Inclusion Innovates

Inclusion Innovation Pilot Site

2013-05-04T04:31:00.001-04:00

Developing an HR Evolution pilot site within AUSA composed of five committees supported by an Action Learning Coach.

These committees are tasked with understanding more about their topical areas and discovering the questions that need to be asked and answered to enable progress in those areas.

I believe:

Ideas, and the idea provider, are celebrated

Individuals have the opportunity for their ideas to be considered and put into action

Good ideas are put into action, implemented efficiently and celebrated!

Theories I developed regarding diversity, inclusion and innovation are coming into reality. An exciting time!

Beyond Compliance 6: Diversidade e Inclusão. Excelente!

2013-03-12T07:20:00.000-04:00

Beyond Compliance Part 5: Continuing Adventures of Jill, Diversity & Inclusion Leader

2013-03-04T07:26:00.000-05:00

Diversity & Inclusion Business Management

2013-02-26T18:19:00.000-05:00

HR Evolution

2013-02-23T07:37:00.000-05:00

Diversity 3.0: Diversity & Inclusion to Business Innovation

2013-01-02T08:30:00.000-05:00

Inclusion Innovates: Leveraging intercultural competence, social media and collaborative technology within a diverse and inclusive culture to deliver business results.

I am looking forward to an outstanding year.

Happy Holidays to everyone ... have a Wonderful New Year!

We are now in the era of Diversity 3.0!

Diversity 1.0 has been a predominate focus to foster a diverse workplace. This focus dates back to at least Executive Order 10925 by President John F. Kennedy in 1960 that created the President's Committee On Equal Employment Opportunity. The Order required government contractors to "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin."

Diversity 2.0 has been a predominate focus to create an inclusive culture. I associate this emergence with the work of Marilyn Loden and Judy B. Rosener and then adapted by Lee Gardenswartz and Anita Rowe that defined diversity as that which differentiates one group of people from another along primary and secondary dimensions (see diagram below).

Diversity 3.0, as defined by Inclusion Innovates builds on this prior work, and adds two crucial elements to deliver business results. The first element is the vital role of Intercultural Competence to ensure that an inclusive culture is actually created within a diverse workplace. A culture where people are not only heard but where people are are understood from their cultural orientation. Peter Bye, the President & CEO of MDB Group, Inc. has done benchmark work in this area of focus.

The second element is the new and explosive role of social media and collaborative technology. At no other time in our world's history can such a vast network of culturally different people connect to generate business innovation. The Inclusion Innovates model captures this interaction.

Diversity 3.0 composes all four component: 1) the importance of proactively fostering a workplace reflective of the diverse, and global marketplace; 2) the focus on fostering an inclusive culture so that diversity can be leveraged; 3) the critical, often overlooked, ingredient of intercultural competence to ensure suggestions, ideas and recommendations are understood from the perspective in which they are given and 4) the effective use of social media and collaborative technology to transfer those suggestions, ideas and recommendations into business innovation and results.

Welcome! We will be executing Diversity 3.0: Inclusion Innovates in 2013!

Disruptive Inclusion: Technology Adoption Lifecycle meets Intercultural Competence Continuum

2012-09-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

Disruptive Inclusion: Enlisting Innovators in the D&I Journey!

On September 14th, as a speaker at the Diversity Roundtable of Central Indiana's 14th Annual Diversity and Inclusion Conference, I will be sharing a strategy for D&I professionals to reach outside of our discipline and gain new partners by integrating concepts such as the technology adoption lifecycle and intercultural development continuum.

The purpose of the session will be to share insights, assessments and approaches to enlist D&I champions within Innovation, Engineering and Technology departments by illustrating the connection between diversity, inclusion and innovation. Participants will be provided an updated version of the Diversity, Inclusion and Innovation - Strategic Leadership Assessment (DII-SLA) tool; learn a methodology to incorporate social media technology within D&I initiatives and discuss research they can use to align D&I to innovation initiatives. Special thanks to Daniel Maycock, an IT Strategy Solution Architect for Slalom Consulting, for being the inspiration to the diagram above. The model represents the belief that as leaders increase their cultural competence, they also increase their ability to inspire technology adoption with a larger base of individuals.

