Company: Dow Chemical Company
Agency: Internal
Timeframe: 2006, ongoing
In 2005, Dow Chemical Company - being a very science- and numbers-oriented kind of corporation - looked at the data that summed up the composition of its employees and was
surprised by what it saw. "We saw that, despite lots of efforts to hire women, we were not progressing as many into leadership roles as we had hoped," says Darlene MacKinnon,
director, leadership capabilities, diversity and inclusion for Dow. "We looked at that data and said, 'We need to understand why. Why did it happen here, and what can we do to change
it?'"
That was the beginning of a global, company-wide initiative, "Diversity and Inclusion Forums: Aligning Global Leadership." Dow drilled down to bedrock to examine why employees
chose to stay and why they left, from both qualitative and quantitative standpoints. Once the data were amassed, the next step was to drive change. The question was how.
Based on the information it gleaned from its studies, the company established a set of diversity and inclusion goals in early 2006 with the objective of accelerating implementation
of its growth strategy. The goals included increasing the number of women, minorities and global citizens in leadership roles. To accomplish the objectives, Dow launched the Diversity
& Inclusion Forums, to make sure that all people leaders (especially front-line managers) were aligned and engaged with the new strategy, as a first, major step toward cultural
change.
The undertaking was by no means small, incorporating every office that Dow has around the world, and looking with a tightly focused lens at regions where the company saw emerging
work forces, such as India and China. The efforts initially focused on women, but soon expanded to every kind of employee conceivable, from women to ethnic minorities, gay and
lesbian, disabled, and global citizens.
As with any diversity or inclusion PR effort, the impetus had to begin with the C-suite. "We took the data to senior leadership," says MacKinnon. "We had to get everyone
strategically aligned, had to get everyone engaged." This meant aligning every person in the company who was a "people leader." Setting a strong tone from the top, Dow set out to
provide information and aspiration for its leaders across the board, and to hold them accountable for the program's success.
Many global corporations now recognize the business case for inclusive policies, to provide the largest pool of talent possible. But for Dow, the efforts went beyond that. Looking
at global expansion, particularly for a company that is growing rapidly in Eastern Europe, India and China, the diversity and inclusion team saw emerging diversity in terms of
international leadership styles and different cultural styles. It was critical to their strategy to learn how, as leaders, Dow's executives and other people leaders could be more
inclusive. "You have to find out what your personal blind spots are and dissect that," says MacKinnon.
These blind spots are identified in 2.5-hour interactive communications workshops that target all of Dow's people leaders. The sessions take place either face-to-face or in groups
connected over the Internet (for extremely remote locations), and they aim to create an intimate learning environment to make it an easy, comfortable experience for the leaders to
share their own experiences and uncover the areas they need to work on.
Get Personal, Start At The Top
The most important factor in Dow's efforts to engage and align its global leadership was engaging the most senior people in each location, to set the tone at the top. Every
training session begins with a senior leader telling a personal story about why diversity was important to them. The experiences they share run the gamut, from very personal - one
site leader talked about a mixed racial marriage in his family that opened his eyes - to more business-oriented, such as one person who talked about a scenario where he worked to
develop a female employee who had felt excluded at a former employer that Dow acquired.
Each session involves a video clip with leaders from around company, including the CEO, talking about diversity and inclusion, what it means, what Dow saw as challenges and the end
goal. This helps to create a leadership tone. Each session's senior leader runs through the strategy, and how diversity and inclusion play into it, what the internal and external
drivers are and what the demographics look like.
"For many, this was the first time they had seen that data," says MacKinnon. "If you are running a polystyrene plant in Asia, you would not have run into this. It was very eye-
opening, and that was very important." Dow's mantra is to use the company and its culture to change the culture. Because its corporate culture is based on scientists and engineers, it
runs on data. "Being able to show them the data grounded the discussion," MacKinnon says.
Dow shares its aggressive goals of engagement, attraction, development and retention with the leadership group of no more than 30 per session, then breaks the group out into
smaller groups to talk about three to five things they could do personally within the company to make progress. Driving the efforts, always, is the sense of personal empowerment, from
senior to local leaders.
