#038 Let's Talk About DEI

We are all distinctly different and we are all human beings. - Reesheda Graham Washington

If you are thinking about starting the conversation surrounding DEI in the workplace, start by getting curious. Think about who is not at the table and what practices and cultures are not being represented. By stepping out of your comfort zone, you can begin to challenge yourself to have the uncomfortable conversations within your organization.

In this episode, Beth is joined by Reesheda Graham Washington, CEO and Principal Consultant of RGW, a boutique consulting firm curating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for all. Chatterkick has had the opportunity to work with Reesheda and her team and we are extremely grateful for the partnership.

Biggest Takeaways From This Episode

Here are our biggest takeaways from this episode:

• Get curious about yourself by making sure you are looking at your action and behaviors.

• Focus on the relationships and the people you are trying to connect with.

• We all have power, authority, resources, and networks. What are you doing with those things?

• Understanding what embodiment looks and feels like. You must be okay with being uncomfortable.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS A POWERFUL TOOL

Social media has made it very clear that we all have voices, and we all have things to say, but we don’t always have the same access on platforms to be able to say them. When using social media, we don’t always think about how we are going to use this tool in a way that will not cause harm. Start by listening in on your intimate relationships and focusing on where the relationship goes, this will in turn open the doors to be able to connect with people you normally wouldn’t have. It also gives you the opportunity to just listen in on the conversations that are happening on the different platforms.

Want your question to be answered on the generation social media podcast? Tell us what it is here!

Transcript

This text below is a straight up audio transcript of the episode. In our humble opinion, we think the audio podcast sounds much better in its original form. We have not edited the transcription below so there are indeed some grammar errors (some quite funny, in-fact).

Beth Trejo (00:18):

All right. Welcome back everybody. To another episode of Generation Social Media podcast. I am so excited for you to meet our guest today. Um, we have Reesheda Graham Washington with us from RGW and um, today we're gonna talk a little bit about DEI efforts and how they relate to social media. Before we jump in, um, Chatterkick, uh, the agency that I own has had the opportunity to work with Reesheda and her team, and they are amazing people, but Reesheda, tell us a little bit about you and your background as well as just a brief overview view of the business, uh, that you have.

Reesheda Graham Washington (00:55):

Well, thank you so much, Beth. Thank you for having me. Um, thank you for the partnership that we share. Um, I am Reesheda Graham Washington. I'm really excited to be here. And let me just tell you a little bit about RGW. So obviously RGW are my initials, but for the sake of the company, RGW stands for reimagining and generating wonder. Um, we are a DEI, uh, company that does focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, but by way of organizational development, culture and climate transition, strategic planning, hiring protocols, communications, public relations. Um, the reality is that if DEI is to be infused in everything we are and everything we do, then what we do is we help organizations reimagine and generate wonder, get curious about how they're operating and functioning, infusing diversity equity, and, and inclusion into how they work every day. So that's a little bit about, about what we do. We differentiate our practices, recognizing that, um, all companies are created very differently and, uh, what their needs might be are different. The size of the company may be different where they are in their DEI journey may be very different. And, um, the bandwidth and capacity and resources they have to throw into DEI might also vary. So we take all of that into account, um, as a professional learning organization and we customize our approach to accommodate where companies actually are and where they wanna go in DEI.

Beth Trejo (02:34):

I love that. And one of the things that you say all the time, and it really is something that I have not heard in this space is just within the curiosity, how are you just a naturally curious person? How did you get that word and that phrase to connect so well to something that I don't think most people associate with, um, the work of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Reesheda Graham Washington (02:56):

So what I will say is that I am a naturally curious person, um, almost to a fault sometimes. Um, when I was a kid, my mom used to, I thought my name was shut up, Reesheda. My mom would be like, shut up Reesheda, cause I would always wanna know, well, why, but why? And I wanna know right now not wait till we get home to talk about this kind of girl, but right where something made me curious is where I would ask the question. Um, and I think that that really is a practice that we can take from kids just right where we are, um, when we have an engagement or interaction and we've developed a relational trust to ask questions that we can get curious and say, I'm not sure where I am or I don't stand what just happened. Can you help me?