Inclusion Innovation represents the intersection of Diversity, Inclusion, Intercultural Competence and Social Media Technology.

What do you think?

From Diversity to Inclusion to Business Impact: Session Overview

2012-07-16T11:17:00.000-04:00

I have received many requests to utilize the Diversity, Inclusion & Innovation – Strategic Leadership Assessment tool.

I appreciate the responses and truly enjoy the feedback I receive to update the tool. The DII-SLA is intended to be a collaborative and pragmatic instrument that gets you, your team and organization started down the D&I journey in a thoughtful manner.

Below is a quick summary of how organizational leaders have been utilizing the DII-SLA.

If possible, I would send out the assessment tool prior to your learning session and ask participants to bring their draft action plan to the session. Let participants know that you will incorporate the tool within a session focused on how D&I can pragmatically foster individual and organizational performance and innovation.

Depending on the time you have, the session might have six sessions, or elements focused on the following:

1. What does diversity and inclusion mean? What does diversity and inclusion mean at the organization?

o Maybe use updated versions of Dimensions of Difference and Iceberg of Differences models.

2. What are the organization's, department's or team's objectives (not D&I, or people, objectives)?

o Once you agree on 3 or 4 objectives; assign a given table to an individual objective such as product innovation; increased sells or market penetration; or improved productivity.

3. How do you believe individual commonalities and differences (D&I) impact (positively or negatively) the attainment of the objective assigned to your table?

o Each table discusses and reports out on the discussion: what did they discuss? What made the discussion difficult, or easy? What conclusions were reached?

4. What could the organization do to reach these objectives by leveraging commonalities and differences?

o Overview the assessment tool; take questions in open discussion from participants about their view of the tool; what did they like, dislike; find helpful, or not.

o Have each table utilize the assessment tools and their individual action plan as input, or background, to develop one or two organizational action items to address the business objective assigned to their table.

o Each table reports out on their one, or two action items.

5. What could each of us do to reach these objectives by leveraging diversity and inclusion?

o On an individual basis, give each participant some time to refine their individual action plan given the learning and collaborative experience during the session.

o In an open session, ask if anyone would like to share an individual action item.

6. What are next steps?

o Ask participants to consider incorporating the group action items developed within the team's organizational planning.

o Ask participants to consider incorporating the individual action items developed within their individual performance or development plans.

Hope you find this outline helpful. What would you do differently?

Disruptive Inclusion: How to Use Internet Technologies to Foster ERG Collaboration & Innovation

2012-06-29T04:12:00.000-04:00

Disruptive Inclusion: How to Use Internet Technologies to Foster ERG Collaboration & Innovation

I truly enjoyed teaming up with Asli Bilgin, the Practice Manager for Cloud Computing at Slalom Consulting yesterday to discuss disruptive inclusion at Diversity Best Practices' Network and Affinity Leadership Congress (NALC) Conference in New York City.

The purpose of the session was to demonstrate how to leverage the power of Internet-based technologies to permeate deep into business organizations and make transformation and business impact from the inside out. The objectives of the sessions included:

• Learning how to align Employee Resource Group activities to an organization’s innovation process;

• Understanding how a set of Internet tools and applications can increase collaboration among ERGs and with business customers, candidates and consumers;

• Utilizing definitions, theory, practice models and case study to convert Innovation and Technology experts to Diversity and Inclusion champions.

Let me know your thoughts on the presentation.

How to Become to Do: A Cultural Detective

2012-06-17T14:40:00.003-04:00

A Cultural Detective, Personal Leadership and the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity:

I truly appreciated Dianne Hofner Saphiere's comment to my earlier post: "Become to Do." The central theme of my post was that we, as individuals, are consistently changing and that our most profound growth comes from authentic and self-aware interaction with others, particularly individuals that we perceived as significantly different that ourselves.

