Great Awakening/Racial Reckoning

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That's where corporations miss it, in my opinion, because they're just doing this high level stuff to say, we care. Yep. We did this. Black history month. We got it. And this and that. And then their workforce hasn't changed or the culture in the organization hasn't changed. Totally agree. It's awareness campaigns, symbolic, great symbolic gestures. Symbolism means something. And I mean, I think symbolism could be meaningful, but

Andrew Beamon: It's not systemic change. So just recognize, again, recognizing the difference. These are nice gestures, but it's low impact. And when you think about your time, your resources, human capital, funds, where would you want to put your money towards more high impact work that really changes the organization or these feel good awareness campaigns? We'll discuss race and how it plays a factor and how we didn't even talk about this topic because we were afraid.

Tony Tidbit: A Black Executive Perspective. Welcome to a Black Executive Perspective podcast, a safe space where we discuss all matters related to race, especially race in corporate America. I'm your host, Tony Tibbet. It's going on four years now, my friend, since the Great Awakening and the Great Reckoning in corporate America, where organizations made public statements.

recognizing the existence of systemic racism, and they made commitments to address internal racial inequities and pledge funds to the community to fight against anti -black racism. Since then, what insights have we gained? A lot of the corporations now are pulling back in terms of their DEI initiatives. They're not funding them and they're

he corporate organizations in: 2024

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Our guest today, Andrew Beeman, will share his personal journey and his recommendations on how we could dismantle and change the system so that those that come after us have less navigation to learn. Andrew Beeman is a leadership and organizational development consultant with over 15 years of experience in the nonprofit and corporate sector.

where he has helped organizations build and improve their employee engagement, corporate citizenship, and diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and programs. He began his career as a management consultant before transitioning to nonprofit field operations and eventually a senior leader for a global financial institution in corporate citizenship.

Excuse me, let me start over again. A leader, a senior leader for global financial institutions, U .S. corporate citizenship team. Andrew is currently the founder and CEO of AB Consultant and the author of the Amazon bestselling book that you can see between us, From Promises to Progress, a leadership guide to help organizations avoid common mishaps and bring their racial

equity aspirations to life, which we're going to definitely dive into today. His mission is to help organizations bring their values and purpose to life through meaningful and intentional actions. Andrew Beaman, welcome to A Black Executive Perspective, my brother. Thank you, Tony. Thank you for having me here today. It's an honor to join your podcast and thank you for creating these spaces for consultants.

authors, executives to come share their stories. Oh buddy, that's nice. So as you guys can tell, I gave him $20 before we got here to make sure he kicked it off right. Right. But it's all good though. But hey buddy, more importantly, thank you. I mean, you have written a book, which our audience can take a look at right here, um, from promises to progress. And it's all about your experience in corporate America when it comes to DEI initiatives. So.

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I know I'm excited. I've already read, I haven't finished it, but I've read a lot of it. It is fantastic. I know our audience is, this is something that I know for a fact that they're interested in because a lot of the people who watch a Black Executive Prospective podcast and listen to a Black Executive podcast, they work in corporate America. They've seen these issues, they're experiencing them. So I know they're going to be, you know, their ears and eyes are going to be wide open.

to listen to you today. But before we get into it, my man, tell us a little bit about where you're from, your family. Yeah. Born and raised in Waterbury, Connecticut. And most of my adult life I spent outside of the state of Connecticut. Went to school in North Carolina and North Carolina Central University. During North Carolina, all the part of career, 10 years in D .C., working in management consulting and working for nonprofits. And then I made my way back to Connecticut during the pandemic, actually. So.

back here, based here, reside in Connecticut and have a huge family. Most of my family's here, so it's pretty cool being back. It's the joy of remote work now, right? I don't have to move far away in order to have my career and do my work in organizational development. I could be around family and still have my career. So it's awesome. That's the both worlds. Buddy, you know, you bring up a good point, right? Since the pandemic, a lot of companies have now gone to remote work and...

You know, it is a major benefit. It allows us to be able to do, you know, what we do well at our jobs, but also be able to, to take some of the wear and tear off from commuting and, and spending more time with your family. So that's been a positive, you know, since the pandemic. So, uh, the thing I want to ask you next, my friend, you know, listen, your book is, is one of the Amazon's bestsellers. Um, I, it took us a while to get you on the podcast because.

You know, your people are really trying to reserve you and chat with you about what you put together. I know for a fact that you're meeting with corporations and you're training them on some of these initiatives, some of these ideas and thoughts that you're putting together. So the question I have is why did you want to appear on the Black Executive Perspective podcast to chat about this topic? Yeah, always looking for the right place, the right forums to reach the right people. I know there are managers.

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at every level, managers, VPs, executives that are looking for answers on how to actually execute the plans and aspirations that they may have had in 2020 and 2021. There's a lot of barriers in the way right now. And the most important thing that I want leaders to understand is how to put things into action in a way where it's it's high impact work. Right. So just understanding and know the difference between.

the low impact strategy and the high impact strategy. That's what I want to help equip your listeners with. That, but out. And again, I think they're going to really enjoy it because there's a lot of good stuff in your book. So thank you for taking the time, excuse me, investing the time to come on our podcast and talk about this important topic. So Andrew, you ready to talk about it, buddy? Yes, let's go. All right. Let's talk about it. So let's, let's back up a little bit. Tell us a little bit because, you know,

We can definitely going to dive in in terms of the great reckoning, the racial reckoning and the great awakening that happened four years ago, you know, due to the George Floyd murder. So we can definitely get there. But let's back up a little bit. Tell us a little bit about you, where you grew up, what inspired you as a young kid growing up in Waterbury, Connecticut? Thanks for asking. It's it's one of those things where when we talk about even when we're talking about racial equity, talk about privileges.

I absolutely had the privilege of great parents, great parent privilege. So I remember being a student and I was, as a young kid I was really good when it came to doing, well my classwork as a kid. I was a good student. But when I entered into high school, it was a rough time. I wasn't good in school. I mean I had Cs and Ds, so I had no interest in going to college.

