing, your marketing strategies.
Diversity, equity, inclusion needs to be paramount and as important as something like your business strategy, your market strategy. Share on XAnd what we’re seeing with our companies is, again, them really committing themselves to the course of our learning journeys and our programs but also having a little bit of pause around, again, maybe how public they should be about the work they’re doing, given some of the negative publicity as well as some of the emerging losses that have happened with very forward-leading DEI companies. So they want to stay the course, they’re good participators and supporters, but they do have some concerns but they believe in the business case, which is really important.
Now, Maria, we talked on this podcast a few years ago. People heard about your story in starting the DEI Leadership Institute, we talked a little bit about what’s going on and how there’s some controversy around DEI and some people having some negative perceptions of it. How do you personally persevere through that and stay the course and continue to do the work and continue to believe in what you’re doing, even when you hear or, say, read some articles or see some things on social media that you know may not be the most positive responses?
Well, that’s a great question because, yes, unfortunately, we have bad news and things people are doing with DEI but we stay in the course of keep educating people.
I think education is, first, is a human right Share on Xand as an educator myself, I don’t see a better future than keep just doing what we do and keep moving forward, regarding of what’s going on, regarding what’s happening in the news. It’s very encouraging for us in the Institute to see people who’s really making changes in their organizations, regardless of everything that is going on. And it’s very affirming for us to see more and more people getting the education and going through the program. I am amazed, for example, to see the project for change, because part of the certification requires a project for change that actually has to be aligned with the organization’s values and I really like to see how we just have the opportunity to work with very brave leaders who are willing and do all the work to disrupt sometimes even cultures and to establish strategies to make change. So, yeah, just keep doing what we do, just keep educating people.
And since you’ve worked with a lot of different people from a lot of different organizations since we talked a few years ago on the podcast, is seeing those stories and seeing those specific examples of, okay, this organization, these two, three people or even just one person, went through the course and now they’re doing this and seeing how the organizational culture changed, is that one of the key tenets that keeps you going, even when any aspect of it gets tough, because it’s not just news cycles and stuff, when it comes to pursuing our businesses and anything like that, there’s going to be so many different ways, uncertainty around clients, attrition of clients, there’s so many things that can really discourage anyone pursuing their passion so is that one of the things that really keeps you going? And even when you have a day that’s hard or even a week or a month that’s hard, let’s just be honest, we have months that are hard, that keeps you going and say, “Okay, this is why I’m doing it. This is what I’m seeing and this is why I need to push through it”?
Yep, absolutely. It’s people don’t giving up. It’s those students who actually, even when they have – even when they actually change jobs or they make big changes in their lives, I hear from them, and they just keep doing the work. Sometimes, they leave companies that they don’t support the work that they do at DEI. That happened a lot this year, but they come back to share with me that actually they implement their project for change in new companies. So that is very inspiring for me. And remember also that we are not only working with students here in Colorado. Right now, we have 35 states that we have students so people from everywhere, because the certification is online, and we also have students from Africa and from UK so it’s so interesting to me to see the applications and the results that the students are having abroad, pretty much at the global level.
Do you have any favorite results or favorite examples of an organization that really underwent a positive change in their workplace culture?
Yes, actually, I have one that I really love. So we have a school, a district, the leader of the school district actually enrolled in our program. When she came, the superintendent, she actually came and she wanted to change the whole curriculum on literacy. And then, later on, actually, she came to me and said, “Maria, you know what, I think I’m gonna change my approach with the project for change because every single time that I have a meeting with the HR and I follow up with some new hires, I always follow up and what I hear is that it was not a good fit and when I hear that it wasn’t a right fit really got me intrigued.” So she completely changed her project for change and actually she did an amazing job with incorporating new approach in the hiring and retention on the school district in California.
Nice. And, Stephanie, are you seeing some similar types of stories or some similar types of change and progress in your member companies, your member organizations, as you kind of continue to work with them?
