DEIB Strategist, Risk Mitigator and Speaker Torin Ellis on Prioritizing Belonging and Inclusion
In this episode, I’m really excited to be sitting down with an old friend of mine, Torin Ellis. He’s a diversity strategist, risk mitigator, podcast host and speaker. “I show up differently in the [DEIB] space than anybody else that you are going to encounter,” Torin says. “And I don't say that to impress you, but to impress upon you and the listeners that I move differently. So I spend a portion of my time optimizing [DEIB] strategies inside of large organizations, midsize organizations and startups. I coach leaders around how to be, and model better, their [DEIB] presence and practice.”
As for Torin’s incredible work as a speaker, he explains, “I'm unapologetic about the way that I speak. There is nothing that you can do to control what it is that I'm going to say, because I know I'm moving in love and truth in that I'm trying to challenge and agitate individuals to simply do better.”
Torin sat down with me to discuss inclusion and belonging, particularly how leadership can show that their organizations will remain true to their DEIB efforts and how to build an organization that prioritizes belonging and inclusion.
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How Leaders Can Show That Their Organizations Care About Belonging and Inclusion
The first thing I asked Torin was how do we ensure that leaders take belonging and inclusion efforts seriously and vow to help remove systemic issues in the organization?
Torin explains that if an organization wants people to believe they care about diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, you must do three things:
Make a declarative statement. “Let me define leadership. That’s the C-suite, that’s the director. That’s even your hiring managers or the people that are leading your business units, your departments and your teams. Leadership needs to make a declarative statement — internal-facing, perhaps external-facing — how important diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging are to the organization.”
Reallocate resources. “That would be headcount and dollars. We didn’t get to this overnight. We’re not going to get out of this overnight. We’re not going to get out of this by simply setting up an unconscious-bias training and thinking that we’ve done everything that we need to do for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. You’ve got to shift some stuff. You got to move some things. We’ve got to move some people around because they don’t have the competency to do what’s necessary.”
Holds folks accountable. “The biggest win for me in 2020, Lars, was that I had three clients say, ‘I am going to put a measurement, a question around your contribution to D&I efforts, on performance evaluations.’” Torin adds. The fact that the evaluation asks this question “suggests that it’s important to the entire organization.”
Being True to the Definitions of Belonging and Inclusion
Belonging and inclusion are only words unless we put them into practice. With employee resource groups, how do we balance, on one side of it, being a safe space to come together for people who have shared life experiences? There may be people outside that group who don't have that same shared experience. Maybe they want to be an ally. Perhaps they are an ally. Maybe they're not an ally, and they just want you to teach them. How does Torin mitigate that?
"What I do is I challenge organizations to search for D&I or DEIB at every value point in the organization. Specifically to your question, I use four words: empathy, intentionality, proximity and transparency. I can't learn if I'm not proximate, if I'm not intimate with the experience of others, the concerns of others."
"When you read the book “The Color of Law” by Richard Rothstein, it allows you to get close to the scenario of Black and Brown people in cities all across this country. It allows you to better understand when Black folks say, or Black people say, or others say, that we have institutional and systemic racism."
"If it matters to you and you are true to the definitions of those words 'belonging and inclusion,' then you're going to bring people in, and you're going to welcome them in."
Building an Organization That Prioritizes Belonging and Inclusion
Finally, I ask Torin for advice on how we should really be thinking about building an organization, culture and business that authentically prioritizes and embeds diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging through their people systems.
Torin gives a straightforward answer, breaking it up into three essential parts:
Be empowered. We have to operate with a strong voice.” “[You have to] speak up in your organization.”
Strategic exploration. “It’s about evaluating DEI or DEIB at every single value point in the organization. You can’t take a requisition and determine that the talent that you need is the same across the board.” Torin adds: “I’ve got to know what stage in the business the organization is in. I’ve got to know what stage the team is in. And then I shift accordingly.”
Tactical execution. “Potential minus interference equals results,” Torin says. “Do you have the willpower to say, ‘I’m going to do better around diversity and inclusion’? Do you have the willpower to say, ‘I’m going to create some new relationships with strategic partners or community groups and organizations’? … It’s the tactical execution that too many organizations are missing.”