What Dianne and her partners Barbara F. Schaetti and Heather Robinson offer in their integrated Cultural Detective, Personal Leadership and Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) model is how one might both measure and improve their ability to "Become to Do." I applaud their approach of using DMIS model as a gauge of intercultural sensitivity development, while using the Cultural Detective and Personal Leadership models as tools to help one move along the intercultural competence continuum.

"The “double helix” is comprised of two vertical strands, one representing the methodology of Cultural Detective and the other representing the methodology of Personal Leadership.... As the vertical strands of the double helix wind around one another, openings are created. The first five stages of the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity are sequentially represented in the five openings, from least sensitive (Denial) at the bottom of the graphic to most sensitive (Adaptation) at the top."

I have not used the approach championed by a Cultural Detective. It does appear worthwhile to investigate if you are exploring strategies, assessments and tools to help you and your colleagues embrace the attitude, obtain the skills and gain the knowledge (of self and others) to develop authentic and self-actualizing relationships with others.

Please visit Cultural Detective and let us know what you think.

Dreams Do Come True: Inclusion Does Innovate

2012-06-15T17:13:00.000-04:00

Fairy tales can come true It can happen to you If you're young at heart

For it's hard you will find To be narrow of mind If you're young at heart

You can go to extremes With impossible schemes You can laugh when your dreams Fall apart at the seams

And life gets more exciting with each passing day And love is either in your heart Or on it's way

Don't you know that it's worth Every treasure on earth To be young at heart

For as rich as you are It's much better by far To be young at heart

And if you should survive to 105 Look at all you'll derive Out of being alive

And here is the best part You've had a head start If you are among the very Young at heart

And if you should survive to 105 Think of all you'll derive Out of being alive

And here is the best part You've had a head start If you are among the very Young at heart...

Young at Heart (Frank Sinatra song)

Become to Do: Stepping into Intercultural Competence

2012-06-14T00:38:00.001-04:00

Heraclitus and the Philosophy of Becoming: The Universe in Constant Flux, Natural Laws and Logos | Suite101.com

This post has several influences to which I should credit.

Become to Do

First, I have been exploring the concept of "become to do" with several of the Business Resource Affinity Networks (#BRANs) at the Campbell Soup Co. And this concept was inspired by Graciela Eleta, the Senior Vice President of Client Group Development at Univision. From our conversions, it seemed that many companies were looking for the secret sauce in selling to Hispanic consumers such as the right product, the right advertisement or the right marketing campaign - "the do."

Many companies were also resisting truly embracing the values, beliefs and perspectives of the Latino cultures, and therefore not acquiring the emotions, passions or empathy that was needed to truly connect with this consumer group - "the become."

Stepping into Intercultural Competence

Second, I am consistently exploring the value of Intercultural Competence, and the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) assessment tool, to help individuals acquire the attitude, skills and knowledge to establish an enduring connection with people they perceive as different than themselves - "become to do."

Intercultural Competence is possessing the appropriate attitude, skills and knowledge to “think, feel and behave” in a manner that successfully integrates and leverages cultural differences.

The ATTITUDE is one of respect of and openness to others — the SKILLS are being able to patiently observe and listen to others — and the KNOWLEDGE is one of self and other cultures. If one possesses these attributes, they have the capacity to “think, feel and behave” in a manner that fully integrates the individual uniqueness that people bring to a collaborative relationship.

Intercultural Competence is vital for today's leader, because getting people to bring “what’s inside out” for collective growth is the essential fuel of innovation.

The Philosophy of Becoming

Finally, I want to credit Suite 101, contributing writer Arash Farzaneh and his post Heraclitus and the Philosophy of Becoming

Arash reminded me of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus, and his famous saying "No one ever steps in the same river twice.” The philosopher wrote a single book, with the title On Nature, perhaps divided in three sections: cosmology, politics and theology. He is also well known for the statement ‘everything flows’. Heraclitus was perhaps the most creative and influential Greek philosopher born before Socrates

I am clearly not a philosophy expert, or even novice. I do, however, perceive one lesson, or guidance from Heraclitus' writings: given than all things are in Flux, and that 'All things are one'; we are consistently challenged to step into difference and accept that our most profound growth comes from learning from others who we perceive as most different than ourselves.

