43 min
24. DEI: Creating a Holistic Narrative with Geoffrey Williams Why Care?
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- Business
“Everyone has their personal passion points, and [DEI] conversation[s are] often looked at from a personal viewpoint. So it’s not really looked at as a business driver or a business conversation, it’s looked at as ‘I care about gender’, ‘I care about race’, ‘I care about disability because my child has a disability’ and you have to encourage the leaders to go outside the scope of their personal passion”
In Episode 24 I am joined by Geoffrey Williams, Vice President / Global Head Diversity Equity & Inclusion at Burberry, to discuss empowering the next generation of workers, the toxic cycle of “paying your dues”, and the cultural nuances in global DEI strategy.
As with many DEI professionals, Geoffrey didn’t start out in the field – in fact he hesitated to work in DEI when he was given the first opportunity so as not to be stereotyped. Starting out in the music and entertainment business, his increasing work with people led him to move over into Learning & Development in HR. It was during this role he bore witness to an unfair scenario that led him speaking up to the CEO. This culminated in Geoffrey being offered a DEI role to help rectify the situation, and after much research he realised DEI work was more than just giving speeches about discrimination.
After talking about growing up as a Black boy in the UK in the 80s and the role of his parents in teaching how to navigate this, we talk about Geoffrey’s current work with Rocking Ur Teams in empowering and educating the youth of today and making their career aspirations accessible. This progresses into a discussion over how the expectations of the current youth entering the workforce are different to previous generations, and how organisations desperately need to adapt if they want the best talent.
This adaption includes how organisations and leaders must break the cycle of “paying your dues” with entry level employees committing overtime, free labour and demeaning tasks because that’s what the leaders had to do. Geoffrey shares how leaders must be engaged with DEI beyond their own pet passion projects or characteristics relevant to them - he calls this leaders being “bubble bound” to their own social bubble and worldview.
As we bring the conversation to a close, we discuss the common response of “oh well that doesn’t happen here” that we both hear when talking about racism or other discrimination. Many people believe that discrimination problems in other countries don’t happen in their own country due to it manifesting in different ways. Geoffrey explains how this is a cultural nuance that must be adapted to by global organisations, but western leaders should be careful to do it sensitively and not prioritise their own western views.
Links:
Geoffrey can be found on:
· LinkedIn at Geoffrey O. Williams
· Instagram at @geoffrey.o.williams
· Twitter at @GWEntertainment
Geoffrey can also be found on his website at: https://geoffreyowilliams.com/
For more from Rocking Ur Teams, visit: http://rockingurteens.com/
For Geoffrey’s Ted X talk on ‘The Pressure on Young Shoulders’ visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl0tGp3eRIs&ab_channel=TEDxTalks
To hear Why Care? episodes first, sign up to our newsletter here, and you can find more from us at Avenir via our LinkTree here.
“Everyone has their personal passion points, and [DEI] conversation[s are] often looked at from a personal viewpoint. So it’s not really looked at as a business driver or a business conversation, it’s looked at as ‘I care about gender’, ‘I care about race’, ‘I care about disability because my child has a disability’ and you have to encourage the leaders to go outside the scope of their personal passion”
In Episode 24 I am joined by Geoffrey Williams, Vice President / Global Head Diversity Equity & Inclusion at Burberry, to discuss empowering the next generation of workers, the toxic cycle of “paying your dues”, and the cultural nuances in global DEI strategy.
As with many DEI professionals, Geoffrey didn’t start out in the field – in fact he hesitated to work in DEI when he was given the first opportunity so as not to be stereotyped. Starting out in the music and entertainment business, his increasing work with people led him to move over into Learning & Development in HR. It was during this role he bore witness to an unfair scenario that led him speaking up to the CEO. This culminated in Geoffrey being offered a DEI role to help rectify the situation, and after much research he realised DEI work was more than just giving speeches about discrimination.
After talking about growing up as a Black boy in the UK in the 80s and the role of his parents in teaching how to navigate this, we talk about Geoffrey’s current work with Rocking Ur Teams in empowering and educating the youth of today and making their career aspirations accessible. This progresses into a discussion over how the expectations of the current youth entering the workforce are different to previous generations, and how organisations desperately need to adapt if they want the best talent.
This adaption includes how organisations and leaders must break the cycle of “paying your dues” with entry level employees committing overtime, free labour and demeaning tasks because that’s what the leaders had to do. Geoffrey shares how leaders must be engaged with DEI beyond their own pet passion projects or characteristics relevant to them - he calls this leaders being “bubble bound” to their own social bubble and worldview.
As we bring the conversation to a close, we discuss the common response of “oh well that doesn’t happen here” that we both hear when talking about racism or other discrimination. Many people believe that discrimination problems in other countries don’t happen in their own country due to it manifesting in different ways. Geoffrey explains how this is a cultural nuance that must be adapted to by global organisations, but western leaders should be careful to do it sensitively and not prioritise their own western views.
Links:
Geoffrey can be found on:
· LinkedIn at Geoffrey O. Williams
· Instagram at @geoffrey.o.williams
· Twitter at @GWEntertainment
Geoffrey can also be found on his website at: https://geoffreyowilliams.com/
For more from Rocking Ur Teams, visit: http://rockingurteens.com/
For Geoffrey’s Ted X talk on ‘The Pressure on Young Shoulders’ visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl0tGp3eRIs&ab_channel=TEDxTalks
To hear Why Care? episodes first, sign up to our newsletter here, and you can find more from us at Avenir via our LinkTree here.
43 min