Reesheda Graham Washington (03:41):

I think that because of implicit bias and because of the ways that we've kind of been raised into stereotypes, that we often inadvertently perpetuate notions unintentionally. But I think that if we start to get curious to add, ask each other questions and to get wonderful about how we each show up in the world and why we could probably mitigate some of the stereotypical and implicit bias that, um, and inadvertently comes into play in the workplace. And then if we're curious with ourselves, we can think about what we're perpetual waiting even, um, without knowing in our practices, our policies, our programs and procedures. Um, and so that's how we get about the work rather than being accusatory rather than, uh, focusing on shaming and judging. Um, we really help people to think about why they behave, the ways that they do, what's the behavior and how the behavior might change if we have the time and space to think about it differently.

Beth Trejo (04:46):

I love that. And how as businesses, um, like there's people know the word DEI, or they're probably familiar with it, but what does that mean to you? I mean, you're a business owner, so putting on your business owner cap and that lens, like I, how do businesses start this journey? Um, or, or just pick it up, I guess maybe if they have started it. Sure.

Reesheda Graham Washington (05:09):

I think the first thing we have to get curious about is what are we missing by not starting the journey? I think as long as we think that the answer is nothing, we're not missing anything by not starting the journey, we won't start the journey. Um, and I think, uh, we don't always take the time to think about what's missing. We often take the time to analyze what's present, but we don't think about what's absent and how what's not showing up, or who's not showing up, might be negatively impacting the table. So I always ask companies to think about who's not there, what practices and what cultures aren't represented and how that lack of representation might be negatively impacting culture of the organization, operations, budgeting, and even the way we promote our products. Um, the reality is that, especially in the work you do with social media and marketing, if we don't have an understanding of particular Mar market segments of people, then we don't know how to appeal to those groups of people. And unless they're present to help us better understand, we may be missing an entire market segment unintentionally.

Beth Trejo (06:26):

Yeah. And speaking of marketing and social media, we, um, see this a lot in just the specifically in the social media space, whether it's a national holiday, whether it's, um, you know, I think it could be, uh, viewed as tokenizing in some regards. How, um, what do you see as some of these big problems that brands are having as it relates to their public, um, stance or just perception of this work?

Reesheda Graham Washington (06:57):

Sure. I think that when we are in business, um, we are prone to transactions, right? Um, business is about transactions in some regard. And I think that when we take that mindset and we extrapolate it across everything we do, we start to think about diversity, equity and inclusion, um, as Aran in a transactional way. So we want something, maybe we want certain people to buy our products, or maybe we want to hire particular kinds of people so that we have an appearance of diversity. And we think about that as a transaction. Um, and so it becomes this sort of one off interaction, um, of it might be around black history month. It might be around women's history. It might be, you know, around, um, uh, in June when we celebrate the, the legacy and traditions of the LGBTQ+ community. And then we think, okay, we've done the thing. And now wait for the transaction to be complete, let the people come, we're done loading. Right. Um, but these are spaces that are highly relational, that if you don't get to know the people, and if you don't get to know the nuanced narrative of, of a people group, um, then you might miss the mark and really having the genuine connection that really translates into their involvement and engagement in what your company has to offer.

Beth Trejo (08:30):

Yeah. It's kind of like if people just do something to check the box, it, I mean, it comes across that way. And I think even more so on social than other platforms, because there is that two-way dynamic of conversation and it's, uh, what we see a lot is brands get called out for it. I mean, if they don't know the audience or if they don't know the space or even if they have a horrible culture within that organizationally, um, it may, there may be a different way that they can start doing that work besides just posting it on their Facebook page.

