By Steve Moran
I delivered a keynote on this topic exactly once, thanks to the tremendous courage of Lynne Katzmann and the Juniper team. Their world didn’t cave in, and I survived the telling of some personally embarrassing stories. Perhaps the world is just a little better for having talked about this important issue.
The issue: DEI.
The Trigger
One morning, I got an urgent text from Rachel Hill, our amazing Foresight creative genius. She was scheduled to interview a senior living leader for her podcast, Foresight Radio. As often happens, the guest asked for a list of questions, which Rachel provided, and that list included some DEI questions.
The evening before the recording of the interview, the client returned the list of questions and struck all of the DEI-related questions.
Rachel was very upset, rightly feeling this is a topic that needs more attention and that it was wrong for them to ignore it.
I Hate This
Because of the time difference, I got the text while still in bed, quickly returned the call, and what went through my head was, “I don’t blame them for avoiding the topic, Rachel is being unreasonable, why do I have to deal with this?” All in a split second.
However, in the next second, I realized Rachel is walking in shoes I will never walk in as a white male. I have no idea what it feels like to be told by a guest, “That thing you care so passionately about is something I want to completely ignore.”
I have no idea how I would react in that situation!
Yet …
At the same time, in a world where there is tremendous pressure to dismantle all things DEI, it is hard to blame the company for not wanting to talk about a topic that is almost certain to upset 30-50% of the listeners, regardless of what was said.
They have a business they are trying to grow, and they don’t want the risk of making anyone angry. I have a hard time faulting that.
The Foresight Team and DEI
At great risk, I am going to talk about my team and DEI. Four years ago, I had someone working for me doing the creative and social media work, and it wasn’t working out. One day, he gave notice and offered to find a replacement.
My instructions were to find someone really good, but I would prefer that the person be Black. I did this because I felt it was the right thing to do, that we needed a different perspective, and that, in truth, without being deliberate in our hiring process, it is always easiest and most comfortable to hire people who look like us, who live like us, who think like us.
Ultimately, he came up with a single candidate, Rachel Hill. She was the perfect fit and had the added benefit of being Black.
A few years later, we needed additional help with social media and our livestreams, so Rachel went looking for someone to add to the team. She found Jada Clint, who is also Black. Today, here is what the team looks like:
- One white man (Jack Cumming) who is in his 80s and a senior living resident
- Me, a white man who is 70
- Two white women in the middle of their careers
- Rachel, who is Black and midway in her career
- Jada, who is Black and early in her career
- Plus some contractors who are near my age and one who lives in another country
It is a diversity I am proud of, that I worked hard to create. You don’t find this in any other senior living media platform, and you don’t really find it in any senior living organization.
It needs to be said that this diversity also means harder conversations, but those harder conversations make us better.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is threefold:
- I don’t blame the organization we were interviewing for not wanting to tackle the topic.
- I don’t blame Rachel for being upset, because senior living has a massive racial disparity problem that no one wants to talk about.
- It is hard to talk about it, which is exactly why we should be talking about it. We have a racial disparity problem with the resident population and one with senior leadership, and it should be talked about. Particularly because no one else is talking about it, we and Foresight need to be talking about it.
This is a huge problem in senior living, and it is a business problem. I have a friend who is black, his mom would benefit from living in a senior living community, and has the means to do so, but her #1 reason not to move is because she cannot find a community where people look like her. She worries about making friends and about other residents understanding her, so she stays in her home with little family support around to help. If business leaders could see that having a diverse leadership team and diverse residents will help their business, maybe we could start filling those empty beds.