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Using Education To Breaks Barriers w/ Tonya Horn
41 Plays4 years ago
This week, for our 3rd installment of "The 3D Podcast', I am speaking to Tonya Horn, Diversity and Inclusion Recruitment Manager for Avery Dennison to discuss how to use education to break barriers in Corporate America.
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Transcript
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you
Introduction and Mission
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Hey, I'm Cedric Chambers, and I would like to welcome you to another episode of the 3D Podcast, a masterclass where we share with you everything you need to know about how to transform diversity and inclusion in your organization as well as in your community. We're on a mission to amplify the voices of leaders that are making an impact in the world today so that we can have a better tomorrow.
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Our goal every episode is to keep it simple, honest, and transparent with you by uncovering the truths in diversity and inclusion with the hope of creating behavioral change all while presenting it from a unique perspective. So look, if you're ready, get your notepad out, pour you a drink, and let's dive deep as we discuss the dimensions of diversity.
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Hey
Guest Introduction: Tanya Horne
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everyone, look, welcome to the show. I'm excited. Today we are speaking to Tanya Horn, just to provide a little background. Look, Tanya is the Diversity and Inclusion Manager for Avery Denison, a material science manufacturing corporation where she develops strategies to create a more diverse workforce.
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Tanya has over 10 years of experience in higher education administration, where she's worked with both Nebraska Wesleyan University and the University of Akron to increase minority enrollment. Along her career, Tanya has worked with some amazing organizations, which includes Enroll's First Energy and has spent time working and living in Japan
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as the regional manager for the University of Maryland University College. Throughout her career, she's played a pivotal role in advancing efforts to level the playing field for people of color and women in education and business. And when it comes to diversity and inclusion, Tanya says that it resonates within the fabric of who she is. Look, I hope that you're ready for this episode, because I know that I am. So without further ado, Tanya Horne. So Tanya,
Tanya's Journey into D&I
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how are you doing today? I'm doing well. Thank you, Cedric. How are you?
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Oh, I'm doing blessed. I can't complain. Look, I'm excited to have this discussion today and to talk through, you know, some of these topics with you. You know, I gave a little bit of an intro in the beginning, but before we get started, I'd like to lay the foundation and just allow you to provide a little bit more of a deeper background of, you know, who you are. Tell a little bit about your story, you know, how you got into diversity, inclusion, just who Tonya Horn is. Okay. All right. I started out in higher education after I graduated from college.
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That was probably my first real opportunity to really work with a diverse population. I started out in college admissions and my focus was on increasing diversity at two of the universities that I worked with.
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And so it didn't end with recruitment. It extended to other efforts to support the minority students that came to the schools that I recruited. And we worked around efforts around retention and making sure that these students graduated. So that's kind of where I got my first opportunity to really work in this space and see where my passion and my interests lie, especially working with college students.
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or even high school students giving them the opportunity to be able to enroll in college and not be concerned that they couldn't afford it. And so in getting students in, and the schools I work with were predominantly white schools. So it was really important as I recruited the students to make sure they had a good foundation to be successful at the two schools that I worked at. So that's,
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pretty much how I got started. Got it. Got it. And so tell us, as you're going through in your career, when you think about the time that you've spent in diversity and inclusion, what are some of the, just the highlights, you know, just around the work that you've been doing and the work that you continue to do? So, um,
The Business Case for Diversity
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you know, the highlights, I guess for me in this space, because it definitely is, you know, a journey. It's great to see how,
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The work that I do has transformed. I remember when I, you know, in my career working in the, you know, the late 80s, the 90s, you know, this had a lot of attention around it. As I mentioned, how I was hired to really focus on hiring minority students to universities. And then it kind of slowed down. And now organizations across this country are really paying attention to the need
00:04:36
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of diversity and inclusion in the workforce. And so that's been exciting to see how it's transforming. And I think companies see the reason it's important is because there's a business imperative. They know that having a more diverse and inclusive environment will net higher profits. And so money talks. I work for an organization
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where innovation is important. And so as you begin to have a more diverse workforce, it increases your innovation because that's important to the bottom line. And it does give companies a competitive advantage. So I'm really excited to see that more companies are getting it. So that's a really good thing in the space that I'm working in.
