Kim and Wesley welcome entrepreneur, investor and author, Ellen Pao. They talk about what inspired Ellen and her co-founders to start Project Include nearly 10 years ago. Historically, many firms have some sort of "bias busting" training session and then feel as though they have checked the box on this complicated topic. It has become especially challenging in recent years with notable pushback against diversity initiatives. The good news is there are still organizations that see it as a strategic advantage to their company's performance.
Ellen points out how critical it is to get CEO ownership from the get go. Many diversity initiatives fail because it is delegated to a mid-level staff person who is not empowered to make any changes. So as a starting point, Project Include, will not engage with a company unless the CEO attends the planning meetings. One early effect they noticed was many CEOs feel pressure to "know everything about everything" and yet most knew very little about how to run a successful diversity program. So, part of the CEO coaching and buy in is to get them comfortable at not being the expert in this particular area. They would push CEOs to evaluate their diversity efforts as any other business project: What is working well and what is not, who is on the team, what are their metrics, what tools are they using, etc. Then, use this information to adjust as necessary.
About Ellen Pao:
Ellen Pao is the treasurer of the board of directors at Data & Society. She is the former CEO of reddit and the co-founder and CEO of the award-winning diversity, equity, and inclusion nonprofit Project Include. A long-time entrepreneur and investor, she is the former chief diversity and inclusion officer at the Kapor Center and a former venture capitalist for Kleiner Perkins and Kapor Capital. Her 2017 memoir, Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change, was shortlisted for the Financial Times and Mckinsey Business Book Of The Year.
www.ellenkpao.com/