Diversity Decoder’s Linda Dunbar highlights a McKinsey study in which companies that “get” racial and ethnic diversity increase their returns by more than a third.  

"If you could do something and get a 35% pop you would be focused on that every minute of the day," she shares in this new short CommunicationsMatch™ Communicators-to-Communicators video interview (5 minutes), Lean into Diversity.

And yet, it’s clear that many companies and agencies, while talking about diversity, still don’t fully get what it takes to realize this opportunity. For corporations, Dunbar argues the starting point is to make the business case for diversity.

Bringing her international background and experience to the table to help the companies she consults with on diversity issues, she states that it is important to frame diversity discussions around a universal key to business success: “It’s not about what you think…it’s about what they think.”  

She highlights that changing behaviors requires both an understanding of the history of the United States and the experience African Americans live every day.

Drawing on the documentary film Burden, directed by and based on the experiences of Nathan Hale Williams, Diversity Decoder’s new training program asks participants to walk in the shoes of a successful African American professional, Bennett Lewis, for one day. The film provides a window into his experience of waking up to a day of microagressions and challenges, as a path for the audience to recognize systemic racism and engage in discussions about changing behaviors.

A foundation for more diverse and inclusive workplaces is for leaders and employees to appreciate, “Those things that make us the same, and are different, that we need to respect and understand."

The takeaway from the short discussion with Dunbar is the importance of corporates, agencies and industry professionals opening their eyes to the experience of African Americans if they want to realize the business opportunity diversity represents.

She cites journalist, Gary Younge: "It is impossible to understand the present if you are deluded about the past."     

Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/-xKLHDHV02o

Find out more about Diversity Decoder on CommunicationsMatch™.

Simon Erskine Locke is CEO of communications agency and professional search and services platform, CommunicationsMatch™. He is a regular contributor to CommPRO.biz and vice president of the Foreign Press Association. Search for Agencies, Professionals & Service providers.  Create a profile on CommunicationsMatch.