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How to Lead Through Tough Times w/ Steven Brown
37 Plays3 years ago
This week for out 7th installment we are speaking to Steven Brown, VP Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Molson Coors where he discusses his background, being black in Wisconsin and America and leading an organization to tough times. This episode is sure not to disappoint! Check It Out! The show is Live NOW on all streaming Platforms!
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Transcript
00:00:03
Speaker
you
Introduction to the 3D Podcast
00:00:10
Speaker
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.
00:00:34
Speaker
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.
00:01:04
Speaker
What's up,
Meet Steven Brown
00:01:05
Speaker
fam? This is the 3D podcast, and I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today. He's a past colleague, a mentor, and a legend in his own right. I'm talking about Steven Brown. To provide a little context before we get started, Steven is currently the vice president of diversity and inclusion at Molson Coors Beverage Company, where he is currently responsible for the execution of the company's diversity and inclusion strategy across the business.
00:01:30
Speaker
Prior to joining Morrison Coors, Stephen was the head of global inclusion and diversity and the executive HR business partner for leadership programs at GE Healthcare. Overall, Stephen has over 20 plus years of HR experience in various roles of increasing responsibility. So I hope you're ready to soak up this knowledge because I know I am. So without further ado, let's get started and let's go into this thing. So, Stephen, welcome to the show. And how are you doing today?
00:01:58
Speaker
Cedric, good to be here and I'm doing well, doing well, thank you very much. Awesome, awesome, awesome. You know, we've known each other for what? Gotta be over 10 years, right? Close. At least, at least. You were a young lad when I... Yeah, I was gonna say a little tyke, but yeah, young lad works.
00:02:18
Speaker
But through those years, right, I mean, definitely been instrumental in my career and so glad to have you on the call.
Steven Brown's Career Journey
00:02:23
Speaker
So, you know, I know I gave a brief intro, but for those out there who don't know you, would you mind just once sharing your story, kind of walking us through your background, how you got into HR a little bit as well as ultimately, you know, how you got into diversity and inclusion and just tell us a little bit about who Steven Brown is. So basically, I want you to just talk your stuff, man.
00:02:45
Speaker
Sure. Listen, I'm from Milwaukee. I'm a native of Milwaukee. I still live in Milwaukee. This is my home. And so I had a chance to, I went to through Milwaukee public schools here. Then I went to college about an hour from here in University of Wisconsin. I'm white water with my degrees in finance.
00:03:00
Speaker
and then end up doing my master's at Marquette. I had a sponsoring company, so I was part of this organization called En-ROADS. I had a sponsoring company that worked at a bank for my first five years after undergrad, and I ended up making a transition between finance and human resources, really as a part of just kind of bringing talent within the organization.
00:03:19
Speaker
because I was intern there. I had been working there after college. I knew the company. I was able to identify with young talent. It was so that that transition happened for me. It wasn't my plan to come to human resources, but it was just more if I understood the business side of it.
00:03:35
Speaker
But I also had a chance that just how I was able to relate to people and share with them in regards to their careers and why
Advice on Career Growth
00:03:42
Speaker
banking would make some sense. I transitioned from the bank to Miller Brewing Company. I did that for about 4 years. Again, Miller is based here in Milwaukee. So I did that about 4 years and then relocated to Cincinnati for about a year.
00:03:57
Speaker
work for one of our breweries as the HR leader. Came back to Milwaukee, decided there was time for me to leave Miller. I was ready for the next level of opportunity. So I went to S.C. Johnson, which is in Racine, which is about an hour from Milwaukee, but interested enough, about 30 minutes from Kenosha. We may talk about what's happening in Kenosha right now. So I worked at S.C. Johnson for four years. Didn't have the unique chance to come back to Miller. After being gone from Miller for four years, I came back for a year
00:04:23
Speaker
And I have to tell you, but I was gone for four years. The company had transitioned from being Miller, very competent, SAB Miller. And I'm not sure if that connection worked for me. I think sometimes you have to just kind of pause and say, are you where you need to be? And I just forgot that I wasn't.