Reesheda Graham Washington (09:02):

Yeah. You know, it's interesting. I clearly I do the work of DEI, but I was, I was an executive leader. I am an executive leader. I've run companies, I've run nonprofits, I've run schools, um, I've run regions of schools. Um, but I do the work as a DEI company because the reality is that as a black woman, I'm more likely to be called upon for the DEI work I do. But even, you know, from the relationship you have with my company, I have great capacity to do strategic planning, to, to help with talent and acquisition and talent retention, to work with you on a professional development plan and all of these other kinds of functions, but because of the way that we're hardwired, um, and conditioned to think about the world, I'm more likely to be called for DEI. So I let people call me for it.

Reesheda Graham Washington (09:54):

And then we get a, up to all kinds of wonderful, curious things. As our relationship evolves over about two to three years, my clients are calling me for things that have nothing to do with DEI because they see that I'm a human being with great capacity who happens also to be a black woman. And so I think what we're trying to evolve people to is to art there, that to see a human being who is also unapologetically a black woman, I, you know, me, you know, me, Beth, I get excited about my blackness and my womanness, but that I am also, um, just a human being, living in the world and that not everything I do needs to come from the face of me being black and being a woman, but that it can also just come from my expertise, my skillset, my curiosities, and my passions, like any other human being. And I think what I'm not saying is we're all the same and we all want the same things I'm saying we are distinctly different. And we're also all human beings. How do we live into that in a way that allows everyone to flourish?

Beth Trejo (11:02):

Yeah. I think that that's extremely powerful. And how do you think that social media, I think with social media comes great power as well as responsibility. Um, how do you think that ecosystem has played into the good and the bad maybe of, um, the work that you do and even just brands and businesses?

Reesheda Graham Washington (11:22):

Yeah, that's good. I think that people who have, um, always had a voice, always had things to say. Um, I think that we have been in this place where we thought there were some voiceless people who never, who didn't have anything to say, and that people power and resources had to speak on their behalf. I think social media has made very clear that we all have voices mm-hmm and we all have things to say. We don't always have the same access to the platform to be able to say them. And I love that social media has sort of leveled the playing field in terms of that accessibility. I think where we sometimes struggle is that people who have held the mic for far too long now have another bigger, greater, more vast platform to leverage. And I think that in some ways that has made our power plays more harmful mm-hmm, um, I think that it has made our neglect more negligible.

Reesheda Graham Washington (12:24):

Um, and I think that, um, we have done something that I think we do often in our country in terms of putting the cart before the horse, we always have a new tool. We always have a new model or a new system. We don't always take the time to do what I call stage zero work. And that's think about how we're gonna use that tool mm-hmm or that model, or that system in ways that don't cause harm. And I think social media, in some ways is no exception to how we've all ways operated with our new resources. We just start clunking around and we don't always think about ahead of time, what impact it will have in our home. And I'm grateful for, um, companies like Chatterkick, who help people think about the, how of the use of such a powerful tool like social media.

Beth Trejo (13:12):

Yeah. I definitely think in some ways it it's allowed people to connect with people that may, they may not have exposure to or viewpoints they've never had because maybe their family dynamic was very narrow or, you know, in, in sure very tight knit. But I do think on the other side of that, it's allowed people to silo their conversations and not have real conversations, but just for people that agree with them and maybe even make the divide larger in some regards.

Reesheda Graham Washington (13:39):

Yeah. Um, I, I think all the time about how frequently I hear my own voice, um, in social media and how our algorithms, unfortunately, sometimes lead us to more echo chambers. Um, and I think the beauty of social media is that this is a real opportunity for us to have diversity of thought and experience. Um, but either our behavior, well, it is our behavior because our algorithms are informed by our behavior, um, that we can end up mitigating the beauty of a diverse experience because we seek the things that look and sound. We continue to see the things that always look and sound like us.

Beth Trejo (14:18):

Yeah. I think one thing, um, that one exercise that we're doing here at Chatterkick internally, um, and, uh, I thought this was really interesting is we're going out on TikTok or on one of the platforms and finding a viewpoint that we personally really disagree with or completely has shocked us and then bringing it back and just having a discussion about this, just to make sure that we're looking at multiple viewpoints and sides of perspective. Um, obviously, you know, we're, we're doing this internally, but I do think that there's an opportunity to really listen, listen, without even judgment participation, just listening on some of these platforms. What do you think about that? If for brands that are maybe trying to appeal to a new demographic or a new market, but they don't even know where to start. Like they don't know how to connect with some of these communities or they don't know how to have start conversations. What do you think about the listening concept?