My father used to just stay on me all the time. He would say, you know, you know, you're going to college, you know, you're going to college. And I had no interest. But until the time that I walked across the stage and I'm celebrating with family, you know, you're taking your pictures and everybody's congratulating you for your high school diploma. It was my father who just kept staring at me, just gave me this cold look. And he said, well, you know, you're still going to college. And at that moment, I said, OK, I'll try this college thing. And it was funny because that next day, my uncle, my father and I.

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went up to Eastern Connecticut State University and we talked to the vice president and he's looking at my high school grades and he's looking at my SAT scores and he says, well, it looks like you're capable of doing the work if you try. And the agreement was I'll go into this boot camp. It was summer boot camp, six weeks. And if I passed it, they would admit me to the school. So fast forward, passed it. You know, before you know it, I have my bachelor's degree. I go for my master's degree. And it was just lifelong learning that...

that came about really from two important things I'll say. The encouragement from my father and also a learning environment. So I think that's one of the biggest differences that I'll or the pivotal time in my life was being exposed to a great learning environment and having that encouragement from my parents as well. That is awesome. I love your father saying, looking at you, looking at you all grim like, you know you're going to school, right? Don't get too happy, right? You're going to school, right?

But real quick, tell us, so what was the boot camp? What was that about? Yeah, it was teaching you how to be a student. It was learning study skills and they almost controlled our entire life. Like when we're going to wake up, so we have breakfast, then you're going to study hall, then you're going to these classes, and then you're having different forums. But there wasn't a lot of free time. So almost when, pretty much when I got into college, I had a lot of free time, but I knew what to do with it.

So just those basic study skills that I didn't learn in high school, I learned and I was able to apply and enjoy. So, you know, like you said, you struggled in high school, wasn't a great student. I guess the dean told you, just looked at your transcripts and said, okay, you're capable. You put some hard work, you did the boot camp, you made it. How did you decide what career did you want?

Well, I was in, I was down in North Carolina and I got into hospitality and tourism. So I was, I was interested in, in management and applying it to more of the hospitality career. So I did restaurant management, conference sales management, but I really didn't tap into my, my true career until my master's degree. I was working as a conference sales manager at University of Hartford. And I decided I wanted to do a master's degree and I chose the master's degree of

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of organizational psychology, just because I thought this would make me a better manager and really just a better leader. Just understanding the study of human behavior and applying it to the business world, I thought it would just apply to what I was doing already in hospitality and tourism. But I was sitting in class and I was introduced, one of my classmates introduced me to this book. It was the vote guide to the top 50 management consultant firms.

So at that point, I was just learning what a management consultant firm was. So she's telling me about it. There's these firms, these organizations that go in and help companies improve their culture and improve their performance. And I said, I want to learn more about this. I run down to Barnes and Nobles, I get my copy, I'm digging through it. And when I was doing this, I found, I saw like three of them. Well, actually all of them I really liked, but.

o recruit me. So, and this is: 2008

were going to be at the Thurgood Marshall Leadership Conference in New York City. And I'm in Waterbury, Connecticut, so it's not a far drive. But when I looked, it said that it cost $1 ,500 to go. And I didn't have $1 ,500. And so as I was going... You asked your father? Did he give it to you? Yeah, I probably should have asked somebody. But instead, I started calling the Thurgood Marshall headquarters, calling them.

And finally someone picks up and I give my best pitch I could give. I said, hey, listen, I don't live far away. I don't need housing. I don't need transportation. I don't need food. I don't even want to attend any of the other programs. The only thing I want to do is attend the career fair because there's a couple of management consulting firms I want to see. And she hops off the phone. Then she hops back on and says, well, can you be here at 7 a .m. on Sunday? I said, absolutely. She said, come volunteer and you could go to career fair. So like that was.

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That was just such a resourceful thing that I was able to do. And I didn't think none of it, but when I was telling this story, when I ended up meeting Gallup Management Consulting and getting the gig with them through this opportunity, they said, wow, we really love that story and it shows your resourcefulness. You started to get to understand, I think that was the time where I was really understanding my leadership skills that I had. So that's how I found them and...

got into management consulting. Buddy, I mean, number one, that's a great story, right? And it also shows that, and just backing up a little bit, you know, school wasn't something that you really thrived in early, right? And then you went to school, ended up going to college because your father stayed on you. And then all of a sudden you started liking it. And then you went into a career that you thought, hey, I want to be, you know, in the hospitality industry, you know, because I think,

It'll be great for me and then let me take this course. I'll go here because it'll help me in terms of being able to manage people and deal with people. And then next thing you know, you hear about consultancy and you're like, I want to check that out. I want to do that. And you didn't have the money, but you didn't let that stop you from from being able to get involved in that. And you created something. And that's a lesson, I think, that all of our young adults should recognize and not just young adults, even

no matter what age you are, is that if you really want to accomplish something and it's really a focus of yours and you want to make it happen and you may not have the resources, you may not have the money, you may, you know, but at the end of the day, where there's a will, there's a way and you proved that here, my friend. You know, that's awesome. That's awesome. So let's, let's, let's, let's fast forward. What companies did you end up working with from a consultant standpoint? So when I was with the management consultant, I worked with healthcare companies.

So I was working with large healthcare systems from Inova Health System, Johns Hopkins, and then in Bon Secours, but I probably had the most fun working with the smaller health systems. And why was that? Because a lot of times with the smaller health systems, we were able to make a bigger impact. You know, going to like Bozeman, Montana, like Bozeman Health System.

