I am a huge fan of stand-up comedy.  I think that comedians hold a very special place in society, in much the same way that musicians do.  Good comedians have the ability to capture current events, distill them down to the core of their meaning, and then shoot them back to us in ways that make us both simultaneously  laugh uproariously and wince in pain.   I recently saw a special by funny man Michael Che that had just that effect on me.   If you haven't seen it, you should check it out on Netflix.  http://tinyurl.com/kqkzfza  At one point in the show he made reference to the movement  Black Lives Matter.  He didn't focus on the "black" or the "lives", he focused on the "matter."   He talked about what it meant to matter.  He said (I am paraphrasing)  Black people aren't asking to be special, or receive some privilege, we are simply asking that our lives "matter."    It was a very poignant moment, for me, and for the audience attending his show.   You could see it on their faces.   He examined on the word "matter"  and what it meant for almost a full two minutes.  "They just want to matter, that's all." he said.   "Who can argue with that?"

Well, it seems, a lot of people argue with that.  Or at least they argue with the movement.  I suspect because they have never really thought about what was being asked.  Could you, would you, really look someone in the face and tell them that their life doesn't matter?  I suspect not.  At the same time, our society turns a sometimes deaf and sometimes hateful ear to the marginalized members of our community who are just asking to "matter."   If you focus on the word, and not the implied meaning behind the word, it is very difficult to dismiss the notion.   I am glad Michael Che took the time to give the word the reverence it deserved.   If we take the time to actually listen to what people are saying, instead of having a knee jerk reaction to what we thought they meant when they said the words they said, we might actually move the needle on meaningful communication in our society.

Inclusion365 mission #14
I will listen to the words people use to communicate and consider their meaning before dismissing them.

One of the common themes in my diversity workshops, is the idea that we all view the world through the lens of our own experience.  Therefore, the same set of circumstances can be viewed differently by various people.  The information coming into our senses passes through a series of filters, such as perception and experience.  I would also like to add that one of those filters is expectation.


Yesterday, I watched an extremely disappointing Super Bowl ( not because my team didn't win, but rather because they didn't compete). I remembered thinking that the ads were also disappointing and I was hoping that the half-time show would, at least, be entertaining.  I wasn't too thrilled about the band Cold Play or Beyonce, but I like Bruno Mars so I settled in to watch.  What I saw was a decent show, as these things go.  Bruno and Beyonce had a dance-off.  There was sensory overload with bands, and dancers, and psychedelic colors, and umbrellas and rainbows....you know...Super Bowl Half-time stuff.   No one blew me away.  There were no wardrobe malfunctions.  All in all, I thought it was a good show.  Then I woke up this morning.

I expected the usual "Beyonce is the greatest thing since sliced bread" and "Beyonce is the devil incarnate."  because, you know, she is a very polarizing figure in pop culture.  But what I didn't expect to hear was that there was controversy and that people we threatening to boycott her concerts.  What did I miss?  I asked myself, desperately thinking back over the show and trying to understand.  She was half-naked, but she is always half-naked.  She was dancing provocatively, but she always dances provocatively.  What was boycott worthy about her appearance?  Well, it seems that her song was "political" and "anti-police"  Apparently her dancers were dressed as Black Panthers and in the video she released there was graffiti painted on a wall that said "Stop Shooting Us."  And she was poised on top of a police cruiser that was sinking into a flooded street in New Orleans thereby symbolizing her hatred for the police. 

Huh?  I saw the same thing everyone else saw and didn't draw any of those conclusions.  I even laughed out loud as I read the article.  Maybe I'm dense, or just not artistic enough to have caught all of the unspoken messages in her 2.5-minute appearance during the half-time show.  Or, it could be, that even though I am not a fan of Beyonce, I am also not an anti-fan.  I wasn't looking for things to disapprove of, so I didnt see any.  I wasn't expecting to be offended, and so I wasn't.  I have noticed this phenomenon frequently in our society today.  We assign different motivations to one group of people exhibiting the same behavior as another group of people, based on our perceptions of those people.  If a sideline camera catches Arizona Quarterback Carson Palmer thrusting his groin at fans, he is just excited.  If Marshawn Lynch grabs his crotch, he is everything that is wrong in our society, a poor sport, a bad example to children, and a thug.  If a Trump supporter sucker punches a protester, he is either defending liberty or a racist *#*hole. 

