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Companies, asking for advice: "How can we tell if our diversity and inclusion programs are working?"
Me, an expert: "Find out how Black women are experiencing your company."
Company: "Oh so survey women of color?"
1/?
Me, an expert: "Find out how Black women are experiencing your company."
Company: "Oh so survey women of color?"
1/?
Me: "No, ask the most senior Black woman on your staff to have honest conversations with other Black women. Listen to what she reports."
Company: "How senior does she have to be...?"
Me:
Company: "Because we don't really have any senior Black women on staff."
2/?
Company: "How senior does she have to be...?"
Me:
Company: "Because we don't really have any senior Black women on staff."
2/?
Me: "Well then I guess we know how your diversity and inclusion programs are going."
Company:
3/?
Company:
3/?
SN: @_danilo just called me out for numbering my tweets, so I'll stop. ARE YOU HAPPY, MAN 
Diversity stats ain't jack unless you're checking on inclusion. And the fastest way to understand how you're doing on inclusion and equity is this: FIND OUT HOW BLACK WOMEN ARE EXPERIENCING THE WORKPLACE. If getting to the bottom of that is hard, you've got a problem. Fact.
And still, companies beg to have it some other way. "Don't you have *anything else* we can do first?" Sure, there's a lot of really bullshit ways we can get to the bottom of this. But I'm assuming you want my expert opinion on the MOST EFFICIENT way. This is tech, after all.
BUT (and this is big) if your company's leadership has no Black women in their ranks, expect that this is going to be harder. ALSO expect that if you have too few Black women in your company for them to answer safely and not be identified, you will not get the real story
So if this is the case in your company, I'm not joking--you have a very significant data point about the health of your D&I efforts.
p.s. This thread is for @digitalsista
p.s. This thread is for @digitalsista
