Selected Podcast
Developing an Inclusive Workplace
Margaret Dimond, PhD, is the CEO at McLaren Oakland. She discusses why it's important to develop an inclusive work environment, the challenges and benefits, and initial steps for organizations who are hoping to take this purposeful approach to diversity and inclusion.
Featuring:
Margaret Dimond, PhD
Margaret Dimond, PhD is the CEO, McLaren Oakland. Transcription:
Michael Carrese (Host): Having a diverse and inclusive workplace is not just the right place to do. Research shows that diverse organizations are more successful, creative, and better at solving problems. Today on McLaren Leadership PodCast we’ll be hearing from McLaren Oakland’s president and CEO Margaret Diamond about the benefits and challenges of developing an inclusive workplace. I'm Michael Carrese. Dr. Dimond, let’s start by hearing how you define diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Margaret Dimond, PhD (Guest): So the definition of diversity inclusion has really evolved in the last decade or so. If you look at the definition in earlier publications, it was basically on race. Recently it is much expanded beyond race. Race, gender, age, religious background, etcetera. Even family composition. So I think we need to just widen our definition as we become more inclusive organizations.
Host: Let’s go through some of the benefits and challenges of pulling this off. First with the benefits you think of creating a diverse and inclusive workplace culture.
Dr. Dimond: I think there is a total upside for diversity and inclusion. People actually are looking for organizations that respond to their needs whether it is mentoring of minatory employees or leaders; whether it is having an open mind for diversity; really when you talk about exclusion, not excluding anyone based on preconception of either their race, their age, their sex, etcetera.
Host: In the healthcare environment I would think you want your patients to feel like they're understood, and they're being heard, right?
Dr. Dimond: Right. If we’re in an urban environment, our workforce should reflect the community that we serve.
Host: What about some of the challenges of bringing this about?
Dr. Dimond: Well, the challenge is age old. Change is one thing that human beings hate to do because we’re creatures of habit. So it is almost like people view diversity and inclusion as something external that they need to adapt to. A program is an example. Really diversity and inclusion should be a part of the culture. That means changing from the very top down and cascading through the leadership ranks and into the staff population as well.
Host: When you read about this, a lot of folks say the first thing you’ve got to do is sort of ask yourself questions as a leader, as an employee about do I have any biases? Do we need to be aware of how I welcome patients or welcome coworkers? Talk about that a little.
Dr. Dimond: So I think our biggest barrier is what I would call unconscious bias with leadership and with staff where you don’t even know you're treating a patient, or a staff member differently than you would someone else. So that’s really the key to evolving the institution. Awareness is really the hardest part of getting the clue of what diversity and inclusion in an organization means.
Host: Just in terms of yourself, what do you do to sort of check yourself on those issues?
Dr. Dimond: So believe it or not, I have a social work background. So I have really taken a lot of classes. I've taught at Michigan State and Women’s Leadership Institute about diversity inclusion and we’ve held seminars. Through the interactions, I've actually learned more than I've taught. So I think, again, trying to be a lifelong learner of where our strengths are and where we can improve constantly as organizational leaders is key.
Host: What's the flipside there? What do you think the risks are to McLaren Oakland or other organizations if you're not really intentional about this and purposeful about this and diversity inclusion?
Dr. Dimond: Well, you lose trust of leadership. You lose trust of the staff. Most importantly, you lose the trust of the community.
Host: Talk a little bit about the trust factor. That’s an interesting point. So you want the patient to feel like what when they're encountering your employees, no matter if it’s the hospital or other settings.
Dr. Dimond: Well, you want someone that has empathy. You want someone that understands a patient’s viewpoint and where they're coming from. Whether that is the need for privacy, their family composition, their discharge plans, or their lifestyle. If we have a very rigid workforce that doesn’t understand that, patients have a choice. They’ll go to our competitor where they do feel more welcome and more involved in their care. Likewise the workforce will feel the same. If we have younger nurses who are from different backgrounds and they're not accepted by nurses that have been here 10 or 15 years, they're not going to stay here. They want to feel like they're part of a team.
Host: Oh, absolutely. So now you're the president and CEO of McLaren Oakland, but you’ve been a leader in other places. How have you seen this play out the right way? What do you think leaders have done to encourage a really diverse workforce and an inclusive mindset?
Dr. Dimond: So I worked at a large organization base in New Center Detroit. They really did purposeful education of the leaders before they even decided to roll it out because, again, this isn’t just a program. This is a culture change. If the leaders themselves have unconscious bias or they have a narrow focus, that’s going to be cascaded to the workforce as being disingenuous.
