The end of the year provides an opportunity to take a moment — or a few of them — to relax with our colleagues and friends. Hopefully, this involves deep reconnections after having spent time focusing on the success of the organization and refocusing on the success of the relationships. With that in mind, many of us have been working quite hard on building connections with new people from one of the varying areas of the Diversity, Inclusion and Bias (DIBs) Big 9 — Age, Differing Abilities, Gender, Geography, Politics, Race, Religion, Sexuality, Socioeconomics — and those new relationships deserve to be celebrated as well.
Consider taking this time, as the holiday season gets into full swing, to invite a celebration of new connections. The last few years have been tough on many of us. In fact, some relationships were stressed to and past breaking points. Restaurant leaders — already burdened with staffing shortages — were being asked to respond to the impossible questions of “why can’t you find people of this group or that group to hire?” when finding any one at all seemed all but impossible. On the other hand, other relationships that barely existed a few years ago now have a depth and breadth that would not have been imagined. This is a function of the hard work that people have put into including one another in their work, their stories, and their lives. Highlight this hard work. Celebrate these new connections. Show how reaching out to include a colleague is how you intend to operate and grow as an organization.
There are leaders at restaurant support centers who have reached out to team members to wrap them into projects and teams in deeper and more meaningful ways, and the resulting products and ideas have been more innovative and creative. This is a story you need to tell. To be plain, it speaks directly to the business case for DEI work, and some of us need to hear this a few more times. Even more of us need to see DEI work celebrated as a win for the organization in terms of business metrics, in addition to and outside of “it’s the right thing to do.” Whether you’re in operations, HR, marketing, IT or executive leadership, chances are you have faced a DEI challenge and you have made significant progress. It is time to tell the story and celebrate. And if you happen to be in a place where the work still seems heavy and you cannot quite see the light at the end of the tunnel yet, that is OK. Tell that story too.
The holiday season can be a touchy time and the term hospitality can take on different meanings based upon how you worship, your ethnic background or what part of the country you live in. The holiday season has been quite tough in the past; we can make it less so. As an organizational leader I encourage you to enter the fourth quarter with celebration on the mind. Focusing on the relationships, the results — and, yes, the ROI. We need to market and advertise the work, the time and the resources that have been put into the DEI space. When in doubt tell the story, including the tough moments. Take the time to claim the wins — all of them, even those that seem small and insignificant. Then consider new goals for the future and set sail for the new objectives for 2023.
AUTHOR BIO
James Pogue, PhD is a consultant in the areas of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity. He’s the founder of JP Enterprises and believes that sharing the results of his research with leaders and decision makers is his way to be a catalyst for positive change