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wonderful place, beautiful city, and we were able to work directly with the CEO. So when you have that buy -in from the top, and normally we were able to make better connections with the CEO and build better relationships with them with the smaller health systems than the larger. So you're able to see your work happen. You can see the results by staying with them instead of just showing up once a year. Got it. So you ended up working, I believe, for

TD Waterhouse or TD Bank? TD Bank. So tell us how did you transfer into the banking industry? Yeah, I ended up, well from the management consulting, I went on to work as a director of field operations for a nonprofit organization and they were one of the clients of Gallup. So I was working with them and then once I, when I was in nonprofit, one thing that I realized the most is that a lot of times people think they have to work in nonprofit organizations.

in order to make an impact in the community and make an impact in society. But as I was there, I was learning that they have these departments called corporate social responsibility or corporate citizenship. Social impact goes by many names, but their role and responsibility is as a corporation to make an impact in society, add value, not like how most companies are probably guilty of extracting resources from the community, just considering all stakeholders. So as I was learning,

and building relationships with people in those departments as I was working for a nonprofit, I just hit it off with one of the heads of community relations at TD Bank and she invited me to come work with them to lead and build and create programs to help employees get involved in the community. Wow. Yeah. And tell us a little bit about like specifically like what type of programs? Yeah. So we had programs. I like to think of...

when it comes to employee volunteerism, there's different levels of it. So you have those programs where it's hands -on volunteerism, sometimes a skill base where you're doing mentoring programs, and then pro bono when you're utilizing your professional skill set and services. Then also there were programs that I created that were around putting people on nonprofit boards, so that more strategic volunteerism.

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We had a program that had to do with, it was more of a grassroots one where employees could get together. So if any employees get together and they want to raise funds for an organization, for a cause, if those walks, runs and rides, those 5Ks, if we have at least five employees that got involved and raised funds, we would match those funds. So we were really trying to find ways not only to help nonprofits and help the community,

but also ways where our employees could build those leadership skills and build relationships across departments with their colleagues. That is awesome, my man. So how did you get involved with DEI? I think there's a bridge here, though, right? Is that basically what I'm hearing? Yes, yes. There's a bridge to DEI. And when I first started working with getting into DEI, it actually was with the nonprofit score.

We started doing a lot of stuff with DEI. But you don't have to work in DEI to make an impact when it comes to racial equity. I think everybody in each role, just an example for the nonprofit placement program that I led, organized, and put together, there was ways that I was able to implement racial equity within that. So as an individual, you have an opportunity to make an impact there.

So let me ask you this though. Okay. So that's a very good point. So let me ask you this. Do your career. Hospitality, consultancy, banking industry, you're doing multiple roles. Okay. And you just brought up ratio equity. All right. So when did you, throughout your career, when did you see that there was a ratio or an equity problem in corporate America? Well,

I would say, knew that before I entered corporate America. Definitely even before entering corporate America. As soon as I graduated college and I'm entering into hospitality and tourism and working as a restaurant manager, as people like to talk about these microaggressions that happen in corporate America, and I was experiencing that even as a restaurant manager.

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So, like, give us some examples. Examples would be, there's Hurricane Katrina, for example. Like, well, even before that story, things that we were taught, like, there's certain things that you're taught when you're entering it as a manager that you're not supposed to talk about race, religion, and politics. Those are the things that hurt all the time. So those are the topics that you will stay away from, but you still see these inequities happening. So don't talk about those three things.

And I remember having those experiences when you had a fellow manager during Hurricane Katrina making comments about, hey, just disparaging comments about those that were affected by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and which was based on their race. So you're hearing these comments, these things happen. But see, the struggle is more about creating environments where...

th at the beginning, at least: 2020

They started naming the problem. If it's racism, they were able to name it as racism, but in the past, they would use, or many companies would use more general terms like diversity issues or, or just don't talk about it. Right. Right. When it comes to equity, did you see an even playing field in your, in your walk through corporate America between, you know, black people of color, whites, women, men.

What was that, what did that look like? Yeah, well, Justin, matter of fact, I'll share an example of when the nonprofit board placement program that I built. So as I was building this nonprofit board placement program, it was for executives to help executives at the company I was with get placed on nonprofit boards. So, you know, good for the company, builds their reputation and their brand.

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good for the community and also leadership development opportunities for these executives as they grow through their career. And once we, I received the participants that were going to be in this program and I looked at it, it had great gender diversity. It was about 50 -50, but I realized there weren't any black, there was no black representation in this group. So I asked the talent management team, I say, hey,

You know, you sent me this group of high potential executives. Did you notice that you don't have any black representation in this group? And they said, yes, we noticed. And yes, we do have a, we do try to provide a more diversity lens to the work we do, but there isn't much black representation at this level. So I had to kind of step back and think, well, I designed the program and I cut it off at the executive level, but.

Why don't I take a look at it for the following year? And I asked them, I said, hey, how about the VP level? You know, not the executive level, but the VP level, the people that are right before those high potentials. And he said, yes, we have a lot of diversity there. So I just redesigned the program to say, all right, we're going to include VPs and executives as we get them placed in nonprofit boards. So sometimes those are the...

little things that you could do as a program leader, project leader, or just an individual, you could make some changes to help improve racial equity in the programs that you're running. Sometimes it's unintentional. I didn't intentionally exclude black representation from that, but I designed it in a way that excluded it based on the representation that was at the organization. I think the other thing though too, they were open to, they said, yeah, go ahead and make it happen. Right?

versus kind of pushing back a little bit in terms of, well, you know, we can't find anybody from, you know, a person of color. We, there's not a lot of recruits that we have stuff to that nature, right? But they were open to us. So that, that's a positive because then that allowed you to be able, and I get it. It wasn't at the executive C suite level, but you still was able to, to at least make the jump up to the VP level to be able to make it happen. So listen,

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Let's ask this, my man. You've had a lot of experiences. You've done a lot. You've created a lot of programs in different corporate environments. What made you want to write the book from promises to progress? I think like many people listening to the show in YouTube, Tony, 2020, I was watching after the murder of George Floyd. I'm watching all of the civil unrest, the protests, and watching executives scramble.