Yeah, absolutely. So, one thing that’s so great about this particular pairing and partnership this year is, Maria did it last year with her Institute but CIE is doing it this year for the first time, is we’re giving out two awards, very unique awards, a subject matter expert award, that’s been part of Colorado Inclusive Economy for a long time, and then also acknowledging a member standout, and our members stand out and I’m sure they would not mind us sharing is Pinnacol Assurance. That’s the largest workers’ comp provider in the state. Again, they have multiple employees. They have really, really, really walked every tenet and best practice of diversity, equity, inclusion. Really proud to have them as a member. One thing they’ve embraced in particular that lives in our workforce pathway is skills-based hiring. So, in addition to refreshing all their posts and job requisitions, they have made them a skills-based leaning so degree could be present but it’s not the priority, skills are. They’ve also adopted a platform that’s highly affordable from a small company to a very large company like theirs where they administer a diagnostic through the candidacy process as well as for internal candidates who want to seek a supervisory role or management role or director. And this has really kind of reset their culture, because there is a lot of debate about folks with certifications and certain skills versus those who are degreed. But, again, their data is very compelling and they have really moved the needle and changed their culture with some of their hiring management team as well as their executive leadership team that hires some of the positions themselves because with this diagnostic, the skills are so prominent that they’re capturing don’t require degrees to do some of the work. So now that’s ushering in opportunities for individuals that wouldn’t have had those opportunities before. That’s kind of just changing, again, the culture, the mindset and the belief system around hiring, which is highly impactful and powerful. And then IMA is another financial services company who has been with us since the beginning as Pinnacol. And IMA, financial services, and it’s not a Charles Schwab but Charles Schwab-esque, where they hang their shingle and they engage folks and clientele in financial services to do financial planning and resources. Typically, our communities haven’t – black and brown communities haven’t been involved in those opportunities at the level as some of our counterparts in other communities so IMA has made a commitment in addition to, again, their recruitment and their hiring and their professional development, they’ve actually worked with a third party company that coaches individuals, nontraditional or persons of color, that want to be in the sector to really make sure that they’re successful because they have to actualize networks and resources differently because they may have not gone to Harvard or Yale or Stanford or Princeton and have that outreach of alumni of which they can solicit their peers and counterparts for financial service planning and so they have taken it upon themselves to get an outside coach, third-party individual that helps guide, foster, and develop those individuals and developing their social capital and their network so they can be successful. So those were two standout organizations that we work with at CIE that have really adopted these best practices and principles, which is encouraging. And you asked Maria what keeps us going, what’s the juice, what makes it something that we stay aligned with and it’s very purposeful for us, and I will say a lot of it is seeing the companies and their trajectory and their commitment but it’s also talking to some of our young people. I have a 20-something-year-old. I call them the “we want to burn the house down” generation. They are very bold about how they approach life and what they want to see from employers and what they want to see in this life and their work experiences. Second only to salaried benefits, they want to know that a company is DEI centric and socially responsible, and that’s different than when I was coming through, I’m sure when Marie was coming through, about what we expect out of an employer experience so that’s exciting to me, because this generation wants to change things and really work with purpose and be in environments and companies that support social reform, social change, diversity, equity, inclusion. So that’s really encouraging and it keeps me grounded to know that this work we’re doing is highly impactful when we have those tough days and those tough conversations and we hear a lot of the public flutter out there about diversity, equity, inclusion, and so I think that’s just important to share.