00:05:22
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No, awesome. Yeah. And just with everything that's going on in the current society and environment, you know, just to see more companies go in this direction and start to, you know, whether it's hire different leaders around diversity and inclusion space or really put focus around this topic, you know, it is great. Right. And I just hope that as we continue to move forward, right, we don't have a slowdown in the action and the movement here. Right. And we continue to progress forward. And so
00:05:46
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And so as we go through today, right, you know, we're talking about transforming the organization's way of thinking so that they can unlock new ways to engage with talent with the goal of not only increasing diverse representation in the organization, but also to align the thinking of everyone in the organization from the top down. And so my question to kind of kick this off for you is when it comes to engaging with leaders, how do you get the organization's leaders to transform their mindset from where they are to where they want to be in regards to diversity and inclusion?
Educating Leaders on D&I
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It's really about education. And as I mentioned before, when you, you know, you work for a company, the bottom line is so important, you know, profit is so important. So starting where, you know, starting in that area, the business imperative, because a lot of times they want to understand why is this important outside of the fact that this is the smart thing to do or a nice thing, good thing to do. So really educating them on the, um,
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that companies net higher profits if they have a more diverse and inclusive organization. Also, education. I think a lot of the barriers that exist, people are not aware of them. And so what I try to do is share the barriers that are in place that prevent us from having a more diverse workforce. And I leave them with, if we're serious about wanting change, because a lot of times we talk
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but we don't walk. So we want to get it to a point where we're talking the, talking the walk or walking the talk, I should say. And so if we want to support diversity and inclusion, how willing are we to let go of some of the legacy practices that are in place as some of the organizations that we work that create barriers and how do we align ourselves with doing the real work around DNI efforts? And so that's really important education is,
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is key because people are just not aware that the practices that we have can create a barrier to get a more diverse workforce. So I agree. I agree. And I'm curious when you're having this conversation with leadership around letting go some of those legacy practices.
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How is that received, you know, in those discussions and thought processes, right? Are people like immediately on board? Is there more massaging that you have to do to get people aligned? Like, is it kind of a little bit of both? But how does leadership perceive that conversation when you have it and how do they respond? To be honest, it's a mix. And so one of the things that I do know, I have to be careful in terms of how I communicate it so that
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people understand that these barriers don't just exist for people of color. They exist for our employees that are within the organizations. For example, if we have jobs that don't necessarily need a degree, people internally, whoever they are, if they don't have a degree but they have the experience, they can't bid on that job. So it's a barrier for them as well.
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So that's really important for me to be able to communicate that we need to take a look at these barriers, not just for people of color, but for every individual that wants to maybe get hired at the company or already in the company. Some people are very enlightened when I share the information about barriers because they just don't know. They just don't see it. You know, I really try to ask people to use a different lens when you are working in this space.
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of kind of step outside of your lens that where you might be privileged. You've had privileged opportunities and can walk in this space in this country as a privileged person. And so if you step outside of that, you can kind of really begin to open your eyes to some of the barriers that are created. And so it's an aha moment for some. And one
Scaling Diversity Initiatives
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of the things that I've said as I
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go around and talk to different hiring managers and leaders and things of that nature. I really want to be able to come to the table as a partner and discuss these barriers and think of some out of the box strategies that can help us change what we've been doing and really kind of enhance our processes around hiring and retention and things of that nature that will help us recruit and retain
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diverse candidates. No, that's awesome. Look, you know, when you said lens, right, that brought up something to me is when you think about like vision and look, I wear glasses myself. Right. And it's almost like when we're looking at something, the glasses that we're wearing to look at it is very important. Right.
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And when you get the right glasses, you're able to see better whatever that situation is, right? So I think just when you say think about the lens and how they're viewing things, and I think that with now everything that's going on is one of those things to where I would say, unlike before, you just can't turn off the TV and then hope that in a couple of days it'll go away, right? It's a more of a movement now and you have to really now look at
00:10:57
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what are those things that you were doing before that you're doing now that need to be adjusted and changed through this process as you look to get on this journey as relates to diversity and inclusion. And so when you're having that discussion, you know, you're getting them to think through this different lens, they're starting to see things better, more clear from a leadership perspective.