Like, executives had a good idea what to do about general DEI, but they were struggling to talk about race. So, just back up a second. When you say you saw them scrambling, scrambling for what? What made them scramble? Because they wasn't scrambling, maybe they were scrambling some eggs, and they didn't know how to mix them up. What was scrambling trying to do what? Trying to figure out what to do. They were asking that question, that specific question, what do we do to address anti -black racism? And...

like one of the assignments that our team was tasked with was trying to create a portal where people that want to learn about anti -black racism or learn about racial equity where people could go learn and it seemed more of like a data dump. It was a list of like 20 different documentaries, 100 different books, 50 different articles and I didn't feel like that was helpful for leaders as they're figuring out, hey, what should I do?

We realize this is what most executives and corporations were saying that, and this is the part that I do appreciate. They were recognizing that systemic racism existed. Right. Seems like a low bar, low bar, right. But we never heard this before. Like so true. Yeah. Companies having these conversations about race in the workplace. Never. Most people never experienced this before. So they did that. And then they also recognize that these inequities.

amount of black executives by: 2030

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we're going to increase minority representation across the organization by 25%. I'm watching this. So I'm sitting there just like everybody else in 2020 watching this and I'm thinking there's no way they're going to achieve these goals by doubling down on the same tactics that haven't worked the last five, 10, 15 years. So when you say same tactics that haven't worked the last five, 10, 15 years, what tactics are you talking about? I'm talking about these, these,

myths or these symbolic gestures, these awareness campaigns, these celebrations that training especially, I'm not against training, not against trainings. However, trainings aren't always the answer to everything. So it's like, it's just a long list of things that a lot of companies have been spending their money on.

an attempt, even the ones that genuinely want to do it. So that's why I wrote the book. This book is not to convince companies that don't want to do it or people that aren't sure whether they want to combat anti -black racism or improve racial equity in their organization. It's not for them. It's those that already said they want to do it, but they just don't know how. They didn't have a game plan how to do it. Yeah, those that don't have a game plan. And so just so, because I want to, and again, I love this. This is awesome because this is a huge issue.

It was an issue then it's still an issue now because there are so a lot of companies are retracting right the promises that they made and then you know, they're not keeping them or what the case may be I just want to back up a little bit going back to the myths and going back to the things that you said that they were doing prior so you were saying Celebrations, what do you mean by celebrations? Yeah. Well, It's black history month right now. Yep.

And whether it's Black History Month, Juneteenth, or... Hispanic History Month. Yeah, any of the months of significance, they call it. If your company has a culture of celebrating and doing things like this, by all means, continue to do that. My concern is, many times when you need the resources to make large systemic changes,

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They don't have the resources for that. But they have the resources to throw these big galas. So a lot of the time, energy and resources that companies are doing are put into these celebrations. But they don't have the resources to actually create change. So one part that I talk about in my book is this theme of bread and circuses. It's something that they used to talk about in Roman times. Keep the people fed. Keep them entertained.

and you don't have to worry about a revolution. Keep them fed and keep them entertained. So that's my concern when I see a lot of the celebrations. But you're familiar with the Tom Joyner morning show. Remember the Tom Joyner morning show? Remember when they used to do the cruises? I don't remember that part. They used to have cruises and he used to always say party with a purpose. Oh yeah, the radio cruises. They invite people to come on, stuff to that nature. Yeah, they have huge, huge parties.

And they would say, we're going to party with a purpose. So the purpose would be, they might have a cause that they're raising funds for. So they're partying, having a good time, but it had a purpose. If your company is having these months of significance, I urge you to have a purpose with it. Purpose being, this is a time and an opportunity to share with this audience all the great things, actual real systemic changes that you've made over the year.

This is a great time to update them on it. So use this time for communication to update on what you're doing. Because as I was saying, these myths or these things that they're doubling down on, these are the moments where employees, they go to these events, and I love them too. I love those events. You go there, you feel good, you feel great, then you return right back to possibly the same toxic environment that you left. It doesn't change what your day's like when this event's over. It's a one -off.

Right. Right. So actually they're checking the box. Checking the box. Black History Month. We're celebrating Black History Month here at XX Corporation. This is great. Blah, blah, blah. This and that. But to your point, there's nothing behind it versus the celebration. What they could do is saying we're celebrating, but let's share this stuff in terms of what's happening in the organization in terms of we're hiring more diverse individuals. We're...

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promoting more people to senior leadership position. Where not only that, we're recruiting people of color from different HBCUs or whatever the case may be. So what you're saying is you can still have the celebration, but also put a purpose behind it. Is that what I'm hearing? Absolutely. Share the data. Share the data. And if your goal was to increase black representation at your organization,

Let's celebrate. Let's celebrate that you increased it as you're celebrating black history. Yes, right. So you also talked about These myths, right? So let's dive into that because I think you know, one of the things is right I think the majority of people listening to this or watching it. They've experienced this right? I think every company is doing a black history month or Hispanic history or a woman's international day and all these things, right? So

Let's go back because to your point, it seems like everybody's making these promises. Then next thing you know, they revert back to doing these same things that really don't provide or increase equity and doesn't make the their employees feel safe and doesn't, you know, really take it to the next level. So.

Let's talk a little bit more about what some of these because in your book you go over these and they're really funny So you got to pick up his book I'm just telling you that because it's really really great and it's the thing about your book my friend is that You make it so simple that anybody that reads it will get it, right? And and and and then more importantly, they'll understand it and they can make changes. So again, let's go into some of the other myths

So the other myth I want to share, I think is really important because most companies are doing this, is the training. Now, mandatory diversity training, it's needed legally a lot of times. It's being banned in Texas and Florida and many other places. But if you're doing mandatory diversity training, that's fine, but it's not the answer to everything. Now, every time, as you know, every time an incident happens, police shooting, shooting an un -

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on our black men, what's the first thing people ask for? They'll say, well, they need to do some training. Like we need to train the cops better. Starbucks in 2018, when they had the incident in Philadelphia, when the manager called the cops on and had two black men arrested in Philly, what's the first thing they did? Said, well, need more training, need more training. But just to rewind, in...