As I mentioned before, hard times are going to come in one form or another. Anyone out there listening, you’re pursuing your goals, your objectives, your missions, what you’re passionate about, something’s going to be hard. You’re going to be confused. You’re going to have an angry client. You’re going to have an angry vendor. You’re going to have something disrupt technology. There’s a whole host of things. And it’s often been said that the people who succeed are not the people who are luckiest at first but the people who persist and so everyone needs to tap into that thing that causes them to persist when you’ve been kind of almost isolated from whatever your initial purpose was, let’s say you’re around a very different minded group of people that really don’t like the whole “burn it down” thing. And one of the things I really love about the “burn it down” generation is also the emphasis on work-life balance, mental health, and our life holistically. I think there were some times in the past where people were expected to have their identity around their jobs and that’s something that I wish my generation did a better job of because we recognized it, we just lost our shit, for lack of a better way to put it, when the 2008 market crash came and we were just entering the workforce, and, all of a sudden, it’s like, okay, what are we going to do? And now we got people that are like, well, we don’t care about all this, we want to have a life. We want to have a full life. We want to have that balance, or even work-life integration, as some people put it. When it comes to this merit-based hiring or some of these other hiring practices, does there need to be some sort of a weakening of some of these old favoritism systems, Ivy League schools, I think one of the things I was pointing out was like it’s like legacy admissions make it not really fair the way they even admit students and some people are just automatically in and some people are just not automatically in. And the same thing can happen in some workplaces where people hire their friends or even hire their family, as some people see. So have you had to work around some of that among weakening some of those systems so that this new, way more skills-based or merit-based or whatever you want to call it, can actually kind of take hold?
We have to inform change and update the belief system of leadership, and some of that is steeped in generation and legacy. So, again, it’s not going to roll over easy. But, again, if you are looking at the business case for diverse employees, giving folks opportunity where high skills stand out, again, we look at Y2K and I’m older than you but I remember, we thought the world was going to end, the clocks were all going to change, it was going to be complete mayhem and apocalypse. And what that did, two things, there were already people in the pipeline that were getting these technical IT certifications and others but then it really accelerated because of the need in the marketplace, because everybody, every company, was panic stricken about what was going to happen, not having enough tech talent around the table to mitigate or offset this huge change, whatever was going to happen. And so certifications became very, very lucrative as a business model but they were also what employers were using as go-tos to solicit talent, to hire talent, and retain talent, and folks could stack tech credentials. And so, again, this is not off color or something we haven’t seen before, some industries used it a lot more than others, but, again, it’s very prominent in tech industry and you can make a very good salary, I joke, my husband’s in tech and he’s always made more with his certifications than I’ve made with my degrees and being a nonprofit leader. Companies and employers were very warm to these certifications in the tech sector. We hire folks overseas with these certifications, we employ folks in our local footprints with these certifications, and this state, I will say, is really emerging in terms of statewide apprenticeship and certification programs. There’s a real commitment across the state to get folks certified and to get them in work-based apprenticeship programs so that they can experience good job opportunities. So, yeah, it’s a change in belief system, Stephen. It’s an ongoing education. It’s also seeing the results of hiring these individuals and watching them perform, seeing your bottom line improve and your cultures improve so it all goes together, but it does require some different thinking and availing yourself to that thinking. And, again, no one is here to tear down post-secondary or institutions of learning, they’re very important. I value my college education, it was important. But also, there’s more than one way to approach work. There’s more than one way to literally get the job done and there’s a way to open it up and create a wider net of opportunity for individuals and that really should be the goal.
I cannot agree more with you, Stephanie. I think that’s exactly what is equity and inclusion right there. Because it has all the trades, it has all the colors and when we talk about education, there is not only one way that people learn. That’s why, for example, there is a big question about standardized testing. You have a high degree, you are smart but you have a CD, you are not enough. It says, no, what is the approach? And I think that goes all the way to high executives. There’s brilliant people, brilliant people, there’s different ways that people learn, and that’s one of the reasons why certifications and actually are really working for especially people because focus in one area and help you to get the skills and knowledge in one area specifically that they’re looking for. So, yeah, that’s right there, DEI.