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how do you now scale this transformational mindset, this vision so that it permeates through the organization and that it's not stopped, you know, as it gets to like middle management, you know, it continues to go from top down all the way through the organization so that we can make sure this is something that's going to continue to grow and that we can build upon. So how do you get that to scale? Yeah, you know, it's so important you talk about top down approach or middle up approach. I've been in those situations and I can forth
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Fortunately, I can say that with Avery Dennison, as we've gone through this journey, it has taken some time to get there to the top-down approach. With this pandemic, we're in our homes. We see what has been going on over the past
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here with the racial injustices and the uprising and things of that nature. So it woke people up. And I can say, and I'm happy to say, it woke our company up. And so our CEO, you know, sent out a statement to the entire company with regards to the efforts that we need to put forth around the social injustice and how we as an organization can do better, need to do better.
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And so he has put his commitment towards diversity and inclusion. You know, he started out having conversations with some of the black employees at our organization and I was one of them and really wanted to hear, you know, our voice, how we were feeling around what was going on and how it affects us, you know, in the workplace. And so he wanted to have us share stories with the entire company and then really kind of think about afterwards
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you know, having a plan. So it was so important that people hear because people don't see it, people don't get it. And when you are able to listen to an employee that you work with every day and hear some of the challenges that they've gone through as a black person, it really resonates.
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And so now, you know, our commitment to diversity and inclusion is top down. It's communicated as a priority in open forums during our town hall sessions often. And so it really is easier for this to permeate throughout the organization. It will still be a work in progress. This is not something that's going to happen overnight, but
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with everyone on board, not just the CEO, but our vice presidents and our leadership teams, it really does make it easier to put forth strategies. And it's seen that it is a commitment and it doesn't just lie with a few people, it lies with our CEO, our vice presidents. We have a DNI council, we have a leadership council, a part of the DNI council.
00:14:19
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That speaks volumes when you have an opportunity to have a CEO lead this charge. No, it does. It does. And continue this moving forward with the organization and CEO is critical to that happening. I'm curious though, as you're going through and you're having the councils, you're making sure that this is in the fabric of the organization as it permeates throughout
00:14:42
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Are you all using any type of metrics or measurements as you're going through this process to make sure or to assess that you are continuing down this journey that you set for yourself? For sure. You have to. You know, no company is going to have a goal or anything without measurements and without seeing how we're moving along in the process, are we
00:15:05
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making progress. If we're not making progress, it allows us to kind of stop and rethink, refocus. So we're committed to that. We're committed to resources, which is so important. We're committed to funding and strategies with our DNI council. We have metrics and goals around our hiring, around retention, around inclusion.
00:15:30
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So these are priorities that will eventually become a part of our culture. Culture is a hard thing to tackle. It takes a big culture shift, and it won't happen overnight, as I said. But we have our leaders that are involved, very active in this. And so whenever the CEO
00:15:53
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sets a priority within the organization. He has an expectation that we do have metrics and goals set and kind of track how we're doing so that we can forge ahead if we're doing it in the right way or kind of rethink our plan if we're not. No, that's great. I mean, just thinking about culture, right? Culture, that's the people in the organization, what people are bringing to the table, what they're bringing to the
00:16:21
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the organization to build that culture. And so when you think about just people in general, right? And we kind of move towards this space of recruiting and sourcing, right? Talent in the market. How, what are you all doing or how do you work at reducing the various different hiring barriers when it comes to bringing in underrepresented groups?