After the killing of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, when the DOJ went in and they did an audit. So they did an audit. And within that audit, they saw over 160 -something reports of excessive force. And within those 160 -something reports of excessive force, none of them were reviewed. Matter of fact, one, I think one out of them,

reviewed and nothing happened to the police officer. So we're talking about accountability. Right. And that same thing. So that's police reform stuff. But even in corporate America, a lot of times it's about accountability. They have the training, but it's are you being held accountable for it? And when it comes to the Starbucks incident, the community was asking for the removal of that manager, like some disciplinary action on the manager. And

Instead, they weren't listening. So you have to listen to, it's not the silver bullet for everything. It's not going to solve all your problems training. What you need to do is listen to what the community is saying, or listen to what your employees are saying, and maybe, you know, solve that problem. One of my concerns with training sometimes is that it almost takes the onus off the organization and puts the onus back on the individual employees because they're not changing anything with the system.

They're not changing policies and programs and practices. They're just saying, hey, let me train you on some unconscious bias stuff. Let me fix you, but I'm not going to fix the organization. I'm just going to fix you and your behaviors. Got it. So that's my only concern. So let me ask you this though, because, and I hear you when you talk about, and you did say it, it's not saying not to do it. No, no. I have a lot of friends that do DEI training and they have solid training. So you're saying that, but don't make it the be all. Yeah. I want to go to the accountability part.

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Right? Because, and I hear you, and maybe we can use the Starbucks thing as an example here, right? I hear you, people say, we gotta get rid of them, right? Here's the thing though, if we fire everybody that makes mistakes, that's not changing the mindset either, right? That's not, that only makes that person walk away bitter, right? That doesn't help them learn or give them another chance because...

You know, I was thinking, me and somebody, a friend of mine, we were talking about this a long time ago, not too long ago, a few weeks ago about George Wallace, right? And if you know anything about George Wallace, right? Governor of Alabama, segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever, right? That was his motto, that's what he believed in. And then he ended up trying to run for president and he got shot, okay? And I remember,

I remember seeing in a magazine, I was reading something and I saw this picture of, and again, I don't know if it was Coretta Scott King. It was a bunch of black leaders. He was in a wheelchair and they were sitting around him and they were supporting him because he was running for governor again. And I was like, what? This dude, right? And he changed. And then actually when he became governor again, he made...

A lot of people in his administration, those were people of color and he changed a lot of the policy. So think about it. We just wiped him off the map, right? Because of what he did and don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to excuse what he did, but at the end of the day, by giving him another chance and him seeing I was wrong, I made mistakes. He learned from those mistakes. And then people were able to benefit from him, his change.

and his administration. So that's where I struggle a little bit, because I definitely hear that you want to hold people accountable, but what should we do from an accountability standpoint outside of training, more importantly, without firing them? Perfect. This is like an alley. Alley right here. Oh, that was the alley -oop? I'm going to say alley -oop over here. I'm going to get robbed. Yeah.

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That's why I think Starbucks is a great example, because it was what we end up learning as kind of dug into what really happened was you have a manager, a new manager to that Starbucks and out of nowhere during the three or six months that she was there, the calls to the police increased by like 400%. So out of this neighborhood - So when you say the calls to the police, like what do you mean?

calls that she made. She was calling on people of color that came into the Starbucks. Got it. Got it. Got it. So three, three to six months, she's, she's calling the cops excessively. Right. So then you have the question, the police officers as well. But, but thinking about just from a corporate perspective, if I'm the district manager and I see that one of my stores has so many calls has

quadrupled to the police. Either there's the neighborhood became extremely dangerous and we need to do something about it, or I might need to check to see why my manager there is making all these calls. So I think back to monitoring, monitoring, tracking things like this and having systems in place that could alert district managers about these things. Yeah, I think this could have been stopped.

way ahead of time if the district manager was paying attention to that. So sometimes it's those systems that are in place. But another example of just leaders and systems. When I was working for a score as a nonprofit to help people start small businesses, we were funded by, primary funding came from the SBA, Small Business Administration. And this is during the Obama administration and

Most of the volunteers, so it's a volunteer -based organization, 10 ,000 volunteers across the country. More than 90 % of our volunteers were white men over 65. These are retired executives that were, but it doesn't have to be retired people that do this. But they continuously asked my CEO, how are the numbers? Are you going to, you need to increase the diversity of your volunteers? Because this is publicly funded in many ways.

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So we're asking, hey, what are you doing to improve this? Everything with the clients and volunteers, what are you doing to improve it? And because of that ass that was coming from our funder, we started investing our money into improving the diversity of our volunteers. For women as well, they ask, gender, what's going on with gender, what's going on with racial diversity? And in the few years as I was there, we increased, we...

tripled the amount of women volunteers that were there. We increased the amount of minorities that were there. So by the time I left, it was only 70 to 75 % white men were the volunteers. And this came from, because it was a push. I think it all starts at the top. That's why we invested in programs in New Orleans to rebuild chapters in the black community. We invested in Jackson, Mississippi, rebuilding chapters there. So wherever, as a funder, you have the power.

The funder, you have the power to ask these nonprofits to do better when it comes to racial equity. And we were asked to do better and we did. So in other words, they held you accountable. Yeah. Right. The the the the the establishment, the leadership. Right. And because they were invested, they wanted it. And then you guys were able to make it happen. Right. So am I also hearing that, you know, going back to the Starbucks thing and in any situation is really about being proactive?

in an organization, having your pulse on looking at the data, having your pulse on the culture, not waiting till something blows up. And then I would say train and train and train and train is something continual. You something you continually do all the time. So then this way, these situations, it's not you're reacting to something. You're being proactive, hoping that by being proactive, you never run into these, these areas again. Is that what I'm hearing?