I don't think this is anything new, think of all of wars fought over whose religion was better, or who had the right to enslave whom.  What is new, is how quickly internet lynch mobs form and how passionately people are holding on to those opinions.  Whatever happened to agreeing to disagree?  Whatever happened to simply opting out of something that didn't interest you?  Like I said, I am not a Beyonce fan.  I can probably name two of her songs.  But I don't have any passion for her one way or another.  I simply assume I am not her audience, and move on with my life.  The call for a boycott was hilarious to me.  I am guessing that the people who were offended by her performance weren't lining up to buy tickets to her concert anyway.   Her performance wasn't for them.  It was for the multitudes of people who hail her as "Queen Bey." 

Inclusion365 Tip #13
I will recognize that the filters of my perception and expectation color how I see things, and I will not always assume everyone sees the world the same way I do.

 

I don't even need to comment on this article.  It says everything so perfectly.  It is amazing how we are constantly looking outside of ourselves to place blame, when the problem is inside of us all along.  

Inclusion365 Tip #11
I will always assume the problem of "ism" belongs to someone else.  I will examine my own heart, motives, and intentions first.

Read this:  http://aol.it/1T5dd7r

I once heard Maya Angelou say, "When people tell you who they are you should believe them."  I'm not sure if she is the originator of the expression, but I will credit her for it anyway.  She was, of course, referring to our tendency to want to give people the benefit of the doubt.  How many times have you heard someone excuse unacceptable behavior chalking it up to a bad day, stress, or an Irish temper?  I used to work in a call center, and we had a manager that was Straight Outa Old School. He was a mean-spirited bully who managed through fear and intimidation.  His reign of terror lasted much longer than it should, because with each episode we would shake our heads and say, "Well that's just Tom being Tom."  We wanted to believe that deep down he was a really good person who was just a little "crusty."  Nothing in his behavior supported that hope, and eventually the organization realized it had to part ways with him. As he was leaving us I thought about all of the careers he had negatively impacted and the number of talented people we lost because of him.  What was behind our reluctance to see Tom for who he was?

I believe that over time, we refused to see him because we weren't sure what it said about us. Some of us liked Tom.  Some of us hung out with him on weekends.  If he was a bad guy, and we liked him, did that make us bad?  I am thinking about this particularly in light of the 2016 Presidential race.  Donald Trump's candidacy has been a display of bad temper, misogyny, racism, and the list goes on and on.  Most people felt we were being punked as bit players in some reality television show.  But something odd began to happen.  People began supporting him in huge numbers.  It seemed that Mr. Trump had found a group of people who felt they didn't have a voice in our society. "The Donald" it seemed, was able to stand up and say everything they haven't been able to since they were shoved into the politically correct closet back in the 1980's. "Finally, they opined, someone who can tell it like it is!"   I sat back as the months passed, while most people just shook their heads in denial. "How can this be happening?" "How can people be supporting this guy?"  Most of these folks believed that his campaign would be short-lived because he was so out of step with the hearts and minds of Americans.  Surely, they said, people will come to their senses. But alas, going into the Iowa caucuses Trump was still going strong. 

And here is where the truth shows up.  We want to believe that the Trumps of the world are marginal cave dwellers whose time in our society has passed.  We don't want to believe that Trump is who we really are.  But if you ask any black person whose been racially profiled, gay person who faced discrimination,or woman who had to deal with a sexist troll at work, this is who we are.  It is in fact, who we have always been.  We close our eyes to mounting evidence that institutional racism exists, and that the prison industrial system has profited off of the mass incarceration of people of color. When one of our work associates tells us he or she was racially profiled we ask them if the are sure, or if they were just being overly sensitive.  Even as we watch Donald Trump dominate the 2016 campaign cycle and discover that the Governor of Michigan knowingly poisoned a poor community in Flint Michigan for profit, we are still in denial. http://cnn.it/1SDpWNw

We want to believe that we are a country that is beyond this type of behavior.  We want to believe that we live in a free and just society.  But how many Trumps will it take for us to realize...this is who we really are?  Unless and until we admit and really deal with it, we will keep making excuses for our behavior.

Inclusion365 Tip #12
I won't make excuses for bad behavior when I see it.  I will call it what it is, and deal with it openly.