And there’s one thing I want to emphasize that’s very much related to, Maria, what you just said, because I think there’s a lot of people out there that are struggling with being in a place where they don’t fit in, whether it be a different style, a different learning style, an industry that has a style that just doesn’t really match with who they are specifically and emphasizing that there’s not just one way to learn, there’s not just one way to approach work, there’s not just one way to even operate an organization means that anyone out there listening that feels lost, stuck, that feels trapped and feels like they’re underperforming in their particular place, whether it be at a job or even at a business that they started, this might not be all that you’re about. This might not be a reflection on you. It probably isn’t. It’s not a reflection on you, it’s probably that you just have a different style that you need to explore. Maybe there’s a different organization that more matches your values. I have a full bookshelf of all these books that I’ve read because I like to do that. As you know, I don’t like to spend a lot of time in front of screens, social media and stuff like that, so I have a good amount of time to read, and there’s some things I’ve investigated through even YouTube videos but also books and articles and stuff like that where I’ve learned way more about a topic than I have in any kind of formal, standard education system. And so I just want everybody out there listening and anyone that feels that whatever situation they’re in that they’re underperforming, that they’re just not getting it, that this is not all of who you are, and this is not the only thing about you and that is probably a different place if you look deep inside yourself where you’re going to thrive a lot more than you are now.
Absolutely. You just said that’s so right, Stephen. It’s not about you. Yes. Do we have to ask the hard questions to ourselves? Yes, we do, because that’s part of our human progress and process, but also, sometimes, we are not aligned with the values of an organization. Perhaps that’s not the place for us. That doesn’t mean that we are the ones who are deficient. So I think that being kind with ourselves through the process, especially, I always say people who’s looking for jobs and they get rejected and rejected and rejected and I say, no, no, no, no, no, don’t take it so hard, because right now, as you know, there is AI who’s actually hiring people. It has nothing to do sometimes with the qualification of someone. So there are so many elements that play a big role on being hired right now. Maybe they already have someone in mind when they interview. I mean, a lot of organizations, unfortunately, they even post a job when they already have someone who internally has been selected, and that takes a big hold in someone’s self-esteem. So I always say don’t take it too hard. And also, I always say when they go to interviews, interview the people as well in the company that you want to work for because you make sure that their values are aligned and, yes, I think that’s so important to really think that and to know that there are so many different styles out there of companies, working spaces, approaches, yeah.
Now, you both work with a lot of companies at the organizational level too. Let’s say someone listening out there is a CEO, a leader of some kind, what is something that they can take away to be better accommodating of the people that may have different styles within their organization?
Well, again, I think it goes back to really evolving your belief system and availing yourself to change and, I mean, again, at a very visceral level. The way we’ve always done business is not the way we can continue to do business. We’re kind of on a precipice of workforce reinvention. Really, we are. And those who don’t adopt it are going to get left behind. As you said, students take many forms, applicants and candidates take many forms. Again, you should start with things that really connect with you, and as you said, pursue them, look up articles, look at a YouTube video, look at things. If you love photography and you love creating beautiful images, what career paths are those? What are the skills that I need to develop? How can I learn that with proficiency? Who do I know within my network or peer group or my mom, dad’s peer group, whoever it is, that might be someone I can sit down and talk to? My nephew was here, he’s 30. He was visiting with us for a couple of weeks in our household and he is a marketing manager, social media marketing manager for a pharmaceutical company, but he also has a high, high, high financial acumen. I mean, this kid is saving money left and right. He invests in real estate. He’s part of coops. I mean, very evolved thinking. He’s also gone through three major layoffs as a worker by his 30s so it’s really informed how he looks at the world. And so he’s asking me a lot of questions about financial services sector, about opportunities, and it’s wide open. And so, again, use your network. Use something, like your aunt who knows folks that are in the lane. Also Google careers and financial services sector and try to understand what skills you may already have that are highly applicable but also other ones that you need to cultivate and develop. And then, if your why is saving people money, helping people invest, helping communities build wealth, then that’s the why that should percolate into something like financial services and there’s a lane big enough for you to find your purpose. I mean, I started my career in social work, case management and long-term care facilities and healthcare, and here I am now a nonprofit leader and people say, “Well, how did you get here?” So many twists and turns, but the thread is consistent. The thread is consistent for me and my work, which was I always had high empathy and compassion for others, wanted to make things better for them, and wanted to create impact when I’m on this earth. And so that is the thread that has gone through all my work. That could be in financial services, that could be in nonprofit, that could be in a healthcare where I was, but always having staying what’s true to Stephanie and what gets me up in the morning and what I enjoy is what I would seek out. And, again, everybody in my life, from my parents who helped pay for education, weren’t thrilled with social work, it’s not a high-paying career, but, again, it was purposeful and meaningful, but it’s also morphed into so much more that I’ve been able to actualize. So where you start is not where you finish. Keep your mind open to opportunities. Leaders need to do this thing. Very few people work in the discipline that they studied in college so then they need to give that grace to other people that they interview and look at. And I also joke and I’ll share this one last thing, so the interview process has gotten so publicized. I joke with people I’m not an engineer by any form or fashion but I could probably get to a final interview in an engineering firm through YouTube, through all the questions on Indeed and the right answers and responses to do, through recrafting my resume, through my social network and referral stream. That’s where we are today. So, again, you don’t want to show up as an imposter, you want to live in what’s true to you and I think employers have to be sensitive to that. We want folks that bring their heart to work. We want folks that move in purpose. We also want folks that care about what they do.