So, will you become to do?

Being Authentic Amongst Diversity

2012-06-10T22:41:00.002-04:00

Think Creativity ... Be Authentic Amongst Diversity. This post is inspired by friends who worked for McDonald & Company Investments with a special attribution to Alisa Nash, an Instructional Designer and Facilitator.

In the midst of unstable and bumpy markets and amongst rapidly changing demographics, it takes different perspectives to gain a competitive advantage. To be a company of choice for all people requires creative thinking and strategic planning: the ability to look beyond the traditional marketplace and to capitalize on the unprecedented opportunities available in all communities. It also means being authentic amongst the diversity within your organization.

Today, diversity initiatives can represent an exceptional synergy of people and possibilities.

Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) is acknowledging, valuing and leveraging commonalities and differences among stakeholders for improved engagement, productivity, innovation and growth. Within this definition, diversity is an organization's ability to attract, select and retain a mix of people in the workplace relevant to effective operations (i.e., the mix, representation, and varied skills and perspectives of people). Inclusion is an organization's ability to acknowledge, value and to engage this mixture of talent to work together in pursuit of business goals (i.e., people being respected, engaged, and challenged).

Being authentic amongst diversity means not just recruiting diverse talent but listening, valuing and engaging everyone within your organization. It is leveraging every exchange to learn from others and to ask the question: "what don't I know about you that could aid our collective success."

Synergy happens when an organization can leverage this diverse mixture of talent for business impact in engagement, productivity, innovation and growth.

• Engagement, particularly with business partners and consumers. A benchmark question for partners might be: "I would recommend and advocate for this company and its products with my family and friends."

• Productivity, the speed, efficiency and excellence in which work gets done. A key benchmark question for partners might be: "Within my immediate work group, we work effectively as a team."

• Innovation, the creation of new business processes, practices and products. A key benchmark question for partners might be: "I feel free to voice my opinions and share my ideas openly in my work group."

Being authentic amongst diversity means honing the ability to recruit broadly, to engage widely and to leverage deeply to create value for stakeholders.

Performance is built or destroyed based on how we deal with differences

2012-06-09T11:37:00.002-04:00

The essence of leadership is the impact that a person has on the thinking and behaviors of others, and the culture that he or she ends up creating as a result. Within this context, "performance is built or destroyed based on how we deal with differences." This phrase comes from training I attended a long time ago, and is still so relevant today. The central theme of the training was that a disposition of Listening, Learning and Resolving differences creates an ascending cycle of value and superior performance.

However, a disposition of Being Right, Defeating and Convincing leads to a descending cycle of waste and low performance. The key anchor point was having the self-awareness to be authentic with others and understanding the work climate one's behaviors create for others.

The training led me to develop the model below. The model flows as follows: high levels of performance and motivation are based on the intersection of developing clear job standards and "positioning" a candidate to be successful in that job; the candidate's characteristics, skills and competences; the manager's characteristics, skills and competences and the overall work climate or culture of the organization.

While we typical focus on requirements one (job standards) and two (individual characteristics), the growing generational, ethnic, racial and cultural differences within the labor pool, requires organizations to spend sufficient time on improving the intercultural competence of managers and understanding how the organizational culture, particularly the values, beliefs and behaviors of leaders, are inhibiting innovation and self-actualization among employees.

The Diversity, Inclusion and Innovation - Strategic Leadership Assessment (DII-SLA) tool aids organizations and leaders in addressing requirements three (leadership style) and four (work climate) and develop interventions (requirement five) to create an inclusive, high performing and innovative work climate. The tool provides a quantitative measurement of a leaders' comfort level and effectiveness in leveraging diversity, intercultural competence and Internet technologies to foster innovations in business products, services, processes and practices.

A leader with a high assessment score is more likely to engage all members of their team towards successful completion of organizational objectives. The tool provides proactive focus and commitment towards creating a diverse and inclusive business environment that is conducive to organizational innovation.

What are your thoughts?