There are times when I truly feel like I am having an out of body experience.  Sometimes I watch the news or I see something tragic happen and I think, "seriously?  Did this just happen?"  This week, was one of those weeks.  During the NFC Championship game post-game interviews Seattle Seahawks defensive back, Richard Sherman gave an overly emotional post-game interview to Erin Andrews.  Now, when I say over-emotional I mean he went "full hood."  Black people in America have learned that you never go "full hood."   Most people love the cool black man who gives them a high five and fist bump, they even love the funny black man who keeps them laughing and constantly entertained.  But we do do not like the dangerous black man, amped up on testosterone and yelling at the top of his lungs.  No.  That black man is scary and should not be tolerated under any circumstances.  Richard Sherman, and the rest of us found this out the hard way. 

I was sitting on my sofa when the incident occured.  After 10 seconds it was clear to me that his emotions were too raw for television.  I remember waving my hand at the screen and saying " move on, cut to something else, don't show this!"  But, my reaction was out of concern for the man, and not out of desire for "good television" so, the camera did not cut away, instead it lingered there and broadcast this man's meltdown for all of the world to see.

I knew when it happened  it would be all over Sports Center and I would have to see it over and over and over again.  I was irritated.  I am tired of sensationalism hi-jacking my sports channels and I knew this was going to be a "thing."   I was not prepared for just how big a "thing" this would become.  The next morning I heard the usual hue and cry about poor sportsmanship, and respecting the game, all of the things I could nod my head an agree with.  But as the day went on, and I started reading articles and blogs the conversation turned to something that I just could not believe.  Richard Sherman went from an emotional player who may have behaved inapropriately on television for 30 seconds to "thug" which in our society has become code for n****r.  People were berating him and referring to him as a "monkey" and piece of s***.   Really?  Yes, really.  The thing that I found most disturbing was that although Richard had been over the top, he hadn't used profanity or any threatening language, and yet people were treating him as if he had pulled out an AK 47 and dropped a million f-bombs.  He didn't.  He never swore and he never hit anyone or threatened anyone and yet he was being hailed as a thug and a gangsta piece of trash who didn't deserve to live.  What was said about Richard Sherman was far more problematic than anything Richard Sherman actually said.  Americans, from the safety and anonymity of their keyboards showered their racist hatred upon this man in quantities that, to me, were alarming.

It has become part of the narrative about black athletes.  There are 1,700 players in the NFL.  In 2012 39 of them had some sort of run-in with law enforcement.  39 is less than 1% of NFL players, and yet, we constantly hear ranting and raving about all of the gangsters and thugs in the NFL who can't stay out of prison.  The reality is that less than 1% of them have trouble with the law.  And yet, that's the narrative.  Black athletes ( people) are criminals.  It has always been this way, and until this incident I found it mildly irritating.  But this week, the tenor surrounding this story was so over the top, that it made me angry.  It was so prevalent that even white bloggers and columnists were crying foul.   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/isaac-saul/what-richard-sherman-taught-us_b_4631980.html

Inclusion365 mission# 11
I will not allow stereotypes, no matter how pervasive, to predetermine my assumptions about the character, nature, or abilities of another person.

Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen came under attack recently for writing a column in which he expressed some controversial views regarding the acceptance, by "conventional" people, of mixed race couples and their multiracial off spring.  Specifically, he said, " People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be a lesbian?) This family represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts — but not all — of America. To cultural conservatives, this doesn’t look like their country at all."

Now, I admit that when read that statement my first thought was, "oh, boy...he is going to get fired for that."  My second thought was, " He shouldn't be fired, he is speaking the truth."  The truth.  Isn't that what journalism is all about?  Now, I am almost certain that given Mr. Cohen's body of work, he wrote that statement with the intent of stirring controversy and driving traffic to his blog. He has put his foot in his mouth too many times to claim being misunderstood at this point.  He knew what he was doing so I really don't hold him up as any sort of hero.  But I do think he represents what is too frequently lacking in our society.  The truth.  Just to be clear, I am not advocating the race-baiting, hate and fear mongering speech of people like Rush Limbaugh.  But putting pen to paper and expressing an opinion that a lot of people share? I think that has to start being acceptable again.

