58 min
Why is Achieving Diversity So Hard? Overcoming Homophily and Our Own Human Nature with Sociologist James Cook Leadership Lyceum: A CEO's Virtual Mentor
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- Business
Welcome to Episode 25, Season 6, of the Leadership Lyceum: A CEO's Virtual Mentor®. This is part one of two episodes aimed as a celebration of Black History Month.
In August 2020, USA Today reported that 11% of the directors across the 50 largest companies in the S&P 100 are black. On the other hand, gender diversity on boards has shown better improvement over the last seven years. BoardEx just released data that revealed gender diversity on corporate boards in the US increased about 10% over the seven-year period from 2014 to 2020, that is from 19% to 28.8%, a year on year average growth rate of about 1.4%. France and Norway are at 44% and 39% respectively, but their growth rate is slower than the US. You see, they started from a higher percentage level in the first place. We agree with all the benefits of having diverse boards, but we think that a 1.4% growth rate is not even close to good enough.
Since the 2017 founding of our sister company, Lyceum Leadership Consulting, we’ve placed diverse candidates in 24 out of 43 of our board and executive searches, or 56%. It's a track record we're proud of, but we can do better. If we assume the good intentions of everyone involved in board selection decisions to improve upon those numbers, then what is holding us all back? What is causing the stubborn persistence of diversity levels across the world? Lyceum Leadership Consulting thesis is that we are battling our own human nature.
In my search work over the last decade and a half, I often observed that a missing link in creating boardroom diversity is often a lack of diversity in the professional networks of the board of directors or the nominating committee themselves. As often, candidates are identified and selected from these networks. In order to understand what causes a lack of network diversity to exist, it's instructive to understand sociology applied to these social networks.
In this program, we examine ways of counteracting our own human nature to ultimately make significant improvements in boardroom and executive diversity.
Joining me on the program is Associate Professor of Sociology, James M. Cook, from the University of Maine. One of Dr. Cook's areas of expertise is in the area of social network analysis. I discovered Professor Cook's work in my own research on this perplexing issue. I was especially intrigued and informed by an academic paper that he co-authored in 2001 called Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks.
Program Guide
A CEO’s Virtual Mentor Episode 25
Why is Achieving Diversity So Hard?
Overcoming Homophily and Our Own Human Nature with Sociologist James Cook
0:00 Introduction to the program and Dr. James M. Cook, Associate Professor of Sociology, from the University of Maine.
4:26 Definition of Homophily
7:25 Homophily in the boardroom setting and the limitations of the board
11:20 Break 1
11:19 Social Capital: Bonding and Bridging
14:34 Break 2
14:47 Part 1 of the Framework for Overcoming Homophily: Finding people who are different
25:35 Break 3
26:19 Part 1 (continued): Finding, or being found, at the individual level
33:46 Break 4
34:29 Part 2 of the Framework for Overcoming Homophily: Uniting through the instability that bringing people who are different causes
40:24 Break 4
40:51 Part 3 of the Framework for Overcoming Homophily: Managing conflicts that are bound to arise.
44:15 Break 5
44:38 Conclusion: Intergroup relations and advice toward improvement in diversity outcomes
55:06 End of Program and Preview of Episode 26, part 2 of 2, in celebration of Black History Month
We would like to express our special thanks to the clients of Lyceum Leadership Consulting that enable us to bring you this podcast.
Thanks for listening. We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to y
Welcome to Episode 25, Season 6, of the Leadership Lyceum: A CEO's Virtual Mentor®. This is part one of two episodes aimed as a celebration of Black History Month.
In August 2020, USA Today reported that 11% of the directors across the 50 largest companies in the S&P 100 are black. On the other hand, gender diversity on boards has shown better improvement over the last seven years. BoardEx just released data that revealed gender diversity on corporate boards in the US increased about 10% over the seven-year period from 2014 to 2020, that is from 19% to 28.8%, a year on year average growth rate of about 1.4%. France and Norway are at 44% and 39% respectively, but their growth rate is slower than the US. You see, they started from a higher percentage level in the first place. We agree with all the benefits of having diverse boards, but we think that a 1.4% growth rate is not even close to good enough.
Since the 2017 founding of our sister company, Lyceum Leadership Consulting, we’ve placed diverse candidates in 24 out of 43 of our board and executive searches, or 56%. It's a track record we're proud of, but we can do better. If we assume the good intentions of everyone involved in board selection decisions to improve upon those numbers, then what is holding us all back? What is causing the stubborn persistence of diversity levels across the world? Lyceum Leadership Consulting thesis is that we are battling our own human nature.
In my search work over the last decade and a half, I often observed that a missing link in creating boardroom diversity is often a lack of diversity in the professional networks of the board of directors or the nominating committee themselves. As often, candidates are identified and selected from these networks. In order to understand what causes a lack of network diversity to exist, it's instructive to understand sociology applied to these social networks.
In this program, we examine ways of counteracting our own human nature to ultimately make significant improvements in boardroom and executive diversity.
Joining me on the program is Associate Professor of Sociology, James M. Cook, from the University of Maine. One of Dr. Cook's areas of expertise is in the area of social network analysis. I discovered Professor Cook's work in my own research on this perplexing issue. I was especially intrigued and informed by an academic paper that he co-authored in 2001 called Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks.
Program Guide
A CEO’s Virtual Mentor Episode 25
Why is Achieving Diversity So Hard?
Overcoming Homophily and Our Own Human Nature with Sociologist James Cook
0:00 Introduction to the program and Dr. James M. Cook, Associate Professor of Sociology, from the University of Maine.
4:26 Definition of Homophily
7:25 Homophily in the boardroom setting and the limitations of the board
11:20 Break 1
11:19 Social Capital: Bonding and Bridging
14:34 Break 2
14:47 Part 1 of the Framework for Overcoming Homophily: Finding people who are different
25:35 Break 3
26:19 Part 1 (continued): Finding, or being found, at the individual level
33:46 Break 4
34:29 Part 2 of the Framework for Overcoming Homophily: Uniting through the instability that bringing people who are different causes
40:24 Break 4
40:51 Part 3 of the Framework for Overcoming Homophily: Managing conflicts that are bound to arise.
44:15 Break 5
44:38 Conclusion: Intergroup relations and advice toward improvement in diversity outcomes
55:06 End of Program and Preview of Episode 26, part 2 of 2, in celebration of Black History Month
We would like to express our special thanks to the clients of Lyceum Leadership Consulting that enable us to bring you this podcast.
Thanks for listening. We can’t improve without your feedback – write us through our website www.LeadershipLyceum.com and subscribe wherever you listen to y
58 min