The essence of leadership is the impact that a person has on the thinking and behaviors of others, and the culture that he or she ends up creating as a result. How would you describe the work climate that your values, beliefs and strengths create? How do your values, beliefs and strengths potentially inhibit others from reaching their fullest potential?

Who am I being, that my players' eyes are not shining?

2012-06-01T12:43:00.003-04:00

As people, none of us is without bias and most of do not know the biases we have or how those biases impact others. Therefore, we cannot leave incorporating the perspectives, expertise and experiences of others to chance, if we expect to foster extraordinary performance and innovation.

Conductor Benjamin Zander, in his @TEDTalks video, provides us with the perfect self-reflecting question that can fuel Intercultural Competence: "Who am I being, that my players' eyes are not shining?"

As leaders, or conductors, we can ask ourselves some simple questions to help our teams reach their full potential.

How do I prevent you from reaching your full potential?
What don't I know about you that could aid our collective success?
How do my strengths inhibit you from exhibiting yours?

Moreover, when approaching our role and responsibility to foster continuous improvement, we can ask ourselves:

How do my personal biases and assumptions regarding dimensions of difference affect my decisions: on performance reviews?; on performance ratings?; in calibration sessions?; and on pay decisions?
How could my personal biases and assumptions impact the future of the employee?
What impact do my behaviors, actions and decisions have on my employees as a group?
Is my tolerance level the same or different for all my employees?
What allowances, if any, do I make for employees when mistakes are made? Am I consistent with my actions across all employees?
How consistently do I gather information from employees on decisions that affect them?
What is the rationale for my decisions? Am I applying this rationale to all my employees?
How is my time and access distributed throughout my employees? Do I spend more time with certain employees than others?
What risk and lost opportunities, if any, do my actions and behaviors with my direct reports present to me and to my organzation?

So, who are you being, that your team's eyes are not shining?

More on this topic Thursday. What are your thoughts?

Diversity is “the vast array of differences, inclusive of everyone”

2012-05-30T06:23:00.000-04:00

From Diversity to Inclusion to Impact: Our Journey at Campbell:

I would appreciate your thoughts on the CSRWire post "From Diversity to Inclusion to Impact: Our Journey at Campbell." A significant part of the Campbell D&I story is our Business Resource Affinity Networks (BRANs). For additional information on Campbell's BRANs, please visit our Corporate Social Responsibility Report.

Women Fostering Creativity and Innovation

2012-05-15T20:28:00.002-04:00

2010 KeySTAR Corporate Social Responsibility Report.

Throughout fiscal year 2012, Women of Campbell (WoC) and Pepperidge Farm have continually developed programs that help the company “Win with Women.”

In addition to the Network's on-going Leadership professional development series and partnership in March with the Women's Food Service Forum to celebrate International Women's Day, WoC – Supply Chain hosted a Creativity and Innovation Event yesterday. The luncheon was a partnership with Keystone Foods Women's Affinity Network, K-Win.

Keystone Foods is Campbell's primary protein supplier and a multi-national, multi-protein processor and food distributor for the world's best brands and is focused on innovation and dedicated to food safety and quality. Both companies believe their Networks foster an internal engagement and generate an external affinity that assists them win in the marketplace with customers and consumers.

The event modeled several of the findings in Leveraging women's networks for strategic value (Anne Donnellon, Nan Langowitz, Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 37 Iss: 3, pp.29 – 36, 2009). In that study, researchers argued that the introduction of employee resource groups (ERGs), or business resource affinity networks (BRANs), can generate three benefits: connection, competence, and business development.

Specifically, BRANs provide members with opportunities to connect with others who share common identities, to compare their experiences, and to support one another. Also, BRANs provide channels where members can acquire career advice and enhance their professional or leadership competencies. Finally, BRANs help involve clients and customers to provide innovative input on business development.

At yesterday's event, Dr. Fredericka Reisman (Professor of Creativity and Innovation) from Drexel University led a creativity and innovation overview and invited the Networks to take an RDCA (Reisman Diagnostic Creativity Assessment) to assess their own creativity. She then led the groups through a creative problem solving exercise. The event concluded with Campbell Chef Amanda Zimlich and Keystone Chef Will Ternay discussing the process of how they collaborate together on creating innovative consumer solutions for Campbell.

