News from Human Facets

We have been working on the challenges of breaking the Glass Ceiling for many years and yet, I am sure you would agree, we are still a long way from having achieved our goals.

I want to suggest another frontier that I believe will offer an accelerated route to breaking through the glass ceiling. Remove the GLASS WALLS and the Glass Ceiling will crack faster. If you think about the architectural structure of a building you would normally build the walls first and then add the ceiling/roof. Conversely, if you were to dismantle that building you would take off the roof and then remove the walls. On the other hand, if you wanted faster progress, removing the walls first would certainly bring the ceiling tumbling down faster. Metaphor can only take us so far, but I am sure you catch my drift. We have work to do on the walls we have built between us both within diverse groups and across groups. Read my article below, "The Rubik Cube and the Sisterhood" for a roadmap on how to reframe this journey.

THE RUBIK CUBE and the SISTERHOOD

Did you know that there are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible variations to solving the rubik cube. That is 43 quitllion, 252 quadrillion, 3 trillion, 274 billion, 489 million+ variations. (source: www.metacafe.com) These numbers can only be calculated by a super computer, in n-dimensional hyperspace. In other words, the human mind cannot possibly comprehend or grasp the vastness of that challenge.

I believe the same is true of the complex challenges we face when trying to crack or remove the glass ceiling for diverse groups. There are just as many variables. One of the variables that is not given enough attention on our Diversity & Inclusion journey are the glass walls we raise within and between groups. We cannot focus our energy fully on the glass ceiling because we are too busy exercising our attitudes and beliefs towards people in other groups and people in our own group.

It is an open secret that when a woman gets promoted it is often other women who criticize her and question how she got there; perhaps going so far as to say "I don't like to report to a woman". It is perhaps not so well understood that that same phenomena, known as "internalized oppression" is alive and not well in all groups. African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and GLBT all have their own version of this exclusionary behavior. Whether the argument is about the color line or the use of derogatory self deprecating language within the group, all of these factors serve to keep us focused horizontally and not vertically. We are collectively, and albeit unconsciously, colluding in a process that prevents us making more progress. As Wilie Lynch told the slave-owners 300 years ago "turn them against themselves and you will have control of them for years to come".

Human Facets consultants have expertise in addressing this complex phenomenon. If you are interested in discussing this further please contact me at the email address listed below. I believe passionately that this is the next frontier. Join me in overcoming it.

CLOSING THE DIVERSITY SKILLS GAP

Are you looking for a tool that will help your Leadership team, The Diversity Steering Team, Employee Resource Groups and your employee base improve their skills in Diversity & Inclusion? ISM PYRAMID

The ISM Profile, (Inclusion Skills Measurement Profile) has seven core competencies which help participants to identify Diversity & Inclusion skills gaps. It is an online 360 assessment tool with the capability to measure self and peer perceptions and to provide focused feedback to participants. For more information visit www.humanfacets.com and click on the box labeled "ISM Profile" at the bottom right hand side of the home page.

DID YOU KNOW?

It took 38 years for Radio to reach an audience of 50 million people; Television took 12 years, iPod 3 years, Facebook 2 years and MySpace 6 months. Technological innovation is moving exponentially faster than ever before and an Engineering student entering Graduate school today will find the information she learns in the first two years to be obsolete before the end of her four year degree program. We are educating people today for jobs that do not yet exist and have not yet been thought about. What does all this mean for Diversity & Inclusion? CNN beamed an Avatar of Will I Am into the studio on Election night, touting it as a "technological first" for television. What if we are able to beam ourselves into other countries to attend meetings? Will we need a passport? What if a language translator was smaller than your bluetooth and translated multiple languages? Would communication borders change? The Global Village is becoming smaller. Are you ready for it? Are you thinking ahead and outside of the box?

I hope you have found Human Facets first edition newsletter to be useful, thought provoking and interesting. We will issue this newsletter on a bi-monthly basis and look forward to your responses and feedback. I appreciate your time and look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,

Helen Turnbull PhD
Human Facets