Mini workshops with subject matter experts talk about inclusive leadership styles and how bias can creep in unconsciously. The company's "Truth in Leadership" scenarios help them
deal with issues of age, race, gender and disability, revealing previously unrecognized "discomfort" zones. Based on the belief that mindset drives behavior, which in turn drives
results, the sessions examine scenarios about various affinity populations and take real-life examples - subtle examples of exclusionary behavior - from the Dow workplace, changing
names and locations to protect the individuals involved.
Once the leaders have a new radar of diversity, the sessions ask what they could do to create win-win situations, again tapping into empowerment to give each leader ownership of
the environments they create.
Facing The Challenge
The biggest challenge in such a program as Dow's was volume: The company has 2,500 people leaders around the world who set the tone for their work environments. It was important
to ensure the dialogue was relevant around the globe, considering the company's many regional tones. A percentage of the program was customized for each location, including a survey
that went out for each session so people in different locations could see their own ideas and mindsets reflected back.
Another challenge was disseminating the results to the rank-and-file employees. An online newsletter, Newsline, publishes stories about the initiative, and Dow's CEO hosts a
quarterly broadcast called "Dow World News," which carries a segment on the effort. Leader tool kits and diversity and inclusion presentations enable local leaders to share progress
with employees.
"We want to make sure that diversity and inclusion are part of how we train leaders as we build leadership capabilities," says MacKinnon. Future goals. How will you handle ongoing
efforts?
The program is ongoing. MacKinnon is about to leave for a trip to Latin America to do Forums, and virtual forums reach out to remote locations through Learn Link, which provides
interactive settings for groups online. The next logical steps include driving the initiative out to all employees, following the change management curve. New programs and tools are
in the works.
Contact: Darlene MacKinnon, 989-636-3902, [email protected]
Getting to Know You
Among the essential ingredients of a diversity program is a concept Dow Chemical Company calls "working within your culture." Because Dow is a global, databased, analytical
company, it worked from that standpoint to reach its people, using statistics and a data-driven program. "Work within your culture to make sure the message is set in a way that allows
you to create change from within," says Darlene MacKinnon, director, leadership capabilities, diversity and inclusion for Dow.
Another important piece of the diversity puzzle is to make sure you're not excluding anyone. Every employee should be able to see themselves in diversity and inclusion efforts,
even majority groups. If a majority group feels alienated or as if they are being blamed for problems or excluded from a solution, that doesn't drive buy-in. "Who among us, whether
majority or minority, hasn't felt excluded at some point in our lives?" MacKinnon asks. That's why it's powerful to have leaders share their personal stories and feelings about
diversity. Sometimes they have felt exposed to it themselves. That's hard, but it's key. It's also key to make sure leaders and employees all see the business case. In today's highly
competitive workplace, if diversity is positioned as something that's just "nice to do," change is going to be very slow in arriving. It needs to be positioned properly as a
management talent issue.
Before your company or agency launches a diversity and inclusion program, make sure you understand your audience. Dow has diversity networks employees can join and participate in
events to help with their development and visibility, which takes into account diversity on based on ethnic, sexual orientation, gender, cultural and disability foundations.
MacKinnon stresses the need to work around personal blindspots and the ways that bias happens even when you don't mean it to happen. Everyone, she says, is more comfortable with
groups that act and look like them. "What we try to do is raise sensitivity and awareness levels among supervisors," she says. "How do you recognize where your particular spots are
and intervene? Through scenarios, we let them say, 'I see how that applies here, and here's how I could have intervened.'"
On The Honor Roll
Prominent international law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft believes in diversity, and it is going to some lengths every month to prove it, with a diversity communications
campaign called "Honoring this Month."
The in-house production is a newsletter that is disseminated every month to all the company's offices worldwide, featuring Web and media resources, as well as event information,
related to a specific heritage, race or cultural background. The background "flavor of the month" rotates throughout the course of the year.
Active links to Web sites provide information and resources to personnel on subjects under discussion, providing a powerful tool that taps into the resources of such organizations
as the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Census Bureau, Library of Congress, National Register of Historic Places, National Public Radio, Public Television, and other reputable
sources. The newsletter also includes links to online educational materials to help educate employees' children on the issues.
The schedule last year included such topics as:
* American Indian Heritage Month (November 2006)
* Disability Employment Awareness Month (October 2006)
* Hispanic Heritage Month (September 2006)
* Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Pride Month ?(June 2006)
and
* Women's History Month (March 2006)
Contact:
Visit Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft's Web site, http://www.cwt.com/view_about_cadwalader.php?page=146