The Reisman Diagnostic Creativity Assessment (RDCA) assesses an individual's self-perception on 11 major creativity factors such as originality, flexibility, and divergent thinking that have emerged from creativity research. The RDCA Creativity App upgrade will provide a detailed individual profile comprised of your responses to each creativity factor and specific creativity exercises that you may wish to engage in to strengthen specific creativity factors.

What are you doing to leverage the power of Networks at your organization? We would like to know and collaborate, or “co-create,” with you.

WoC and K-Win

Knowledge Worker Idea Networks

2012-05-13T12:44:00.000-04:00

Recently, I discussed two books that have had a profound impact on me: The Innovator’s DNA, by authors Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton Christensen and Riding the Waves of Innovation by authors Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner.

Together, the books make a compelling argument that diversity in people can foster diverse idea networks that have a higher potential for innovation than homogeneous teams.

Two recent articles that were shared with me by the Interculturalist and Suite-Apps -- Larger or Broader: Performance Implications of Size and Diversity of the Knowledge Worker’s Egocentric Network by Liang Chen and Guy G. Gable and The Social Side of Strategy by Arne Gast and Michele Zanini -- echo this argument.

Combined, these two articles reinforce the compelling strategy of proactively cultivating diversity on work teams.

In the Knowledge Worker article, the authors prove a hypothesis that the diversity (i.e., the dispersion richness of contacts) of a knowledge worker's network has a significant effect on job performance. Moreover, the authors found "that the dispersion richness of employee ties to disparate knowledge bases mediates the effect of network size on performance."

In other words, diversity of network trumps size of network. The practical implication for leadership is by: a) adding racial, ethnic, discipline and gender, etc. diversity and b) fostering the type of work climate - through Intercultural expertise - where people can share their uniqueness, one can significantly improve group performance.

So, going back to the question raised in the Innovator's DNA, "how diverse is your idea network?"

The McKinsey & Company study completed by Arne Gast and Michele Zanini offer business examples of Chen's and Gable's hypothesis in action. Moreover, the study validates that Inclusion Innovation process I developed and how I relate that process to the human capital and innovation CEO challenges identified by the Conference Board.

Gast and Zanini outline how strategy setting can be strengthened by using social media and collaboration technologies to incorporate the diversity (e.g., perspective, expertise and experiences) of front-line employees. This "co-creation" addresses the challenge of leaders being far removed from the implications of their decisions and being hampered by experience-based biases. McKinsey & Co. also suggest support of a major component of Disruptive Inclusion - the component of "injection."

"If you’ve ever wondered how to inject more diversity and expertise into your strategy process, to get leaders closer to the operational implications of their decisions, or to avoid the experience-based biases and orthodoxies that inevitably creep into small groups at the top, it may be time to try shaking things up."

Asian Network of Campbell #ANC "Cook-Off" Competition

2012-05-08T10:05:00.000-04:00

At the Campbell Soup Company, we believe in the Power of Networks - we call them Business Resource Affinity Networks, or BRANs.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the Asian Network of Campbell, #ANC, held a "Cook-Off" competition at company headquarters last week. Below is a brief snapshot of the action.
This event is an example of the many activities ANC, and other Campbell BRANs, develop to build comradery, engage employees in the business and generate consumer insights for the company.

Stay tuned for more pictures and video!

Inclusion Innovates the Conference Board: A Look at 2012 CEO Challenges

2012-04-29T08:46:00.001-04:00

I recommend reading the Conference Board CEO Challenge 2012®: Risky Business Focusing On Innovation And Talent In Volatile World. The study clarifies the role for Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Inclusion Innovates advocates.

I call this role Disruptive Inclusion: the proactive recognition, and embracing of both the similarities and differences in people, with a clear objective of improving organizational environments, individual motivation and ultimately business innovation. It is conscious and deliberate effort to inject and foster difference into a team work environment for business results.