Reducing Hiring Biases
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And how do you address that bias that can often sometimes creep into the hiring process? So as I mentioned, getting in front of our business and really talking about
00:16:50
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The barriers, the big thing is education and telling the story of why we're here, how we got here. And so my goal is to partner with our hiring managers on how they can help me and help our talent acquisition team break down the barriers that come with some of the out of the box approaches to reduce these barriers. And so as I mentioned, I want to partner with them, not really dictate
00:17:18
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these are the barriers and this is what we should do, that doesn't work. So really being a partner in this and working with them to come up with some approaches that can reduce those barriers. Also, we're working on a toolkit that we will provide to those who are hiring as well as providing training sessions around unconscious bias that to everyone that is involved in interviewing would need to go through this training and have access to this toolkit
00:17:48
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Because again, we all have unconscious bias, it's just natural, but we need to understand what our biases are and how they exist during this interviewing process and help us really think about those so that we can kind of
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move away from those unconscious bias and really focus on the experience of the candidate opposed to, you know, focusing on, you know, somebody's background or they're not like me. So I want someone that's more like me, things of that nature. It really kind of gives them an opportunity to understand how they're interviewing and some of the things that they need to let go of.
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No, understood. And so when you think about, you know, bringing in talent and there's a lot of different aspects in the recruitment and sourcing process, right? So, you know, you can have, talk a little bit before about, you know, not having the bachelor's degree versus the bachelor's degree. And that brings up this idea of like transferable skills and how does that play a part, you know, when it comes to hiring, when you think about, you know, the job descriptions, right? How they're written and how they're perceived externally. You know, also just, you know, just thinking about, you know, interviews, right?
00:19:00
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How are we doing interviews and things of that nature? So when it comes to those various different aspects of recruiting, what are some of the things that you all are doing to help further reduce the biases in the process so that it's not this subjective process that we're going through, right? We're not getting, I have a gut feeling that this person isn't a good fit for the culture, right? And then the question is, but what does it mean to be a good fit for the culture? And it's a culture that we have today, the one that we want in the future, like all these different questions come up.
00:19:25
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just around it. But I'm curious to understand just a little bit more around, you know, what are you all doing in those spaces to help, you know, remove that? And then I also have a question as it relates to, are you doing anything today as it relates to the actual recruiters, right?
00:19:40
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Because sometimes, you know, I think we can overlook the recruiters in this process and go straight to, hey, this manager needs this team, you know, need to hire more diverse candidates on this team. We need more diverse candidates in engineering. Then sometimes we don't address some of those things from a recruiter perspective because they are the first interaction with the candidates. Right. And so it's hiring the interview process.
00:20:01
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I know there was a lot there, but so just understanding that. So first we'll go just understanding those different steps, right? Job description, transferable skill, like what are you all doing around that? And then we'll tackle the recruiter. Okay. Well, one of the things that we've been talking about a part of our DNI council on how do we address from a talent acquisition perspective, some of the barriers. And so.
00:20:25
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we will be working on the reviewing of job descriptions and aligning those descriptions with what we really need opposed to the nice to have what I call. So really honing in on the very necessary skills and requirements and removing the things that you might see in a job description that someone would love to have. And so we're going to be talking about that.
00:20:54
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Also, talking about transferable skills, that's a challenge within my company because typically, we want to see people who have industry experience and just educating them on how many. We're a manufacturing company, so there's a limited amount of diversity within manufacturing, women and people of color. So really educating them on
00:21:22
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If this is what you want candidates to have industry experience, pressure sensitive adhesive experience, then we're going to miss out because there's not a lot of diversity in this industry. So really looking at transferable skills and providing on the job training opposed to expecting employees to come into the organization and hit the ground running. So those are the things that we, you know, are,
00:21:49
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that I'm communicating when I'm speaking to different business units, but also talking about what's next, and that is reviewing our job description. We haven't tackled it yet, but this is on our radar as a next step to some of the barriers that we're seeing. You mentioned from the recruiter standpoint, I'm a part of the talent acquisition team, so they are very engaged with the efforts that we're creating around diversity hiring.
00:22:20
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This is not just my role. This is not just the talent acquisition team role in terms of diversity and inclusion. It's everybody's role. So when a hiring manager comes to a recruiter and says, we're going to post this job, what we'd like to see is begin, what I like to begin to see is hiring managers immediately saying, and make sure as you present talent, it's a diverse slate. And so putting some.