00:04:40
Speaker
So I decided to join GE Healthcare and my plan was to be a GE for a couple of years. So I got to figure out what I wanted to do and how it made sense and did I want to stay in Milwaukee. I was kind of frustrated that I wasn't at the director level of HR that I wanted to be. My wife and I said, if I'm not a director by a certain age, then I'm going to just leave the city. And I have to tell you, I went to GE and
00:05:05
Speaker
It was a global company. It stretched me. It challenged me. I became affiliated with a number of our programs there, one of them that you know very well, our affinity network, African American Form. I ended up getting involved at the corporate level a couple of years, turned into 14 years. While I was there, not only did I have a chance to really travel globally, but I had the chance to also start to think about where I can make more impact as I transitioned from being the leader of our African American affinity group
00:05:34
Speaker
I really realize that I want to continue to maybe narrow and my focus much more on diversity and inclusion or there we call the inclusion and diversity, you know, it just kind of evolved from there. So it's been a very rich career. It's been one that some cases I was very, I planned for in other cases, it just kind of happened based on people seeing some opportunities in me, but also me being very clear on some things I wanted to do.
00:05:59
Speaker
Man, as you're just going through that, I'm going to be honest with you. Rolling Stone came in my hands. I'm like, taking some temptation. But then I will say this in February this year, I decided to leave GE. I took a role here at Moston Coors. It was an interesting enough, again, so this is now my third tour of duty at this organization, but it's different, right? Again, the first time was Miller Brain Company. Second time was SAB.
00:06:28
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Miller, now it's most of Coors, but same building, different culture, different things happening. And I joined the company March 30th, and it's been a whole lot happening, not only within company, but also in the US and the world. And so it was really interesting time for me to transition to a new company.
00:06:47
Speaker
after leaving a company I've been with, you know, for the past 14 and a half years. I mean, one, that's amazing, right? Just to understand the background, but there's two things that I want to touch on. The first one is you mentioned that you wanted to be a director by a certain age.
00:07:02
Speaker
And I think that that's a lot of many people that are like career oriented, goal oriented, want to be successful. They put the timelines on when they want to get into this role or when they want something to happen. And so really what I want to do is if you could just give advice to someone kind of navigating through their career right now, whether they're in diversity, whether they're in HR or whatever that may be.
00:07:22
Speaker
What advice would you give them, just given that you have many different experiences at many different companies? Looking back on that, if you could talk to someone who's probably early in the career, five, 10 years, what advice would you give them as they navigate? Don't focus on the title, focus on the opportunity.
00:07:39
Speaker
Focus on the skills and the experience you can get from that. When I moved from the bank to Miller back in, I think, 1995, I was assistant vice president at the bank and to be 26 years old and assistant vice president was a huge accomplishment. I went to Miller and I was a corporate recruiter and people looked at me like, you know, there's a step back, right? And I'm like, nah.
00:08:03
Speaker
It really is because one, I make it more money, which is kind of interesting, but then two, it was I was comfortable with the bank. I interned there. I was there for five years. They knew me. I could probably still be there frankly if I wanted to, but I wanted to stretch myself. I knew that if I wanted to be in this space called human resources, having labor relations experience, having operational stories was important.
00:08:26
Speaker
You know, I kind of swallowed my ego and said, I'm going for this opportunity and not worry about the title. Having said that, once I got into it, I thought, you know, by a certain age, I should be a director. That's my level of success. It wasn't happening for me. So what was really kind of interesting, you know, this too Cedric, at GE Healthcare.
00:08:44
Speaker
We don't have directors MVPs you have you can you can be promoted to the executive band right but so interesting enough I was promoted to an executive there but I still wasn't necessarily a director I'm like obviously I'm so concentrated on titles but the opportunity is what I should be focused on so.
00:09:01
Speaker
Balance yourself. I'm not saying don't have an interest in progressing, but sometimes it makes sense when you get this skill set or this experience so you can add that to what you are so you can be more competitive versus, again, me being assistant vice president, which I earned, but it wasn't necessarily going to get me to where I wanted to be. So just balance on the opportunity versus the title.
00:09:24
Speaker
You know titles but anything your business card but when you start thinking what does that title mean and what you do which produce then that's when the questions like but look at my title you don't want to talk about what you're able to accomplish and how you change what you were.