You see, we have decided that we are a post-racial society.  And therefore, we have decided that we are beyond racial bigotry and prejudice. Anyone, who stands up and says " Not so fast, I am not there yet." is not welcome in the arena of public discourse.  So, we have effectively thrown a blanket over all of the ugly that exists in our society and joined hands in one beautiful "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony" moment.  We hold our heads high and point to our first visibly ethnic president and say "Yea Us!  We did it!"  But if you look closely at the blanket, you will see that wriggling underneath is the same racial animosity and hatred that has existed since the first white people landed here and declared it "my country."  We prance merrily along, while "Stop and Frisk" is common practice by police forces all over the country not just in New York.  We turn a blind eye when Stand Your Ground Laws are used as an excuse to stalk and murder a black teenager because he dared to walk in the wrong neighborhood wearing a Hoodie.  The Supreme Court struck down voting rights laws and before the ink was dry the state of Texas enacted laws that officials openly admitted were designed to suppress minority voters.  In October of this year, a young black college football player was murdered by police, because after a car accident he knocked on the door of a white woman and asked her for help.  She was so terrified that she called the police and told them he was trying to break into her house.  I could go on and on here, but I think I've made my point. 

Just because we want something to be doesn't make it so.  We want to be an open tolerant society, but wanting it and being it are two completely different things.  I lived in Oakland County, Michigan for three years.  I was shocked at the number of times I was subjected to racially offensive remarks and actions by the people living in that area. It was so bad that I actually began to have physical symptoms of stress and anxiety.  But every time I would try to convey one of these incidents to my co-workers I would get the same patronizing response.  " Are you sure that is what they meant?  Are you sure this happens all the time?  Are you just being sensitive?"  And then they would go on to tell me in their polyana sing-song voices about how diverse their neighborhood is, and how they just love it!  The problem is, the more we deny the inherent racism in our society, we will never truly be able to address it and correct it.  The more we silence the Richard Cohen's of the world and force them to stop speaking the truth, the longer we will stunt our growth into a fully inclusive society.  There are people blocking true progress in this country and we need to acknowledge them and the continued need for education and awareness in our society.

We can all pretend that racism and the subsequent discrimination that comes along with it do not exist in our.  Or, we can acknowledge the progress that has been made, and determine to make even more progress in our lifetime.  The choice is ours.

Inclusion365 mission#10
I will not be so blinded by the vision of an inclusive society that I ignore the work that is still to be done.

I love football.  I am not just a fan of football, I live for it.  If it were not for football I would fall into a winter funk so strong grizzly bears would wonder what was wrong with me.  It is the only thing that gets me through the harsh cold winters and I cherish it the way some people cherish their children.  So, you can understand why I don’t take kindly to anything that detracts from the sport.  I don’t like certain new rules the commissioner forces on the players and, recently, some of the players themselves are starting to get on my nerves. 

Enter Riley Cooper.  Riley Cooper is just the latest in a recent trend of athletes behaving so stupidly off the field, that I must now waste precious hours of my life hearing about it instead of focusing on the upcoming slate of games.  It ticks me off.  I am sick of it.  I am sick of turning on the NFL network or ESPN and hearing the same tripe and drivel that I purposely turn away from on E! or Entertainment tonight.  I don’t want scandal…I want football.

Should Riley Cooper have used the “N” word in a drunken fit at a country music concert? NO.  Let me settle this once and for all for all of you non-African Americans.  Do not use the word.  I know rappers use it.  I know black athletes use it.  I know millennial black kids use it.  But here is the thing.  As misguided as I think it is, I know why they use it.  It is a term of endearment between people who share a common experience.  When white people say it isn’t fair, that black people can say it and they can’t, it always makes me suspicious.  Why do you want to use it?  What is it about that word that is so intoxicating that you just have to say it?

I am a straight woman.  I know some gay people who use the word “faggot” when talking to or about each other.  I always shake my head when I hear it, but I have never wanted to say it.  Do you want to know why?  I know that young people like Matthew Shephard heard that word as they were being stomped and beaten to death.  Many young gay people have committed suicide because of the pain that word caused them as it cam hurling toward them out of the mouths of straight people who thought it was their right to belittle them.  I can’t explain why gay people would use that word, but it is none of my business.  As a straight person, I do not want to be associated with such a vile and ugly word and you will never hear it come out of my mouth.  Given the history of the word “nigger” in our society, I can’t understand why a white person would want to say it either.