00:22:44
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some metrics around that in terms of our goal of having a more diverse slate when it comes to gender diversity and when it comes to ethnic diversity. So that's important that we're going to establish and communicate to the entire business. And then also our expectation is to make sure that the interviewers are diverse. And diverse can mean gender, diverse can mean ethnicity, diverse can mean from a different department.
00:23:14
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because having a diverse interviewing team brings out different ways of thinking, different ways of seeing things. And so those are some of the things that we are establishing with regards to our application process and our interviewing process. We're also looking at how many applicants that are diverse apply. We take a real close look at the applicant funnel in terms of applicants,
00:23:40
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So if all those applicants who apply meet the requirements, how many were able to get an interview and how many are able to get hired. And so as we look at that process, we can see the barriers that we might need to address if we're not getting the number of candidates in that applicant funnel.
00:24:01
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that's critical when you're thinking about overall success of the process. And as you're going through and doing that sourcing, I think, you know, from a recruiter perspective, you know, we have like the traditional sourcing, you know, going out, kind of beating the pavement, finding talent, things of that nature. Are you all doing anything differently as it relates to, you know, one, how are you engaging talent from an attraction standpoint? What are you doing? You know, are the things that you're doing in the community, you know, what are those things and how does the organization show up? Because it's, you know, recruitment is one of those things to where
00:24:31
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By the time we get them on the slate, the slate is there. But what are we doing to make sure that we're attracting that talent? We're getting a name out there. We're having those interactions that aren't just transaction in the community. So what are you all doing around that space? Well, a
Community Partnerships and Recruitment
00:24:46
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big strategy of ours is outreach, creating community partners with different diversity organizations. So that's a big thing, really engaging with them because it's a win-win. The partnership,
00:25:00
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is a win-win for both sides. And so they have a need that we can assist with, and they have the people that we need. And so when you really massage that partnership and not just come to them when you need someone to hire, but you're sponsoring events, you're being seen in the community as an employer of choice. And that's what we're working on building our brand so that people know who we are,
00:25:27
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We are not an organization that sells our products to the community, to consumers. So a lot of people don't know who we are. We're a business to business organization. So we're working on our brand in terms of letting people know what we do. We also have a source or a diversity source or whose primary role is to find talent for the recruiters.
00:25:56
Speaker
And so she, she uses different strategies and platforms to go out and find talent. One good strategy that she uses is passive recruitment, going after candidates that not necessarily looking for a job. And, and you know, I, I often tell people that's how I got this job at Avery Denison. Someone found me on LinkedIn, saw my skillset and introduced a job description to me and asked if I would be interested. So we do.
00:26:26
Speaker
I think a lot of companies do that type of recruitment, passive recruitment. But yeah, just having a diversity source or any place I've ever worked, we didn't have that resource. I mean, it's a game changer, I believe, when you have someone who is dedicated to really build a diverse pipeline for future roles that may come down the pike, and also having a candidates on hand
00:26:55
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for current roles as well. So those are some of the things that we have a part of our strategy implemented. No, that's great. I like the passive recruitment approach, right? Because I think that sometimes, and I don't want to say that, I'm going to rephrase it. I would say that I see when engaging with various different clients or listening to individuals in this space is that I think sometimes we get confused with the word pipeline.
00:27:20
Speaker
And what is a real pipeline? A pipeline, I always think about it as if it was a water faucet. It's like the water is always there, but when you need it, you turn it on and the water comes out, but the water is there. And so when you think about doing a passive recruiting, doing some of the interactions to where you may not have the opportunity right now,
00:27:45
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But you'll have it coming down the line, but you want to start that engaging. You want to start that that connected with candidates beforehand so that when it happens, like, hey, you already know who the organization is. You know, we've had some discussions, you know, when my phone number comes up, you're going to pick up the phone call because I want to talk to you about some things that we have going on.
00:28:04
Speaker
And that is crucial when it comes to recruitment. And one thing I like to say is that every interaction with a candidate counts, right? Yeah, for sure. Whether they're perfect fit for the role or not, because you never know who they know. Right. You never know the referrals that can come out of this. You never know the connections that can come out of this. So it's good to see that you all are doing it as it relates to diversity, sourcing, and you're working down that path of passive recruiting and making sure you're creating those connections.