00:09:40
Speaker
No, I 100% agree. I love the experience over titles, right? Cause that's where, that's where you get that learning and that development. And even in the times now, right? It's tough times that we're in, but this is one of those times where you get a lot of experience, right? Especially in HR, diversity and inclusion. I mean, probably a variety of companies, right? In those times you develop the most because you have to think outside of the box on how things get done and what's happening. And so,
Impact of Jacob Blake's Shooting
00:10:06
Speaker
And so kind of going into the second point, you mentioned a little bit with Kenosha. So, you know, as we before we get into the topic of the show, you currently live in and are from Wisconsin and, you know, recent events in the state have left, you know, a young black man, Jacob Blake, paralyzed from the waist down after being shot seven times.
00:10:26
Speaker
point blank range in the back by Kenosha police officer and being from the state and not too far from where this took place. I would love to hear your thoughts on the situation from a couple of different perspectives. One, kind of, you know, being a black man and then two, if any thoughts on like you being a parent in the situation and then, you know, three, just, you know, a member of the broader community.
00:10:53
Speaker
and what have you seen since this event has happened in the community.
00:10:59
Speaker
Hey man, listen, these are really heavy times. And there's a situation that when you see it on the television, it packs you. But the closer it gets to home, you start to feel like that's part of who you are. I think that what we've experienced, I'm gonna talk about the notion in a minute, but we've experienced over the last six months, fortunately, it's not new, but it's getting old.
00:11:25
Speaker
and for a black man who grew up here in Milwaukee, coming from a single household and living, growing up in the city. I saw a lot of this, and then frankly, having advanced my career here, I recognize that I'm still, in many cases, just a black man who might be driving or a black man who might be walking or a black man who might be shopping, and they don't care about my credentials. They don't care about
00:11:53
Speaker
you know, the things that I accomplished because of the way that we are still viewed by a part of society. And we continue to lose our young black men. And fortunately, in Mr. Blake's situation, he didn't lose his life, but he lost a huge part of how he now has to live. And it's heavy. It's really heavy. It's what, you know, the conversation I have amongst my friends, the conversation I have even at work,
00:12:20
Speaker
Is that you know i'm in the space to help. People go through this journey of inclusion but it's sometime at the pause and help myself and breathe because you know i recognize that there's some situations i'm very fortunate that that could have been someone that i knew someone that i love.
00:12:39
Speaker
What could be me i am a father and i have to tell you there are cases that my wife and i have only one child and it's a female you just graduated from college in the sometime i would say to myself you know i'm fortunate i have a son.
00:12:56
Speaker
And that's sad to say, not that this can't happen to our black women, you know, getting set in a plan. So I'm not saying that it can't happen to women, but for me to have to even like think that I'm happy that I'll have a son because there's a different level of conversation is disturbing. And so it's heavy, man. And again, you know, Kenosha is only an hour.
00:13:15
Speaker
from Milwaukee is situations that what I do appreciate though about what I'm seeing, Cedric, is that the situations that we're seeing that's happening way too frequently in the US and beyond, more and more people are becoming part of the movement.
00:13:34
Speaker
to see how we can change the system. And one of my concerns is that we don't see this as a moment, but we do see it as a moment. And what very specifically can we continue to change? But let's be clear, what's happening right now isn't new, and what's happening right now is not going to change easily. But you continue to have people talk about what needs to change, but it's going to take some time. And I hate that it has to take that time.
00:14:03
Speaker
They also think that I hate that I don't want this to be a news cycle, right? So then next week we talk about someone else, and then the Blake story kind of goes on back. And now, well, we actually are talking about someone else this week, right? And so it just becomes, it's challenging. And so we have to, as a community of Blacks, as a community of people who care for our communities,
00:14:24
Speaker
how to help figure out how to help our kids deal with this as well. Because the level of trauma this continues to build in our community can last for a lifetime. And so somehow we have to figure out how to deal with this nonsense that's going on, but also protect the innocence, but also the opportunities for the next generation.
00:14:51
Speaker
And I think that last part is the piece that really struck me when you think about his children being in the car, in the backseat.