One thing that I would like to add is one of the things I actually ask leaders is this is the company that you are leading right now, what is the company that you want to see later and invest in what did you want to see?
Does that even go down to our personal day-to-day decisions in life? Because one of the things I think about the economy as a whole is, oftentimes, it responds to what people individually value. And so, when you say invest in what you want to see, does that mean maybe taking a look at our daily decisions, what we choose to invest in, what we choose to spend on, what we even choose to spend our attention to, because attention drives a lot too and say, “Okay, I’m gonna focus more on what I want to see rather than what I don’t wanna see.”
Oh, absolutely. And especially when we talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion, the work start with ourselves, and then you can just take that out to your whole company, but it needs to be a very conscious approach.
And I think it’s a good gage to look at doing an inventory of your time. Where do you spend your time and effort already? What connects with you? What do you invest your time, effort in? And then allow that to be kind of your internal guide to maybe how you pursue additional opportunities, vocations, certifications, job opportunities. I mean, we have, if we sit with ourselves and we, as Maria suggests, raise our awareness, start with ourselves first, we have a lot of information that we don’t need to discard, that is really personal to us if we just listen and spend some time with it, and things will show up. I always tell young people in particular, just start activating. Start activating in certain areas of your life. Things will show up. Some noes will come to you and some yeses will come to you. My dad used to always say part of your career trajectory is figuring out what you don’t want to do as much as what you do want to do and those things will really show up for you but you have to move. You have to engage with others. You have to pursue some study of some form so that those answers will come to you. Get out of your own way in your own headspace is very, very important, and we live in a very, very luxurious time, I’ll use that word of knowledge. It’s highly accessible to so many of us and we should take full advantage of it.
Yeah, absolutely. Actually what you just said remind me, Stephanie, that yesterday, actually, I was listening to an interview that Melinda Gates was actually giving to Michelle Obama and one of the questions that she asked was fascinating. The whole topic was about transitions. And the question was how was the first day after moving out of the White House. And she said it was so liberating to just open my own door, to go to my kitchen, to have neighbors. And that, to me, means a lot. At the end, that’s it. We are the human people. We are those humans who need connection, who feed from each other, who grow together. And that is something, and no matter what level, you call it education, you call it a CEO, corporate, nonprofit, it’s about working together. It’s what Stephanie and I are doing this year. Two organizations putting together a conference. Have their challenges? Yes, it does, but at the same time, it’s working together. That’s the way that we grow.
Yeah.
That’s it. For CEOs, it’s the same thing. Work together because I got to tell you something, it’s a very lonely place. The higher you go, the more lonely you are. So work together with other organizations, with other leaders.
Do you see part of this, the way that we’re transforming our work culture, even how it pertains to some of the generational differences that we’ve discussed or the pursuit in kind of letting everyone be included as well as it would be included as who they are, which I think is the ultimate crux of it, right? Because anyone can just try to pretend to be just like everybody else. That doesn’t feel like real inclusion in most situations. So is that part of the transformation there is kind of looking into some of that?