00:28:31
Speaker
Yeah. And also along that line, we have invested in a candidate relationship manager tool and we're in a pilot where it allows us to have more interaction with our candidates on a regular basis. And we really focus on making sure our candidates have a positive experience, whether they are a part of the pipeline or whether they went through an interview process, but didn't get the role.
00:28:58
Speaker
We want to continue to engage and let them know, you know, this wasn't, you know, we selected another candidate, but we're still interested in keeping you in our pipeline. And we will reach out to you as other opportunities come open. And we do a pretty good job of that. As you described that pipeline, having talent on the ready when something opens up. And so it's so important, you know, to have a robust pipeline for our future opportunities.
00:29:28
Speaker
No, I agree. I agree. Look, you know, as we're going through this conversation, education is something that, you know, you've touched on a lot.
Educating on Systemic Racism
00:29:35
Speaker
And so when it comes to diversity and inclusion, just the systemic issues overall, you know, the time that we find ourselves in, like there's a need to make sure that this work is not just temporary, but foundational to the way work gets done. So my question is, you know, what have you done or are you currently doing to educate
00:29:53
Speaker
the groups in your organization on just topics like systemic racism and how it plays a part in the workplace, right? So are there any, like, resources that you're providing? Any tips and tricks, right, as listeners are listening to this that they could probably use to just help their populations and their groups at work get through this? So it is so important for people to understand how we got here. When we think about what happened with George Floyd and all of the social injustices
00:30:24
Speaker
that's gone on in this country, the African American community, we have always been aware of these injustices. What the murder of George Floyd sparked was an uprising and a protest that woke up this country. And so I think it's so important for people to know the history, because a lot of them are not aware of the historical context, the systemic practices, the barriers, the policies that are in place in this country.
00:30:52
Speaker
And it's impossible to know and understand why our community has so many challenges around success, having a successful job and things of that nature. And so some of these things are systems that are still in place. And so education is so important to help people understand how we got here and why we are here.
00:31:15
Speaker
I immediately after what happened to George Floyd went into a mode of wanting to educate, especially because people were asking me, coming to me, what can I do? What can, what can I learn from this? Things of that nature. So I created a document that addresses our race in the workplace, being an ally, really educating on the state of policing, because, you know, there's a, there's a divide in terms of how,
00:31:44
Speaker
you know, one community looks at policing and another community sees it as an offense against police in America. So I give some historical context around that, educating them on the impact of racism, how it impacts people physically and just throughout our lives. And so I was able to create that document and make it available to our entire company as well as
00:32:13
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You know, I've shared this document with other organizations and people that I know. So just educating is the key. And also one of the things that I introduce is to our talent acquisition team and as well as our HR team. YWCA here in Northeast Ohio, the Cleveland chapter created a 21-day racial and equity social justice challenge.
00:32:36
Speaker
And so it's a challenge where you are given resources to read about or to watch videos or podcasts around education, around health care, around prison reform, not prison reform, but prison, the state of the prison and things of that nature. And so I went through this challenge with my
00:33:04
Speaker
telling the acquisition team as well as the HR team. And so we're going to be wrapping it up to kind of bring it to a close. But this is a great resource, a lot of good education, and definitely some aha moments for people.
00:33:19
Speaker
No, nice, nice. As you're thinking through the resources that you provided, do you have a few resources that you think are, that you could share that's on that document that, you know, I think that as we're going through and we're all learning and developing and growing ourselves in this space, you know, what are a couple of those things that you're sending out that others listening to this can use? When I say this is a very comprehensive, it's a very comprehensive resource with a lot of information, but
00:33:45
Speaker
Just some things to point out, Corn Ferry is a consulting firm. They've done a lot in this space, and they've created some articles and videos. You probably can just Google Corn Ferry. They do a series called Racism Matters, and around that is Hear Me, Stand By Me, In My Shoes, and Don't Talk Do. Proctor Gamble has done some great videos. I've seen some commercials.