Regardless of what your opinion is, you can’t deny that word is a bombshell just waiting to explode.  My earnest and sincere plea to all white players in the NFL, please don’t ever say it again.  I want my football season back!  Now, let’s talk about and strip clubs and guns…

Inclusion 365 mission #9

I will never allow myself to be associated with a word or phrase that causes pain to others, no matter what social mores allow.

In my role as Chief Diversity Officer for my company, I recently attended a learning lab about unconscious bias. The theory of unconscious bias is that we human beings are not bad people we just hold unconscious beliefs about various social groups. It’s how our brains work.  It was interesting material, with just the right mix of neuroscience and practical application to keep me engaged as I thought of ways to apply this learning in my organization. 

At one point, the instructor was explaining implicit association; the series of conclusions our brain automatically makes when it senses danger. For example, we don’t have to touch fire every time we see it to know that it will burn us. 

As a way of demonstrating his point, he told us a story about flinching when he saw a young African American man walking toward him.  On reflex, he locked his car door.  The young man saw him, and there was an awkward moment that passed between the two of them.  His brain saw this young man as a threat, he posited, because of images on the nightly news.

As I sat there in that class listening to the story and the conversation that followed, I found myself fighting back tears.  While, they were talking about nameless, faceless young men I was thinking about my 23 year old nephew.

I remembered potty training him and teaching him how to ride his bike and tie his shoes.  I thought of all of the times we cuddled under a blanket and watched Monday Night Football after consuming a heaping plate of home-made nachos. I thought about helping him with his homework and beaming with pride at his high school graduation.  And I thought about him now.  At six feet two inches tall and 250 pounds, he is the stuff of some people’s night mares.  To me, he is a kind and thoughtful young man.

I sat there fighting tears because I have witnessed my nephew, in his hoodie, walking to the corner store for a bag of chips and a soda.  I now realize that there are people who would feel justified in suspecting he was a criminal simply because of the color of his skin.

I have been a vocal champion of diversity and inclusion for years, but on this day I found myself speechless while tears streamed down my face.  We can blame our brains and distance ourselves from the reality of how hurtful our actions can be, but that won’t make it right for my nephew or the thousands of young men like him who find themselves under constant suspicion. While it is true that I don’t know every young African American man I see walking down the street, I do know the one who lives in my house.  That is enough for me to challenge my bias, and give the rest of them the benefit of the doubt.

Inclusion 365 Mission #8
I will always challenge my internal biases, I will not use the media, society, or my brain as an excuse to prejudge people or circumstances

One of the continuing challenges in building a multicultural workplace, is actually getting multiple cultures into the workplace.  It seems the conversation around diversity is shifting once again to reflect the global nature of business and the number of companies who now have presence in many countries around the world.  My company is not any different.  The last time I counted we had 23 countries represented in our various U.S. work locations.  Transferring talent around the globe is something we do quite frequently and is actually a strong recruiting position for us.  I have noticed that we have no trouble embracing our European colleagues and even our Latin colleagues, but alas, the same can not be said of our domestic "home grown" cultures.  You know what I mean.  When we hear a German accent or a British accent, we immediately think "Wow.  How cool!"  We assume the speaker has something we don't.  And, even if we can't understand a word they are saying, we somehow feel that they are in some way superior to us because after all, English is not their native tongue.  How special are they for butchering the English language? Applause, applause.

Here is what I have also noticed.  When the accent is from say, Alabama and not Berlin, the assumption conferred on the speaker is not one of superiority, but inferiority.  When the speaker doesn't have a funky European sense of style, but rather a funky head of hair, we are suddendly not so enthralled with their "difference."  Why is this?  My view is that as Americans, we still have not resolved our bias that tells us that people of color are innately inferior.  And when we hear certain accents, including American regional dialects, we turn off.  And thus, the challenge I have in attracting and retaining a multicultural workforce (that is not European). 

We recenty did a round of recruiting for our college graduate program.  Included in our recruiting tour were several Historically Black Colleges and Universities.  We met some wonderfully gifted, intelligent, and bright students who fit our hiring criteria.  The first step in the screening process what the resume and college GPA.  The second step in the screening process is the phone interview.  Here is where the bias creeps in.  Of the resumes we deemed qualified, only 3% of those students were still considered worthy after the phone interview.  Really?  How do you go from being brilliant on paper to utterly unattractive after a phone conversation?  In another instance, I was attempting to place summer interns through the INROADS program, which focuses on placing minority students in interships withing corporate america.  The resistance I met from some of the hiring managers was mind blowing.  We are takling about freshmen and sophomores in college.  And yet, the screening criteria that these students were held to was for experienced professionals.  I kept getting excuses like, " well, they don't really have the experience I need."  Really?  What kind of experience do you need to be a summer intern?  What exactly was missing?  " Well, they have never written any code..."  Have your other summer interns written code or analyzed P&L statements, or created marketing campaigns?  How many 18 year-old college students have? 