00:15:00
Speaker
you know, the sound, the visual aspect of all that stuff, right? You can only imagine. I can only imagine. That's just something that they probably won't ever forget. It's true trauma. And then they take that with them to their school. They take that home and you know, who knows residual when they become adults. And you know, it's just, and we don't, and unfortunately we already have so many decades and centuries of trauma and now you add another layer of trauma and you say, get over it.
00:15:28
Speaker
Well, no, this is heavy stuff that we have to deal with. And so it's real. That trauma is real. My wife has to be an educator. So I recognize the things that she deals with in the school system with our kids, not because they want to be difficult, but the trauma they have to deal with. And yes, all families can deal with a certain level of trauma, but we keep compounding onto that trauma.
00:15:53
Speaker
is something that is piercing and penetrates and long lasting within our communities.
00:16:00
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. And I think that with all of that trauma that that's there, the ways in which we can have the outlets to talk about it, to express it. I think the community looks at therapists in one way right there for psychologists and things like that. But this is one of those times where being able to find a release point or some way in which we can start to discuss
00:16:24
Speaker
and talk about these things is needed because as it balls up and bills up into you inside of you at some point right the pressure is gonna get to a point where has to be released right in the ways in which that is released.
00:16:37
Speaker
is hopefully for the good that we try to get or that is done in a way that's impactful or constructive versus going down other routes, either violence or things like that. So it's a tough one to deal with. The situation is tough overall.
D&I Challenges During Crises
00:16:54
Speaker
As we look at this situation, as you look at COVID-19, as you look at unemployment that's skyrocketing, as it relates to diversity and inclusion,
00:17:05
Speaker
It appears to me that we are in a situation that if organizations get this wrong they will have major long term negative effects from missing a mark here you said it is it feels a little bit different not just a a moment right is actually a movement so in this time my question to you is how are you approaching this in your role in your responsibilities.
00:17:30
Speaker
as you're leading your organization through these challenging times as it relates to diversity and inclusion. Yeah. Listen, this, that's a great question. Cause I would say to you that the things that we're facing right now, so I'm going to add on to one of the things that you shared. So again, I share with you that I rejoined the company March of this year. Well, a month before I
00:17:49
Speaker
Rejoin the company we had a mass shooting here in Milwaukee at my company so one employee shot and killed by other employees so far. So this is february and then march we had the global pandemic that you know we all had to work home and work differently and then in june you had a lot of the social unrest so those three is that alone are heavy.
00:18:12
Speaker
But then you combine all of them that happening at the same time. This hasn't happened before. This is real time and we're learning from real time. But I will say that one of the things that I'm kind of learning in this piece of it is that, and I think this is what we're doing well at, is giving our employees an opportunity to listen. We're asking all of our employees to listen.
00:18:34
Speaker
We're asking people to listen and giving opportunities for them to listen, right? And so, like, literally, we took a day out of our company, I think it was June 5th, and we just had a listening session throughout the company. So we really kind of paused the operation. And anyone that wanted to speak, you could speak. When we asked people to speak, no one can reply. It was a listening piece there. But from that listening, then the action plan that I had been working on, frankly, I just tossed that aside and said, what are people saying they need
00:19:04
Speaker
because the reality of it is you can't disconnect when you come into work. You bring that with you, right? And the reality also is that many of us are even working where we live. And so it's not like you're actually transitioning. So I think one of the things that we're working out with in
00:19:23
Speaker
with our company is learning from what we heard and then how you incorporate that piece into our D&I action plan. And very specifically, how you continue to educate the workforce around what does injustice look like, what does discrimination look like, what does racism look like, what does just putting some definition behind the words. And frankly, we're using the words. In the past, Cedric, you steered away from having conversation around race
00:19:52
Speaker
in the organization, unless you were in a diversity workshop or training, which that whole thing, because I'm not trying to train diversity. You can certainly expand someone's understanding of what inclusion looks like. We're putting a name to what it is and then say, how do we help our organization recover and heal from this collectively? The other piece is that we have made it very clear, and I say we came directly from our CEO, is that this is how our company is. We can't control your behavior outside this organization.