00:34:13
Speaker
That they've done and so you can just go onto their website and you'll see those videos which are really eye-opening and then there's some books that that I've suggested our black employee resource group is going to be having a discussion this month on The book white fragility and I probably a lot of people are aware of that book. It's a great book and one of my favorite is the 1619 project and
00:34:41
Speaker
where it really talks about 1619 when Africans were brought to this country as slaves. And it just kind of shows the progression of everything that's happened in this country around race relations from 1619 to current day. It is incredible to see how
00:35:02
Speaker
things that were put in place and how people think years ago still think the same way today. And so that, I can't stress how great that project is. And then the last is of The New Jim Crow is a book that I've read that really highlights the justice system in this country. And so those are just a couple of things I can go on and on.
00:35:29
Speaker
No, I love it. I love it. I think that even adding to your list there, there is a couple of books that really when we think about this idea of Sankofa, right? So African term around looking back in order to move forward. Some of the books that I've just seen that I've been impactful in this space too as well and understanding what has happened is one, the color of law. And when you look at
00:35:55
Speaker
how redlining has happened when you look at how wealth was built in 50, 60 years ago. The discrimination process that happened not only in the communities, but from the government perspective. Just other books around racial matters when they go through the FBI secret files of how they were tracking black people and the things that they were doing in that case.
00:36:17
Speaker
I think that there's a lot of resources that we have out there to use. I think it's just being open to going out digesting this information and really trying to understand how we got to today. This didn't just happen overnight. This is a process.
00:36:32
Speaker
And it was an intentional process. So I think providing that learning internally is great. So as we get to this place here and we think about people who are listening to this podcast, we talked about leadership mindset, we talked about recruitment and biases in that process. What are two to three actions that you would say or would give to listeners that would allow them to take this information that we spoke about
00:36:59
Speaker
and then go and immediately start to create change and change behaviors in the organization and go down that path. One of the things I think about is find out who your allies are at the company that you work with and they can help you move this work forward. And to me, this is so important because especially when you work for an organization where the diversity and inclusion efforts aren't top down. And so when they're not top down, you got to find people within the organization that can help you
00:37:29
Speaker
in terms of your efforts of recruitment. And so that's, that's one of the things that I, first action, I would really kind of list. Another one is celebrate the wins, no matter how small they are, because you will have some big wins, but you'll have some, you'll have probably, especially when you start now, some, a lot of small ones to celebrate. Cause even with those small wins, you put big effort in time and to,
00:37:56
Speaker
into that happening. And then another one is so important to know that this is hard work and everyone will not be on board with this.
Challenges in Diversity Work
00:38:05
Speaker
And when you have people who are not on board, it makes it harder. And it's even harder when you don't have the commitment from the CEO. And to really understand that change is not going to happen overnight. And I think people who are in this space here hear this comment, this journey is not a sprint.
00:38:22
Speaker
and say a marathon. So it's going to take some time to get to where you want it to be. It's going to be slow. One of the things that I have learned, especially in the past two years, is that I have to let go of wanting things to happen too fast and getting frustrated about the slow pace. So I have to constantly say, Tanya, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon.
00:38:51
Speaker
So I have to really kind of practice what I preach. No, look, I'm with you on that one. You got to, we got to recenter ourselves sometimes because even sometimes when we could say it's a marathon, sometimes it can seem a little bit slower. So, you know, we can get to that place. So, um, no, this, this has been great. So, you know, as we, as we cap off this discussion and I would love to kind of, you know, get this from you as one of our last question is,
00:39:15
Speaker
I'm big on leadership legacy and i have this idea is that when you are going to your career every interaction that you have.
00:39:24
Speaker
whether it's with one person or whether it's with 10 people or whether it's one time with that person or 10 times with that person, you are creating this legacy. So they say, hey, this is how I felt. This is who Tanya is. This is the legacy that you've left behind. And so what I would like to know for you, and I like this kind of exercise, is that in 25 words or less, what would your legacy statement be?