Reesheda Graham Washington (15:15):

Yeah. I would start with listening in my intimate relationships because I think that otherwise you run the risk of coming off as voyeuristic mm-hmm. Um, I run a, um, a gathering called the women of color salon where we have these four-week series of meeting for an hour on some kind of, um, art medium that is developed by a black woman. And I think about how intensely we curate the space to ensure that women of color can show up unashamedly and unabashedly and unapologetically. So I think about what would happen then if someone like a company doing their sort of R and D showed up to listen, mm-hmm, it would feel, uh, very weird and awkward mm-hmm, uh, to that group. But I think that if that company leader really believed in these kinds of relationships and you and I have talked about how the work RGW does with Chatterkick helps Chatterkick professionally, but it also helps every individual for sure, in the room personally.

Reesheda Graham Washington (16:24):

Right. And so having that true desire to be pricked by new experiences, um, I think people should start. And from there, the development of those authentic relationships will inevitably land you in spaces like the one you and I are sharing right now, um, a year ago. I'm not sure this podcast would've been possible because I would've wanted to know the why and the where for, and the what have you mm-hmm, but we've built relationship over the time we've shared together, um, in a way that, um, embeds a trust that's necessary for people to feel okay. Being vulnerable.

Beth Trejo (17:05):

Yes. That is such a great, um, just takeaway of just focusing on the relationships start there mm-hmm and then building out any business, or maybe not maybe, I mean, focus on the relationship and see where it goes. I think that that's really important so that, you know, I love that. I love that commerce doesn't drive, right? <laugh>

Reesheda Graham Washington (17:23):

That commerce doesn't drive it and that relationships do. And that as you diversify your company, you know, if, if I worked for Chatterkick, I would be in those places, like the woman of color salon and Chatterkick would naturally and organically be informed by it because of my presence in the company. So there's some work that really is going to be done best by diversifying the table and not just having people be present at the table, but really giving them, making the making room for the kind of P sharing of power and authority and decision making that gives them the room to impact the companies that they are part of.

Beth Trejo (18:06):

Yes. I love that. Um, okay. So we, you talked about if we were gonna give people three main takeaways, one is getting curious, understanding both curious to yourself too. I think that was something that we've really learned in, in our partnership, making sure that you're, you're looking at your actions, behaviors, and, um, where you're, you know, showing up. And so really using that curiosity, the second relationships, focus on the relationships, um, and the people, um, that you're trying to connect with. And then what would be the third thing that you say businesses, they need to just get this right in order to do the work well.

Reesheda Graham Washington (18:43):

Yep. Operating in your agency, we all have power authority, resources, networks, what are we doing with those things? I always want to move people past the podcast, right? Uh, we listen to the podcast, we read all the blogs, we take all the master classes, and then we start over again. Mm-hmm. Um, but I, I really want you to think about what embodiment looks and feels like and being okay with the discomfort of knowing you're going to get it wrong and knowing you're gonna flux, like that's a part of the work and moving past those emotions as quickly as you can, to stay engaged in the tangible, practical relationship sharing and sharing of resources, uh, and network that really enhances, um, the lives of already empowered people who they're already empowered. People who have been historically intentionally and traditionally marginalized. This is not about saving a people. Um, I feel like people like me are amazingly talented geniuses, um, in everything they do and all the ways they show up, sometimes us just making a lane for their presence is the kind of agency that's required and they can take it from there.

Beth Trejo (20:13):

Awesome. Such wonderful words. Um, we so appreciate your advice and insights Reesheda. I think that the guests had some amazing takeaways. I know I did. I always learned something from you every time we, we chat. So a again, thank you for being on our podcast and join us for our next episode shortly.

inspiration, BusinessChatterkickApril 18, 2022internal team, DEI, Podcast