00:20:22
Speaker
But when you're here, you have expectations and you have behaviors that are going to be acceptable or not acceptable. And the non-acceptable, we're going to deal with it immediately. And if you don't want to deal with those non-acceptable behaviors here, then this is not a company for you. And the CEO said that without me prompting him to say it, right? So now that we put this in writing, we had a company-wide call. So you need to be able to talk about what is the behavior and action and the culture
00:20:52
Speaker
that you want to build in this organization. Now, on the side, we also, and I really appreciate this, we also donated to some of the cause, but we had to be really careful ourselves and we actually put this in writing too. We had to be really careful about saying what shouldn't be done outside of work when we had someone to do internally.
00:21:14
Speaker
If you looked at the representation we have at our senior level, the representation we have at our board, the pipeline that we have, we knew we had some work to do. And so we said, it's a powerful work hard and I can work on internal issues and I can be committed to the external causes. And there's a fine balance in doing both. And we're making a very conscious effort to do both. While we're learning in real time, we will do some things that may not be perceived as right to everybody.
00:21:43
Speaker
And we are doing some things that say, why are you mixing work with politics? Why are you mixing work with social causes? Because you can't separate it. And companies are expected to be much more socially conscious. And that's something that we are not going to be able to walk away from. So if you're not going away from it, embrace it. And say, how can I make real impact internally and also invest in external causes? And you mentioned that.
00:22:10
Speaker
behaviors, right? So these behaviors that you're trying to develop. And so how do you, when you think about education and training in a role that it plays, like, what is
Embedding Inclusion in Corporate Culture
00:22:21
Speaker
that? What role does training and or education play within your organization as it relates to developing those behaviors, as well as, you know, addressing some of the challenges that we find ourselves in?
00:22:33
Speaker
It's been a laser focus for us. And I'm really, really careful that I can't talk about too much before I joined the company in March. But I can tell you since March, you know, there's a conversation that you have that you have good intentions versus being very intentional. Right. And so we decided.
00:22:49
Speaker
to be very intentional about how we're going to educate our employees, our leaders, our middle management of what does inclusion look like. We've implemented monthly what we call inclusion in action series that we're educating people. You know, some of this is sometimes those of us who live this, you know, we look through our lens like if I see it, why don't you see it?
00:23:11
Speaker
And so what we have to pause in the space is you have to assume that not everyone looks through life to the same list that you look through life. Yeah, we're being very, very intentional about saying list, particularly if you continue on this theory of lenses, let's pretend like.
00:23:27
Speaker
You have no vision. How do I help you become clear on what it is? And so the way that we do that is being very, very intentional about putting learning education awareness sessions in place for people to understand what the lens is that we expect for them to work at. So we now implement a monthly inclusion action series on the week of October 5th. We're having what we call a week of inclusion. We're bringing workshops together and programming.
00:23:56
Speaker
I'm holding monthly i town hall meetings to help continue to bring awareness of what we do because unless you have a firm foundation of awareness. The opportunity to become an advocate an opportunity to take action weekends so you have to go from the beginning of.
00:24:13
Speaker
Are you educating your managers, your employees on what does awareness look like and being very intentional about what that looks like? So we're putting those processes, but we have to be very thoughtful that it can't be a check the box. I completed that training, but you weave all of this together. So every time I, we offer something up in regards to inclusion action or week of inclusion, we're connecting the dots of what this, how this connected what we did last time.
00:24:40
Speaker
and bringing all these pieces together. And sometimes you say, well, why do you have to make that clear? Because many people don't understand the experiences that are happening. And there's a spectrum, and I kind of talk about this, there's a spectrum from one to 10. Some of us are at eight, nine to 10 because we have to be. Some of us are not even at one because they never had to be.
00:25:05
Speaker
right? And so it's kind of bringing those individuals along and help them become aware. We put a lot of resources together in regards, you know, we have like a, we have an article on race, but we have an episode of Blackish on our website, right? And so people can on their own get the resources that they can begin to understand. We have a catalog of
00:25:27
Speaker
Ted talks and books so we gave them references on how to get there and can you educate yourself on your own as we educate you as a broader organization i tell you the hit site that we have on our on our website has just tripled overtime is people nice there are people who are really curious.