Tanya's Legacy and Vision
00:39:46
Speaker
So when you think about your career,
00:39:48
Speaker
and you're done the impact that you've made what will people say about you when you look back and we start to talk to other folks about you know when when you think about your legacy sometimes people don't really you know they pass on and they don't get to hear how your legacy impacted them and for me it's fortunate that i am seeing the fruits of my legacy if you will you know as i mentioned i
00:40:14
Speaker
you know, worked in higher ed and worked with young college students, not much younger than me. And then I worked for a nonprofit organization called Enrose for nine years. That's where I found my passion working with college students. And they tell me on a regular basis, now that they're grown and have families and kids, how much I influenced their lives, how much I made a difference.
00:40:41
Speaker
in their lives. So it's great to be able to hear that. When I think about, you know, if my legacy, I think people will say that I'm passionate about social justice. I'm passionate about helping those in my community and helping those in other communities that have been disenfranchised. Whatever I can do to break down barriers by informing and educating, I'm passionate about that.
00:41:10
Speaker
And lastly, because of my background in higher education, education is so important, so important. And I've seen how it is an equalizer. It empowers people to knock down barriers. You know, I told my godson, who is nine, I've been trying to feed into him how important education is. And I talked to him about college and I'm exposing him to, I just got him into Nesby Jr.
00:41:39
Speaker
He's so smart. Every now and then he'll say something to me like, I don't know if I want to go to college. And he said this just recently to me and I turned around and I said, that's not an option. And I know college is not for everybody, but I told him college or education is how people break so many cycles, cycles of poverty, cycles of racism, things of that nature. And so that is the legacy.
00:42:08
Speaker
you know, that I want to lead after I'm long gone. Nice, nice. And an amazing legacy that sounds like it would be. I love it. I love it. So look, this has been an amazing conversation. Before we go, are there any shout outs or any parting words that you would like to add? And if
Acknowledgments and Connections
00:42:25
Speaker
people want to dig deeper into your thoughts or have conversations with you, where can they connect with you and follow you?
00:42:32
Speaker
Well, you know, I really want to give a shout out to my parents, especially my mom, because my mother, I remember as a child, she was always doing things around social justice. I'm originally from Washington, D.C., grew up there for 12 years as a child, and then moved to Nebraska. And I had, you know, I was clearing out some things during this pandemic. We've had time to get things together in your house. And I found an old picture of my mom holding up a sign
00:43:00
Speaker
In the newspaper, she was fighting for justice for Native Americans in Washington, DC. And I think she passed that legacy on to me. I also want to shout out my sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, Incorporated, who we worked tirelessly in the space of social justice. And I'm a part of that and I'm proud to be a part of that. And so if anybody is interested in getting in touch with me, they can reach me on LinkedIn.
00:43:28
Speaker
Send me a note, request to Lincoln with me. I'm more than happy to connect and share whatever I can so that we all can do this work together and make a change. We want to be the change that we want to see. That's amazing. First of all, shouts out to moms. Look, you had it inside of you and you didn't even know it. It was always there. Also, shout out to the best sorority in the land. That might be some coldman love bias here, but it is.
00:44:01
Speaker
I'm excited. Thanks for the conversation. It's been amazing just to hear more about everything that you have going on. I know that our listeners would love to just dig into this and take some of these jewels and gems that you provided and go out and just start to take action and go down that path of changing behaviors in the organization.
00:44:21
Speaker
You know, everyone, look, that does it for us. I want to thank everyone for joining us on another episode of the 3D Podcast. This has been Cedric and you've been listening to Tanya Horne, Diversity and Inclusion Recruitment Manager for Avery Dennison. We out.
Closing Remarks
00:44:35
Speaker
awesome well that does it for us thank you for joining us on another episode of the 3d podcast if you would like to connect on social media follow me on instagram twitter or facebook at cedric and powers and if you have any questions you'd like me to read or answer on the show or just want to know more about my thoughts around diversity and inclusion entrepreneurship or just overall business you can text me yes i said text me
00:45:00
Speaker
at 770-285-0404. You'll receive content straight to your phone on a regular basis, and you can message back and forth with me. Not a bot or an assistant. All responses come directly from me. But look, this has been a great episode. Until next week, this has been Cedric Chambers, and you have been listening to the 3D Podcast. We out.