Lessons learned in the quest for equity: A follow-up discussion with Tidal Equality
In June 2020 we connected with Equity consultants and experts, Dr. Kristen Liesch and Anna Dewar Gully, of Tidal Equality following the launch of their Equity Sequence™️. An action-driven alternative to anti-bias training, the Equity Sequence™️ is a series of 5 simple questions designed to drive equality in everyday workplace decisions and actions. Cultivating Equitable and Inclusive Workplaces: A Conversation with Dr. Kristen Liesch and Anna Dewar Gully of Tidal Equity — You can read that conversation here.
Over a year and a half has passed, and we wanted to revisit the conversation, discuss lessons learned, and hear what has come from the commitments made by leaders and corporations over the past year.
CFW: You launched the Equity Sequence™️ in 2019 as an alternative to unconscious bias training. Since then, corporations have spent millions trying to address systemic inequities in the workplace, but many have not seen the desired results. What are some examples of how companies that implemented the Equity Sequence™️ have successfully driven systemic change?
DR. KRISTEN LIESCH: I can’t help but re-frame the question’s premise and suggest that corporations have spent millions (more than usual) on equity interventions in the workplace. Because the fact is, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, and before the Black Lives Matter uprising, businesses in the US were spending more than $8 billion a year on interventions like unconscious bias training. When COVID hit, diversity and inclusion, budgets all over the country were frozen as resources were diverted to “business priorities”. Then, after the brutal killing of George Floyd and others at the hands of police, organizations responded by tuning their marketing mouthpieces to the “ally” channel - promising investments in Black communities (investments that in almost all cases haven’t been made), promising a reckoning inside their own cultures, promising systemic equitable change. And then they launched book clubs, doubled down on unconscious bias training, and introduced metricizing - none of which is inherently problematic.
What few have done - or continue to do - is actually attune their focus to the systems behind “systemic inequities.” In other words, few organizations have the courage to look under the hood of what they do and how they do it to find how bias has crept into their products, services, pricing, processes, policies, strategies, and so on. Why? Well… first, power resists sharing power, and you can’t identify and uproot systemic bias without leaning into democratic decision making. Second, it means changing what they do and how they do it. How many people do you know who run headlong into change with a smile on their faces?
CFW: Please remind us: What is the difference between Equity and Equality?
DR. KRISTEN LIESCH: What I’ve found is that people and organizations deploy these words slightly differently, given the context, so instead of purporting to give an authoritative definition of the two, I’ll describe how we think of and use these two words. For us, “equality” is a state we are constantly pursuing, one where the features of your identity - where you’re born, how much money you’re born into, what color your skin, gender, ability, sexuality, etc. - don’t determine your opportunities in the world. We imagine a future where everyone has an equal opportunity to thrive and reach their full potential. Unfortunately, “equality” is not a state we have achieved anywhere in the world, really. So, in pursuit of that goal, we know we need to take measures to level the playing field. Those measures are equity measures. When we think of whether a policy or process is equitable, we want to know how it is laying the groundwork for equality.
CFW: You have been very vocal about the disadvantages women face when raising venture capital. This discrepancy is a bias issue around how women are perceived, but if unconscious bias training doesn't solve the problem of inequity: What can VC firms do instead to help reduce the bias around investing decisions?
DR. KRISTEN LIESCH VC firms employ a whole host of processes around which they make decisions: valuations, pitch competitions, entrepreneur pitch decks, etc. And there are criteria associated with those processes, criteria that have both served the status quo and are a reflection of the status quo. Like any system - be it finance, health care, education, you name it - the stuff that makes up the infrastructure of VC investment was once upon a time created and designed by certain people and for certain people. Think back to the earliest days of investment, and the people who benefitted from investment models were almost exclusively the people in society who wielded and had access to the greatest degree of power. That power has historically been - and continues to be - majority wielded by men, and, depending on your region, white men. Today, we have to contend with processes and criteria inside the VC system that was never designed to recognize, grow, or benefit entrepreneurs who don’t fit that “model” identity.
So, what can VC firms do to help reduce bias in their investment decisions? They can have the courage to look at their criteria and processes with an eye to truly inclusive innovation. Everything should be up for grabs - valuations, pitch deck assessments, investment, theses, investment terms - everything. How can these things be interrogated for the ways bias has shaped them and, arguably, misshaped them?
Where there is resistance to this type of innovation, don’t be fooled - it’s not because these processes and criteria are working well - they aren’t! When you look at the average ROI for the typical investment portfolio (let’s keep in mind that portfolio is going to be almost exclusively a male venture-led portfolio), the numbers aren’t great. And in today’s world, and with the enormity of the challenges we face, we can’t afford to ignore the ideas, products, tech, services, and innovations being developed by, well, everybody else. There’s a massive opportunity here to evolve an industry that, in so many ways, is the gatekeeper industry to all of our collective futures.
CFW: What’s your advice for corporations on how to actually move the needle on equity measures within their organizations?
DR. KRISTEN LIESCH: Simply? Exercise the will. If an organization has a leader with the will, the change isn’t all that elusive. You need the kinds of leaders who actually realize that becoming anti-racist, becoming anti-sexist, and becoming equitable and inclusive means sharing power.
Commitments are a dime a dozen, and window dressing is relatively cheap, so that’s where many organizations have invested their time and energy, especially those that do not have a leader at the helm who has a vested interest in challenging the status quo that their organizations necessarily upholds intentionally or otherwise.
Then there are the organizations who see diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism as a regulatory exercise - a risk-mitigation exercise - which is actually how those things have been perceived for about half a century since equal opportunity legislation came about in the second half of the twentieth century. That’s where we see “gold standard” interventions and tactics: ERGs, education and training programs, etc. And there’s certainly nothing inherently wrong with those things, but the fact remains that organizations - unless their architecture is designed with equity as an explicit goal - are racist by default, sexist by default, and they maintain the status quo where the concentration of power sits at the very top, among a very homogenous set of people.
The most innovative organizations, however, are interrogating the stuff of their businesses - how they do what they do every day: whether we’re talking UX design, product pricing, communications strategies, people processes, supply, and procurement - you name it - they’re looking at these processes critically to find how they do or don’t serve the diverse stakeholder populations they’re intended to. They’re looking at how these processes have bias baked in, and they’re sharing power and decision-making with a broader range of people. They’re giving voice to people and groups who are seldom given voice. And they’re doing it authentically - they’re not asking for feedback, saying “Thanks” and then doing whatever the heck they wanted to do in the first place. They’re listening, they’re learning, and they’re acting in alignment with what they’re learning. And they’re doing that again and again and again. Because the most inclusive and innovative organizations also know that every person is always susceptible to a host of cognitive biases and that the only way to interrupt those biases is to ensure a broad range of perspectives have an eye on and a say in how decisions are made.
CFW: Where should people go to learn more about the Equity Sequence™️ and how it can be implemented?
DR. KRISTEN LIESCH: To learn more about the Equity Sequence, you can visit Tidal Equality or learn more at our website or directly on the learning platform at: https://quest.tidalequality.com.