Disruptive Inclusion is premised on the belief that D&I is a continuous improvement process that must result in clear business outcomes that lead to organizational success. The Conference Board study identities Innovation and Human Capital as two key challenges for all corporations.

D&I leverages Human Capital for Innovation. Let me repeat that: D&I leverages Human Capital for Innovation! If inclusion is present within a work group, a diversity of people leads to a diversity of ideas and a diversity of ideas is the spark of innovation.

I believe D&I Champions will find support for their efforts within the Conference Board study, some highlights:

To successfully respond to the challenges selected by CEOs, leaders must gain an accelerated "appreciation of the power of diversity—in thought and in culture—within the firm, as well as in the marketplace."

Increasing diversity, cross-cultural competency and employee engagement all ranked as top 10 strategies for 2012, as they did in the 2011 study. The reason? Building employee capability in diversity and cross-cultural competencies is key to global expansion plans, as well as better customer service skills, with increasingly diverse customers and clients. Employee engagement is critical to retention, knowledge transfer and productivity.

Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, CEOs from the largest companies are the only ones that ranked increasing diversity and cross-cultural competencies as a top 10 strategy (sixth of 20 choices). The global footprint of companies this size means that understanding cultural diversity is seen as a basic requirement for management and team leaders in a global business environment.

The study emboldens me to continue championing Disruptive Inclusion theory, the Inclusion Innovation model and Diversity, Inclusion and Innovation - Strategic Leadership Assessment tool.

"Inclusion Innovates" attempts to intertwine diversity, "idea networks,” Intercultural expertise and collaborative technology to generate the "super-addictive" effects that meet the challenges CEOs face.

I believe in an approach to D&I that delivers innovative improvements for an organization's workplace and its products and services by cultivating the powerful and diverse networks of human capital that already exist inside and outside of the organization.

I look forward to participating in the Conference Board Thought Leadership Briefings to increase my understanding of how D&I's can leverage Human Capital for Innovation.

Tweet the Conference Board at @CBoC_Reports @Conferenceboard and @ConfBoardofCda.

Campbell ANC Celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

2012-04-28T06:33:00.000-04:00

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Festival

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and the Asian Network of Campbell (ANC) has several events planned to celebrate!

On Wednesday, May 2nd, ANC will host the "ANC Cook Off" at Campbell Soup Company's headquarters in Camden, NJ. This internal event, will include four teams, each team partnered with a Campbell Chef, challenged to come up with an Asian inspired recipe, using at least one Campbell product.

On Sunday, May 12th, ANC will join up with their counterparts in the Asian Network of Pepperidge Farm to showcase Campbell at the 33 rd annual Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Festival in Brooklyn, NY.

The Campbell Soup Company is a strong believer in the power of BRANs!

Business Resource Affinity Networks generate three organizational benefits: connection, competence, and business development. Specifically, BRANs provide members with opportunities to connect with others who share common identities, to compare their experiences, and to support one another. They provide channels where members can acquire career advice and enhance their professional or leadership competencies. Campbell's BRANs have also successfully initiated connections with organizations outside of Campbell to generate insights, affinity and business development.

We hope you come out for a fun filled afternoon and join in the festivities!

Pictures from Cook-Off

Pictures from Festival

Equality Forum's 20th Anniversary: Will You Be There!

2012-04-25T07:35:00.002-04:00

The Campbell Soup Company OPEN Business Resource Affinity Network (BRAN) will be participating in Equality Forum’s 20th anniversary that will be held Thursday, May 3rd to Sunday, May 6th at various locations in Philadelphia, PA.

This Global LGBT Summit celebrates the cultural and political legacy of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. The four-day event includes includes 25 panels, International Equality Dinner, SundayOUT! at The Piazza, six parties, 13th Annual Gay and Lesbian Art Exhibit, theater, and special events all in collaboration with regional, national and international organizations.

Each year, the Summit features one nation. This year this global LGBT summit is highlighting the achievements of the State of Israel in giving equal opportunities to all sexual orientations. There is no registration fee and all panels are free.

