Scaling Conversations

CHAPTER 11Scaling Conversations in Action: Diversity, Inclusion, Mental Health, Equity

Now that we've gone through how to scale conversations by meeting people where they are at, asking great questions and overcoming obstacles to synthesize and disseminate results, only one thing is left: Institutionalizing it. And by that I mean finding the opportunities in your organization to operationalize and leverage the unbiased voices of your employees, customers and community to unify their effort with your leadership on a regular cadence. No problem. With great power comes great responsibility and this final section is about how and when conversations can be leveraged to solve critical problems facing organizations and societies.

For the purposes of this book and this chapter I have focused on four areas: Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Mental Health. To different leaders these topics could mean different things. For example, if you are leading a sales team, leveraging diversity means exceeding your sales targets by increasing the performance of your team by creating systems to access the breakthrough thinking of diverse people. If you are a school superintendent, leveraging diversity is about dismantling systemic racism, addressing poverty, respecting cultures as you work to equitably optimize learning outcomes for all kids regardless of the systems that have been in their way in the past.

Though the challenges are different, in the context of scaling conversations, the underpinnings ...