The transformation of workforce is multipronged. I mean, it looks, again, hybrid, remote, those are components of our world now. Again, post-COVID, companies were telling us or part of their refrain was, well, we can’t have that many people working remotely. Well, we saw how that turned out. Zoom stock went through the roof. We’re all on Zoom. Half of us, I hadn’t even heard of Zoom, I heard of some other platforms but I had now, hopefully, now, Zoom is part of our everyday vernacular so it’s how you offer up the work, the environments that you provide. It’s how you scale the work and make it accessible. It’s also the diversity, equity, inclusion programs that you drive with mentorships and executive sponsorships and apprenticeships, opportunities within your organization. It’s all of those things. It’s even harkening back to, I lived seven years in Mobile, Alabama, and we had a nonprofit down there and one thing that I can say about that part of the country, a shipbuilding, pipe setting, welding, because they have the huge Mississippi, has all the Ingalls and the shipbuilding industry, is they did a wonderful job, ongoing, of promoting the trades. So billboards, radio, TV, there wasn’t a young person that would graduate high school that did not know about a program or an apprentice program of how to get into any of those fields that were high paying and very good incomes. And so, again, employers need to do things like that. You need to market to those people you want to engage. You need to let them know what’s transpiring at your company that’s exciting and new and innovative and how open we are to you bringing yourself to work. Now, again, I also tell young people, work is to work so remember that. It’s called work for a reason, but there is a lot of merit in showing up how you are, how you perform best, in creating that sense of belonging is all part of this evolution of workplace, which, again, is having some generational divide because that is not how I came to work, that was not how I was trained to come to work, not how my dad came to work, and we’re in the middle of a shift, but we have to look at this and, again, we also are global economy, which means there are some parts of the country that are a little ahead of us in doing this and embracing it at a level that we haven’t. So, again, it’s just a really interesting time. It’s a challenging time on some levels, but the potential is just immense for folks that want to work today because there’s so many ways to do it.
It’s how you show up as your authentic self, showing up for, like Stephanie would say with young generations and work, yes, it’s work for a reason. And with technology and working from home, one of the things that we are seeing is people’s skills. As people, young kids, do they know how to communicate sometimes? So there are skills also that they are required in any job. I always talk to – keep all the tools that you need to succeed.
All right. And before we wrap up, I want to make sure that anyone listening has a chance to look into the event, register for it. Where would someone go if, you know, they’re like, oh, I got some time available on October 11th, I’m doing some career exploration, and it would be neat to attend?
Please do. We hope to see them. Yeah, absolutely. So we both have the DEI Leadership Institute in the website that is registration as well as the Colorado Inclusive Economy website, people can just go there and register.
And what’s the website address, in case someone wants to type it in from here?
I will do the DEI Leadership Institute and Stephanie will do the Colorado Inclusive Economy. So, mine is www.leaddei.com.
And we’re www.inclusiveeconomy.us. And so you can find us on the web. Yep, and all the conference information is there, yeah.
Excellent. And that’s the same way to reach, if anyone listening also is interested in any of the programs that you kind of talked about during the episode, the different things you’re going to administer?
Sure, absolutely. Details are about our learning journeys and our programs with Colorado Inclusive Economy are also on the website and there’s contact information for our team members. You can also, of course, complete an info inquiry and we respond very promptly if you have some interest in the organization and have some questions.
All right. And then one final lightning round question for both of you, what can anyone listening do right now in their day-to-day lives to be more inclusive?
That’s a great question. I think that every second our minds make decisions, all the time we make decisions, so it’s that awareness of am I including, even in thoughts, when you think about things, I’m including people in my process of thinking here. It’s as simple as that. We live with our families, and, sometimes, we copilot sometimes, and like, okay, no, am I including these? Even when you put your cup of coffee, just be more mindful. Yeah.