00:25:49
Speaker
But let me also be clear with this too. We have people who aren't curious. We have people that fundamentally disagree with what we're doing. And I'm not saying you don't have a right to your opinion, but we have an expectation how you will interact with our employees while you're here. That's amazing. Let me ask you this. As you're building on
00:26:08
Speaker
the education, the website, all different initiatives that you have, how do you ensure that this is built into the culture and strike that balance between not doing too much and people just get fatigued and all that stuff coming at them to the point where they withdraw a little bit.
00:26:27
Speaker
To the point of, you know, making sure that it's not just a once or twice a year, but you do have to build into the culture. So how do you like strike the balance between building it into the culture within making sure that you're not putting too much too fast as you're going through this journey because it is a journey, not a sprint.
00:26:45
Speaker
And so we want to make sure that we, you know, we make it down this journey. So how do you, how would you do that? Yeah, there's a balance there because it's important that you find avenues that you can embed DNI into your practices and your policies, that this isn't some like, okay, go over there and do DNI.
00:27:01
Speaker
No, D&I has to be part of how you operate, how you talk, how you speak to one another. And so in January, the company introduced new values, and there's five values to the organization. And people are still learning those values, because ideally, your values should help drive your culture. So remember, I share with you that we have a week of inclusion that's happening October 5th.
00:27:24
Speaker
Well every day we're trying our dni programming to one of our values the first day will be people first so the program is social with that one next is people in the size of programming social with that one so it's not like okay let me think about dni as a relationship values but how do not is part of our values and how are values is part of our culture.
00:27:45
Speaker
And so when it becomes less of an add-on, but more of an embedded thread, I think it feels less heavy and more natural. But again, it's not natural to everybody. Sometimes what's natural to us may not be natural to everyone, right? And so that's the journey that I'm referring to, but it's how do you connecting that culture and values in DNI aren't different. And here are how they all anchored to one another, how they're connected to one another. And so that week of October 5th, it's another way of us saying,
00:28:14
Speaker
you know our values there five of them as you learn them here's how inclusion relates to each of those and so we're really excited about how to connect those dots and sometimes connecting dots is not easy for people because some people never see the dots and so you have to help them connect the dots.
00:28:30
Speaker
So let me just, through all of that, what's been one of the bright spots that you've seen just within the organization? You know, if you can kind of point it out as you're going through some of this change. Let me tell you this, the commitment that we have of our CEO has been tremendous. I caught this, I will say to you, again, I think I shared with you earlier, I didn't know our CEO, he was here when I left in 2004, but at that point he was a CFO.
00:28:57
Speaker
And so I didn't have Gavin at all. And when I interviewed for this opportunity, this was when it was pre-COVID. And so I went to Chicago, have this conversation with them. And I should share with you that Gavin was born in South Africa. And so we had this hour conversation and within 20 minutes, we're talking about our Park Dye and Nelson Mandela. And I'm like, wow, what?
00:29:19
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm like, this is heavy, man. I just want a job. I didn't like this whole life changing to know what to talk about is deep. And then he said he made the statement. I'm going to kind of paraphrase it is he said, I grew up under apartheid. When I came to the States, I didn't even know there'd be elements of that still here.
00:29:41
Speaker
Oh man. And even when I say it out loud, even though I paraphrased it, it still kind of gives me some bumps. I'm like, so a man who's under this, you know, this apartheid situation as a white South African can really have the understanding of what some of the black Americans are going through. And so sometime when you have a CEO in that place, he or she may not always be able to connect to what's happening beyond kind of their role.
00:30:11
Speaker
I'm not pulling Gavin at all. In fact, he's pulling me faster. And I'm like, okay, let me catch up. That's been so rewarding. Because this is my third tour duty. In some cases, I didn't know what to expect when I came back here and have a CEO that has this level of commitment.
00:30:29
Speaker
Let me just add just another comment to give you another illustration of how he level committed. So I report to our chief HR officer and within the organization and Gavin and his leadership team meets twice a week. Just like in June, all of a sudden, I get an invite that not only am I supposed to attend those meetings,
00:30:50
Speaker
Mondays and Thursdays with Gavin leadership team. So he's already elevated me in regards to making sure that this, this voice, this, this, um, DNI is a regular voice with his staff. But I also meet with him one-on-one once a week. This just came like, again, I didn't say, Hey, Gavin, can I get time in your calendar? He said, we're now going to meet one-on-one. We're going to have these conversations. And sometime we're talking about the business and sometime I'm just educating him of like, you know, what's happening.