In alignment with the spirit of Equality Forum, Campbell's OPEN BRAN supports lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) employees and their straight allies in creating a safe, inclusive and innovative work environment. The OPEN acronym stands for Our Pride Employee Network. Campbell's BRANs play an increasingly important role in supporting and sustaining the company's diversity, inclusion and innovation efforts.

Join Us at the Forum, Check-In at our booth and Tweet "@Equality_Forum @CampbellSoupCo #OPEN Booth, Stop By!" to support Campbell's #OPEN Network

The Pictures!

Riding Diverse Waves to Innovation

2012-04-17T20:33:00.001-04:00

When you get the chance, I highly recommend Riding the Waves of Innovation: Harness the Power of Global Culture to Drive Creativity and Growth by authors Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner.

In Chapter 4: Elements and Processes in Successful Creative Teams. The authors state, “… research consistently shows that, for a team to be innovative, diversity is crucial. Unfortunately, for many reasons, team leaders often don’t start with an innate belief in the importance of this diversity."

The authors then offer a high level rationale for Disruptive Inclusion, “diversity in teams creates a positive environment of constructive conflict – an environment in which ideas synergistically resolve into higher-level outcomes than would be achievable in more homogeneous teams."

I appreciate the author's emphasis of "constructive conflict;" it speaks to why I coined the phrase "disruptive inclusion." Disruptive Inclusion is the conscious and deliberate effort to inject and foster gender, ethnic, racial, cultural, etc. difference into a team work environment for business results. As I shared in a post entitled Disruptive Inclusion: A Working Definition, the word "inject" was purposefully chosen because "diversity" should cause a change that is forceful and jolting to the status quo.

I believe the louder the "D" in D&I, the greater the chance for both conflict and innovation. And it is because of these two possibilities that Inclusion, or the "I", is so important. Being Inclusive is having the skills, knowledge and attitude to bring very diverse opinions, perspectives and experiences together in service to a collective good. It is making purpose of chaos.

Many would say "Inclusion" actualized is Intercultural competence and is vital for leaders who want to inspire collective success and innovation within teams of the highest variety of diversity.

What are your thoughts? I would appreciate your comments.

Blogging on Building the Expo

2012-04-08T04:21:00.000-04:00

Inclusion Innovates the Expo | Building the Expo

I hope you will follow me on "Building the Expo," a technology, strategy - and now inclusion - blog that is a World's Fair for innovative thought.

When we think about an Expo, or World's Fair, we typically envision the new technologies or devices that will debut. In fact, we some times - many times - spend months, or years, researching our favorite devices with the hope of seeing, touching and experiencing them at the Expo. How similar is this motivation to technology adoption, innovation creation and strategy development at most companies?

We are so focused on "what" we create that we forget to spend equal time on "how" we create.

Well, just as in companies, inclusion will innovate the Expo. My input to "Building the Expo" is based on the notion that diversity in people can foster a diversity of ideas and that inclusion of diverse ideas promotes innovation.

Follow us here and there and offer your candid feedback as we build the Expo!

Co-Create with a Disruptive Inclusion Workshop

2012-04-04T08:20:00.001-04:00

A Disruptive Inclusion workshop is an excellent opportunity to complete Diversity, Inclusion and Innovation business and, or individual action planning and broaden the pool of diversity champions to areas like technology, innovation, finance and engineering. A Disruptive Inclusion workshop captures the curiosity and imagination of these professionals who may think D&I is primarily an HR, Compliance or Corporate Social Responsibility initiative.

When Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and Diversity, Inclusion and Innovation - Strategic Leadership Assessment (DII-SLA) tools are incorporated as pre-work, the workshop is not only a pragmatic method to benchmark the level of Intercultural enterprise of individuals, teams and groups but also the action planning to improve that benchmark; re-energize D&I initiatives and spur business practice, process and product innovation.

Would you like to host a Disruptive Inclusion workshop to start or re-energize your D&I efforts and improve the adoption rate of various IT, Innovation and business initiatives? If so, host a session, and "co-create" with us!