It' almost as if, if you are a person of color, you have to be exceptional just to walk in the door.  This is an impossible standard, and is the reason we have so many "firsts" who end up being the "only" and the "last."  

I would challenge anyone who is responsible for recruiting and hiring to pause a beat before disqualifying a candidate.  Ask yourself;  if this person was white from the University of Michigan, would I be so reluctant to bring them into the organization?  Would I be so concerned with the lack of depth of their experience to fill and entry-level or internship position?  We can't build a pipeline of multicultural talent if our funnel is so narrow that it doesn't let anyone in.  As long as we are allowing our bias to cloud our perceptions of people, we will continue to have only the fortunate few who somehow manage to transend our prejudices and racial bias to grace the hallowed halls of our institutions. 

I have always agreed that diversity is more than race and gender.  I love discussing generational differences, and working effectively across cultures, but we can't just forget about race and gender.  We can't file it away as something we have resolved, when there is evidence everywhere in our society that indicates that clearly we have not.

Inclusion 365 mission #7
I will not accept that black and brown people have to be exceptional to get an opportunity.  I will make an effort not to require more those of the minority than I do from members of the dominant majority.

Do you just love TED talks?  I really do.  For those of you who don't know what they are I have included a link below so you can catch the fever.  I recently saw a TED talk by Susan Cain author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.  So much of what she said really resonated with me and made me aware of a social identity that I was aware of, but hadn't necessarily named before.  Usually I say that my primary social identity is "Woman." When I wake up in the morning my very first thought is "What am I going to do about this hair today and are my feet swollen?"  My secondary identity is "African American." After I fret about my hair and my ankles my next thought in the morning is "Well at least your skin still looks good.  Black don't crack baby!"  If you haven't guessed, I am just being silly, but really I do think of myself as a black woman and that is the lens through which I view most of the world.  But, when I stop and think about it, I really do have to add "Introvert" to that list.  In the Myers-Briggs sense of the word it explains so much about me.  I grew up in a family of uber achievers.  My brothers and sisters were very socially prominent in our community. They were the kids in school that everyone knew and teachers all loved.  Then there was me.  I was quiet and reclusive.  I dreaded recess in grade school, because playing with other kids was the last thing I ever wanted to do.  I just wanted to sit in the corner and read a book.  As an adult, that is still all I want to do.  Over time I have learned some extroverted behavior and I understand that I have to engage with the world in order to make a living.  But, at my core, I am an introvert.  I am at peace when I am alone.  I get my energy from sitting quiety by myself.  At the end of the work day, I can't find any more words.  I have used them all up.  I just want to be quiet.  My best work happens when I am alone.  My best, innovative ideas and strategies come in the quiet hours I spend by myself. 

This puts me at a distinct disadvantage in our society because we laud the Extrovert.  Everything is geared toward them.  We love them in meetings because they think out loud and make brain storming sessions really fun!  The extrovert is always willing to share their opinion and " walk you through" what they are thinking while they "spit-ball" ideas and "bounce things off" of us.  They put on a show...and we love to be entertained.  We love extroverts.  But here is the caution.  Having a lot of ideas and being willing to shoot them out of a cannon doesn't necssarily mean they are good ideas.  It doesn't mean that their voice, in a meeting, should be given more weight just because the loudest or most expressive.  It is possible the best idea never gets heard because the person sitting and reflecting quietly in the room was never heard from.  This is just something to think about as we strive for innovation and fresh thinking in our business.  The best idea might just be sitting in the room with us and we never knew it becasue we didn't bother to take a breath, pause, and listen.  Check out this video to learn more about the power of introverts.
 
http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts.html


Inclusion 365 mission #6
I will value the quiet reflective people in my organization and make sure that no one's talent or energy goes to waste.  I will include everyone in meetings and make sure every voice and point of view is heard.