00:31:18
Speaker
Just that being in this space right now, I don't know how long like this will last, but I'm milking it for the whole time because it's an opportunity for us to make, it's an opportunity for not for me to make a difference in regards to like my career, because this is so bigger than Stephen Brown. It is how do I help the others out there? How do we part of this healing and recovery of one of the reasons why I rejoined the company back in March?
00:31:43
Speaker
Man, you done dropped so many jewels in that right there. First of all, shout out to Gavin. It's Gavin, right? It's Gavin. Gavin has stepped up. I mean, at the table, at the, got your own table, your own conversation. Just that's what's needed when you think about leading from the top, right? And the fact that you might not necessarily be on his direct staff, but the importance of what's happening
Leadership's Role in D&I
00:32:06
Speaker
For whatever time you're there so that you can have that direct connection because as we're leading through this and as we're going through this time, right? Look, there's some things to where that action has to happen fast and you have to have that insight, you know, from the top leadership to make it happen. But then at the same time.
00:32:23
Speaker
to be able to also just have the discussions to where you're not even saying, Hey, we need to do this, this and that, but more of a, let's just talk. Let's just have that discussion. Let's just, you know, what's all happening, get your thoughts, get your perspective and just have a conversation about it. It might not lead to a.
00:32:40
Speaker
Situation where we have an action come out of it but it's gonna both help us gain deeper insights that's right to what's going on right now that's amazing and so one of the things that i want to speak to as we think about leading through this time as you think about everything is going on.
00:32:56
Speaker
And we're getting close close close to the end here is I want to make sure that we tackle this is, you know, how important is it as you're going through and with everything and all the different initiatives and all the great work that you're doing around diversity and inclusion within the organization.
00:33:14
Speaker
How important is it one to address mental health well-being in the workplace? And how do you go about focusing on these topics so that it comes from a place of being authentic so that you can really make an impact within the organization?
00:33:29
Speaker
Well you know early on i mentioned this word on trauma trauma is real and
Mental Health in the Workplace
00:33:34
Speaker
trauma can happen. For people if they're directly involved going back to know mr blake and those three kids or just watching cnn all day and you're seeing the same clips over and over again.
00:33:50
Speaker
or just knowing that your child is out there or you're out there and you're driving and you go into certain neighborhoods. And so one of the biggest things I ask people to be okay with is say when you're not okay. This is some really heavy stuff. And also just do a check-in on if people are okay around you.
00:34:12
Speaker
We bring that to work with us. We bring it within our families. And at the risk of being, you know, generalizing, there's many times us in the Black community aren't always comfortable talking about mental health.
00:34:29
Speaker
We're not always comfortable talking about when I need help. There's so many roles that we play that we have to be strong for everyone, but yet we're becoming weak for ourselves. It is about being important to address that. Just on a very personal note, this is a little bit outside of the injustice that's happening.
00:34:49
Speaker
But I go back to when I first saw some help, the passing of my mother. I was raised by a single parent. She was 19 when she had me. She was only 43 when she passed, which means I was 24. Then I had a young sister who I became her guardian. So I'm 24, my sister's 16, and all of a sudden, I'm a, quote, unquote, guardian and parent.
00:35:12
Speaker
and I reached out and I got help. It was important for me to be mentally okay as I was going through this journey.
00:35:21
Speaker
right? And I hesitated going to see a therapist because we don't, you know, again, at least where I came from, you don't talk about going to hell. There's, you know, and again, I'm being, I'm going to just, you know, be very honest. It talks about, you know, take care of yourself. You know, prayer is important, but sometimes someone who is a legitimate therapist to help you through that. So I would say that you
00:35:44
Speaker
You deal with that in the workplace as well. You look around and you find out who's not okay. You make sure that you have, and my therapist, I went through employee assistant program, EAP, and I got that connection. It's okay not to be okay. It's not okay not to ask for help or seek others out. And so I asked that we focus on that one, that again, this trauma is real.