Host: Right. So what’s the best way to communicate, you think, down the line?
Dr. Dimond: Well, I think it needs rigorous education of senior leadership and sort of a revealing strategic plan of how we’re going to cascade it on all levels of leadership and then certainly to the staff level.
Host: So for your leaders who are on board with all of this, what are some steps that they can take?
Dr. Dimond: Well, other organizations have done things that are very simple. A webinar and also some written material on, for instance, if you're treating American Indians, you don’t look American Indians in the eye. That’s not part of their culture. So how do we do the simple things to make our patients feel that we respect them, that we’re here to treat them, and we’re not here to judge them.
Host: So leaders obviously have a critical role in this, but for employees, what do they do day in/day out. What’s got to be in their mind do you think for this to improve?
Dr. Dimond: Again, I think training not only for leadership but staff. I think an organization would be short sighted if they didn’t provide some ongoing training of staff on a regular basis because adult learning is really repetitive learning. The adult learner needs to hear something five to seven times before it starts to become a reality. So I think on an annual basis, even more than that when you're starting out to have workshops, to have webinars, to have department meetings talk about diversity and inclusion. Also patient case studies.
Host: The other thing I wanted to note is that McLaren Oakland is a teaching hospital. So talk a little bit about how that plays into the importance of having a diverse and inclusive environment.
Dr. Dimond: So it’s critically important for our learners in the medical field. We also have a strong Allied Health and nursing learner program. So, again, we have physicians in training and nurses in training that are from probably I would say 10 different countries as their birthplace in addition to the United States. So we need to know what is the stylistic difference in where they grew in their culture to learn. What are some things that we need to do so our culture and our social mores are not offensive to the learners, and how do we best make them feel comfortable here with our patient population and have them learn about diversity of our patients?
Host: Right. So as we’re wrapping up here for listeners, what do you want them to walk away thinking about?
Dr. Dimond: I think just to keep a very open lens. I've been in the field for almost 40 years. Diversity in the 80s and 90s was much different than the definition of diversity today. We just need to shed our old thoughts about what inclusion means, what diversity means, and keep an open mind because our society is ever changing.
Host: Well, that’s a great point to end on, but we’re going to have to leave it there. My thanks to Dr. Margaret Dimond, president and CEO of McLaren Oakland for joining us on this addition of McLaren Leadercast. Thanks for listening.
Michael Carrese (Host): Having a diverse and inclusive workplace is not just the right place to do. Research shows that diverse organizations are more successful, creative, and better at solving problems. Today on McLaren Leadership PodCast we’ll be hearing from McLaren Oakland’s president and CEO Margaret Diamond about the benefits and challenges of developing an inclusive workplace. I'm Michael Carrese. Dr. Dimond, let’s start by hearing how you define diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Margaret Dimond, PhD (Guest): So the definition of diversity inclusion has really evolved in the last decade or so. If you look at the definition in earlier publications, it was basically on race. Recently it is much expanded beyond race. Race, gender, age, religious background, etcetera. Even family composition. So I think we need to just widen our definition as we become more inclusive organizations.
Host: Let’s go through some of the benefits and challenges of pulling this off. First with the benefits you think of creating a diverse and inclusive workplace culture.
Dr. Dimond: I think there is a total upside for diversity and inclusion. People actually are looking for organizations that respond to their needs whether it is mentoring of minatory employees or leaders; whether it is having an open mind for diversity; really when you talk about exclusion, not excluding anyone based on preconception of either their race, their age, their sex, etcetera.
Host: In the healthcare environment I would think you want your patients to feel like they're understood, and they're being heard, right?
Dr. Dimond: Right. If we’re in an urban environment, our workforce should reflect the community that we serve.
Host: What about some of the challenges of bringing this about?
Dr. Dimond: Well, the challenge is age old. Change is one thing that human beings hate to do because we’re creatures of habit. So it is almost like people view diversity and inclusion as something external that they need to adapt to. A program is an example. Really diversity and inclusion should be a part of the culture. That means changing from the very top down and cascading through the leadership ranks and into the staff population as well.
Host: When you read about this, a lot of folks say the first thing you’ve got to do is sort of ask yourself questions as a leader, as an employee about do I have any biases? Do we need to be aware of how I welcome patients or welcome coworkers? Talk about that a little.