That's what you're hearing. And I think it happens often. They run to training as the thing because it's just the low hanging fruit. It's high, it's highly visible action that you're doing. So a lot of times companies want to have something highly visible to show like, Hey, we're doing something instead of some of the other projects. It takes a long time to bring into existence as you're planning and you're piloting things. But training, it's something that you could just pull off the shelf real quick.

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And it's just readily available. It doesn't disrupt the systems a lot of times. So readily available, easy access. So they reach for that. They reach for the easiest low hanging fruit possible. So in your book, one of the things, and had me dying laughing when you talked about the town halls that the companies, you know, and I'm pretty sure you guys know this too. Your company probably did it. You know, you have these town halls where the whole company gets together and they bring in a DEI expert, WebCase Me B.

It's, you know, 5 ,000 people in it. And to be honest, you're probably virtual and you have to be on mute and then, you know, you ask your questions in chat and they come in, do it in an hour and it's good, but then they just run away and that's it. So speak a little bit about the myth of the town halls being effective. Well, you know, my idea of it being a myth was challenged as I was writing this book.

With my book, I interviewed 15 DEI practitioners and I wanted to hear more about their experience. I didn't want this book just to be my voice in my research. As I was interviewing, I was interviewing one woman who was the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at a law firm. And she said to me, she said, town halls are designed to talk about things that are top of mind. So.

top of mind was George Floyd, top of mind was anti -black racism. We had to do this. And not to mention, and she's a Jewish woman too. And she said the black business resource group came to her and said, I feel like we need to talk about this. So she made it happen for them. They wanted this. So with that being said, I'm not against the town hall. I think it has, I think it has,

a lot of value because you have, it's almost a divide. You have a certain group, maybe specifically of black employees that said, I don't want to talk about this again. I talked about this a million times and I'm not wasting my time. And then you have another group that said, yeah, I would talk about it, but they're not going to do anything anyway. And then you have another group that just wanted to share, you know, try to share their experience and meet people where they're at. And I think that's what I learned from having my conversation with her.

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Is that just because I might've had this conversation multiple times and I'm tired of talking about it, that doesn't mean other people have. So if it's their first time having these conversations, then let's do it for them. Yeah. So let me ask you this, because one of the things with the town halls and I look at all forms of communication are important. Okay. So totally get it. I think where I struggle a little bit and I've, I've, I've worked at companies and if they've done town halls,

is that they look at it as another check the box thing, right? You have the town hall, come in and talk about it, right? You have somebody come in and try to train everybody on microaggressions and all these other things, then they go away. And then there's no change from that. There's no accountability. Where's the follow up? Follow up, follow up. That's where I struggle, right? I think it's important to have, show that from a corporate standpoint that you believe in these things.

And you're bringing in experts to talk to your people about them. But the key is what's the game plan? What are you trying to accomplish? What does it accomplish outside of that if there's no follow up? Right. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. The reason why I still call it a myth is because it's disguised as systemic change. It's disguised as doing something. It's disguised as a real action. All it is is the precursor to actual action. You know, it's...

It's something where the dialogue, a lot of things start with dialogue. So, you know, having these conversations is the start. But if it stops there, all it was was crisis management. If people need a place to vent, I mean, if they said that this is crisis management and we just want to have a place for people to vent, then that's, if that's what the goal is, then that's great. You did the right thing. Town halls are perfect. In this case, those

uncomfortable conversations, they called it. If the intention of these town halls and uncomfortable conversations was to give people an opportunity to vent, be heard and share stories, then it accomplished this goal. But if it was the goal of listening and hearing from people and following up on these ideas and concerns, then you really dropped the ball because most people that I talk to that

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say they experience these town halls, they haven't heard or saw any follow ups. I mean, maybe we saw follow ups with things that had more national attention, like those things that went viral, like Aunt Jemima pancakes, you know, they changed the logo, they changed the name. I saw one bank, they had this commercial where there was a black manager that would just dance all the time.

omfortable all of a sudden in: 2020

to change the culture. How many people, I mean, what is the equity makeup, racial makeup in the organization? How many people on the leadership board? How many, you know what, that's changed, right? Because when you change internally inside, then outwardly you won't be having these logos and signs or having commercials, you know, black people dancing and stuff to that nature, right? So that's where I struggle. And look, I've worked at companies, we did town halls, right? But then they also had follow -ups.

You know, we had grassroot conversations. It was, you know, you had the, the, the, the BRGs and ERGs and stuff to that nature that it continued to cascade down. Right. So I think those are, are, are, are something to your point in terms of if you really believe in this, you're not going to just do this high level stuff right here. You know, I'm in the advertising industry and from a marketing strategy standpoint, you know, you can do brand advertising.

You don't hear this, this, this, this. But if you don't do direct mail, if you don't do digital, you don't do social media, you don't do all these other things, that is not gonna last a long, it's not gonna work. Because you wanna drive the ash, move people down the funnel to be able to get some type of action. And in my opinion, that's where corporations miss it, in my opinion, because they're just doing this high level stuff to say, we care, yep, we did this, Black History Month, we got it, and this and that, and then their workforce.

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hasn't changed or the culture in the organization hasn't changed. Totally agree. It's awareness campaigns, symbolic, great symbolic gestures. Symbolism means something. And I mean, I think symbolism could be meaningful, but it's not systemic change. So just recognize, again, recognizing the difference. These are nice gestures, but it's low impact. And when you think about your time, your resources, human capital, your funds,

Where would you want to put your money towards more high impact work that really changed the organization or these feel good awareness campaigns? And I think you got to do both. Well, at the end of the day, you can't just do the top one and then move on. Right. But speaking of that, agreed. You interviewed a lot of people for your book, right? I saw some of the quotes and stuff to that nature. Tell us a little bit about the companies that are. Let's do this. I want to hear about the companies that are doing well.