00:36:08
Speaker
In some cases, this trauma is resurfacing and even accelerating and deeper. And so we just have to make sure that we share with individuals that go into EAP or finding someone to talk to. Another piece I want to add to this, Cedric, is some cases, because of all the other stuff, in some cases, people also are now at home alone a lot.
00:36:34
Speaker
And so this gets in your head, you start to think a lot and you get concerned and you have no one to go to. And so check on folks as well, either your colleagues or your friends, let's check on that one. And just, it's okay not to be okay, but try to reach out and see if you can help somebody through this challenging time. These are times that we've never had before. So just, even if you need to put a tickler on your calendar, say, I haven't checked in with Cedric for a while.
00:37:03
Speaker
Instead, you'll need to reply. I'm just letting you know that I'm thinking about you right now. And just doing that even within the workplace. You know, check on your work, your black employees. Check on your brown employees. Check on your young employees. Just do a little bit of a check-in and just say, how you doing?
00:37:21
Speaker
May i look i am with you right even some of these times right you can see that what everything is going on no matter how many people are around you know how many means that you're in you still can. Feel like you're alone in the situation and i think that this piece around us being at home for those who are working at home and not in the office and just having.
00:37:42
Speaker
all of that time to think right and all of that time to be able to to reflect on what's happening right in some cases can be good in some cases right it could it could be detrimental but checking in even if it's just hey you know i think apple now has the tap backs right where you could just give a thumbs up or something just just making sure that you know whoever that is it is okay right because you never know what someone is going through regardless of how they portray themselves on the external piece of that like on the outside right
00:38:12
Speaker
No matter the smile, no matter, you know, all of that, right, they still can have some things that they're not saying, but just being able to check in would be amazing through these times. Look, as we come kind of to a close here, and look, we've had a great discussion on a couple of different topics, but it all comes back to that, you know, leading, and as folks are listening to this, I hope they're pulling that.
00:38:40
Speaker
how to go in and look at their leadership style, how to go in and look at their leadership teams to be able to navigate through these times. As we come towards the end, for the individual that's listening, looking at everything that we spoke about, what are the two or three actions that they could take coming from this conversation to take back to their organizations as they look to really authentically move their diversity and inclusion,
00:39:09
Speaker
initiatives for within their company. One, don't think you have to do this work alone. There's a community of people like you Cedric and others who are in this space that are doing some really good work. So don't feel like you shouldn't tap into others and see what they're doing and see how that could work in your organization. The other piece I mentioned earlier, if you haven't done this already in your companies, listen to your employees. Ask where they are,
00:39:37
Speaker
what their expectations are. You know, it's really interesting. Sometimes we want to put a strategy together for what we know we're trying to solve for. And so just pause and ask a question and listen to people, you know, what are you looking for? And so I think, again, you remember, you're not in this alone. Go to others and listen to your employees to figure out how you want to move forward. Those two pieces can help on this journey.
00:40:04
Speaker
And there it goes, and there it goes. Well, look, this has been an amazing conversation. Before we go, Stephen, any parting words, shout outs, where people can find you if they would like to connect with you on social media or anything like that.
00:40:17
Speaker
Well, first of all, Cedric, I appreciate you asking me to do this. And again, I've been knowing you for a long time, and I love what you have done with your career and decided about this business. Thank you, thank you. I'm on LinkedIn, Steven D. Brown, and Muslim Coors. I don't have all the answers, but I'm always curious to have the conversation. And so if there's anything that I can do, reach out to me. But I also, again, say that I lean on you as you lean on me. Awesome, yeah. And so that's what I love to do.
00:40:48
Speaker
No, but look, that does it for us. Thanks for joining us on the 3D Podcast. Make sure to follow me on Twitter and Instagram at saidchambers underscore. And if you have any questions you'd like me to read or answer on the show, or would like to just hear more about my thoughts on diversity and inclusion on a regular basis, you can text me. Yes. Text me at 770-285-0404.
00:41:10
Speaker
and you'll receive content, straight for your phone, insights from me. You know, we can message back and forth. It's not a bot, it's not an assistant. The responses come directly from me. And so look, this has been Cedric Chambers, and you've been listening to Steven Brown, Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion. For Molson Chorus, we out.
00:41:30
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 at 770-285-0404.
00:41:59
Speaker
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.