Dr. Dimond: So I think our biggest barrier is what I would call unconscious bias with leadership and with staff where you don’t even know you're treating a patient, or a staff member differently than you would someone else. So that’s really the key to evolving the institution. Awareness is really the hardest part of getting the clue of what diversity and inclusion in an organization means.
Host: Just in terms of yourself, what do you do to sort of check yourself on those issues?
Dr. Dimond: So believe it or not, I have a social work background. So I have really taken a lot of classes. I've taught at Michigan State and Women’s Leadership Institute about diversity inclusion and we’ve held seminars. Through the interactions, I've actually learned more than I've taught. So I think, again, trying to be a lifelong learner of where our strengths are and where we can improve constantly as organizational leaders is key.
Host: What's the flipside there? What do you think the risks are to McLaren Oakland or other organizations if you're not really intentional about this and purposeful about this and diversity inclusion?
Dr. Dimond: Well, you lose trust of leadership. You lose trust of the staff. Most importantly, you lose the trust of the community.
Host: Talk a little bit about the trust factor. That’s an interesting point. So you want the patient to feel like what when they're encountering your employees, no matter if it’s the hospital or other settings.
Dr. Dimond: Well, you want someone that has empathy. You want someone that understands a patient’s viewpoint and where they're coming from. Whether that is the need for privacy, their family composition, their discharge plans, or their lifestyle. If we have a very rigid workforce that doesn’t understand that, patients have a choice. They’ll go to our competitor where they do feel more welcome and more involved in their care. Likewise the workforce will feel the same. If we have younger nurses who are from different backgrounds and they're not accepted by nurses that have been here 10 or 15 years, they're not going to stay here. They want to feel like they're part of a team.
Host: Oh, absolutely. So now you're the president and CEO of McLaren Oakland, but you’ve been a leader in other places. How have you seen this play out the right way? What do you think leaders have done to encourage a really diverse workforce and an inclusive mindset?
Dr. Dimond: So I worked at a large organization base in New Center Detroit. They really did purposeful education of the leaders before they even decided to roll it out because, again, this isn’t just a program. This is a culture change. If the leaders themselves have unconscious bias or they have a narrow focus, that’s going to be cascaded to the workforce as being disingenuous.
Host: Right. So what’s the best way to communicate, you think, down the line?
Dr. Dimond: Well, I think it needs rigorous education of senior leadership and sort of a revealing strategic plan of how we’re going to cascade it on all levels of leadership and then certainly to the staff level.
Host: So for your leaders who are on board with all of this, what are some steps that they can take?
Dr. Dimond: Well, other organizations have done things that are very simple. A webinar and also some written material on, for instance, if you're treating American Indians, you don’t look American Indians in the eye. That’s not part of their culture. So how do we do the simple things to make our patients feel that we respect them, that we’re here to treat them, and we’re not here to judge them.
Host: So leaders obviously have a critical role in this, but for employees, what do they do day in/day out. What’s got to be in their mind do you think for this to improve?
Dr. Dimond: Again, I think training not only for leadership but staff. I think an organization would be short sighted if they didn’t provide some ongoing training of staff on a regular basis because adult learning is really repetitive learning. The adult learner needs to hear something five to seven times before it starts to become a reality. So I think on an annual basis, even more than that when you're starting out to have workshops, to have webinars, to have department meetings talk about diversity and inclusion. Also patient case studies.
Host: The other thing I wanted to note is that McLaren Oakland is a teaching hospital. So talk a little bit about how that plays into the importance of having a diverse and inclusive environment.
Dr. Dimond: So it’s critically important for our learners in the medical field. We also have a strong Allied Health and nursing learner program. So, again, we have physicians in training and nurses in training that are from probably I would say 10 different countries as their birthplace in addition to the United States. So we need to know what is the stylistic difference in where they grew in their culture to learn. What are some things that we need to do so our culture and our social mores are not offensive to the learners, and how do we best make them feel comfortable here with our patient population and have them learn about diversity of our patients?
Host: Right. So as we’re wrapping up here for listeners, what do you want them to walk away thinking about?
Dr. Dimond: I think just to keep a very open lens. I've been in the field for almost 40 years. Diversity in the 80s and 90s was much different than the definition of diversity today. We just need to shed our old thoughts about what inclusion means, what diversity means, and keep an open mind because our society is ever changing.
Host: Well, that’s a great point to end on, but we’re going to have to leave it there. My thanks to Dr. Margaret Dimond, president and CEO of McLaren Oakland for joining us on this addition of McLaren Leadercast. Thanks for listening.