And then I want to hear about based on all the things that you've queried people about, you've seen, you've implemented yourself, what is some of the tactics that you could recommend that companies can, you know, and look, some companies struggle, they may not know, right? And they want to know. So I want to hear too, what recommendations that you would give them and stuff to that nature. But let's talk about the first question first. Yeah. First one would be, so,

First one would be a recommendation that I'll add. Since we were talking about training already, changing it from this one -off, one -day training to long -term personal and professional development. This is something I learned by talking to Sakari Pinnock, who's a director, or actually founder of the Georgetown's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program. She was saying there's such a big difference.

Like when people are asking for these one day, eight hour trainings and wondering why it didn't help and it didn't do anything, because it's only eight hours. Eight hours, you really can't impact change in the behaviors, in the culture of the organization. But like the programs that she teaches and what she recommend is really like 120 hours worth of time. So it's a long term, long term, not just DEI trainings, but...

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just the whole program of personal and professional development that you have to think about. So knowing the difference between training and personal and professional development. Organizations that are doing some good stuff and that I saw, because I was definitely digging and looking for these success stories as I was writing the book, and saw great things with JP Morgan Chase. Even Morgan Stanley has some good programs going, but...

specifically the one I wrote about is JPMorgan Chase. They created this program called Advancing Black Pathways. Now, the reason why I loved it is because a lot of times, again, organizations say they want to do something, they recognize there's inequities. When it comes to black representation, they're struggling, but they hesitate to actually create a program that addresses it. Why do they hesitate? Why do they hesitate? Favoritism.

When you say favoritism. If they create a program that specifically addresses the inequities of black employee representation and advancement, then they'll be looked at as playing favoritism or doing something special for one specific group, almost excluding other groups in that way. But I believe JP Morgan was brave enough to

take that extra step, not just say, hey, we're going to create a program for everyone, but they had one specific for advancing black pathways. They named it Black Pathways. And what they did was they looked at diversity within diversity. That's the way they kind of explained it, where it was focused on HBCUs. So it was a program specific for HBCUs, but students that attend HBCUs that were either first generation college students,

and came from low income communities. So with that group, they were inviting them for internships. Not sure about the whole selection process, like how it goes about, but they have programs for the students there. I mean, they provide some funding to people that are in financial distress, and then they invite them to internships and invite them for jobs. Like over 90 % of them get invited to work for JPMorgan. So that is, when people say, hey, I can't find black talent, I mean,

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if you have to be intentional. So I feel as though, and as I was reading and learning about this going on their website, I said, hold on, let me reach out to some of these students. So I found a couple of students on LinkedIn, well, a couple of the interns, and I was able to talk to them about the program. And they ranted and raved about it. So it's real. It's not just marketing.

I did at least a talk to a couple of people. Yeah, I talked to a couple that verified the program. So I feel good. I feel good about that. Well, the reason I started, I smiled when you first, you said what company, I heard that they were doing well. So we had Leslie Dirge. She was on, she's the senior vice president at a bank in Chicago and she handles all of DEI for.

d they were doing this before: 2020

Organizations were sending money to a lot of HBCUs. So to have that affiliation, you know, during this time they were trying to build relationships with HBCUs. So some may have cut a one -time check, which is great, you know, able to do one -time check, but it's not long -term. It's not a long -term impact. So the difference between that one -time check that gets cut and what JP Morgan is doing is astronomical because this is

a long -term play for someone else to step in, a new manager to come in and dismantle the advancing black pathways. They'll have a lot of explaining to do if they do that. But if someone else steps in and says, oh, we're not sending money there this year to Delaware State or Lincoln University, no one's even going to think about it. But to add to that, you also have, I read about Vanguard Group. Vanguard Group, they took the extra step when it came to working with HBCUs.

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They brought on the president of Morehouse College onto their board of directors. So, but what I loved about what they did when it comes to policies and systems, they had a full board, but all they did was go into the bylaws and increase the amount of board members that can be. I think they had like 13 board members, but they increased it to 16 to allow them the opportunity to bring in.

the president of an HBCU, David Thomas, to their board. But other companies could say, oh, well, I'm full. We can't do anything about the diversity of our board because our board's full. What do you want us to do? Fire the white man from the board to bring on a black man to make it more diverse? No, that wouldn't be fair. But they were able to think, I don't even consider thinking out the box, but they said, hey, let's just change the policy. We want to bring somebody in. We see talent. We want to build this relationship for the long term.

But think about how much access Vanguard Group will have to talent. Not only talent that will be, it could be future employees for Vanguard, but high net wealth earners. Like those are future customers too. So they have, they have so much access now to one of the prestigious HBCUs. And there's a difference between long -term plays, deep relationships.

systemic change and just the one off, I'll cut the check. Yeah. Speak a little bit in your research. Did you find, because one of the big things is about business outcomes, right? By having a diverse organization, you know, you should be able to see business, your business should improve, right? By incorporating, you know, other individuals in your organization that should at the end of the day, high, more high performing. Did you find out anything when it came to that?

often. McKinsey and Company,: 2015

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This was something that a lot of DEI leaders used to think that, hey, this is the way we'll convince organizations to change what they're doing. So racial diversity was beating it by outperforming homogenous boards by over 30%. And they obviously within the study, they were talking about how those teams are more creative, more innovative.

and they just outperform for those areas. But one issue that I think DI practitioners struggled with or probably may have taken it too far is just focusing solely on that diversity of thought. So they continue to say, you know, diversity of thought is the reason. And so much where the VP of diversity at Apple ended up getting into a lot of trouble.

like just continuing to talk about the power of diversity of thought, power of diversity of thought. I think it's important to be clear on what your mission is as a leader. If your mission is to improve the representation of black employees, you might not want to just talk about diversity of thought all the time, because you could achieve diversity of thought without including black people in it. Right, right, right, right, right. That's awesome, man. And...