Yeah, I definitely like that, Maria. You definitely want to ask yourself in the company setting, for sure, who needs to be in this meeting, who needs to be part of this project, who needs to be part of this planning so always asking yourself who’s not here that needs to be here and then also really invite yourself into different communities for opportunity. Go to festivals or events or if you have a friend that isn’t similar to the way you grew up or wouldn’t be part of your everyday peer group, I’ll say it that way, then kind of invite yourself in and say, “Hey, I’m curious about this. I heard you talk about this. I’d like to go,” or even just the connection is so important. Again, Maria pointed out, have coffee with someone different than themselves, background, age, where they grew up. A lot of the different things promote diversity and inclusion and, again, don’t silo yourself.
Through this conversation, that is actually something that’s coming to my mind, and it’s do not assume. We tend to assume. I’m not going to call you, Stephanie, because maybe you are having coffee at this time. Maybe you’re like, no, don’t assume. Or maybe you already have – maybe you are not – like, for example, in companies, they don’t have promotion, no, this person, perhaps no because or whatever, it’s like let’s not assume, in general.
Yeah.
That is so wonderful. Stephanie, Maria, thank you so much for joining us today on Action’s Antidotes. Just to remind everybody, the event is October 11th in Aurora, Colorado. You’ll see the information on the websites that were just discussed a couple minutes ago in the episode but the organizations, DEI Leadership Institute, Colorado Inclusive Economy, they’re going to continue about their missions next year, the year after, everything will kind of still be around for anything that you want to engage on. And I would also like to thank everybody out there for listening to Action’s Antidotes, for tuning in, for just being open to the conversations that we have on this show around people pursuing their passions and thinking through things a little bit differently than the standard way, or the way I like to call living by the script.
Well, thank you so much for having us.
Thanks, Stephen. Thank you.
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About Maria Putnam and Stephanie Knight
Maria Putnam is the Co-Founder and Principal of DEI Leadership Institute. She has achieved business success through deep connection with people and cultures. She has more than 20 years of experience supporting effective Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs and initiatives. Maria holds a master’s degree in Community Education and a Principal license from the Colorado Department of Education. She has developed and led inclusive practices for hiring committees, organized global leadership conferences and guided major corporate clients (Comcast, Cisco, Ericsson, Coors, Starz Entertainment) with DEI marketing strategies and campaign execution in reaching target markets in Hispanic, Black, and Asian communities.
Maria has developed leaders through global international studies programs and supported the career growth of minority candidates in teaching, social services, and administrative leadership for Denver Public Schools in partnership with the International School Network and the Asian Education Advisory Council. She has built a strong network in the business community and partnerships with not for profit and social service organizations. She is fully bilingual and multicultural. Maria is a frequent conference speaker and has served on multiple boards including the Global Chamber where she has been a global advisor since 2015. She also serves as the DEI advisor to the City of Denver Global Landing Pad, a business acceleration program that seeks to assist foreign companies to validate their fit with the U.S. market and explore opportunities in Denver. Maria’s work has been recognized and published by the national and international media. In 2019 she was the recipient of the Champion Award for leadership in the Global Chamber and her activities associated with immigrant businesswomen in Denver were the subject of a feature article in the Denver Business Journal.
Stephanie Knight is the current CEO of Colorado Inclusive Economy (CIE) and has been at the helm of the organization since April 2023. As the CEO, with a short tenure of only ten months, she has refocused the nonprofit and created a robust roadmap and strategic plan for the growth and expansion of CIE and hosted one of the most impactful and well attended Annual Summit events (October 2023) engaging a global DEI expert. Her vision for the organization includes more potent learning journey pathways, a CEO annual DEI immersive facilitated experience, a CIE proprietary job marketplace with an exceptional experience for candidates of color, and a CEO Circle that will propel a level of thought leadership for the future of a globally diverse workforce. Stephanie will receive an award in March of 2024 from Women Who Charge- Sisters in Energy a group that advocates, supports, and resources underrepresented woman in the energy sector.