Inclusive Environments

Most often found at the end of D, E&I, or the middle of DIB (Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging), inclusion 4 Ways To Improve Your Company’s Inclusion, Diversity And Equity Strategy (forbes.com) is a well-worn word these days.  While Diversity is quantitative in nature, fairly easy to measure, and lends itself to granular analytics, Inclusion is more qualitative and so while we all agree it is important, many have struggled with how it should be assessed.  You have worked hard to create a diverse workforce but retaining them requires that you work equally as hard at providing an environment where everyone feels included.  

Inclusion What is Inclusion? – Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion – LibGuides at Austin Community College (austincc.edu)is providing a work environment where all people feel respected, accepted, supported, and valued, allowing all employees to fully participate in decision-making processes and development opportunities within an organization, and is a challenge to measure.

Gartner www.gartner.com proposed the following holistic questions which accurately assess the organization’s feelings around inclusion.  They can be asked individually in quick pulse surveys to certain teams or on an annual basis across the whole organization.

  1. Fair treatment: Employees at my organization who help the organization achieve its strategic objectives are rewarded and recognized fairly.
  2. Integrating differences: Employees at my organization respect and value each other’s opinions.
  3. Decision making: Members of my team fairly consider ideas and suggestions offered by other team members
  4. Psychological safety: What Is Psychological Safety at Work? | CCL  I feel welcome to express my true feelings at work
  5. Trust: Communication we receive from the organization is honest and open.
  6. Belonging: People in my organization care about me
  7. Diversity: Managers at my organization are as diverse as the broader workforce.

While many of the above questions seem qualitative and anecdotal in nature there are clear actions, we can take to ensure successful outcomes.

  1. Conduct pay equity analyses at least annually to ensure all employees at paid equitably in relation to each other 
  2. Create clear job descriptions and clear guidelines around who is eligible for and who ultimately receives promotions
  3. Train people leaders to listen more than they speak and to draw those who may be quieter into the conversation
  4. Enable small acts of kindness- Random Acts of Kindness | Welcome a handwritten note, flowers, a sincere thank you
  5. Create mentorship and reverse mentorship programs where a person can apply to be mentored or to be a mentor to a senior-level executive.  Many white males cannot possibly understand what it is like to be a woman or a Black male or female in corporate America.  Allow them the opportunity to begin to understand.  

This is not a check the box exercise, it is a journey and likely a long one, but each step along the way will provide its own rewards!

Cryptocurrency

Tesla’s recent announcement that you can now buy one of their cars with Bitcoin has dramatically furthered the legitimacy of cryptocurrency and comes on the heels of other announcements from retailers like Overstock.com.  Tesla’s move to back the cryptocurrency is “a potentially game-changing move for the use of bitcoin” to make retail purchases,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a report to investors. “We expect less than 5% of transactions to be through Bitcoin over the next 12 to 18 months however this could move higher over time as crypto acceptance starts to ramp over the coming years.

What exactly is cryptocurrency? 

Cryptocurrency is decentralized digital money, based on blockchain technology. You may be familiar with the most popular versions, Bitcoin and Ethereum, but there are more than 5,000 different cryptocurrencies in circulation. A cryptocurrency is a medium of exchange that is digital, encrypted, and decentralized. Unlike the U.S. Dollar, there is no central authority that manages and maintains the value of a cryptocurrency. Instead, these tasks are broadly distributed among cryptocurrency users via the internet. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, first outlined in principle by Satoshi Nakamoto in a 2008 paper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.” Nakamoto described the project as “an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust.”  That cryptographic proof comes in the form of transactions that are verified and recorded in a form of a program called a blockchain.

What is a Blockchain?

A blockchain is an open, distributed ledger that records transactions in code. In practice, it’s a little like a checkbook that’s distributed across countless computers around the world. Transactions are recorded in “blocks” that are then linked together on a “chain” of previous cryptocurrency transactions. “Imagine a book where you write down everything you spend money on each day,” says Buchi Okoro, CEO and co-founder of the African cryptocurrency exchange Quidax. “Each page is similar to a block, and the entire book, a group of pages, is a blockchain.” With a blockchain, everyone who uses a cryptocurrency has their own copy of this book to create a unified transaction record. The software logs each new transaction as it happens, and every copy of the blockchain is updated simultaneously with the new information, keeping all records identical and accurate. 

How is Bitcoin Mined?

The role of miners is to secure the network and to process every Bitcoin transaction. Miners achieve this by solving a computational problem that allows them to chain together blocks of transactions (hence Bitcoin’s famous “blockchain”). For this service, miners are rewarded with newly-created Bitcoins and transaction fees.

Although cryptocurrencies have seen a recent meteoric rise in value, ensure that you fully understand this volatile commodity before you invest. 

Stereotypical Startup Culture Can Be Detrimental – Part 2

sherrie suski startup culture

Last month, I started to explore the ways that the stereotypical culture may be detrimental to a business’s overall health. This is not to say that there aren’t benefits to the fun, laid back atmosphere that everyone associates with startups.

However, I do believe it is important for entrepreneurs that are looking to grow their companies to consider these points when developing the plans for their company culture. We already touched on how many startups spend too much money and face the issue of unclear boundaries between superiors and subordinates. This month we’ll touch on a few more company culture decisions that may not reap the positive results that they are expected to reap.

 

The “Hands Off” Approach is Not Always Helpful

Many companies live and breath the low-key “laissez-faire” approach to management and culture. When hiring “cultural fits” is the focus of the recruitment process, the mindset is often that the new hires will fall into place. Many startups feel that it’s easier to just let the new hires adjust and discover things on their own, rather than forcing them into endless meetings and orientations when they start the job.

The problem with this approach is that the lack of engagement leaves the new employees’ development up to chance. If employees aren’t explicitly informed about the work quality and cultural expectations, they are never given the chance to develop according to the company’s intended standards. Company culture, standards of work, and the overall environment may begin to suffer over time as the lack of direction starts to take its toll.

 

Charisma Isn’t Everything

This is probably the most controversial point in this series. The reality is that many startups will hire based on culture fits, and the expected culture for startups is “fun, charismatic, people-persons”. This will undoubtedly make for a very pleasant place, full of employees who can easily make friends and create beautifully intune work.

But, it’s extremely important for startups to look beyond the perfect culture-fit and to also hire employees that have the skillsets and work ethics to build the startup into profitability and greatness. A business cannot be successful if everyone is fun and personable, but no one really has the skills that are necessary to build and innovate.


 

For more ideas on startup culture, check out the Entrepreneur articles that inspired me: here & here