And so, you know, when you looked at all these companies, what, and before you even did that, what inspired you to write this book? Yeah. Working, I think I would say, I'm always good with research. I like researching. I like digging into data. You could have looked at Major League Baseball stats. NBA stats, right? You wrote a book about...

diversity in corporate America. So what was that about? Finding solutions, trying to find the answer. Watching companies do things and spend too much time on these symbolic gestures. My goal was to create a guide. Like I said earlier, I feel as though as I saw a lot of managers struggling and I just wanted to provide a guide to help them execute what they're going to do. And a lot of my time is...

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working in organization development. In organization development, it falls under many different categories. I'm doing things on employee engagement, and I was helping organizations improve their culture, and we were slicing and dicing the data all different ways. You know, we're looking at, hey, who's being left out? So I like to think of it as that inside and outside group. Sometimes it may be certain departments are being left out, or if you see a merger and acquisition, maybe the company that was bought out.

the employees there are being left out. There's so many different ways where voices aren't heard. It might be people with less tenure. There's so many different ways or whatever title or position you're in. And in those roles, I was already looking for those disparities and inequities, but I do feel like I didn't spend enough time looking at the racial disparities that exist.

But the goal is for everyone to be more intentional, more intentional in looking for those, looking to see, intentionally looking to see where those inequities, those disparities are so you could put your energy and time and resources into removing those. But it has to be intentional. Every time that I was working for a management consultant firm and digging into the data,

s or leaders? It's been good.: 2023

So I was part of a retreat. I also was speaking at a couple of universities. University of Hartford brought me in to talk about corporate social responsibility. I was invited to Georgetown, Diversity Equity Inclusion Program to speak there. So a lot of speaking engagements and some retreats. And I also just joined as a guest instructor or facilitator for this program here in Connecticut. It's really good. So if you're...

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If the listeners are from a nonprofit and you're looking to diversify your board, like if you had these dreams and aspirations in 2020 that you want to commit to making your board more diverse, Seat. It's a play on like seat at the table. Okay. S -E -A -T. S -E -A -T -C -T .org. It's a company, it's a nonprofit that helps nonprofit organizations.

match with people from the community. That's like another barrier that when you think about volunteerism, most of the time on nonprofit boards, there's people on those boards that aren't from the community that you're actually serving. So this is a great, great organization that I became a part of and I'm supporting where we help train people from the community to get ready to be effective board members and we match them with nonprofits. So it kind of solves two problems.

people that want to volunteer in a strategic way, and also nonprofits that want a more diverse board. Got it. So CT? Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. So we'll definitely put that up on our site and on our show. If the people that you've chatted with who've read your book, is there one or two things that they walked away from that they said, I'm going to implement this at my company? Audit.

audit, that's the number one thing I would want people to walk away with as well, is that make sure you audit. You can't just guess at what the problem is. So if you have, if you realize that you have disparities when it comes to racial equity, why? Why do you have these disparities? What's the cause? So taking the time to audit through, you know,

your customer surveys, your employee surveys, the data when it comes to how you're recruiting, recruitment data, your performance reviews, exit interviews, just having these focus groups, everything qualitative, quantitative, digging in and having these conversations with the organization, that's where you'll find the answer. So, the very least, audit. Audit, I love it. I love it. And buddy, you did a good job today.

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You know, sharing all these things with us, which has been awesome. Final thoughts for the audience. What I would love from the audience is just to want to encourage you to be brave. Be just as brave as you were in 2020 and 2021 when you were posting on LinkedIn and having these conversations at work about racial equity and the need to improve it. I want you to continue to do that. And, um,

And also, no matter what your role, what your position is, you can find ways to embed racial equity into the work you do. And, yeah, and lastly, but we mentioned, I mentioned this a couple of times, but I just want to reiterate this point, knowing the difference between that low impact, those awareness campaigns, those symbolic gestures, knowing the difference between that.

in real, meaningful, impactful change. When you recognize a difference, no matter what position you're at, even if you're a frontline manager, just being aware of what's happening in your organization, it could mean the world a different. So I ask you to do that. Thank you. Awesome. My man. I really appreciate it. How can a black executive perspective podcast help you, Andrew? Yeah. Anybody that is interested in making change within their company, if you want to bring me in as a consultant.

speaker, workshops, audits. I'm equipped to do all those things. So if you're interested, please reach out to me. And I'm sure you have my contact information for any. My website is www .andrewbeeman .com. And you can also find me on LinkedIn, Andrew Beeman. Andrew Beeman, right on LinkedIn. So feel free to reach out. I love to get in contact with you and network as well.

Well, listen, buddy, we're going to put that on our website. Definitely. If you're interested, please reach out to Andrew. He's fantastic individual. It's got some real good anecdotes that can help your organization. But more importantly, you helped us today, my friend. So we thank you for coming here on a black executive perspective, sharing your perspective. So again, thank you. And we love to have you come back at some time in the future. Would that be okay?

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New book is coming in a couple of months. Oh, you want to plug it real fast? Yeah. It's called Awareness Put Me On. It's a multi -author book and it's talking about experiences, leadership, things that we overcome. And it's real vulnerable. OK. Want to hear me get vulnerable? It will be in that book. All right. So we'll definitely have you on for that. But again, thank you, my friend. You were fantastic. And I hope you enjoyed this episode on a Black Executive Prospective podcast.

Great Awakening, Racial Reckoning with the author Andrew Beeman, who wrote the book From Promises to Progress. He did really, really educated me. I hope you got as much insights as I did in this episode. So I think now it's time for Tony's tidbit. Tony's tidbits. All right. So based on what we went through today, the tidbit is diversity isn't just a corporate responsibility. It's a business imperative.

Companies that prioritize diversity and inclusion are better positioned to attract top talent, foster innovation, and drive sustainable growth. And you heard that from Andrew Beeman as well today. So again, I hope you enjoyed this episode. Tune in to follow our next episodes wherever you get your podcasts. You can follow a black executive perspective on all our socials, Twitter,

Excuse me, X LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram at BEP exec for our guests. Andrew Beeman, my man for the man that makes this happen behind the glass double A I'm Tony tidbit. We talked about it. I love you and we're out.

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A Black Executive Perspective.