DEI Leadership Institute: Taking Innovative Approaches To Diversity, Equity And Inclusion With Maria Putnam

Truly innovating and solving problems often require us to rethink and try new approaches. The DEI Leadership Institute takes a new approach to issues we’ve been working on for longer than anyone’s been alive: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. In this episode, the Institute’s founder Maria Putnam joins Stephen Jaye to discuss how we can adapt a mindset that not only addresses this hot-button issue, but also opens us up to new experiences and has the potential to enrich all of our lives. Listen in and learn why DEI isn’t as straightforward as it seems and why everybody needs to pay attention to it now. --- Listen to the podcast here DEI Leadership Institute: Taking Innovative Approaches To Diversity, Equity And Inclusion With Maria Putnam We’re all aiming for something in this world. We’re aiming to do something to make some improvement. Some of it is personal such as fixing a bad habit. Some of it is larger-scale societal issues that we’ve been dealing with for a while. One important part of that whole process is being willing to change course and taking a different approach when it becomes necessary. Being open to that will often lead to a better result. My guest, Maria Putnam, the Cofounder and Principal of the DEI Leadership Institute, has an idea about how we can find a more effective course of action around some of our most pressing problems right now. Maria, thank you for coming to the show. Thank you so much, Stephen, for having me. “We are going in one direction where we feel comfortable. Let's be uncomfortable. That's okay. Nothing is gonna happen. It's gonna be just fine. We're gonna survive. Let's just jump on it." I want to start off by getting everyone oriented properly. DEI is a term that’s commonly used in the business and the corporate world. What does it stand for and what is the ultimate aim of a lot of the DEI Initiatives going on in the world? DEI stands for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Some of the companies are using DENI. The ultimate goal for this is awareness. As we do this work more, to begin and start with us, to be more aware, to become better people and better human beings. When it comes to that, what is the ultimate goal for people who are involved in the DEI or hear about DEI training at their own companies? Is there a societal need around fairness and equality, or is it mostly all stemming from this idea of becoming better people and better communicators? The ultimate goal is to create a better world where there is equity, everybody has a voice, there is an appreciation of everybody at the workplace. The DEI work cannot be effective if we as people don’t do our own DEI and if we don’t face our own bias. That’s where the work starts and by working in ourselves, we could become better people. You cannot apply something that you don’t believe yourself. Before we get into the specifics of your story, what are some of these other benefits? Let’s say we improve ourselves as human beings and give everyone a fair voice. There are some other benefits. It’s not just about having certain makeups on your board or something like that. There are other intangible benefits. Tell us a little bit about some of these other intangible benefits and how we’re all improving through this. For example, let's focus on the workplace. What benefits do we have when we do the DEI work well? There is higher retention because people feel a sense of belonging. There is a lower turnover. One of the things that I hear in the business and some of the people in the companies that I work with is they spend a lot of money in the process of hiring. The turnover is high. Overall, you’re going to have more committed people. If we’re going to talk about the financial part, you’re going to save a lot of money. That’s what I’m talking about in the workplace. Let’s back up to your story before starting the DEI Leadership Institute. You’ve lived in a lot of different places and had a lot of your initiatives before that. You've always been a starter. What other initiatives? What are your key highlights from before starting the DEI Leadership Institute? Professionally, I had a Hispanic Advertising Agency for ten years in Denver, Colorado and then led to oversee the International Studies Program at the Denver public schools where I was very committed to the DEI programs. The DEI Leadership Institute is the compilation of everything that I have. I live in three countries. The United States is my third country. I am originally from Bogota, Columbia. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to study overseas. I lived in Switzerland, France and ended up in the United States. That helped me to always be aware of different cultures and appreciate every one of them. Having experience from South America, Central Europe and the United States, what do you think we here in the United States can learn most from some of these other cultures that you originated from and experienced? There is something here missing and that is the family component. We have a lot of good things in the United States but we don’t appreciate that much the knowledge. An initiative that I started at the Denver Public School was connecting our seniors with younger generations. That goes back to the family integrity. I see families here who have five kids and the place for their parents is a nursing home. Of those five kids, only one goes to visit their parents. There is a disconnection there. As a society, that will be a good place to start. I don't sometimes see how we utilize the knowledge and expertise of a lot of seniors. Diversity, Equity And Inclusion: DEI work cannot be effective if we don’t face our own bias. The work starts within ourselves. You cannot apply something that you don’t believe in. I read a news article about the phenomenon of people cutting their parents out of their lives and how it’s become even more prevalent for many years. My focus tends to be on changes from the turn of the century until now. It seems different. One of the problems that are near and dear to me is loneliness in general. It's a tough toll on a lot of people. There’s a percentage of people who say they don’t feel like they have someone to confide in when they have something going on. They don’t have someone to ask for help. Now I read about family members being estranged more and more. Do you have any sense as to how this has originated and whether or not this is a North America-only phenomenon or is it going on elsewhere in the globe? There is a lot of things that we can do here in the United States. For example, if we look at the culture in Japan. When the parents get older and there are five siblings, they going to fight to see who can take care of their parents. I come from a generation where we live with our grandma for many years. My mom took care of my grandma. We come from a generation of taking care of our loved ones. There is something to learn there. This country will do very well by integrating more. That's a big piece with DEI because a lot of companies have age discrimination. They are hiring all these new twenty years old and don't value their people who have been in companies for twenty years. There is something there that we have to look closer to. When it comes to some of this age discrimination, how do we go about looking at people in different generations? I had another episode of this show where we talked about the five different generations in the workforce and how each generation has a unique perspective. That’s an interesting one. What’s needed is this mutual understanding and the combination of all the perspectives. The same DEI that people tend to think about when they think about racial bias tends to be the most commonly thought about it. Is it the same mental mechanism to address our racial biases as it is to address biases against certain age groups? Unfortunately, yes. That’s something that we see more and more. That’s why there is a big disintegration right now. Everything that happened in 2020 was the beginning of this wake-up call that I hope many of us are having, some more than others. That led to that mindset of age and all these things that are not doing us any good. Let’s say someone is a Millennial. They’re estranged. They don’t talk to their parents anymore. It’s easy to find someone who only talks with people in the same general age range as them, their peers that they choose to sit with when they’re at work or people that they’re closest friends with. What happens when you only talk to your specific age group and you don’t talk to people who are older or even in younger generations as well? You are missing out from my perspective. In my studies with DEI and what I have seen in my travel, I see that more and more. You travel and you want to take a class. I love to take classes about everything. I’m one of those people that as soon as I arrive in a new city or a country, I say, “Where do I sign myself?” Even if it’s a one-day class or activities, I love to learn. Let’s say Airbnb. You do research about something like places to dwell. They break it down for you by ages. For 20 to 30, there are these places. For 30 to 40, they give you other places. That’s very interesting. There is also the media. The media is not sometimes treating seniors kindly. The image that they are selling is not that positive. We have to do work at so many levels about integration because it’s affecting us. What you said is so important because what happened when you go around the same circle is that’s your feedback. That’s where you get your information. We need to work and be more mindful about how we can make those integrations. It takes an actual effort. Most people find it easier to talk among like people. Whether it be people who think like them from an ideological standpoint or people who look like them or people who have the same background and upbringing....