Unlocking the Power of Inclusive Leadership

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 🔸 Workplace DEI Best Practices 🔸 OPERATOR INSIGHTS

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Summary

In this episode of Operator Insights, Ensemble Health Partners' Assistant Vice President of Culture and Inclusion, Richard Lewis, joins host Julie Roberts to delve into the crucial concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within the workplace. Lewis breaks down the meaning of these terms, emphasizing that diversity encompasses a collective of varied experiences, while inclusion values these differences by creating a supportive environment. He further distinguishes between equality and equity, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging individual differences and customizing approaches accordingly. Highlighting the significant role of leadership in fostering an inclusive culture, Lewis offers practical tips for leaders, such as identifying unconscious biases and encouraging diverse participation in meetings. Throughout the discussion, the focus remains on cultivating a space where all employees feel valued and heard, ultimately leading to a more dynamic and innovative workplace.

Highlights

Diversity is about varied experiences people bring from different backgrounds. 🌱
Inclusion involves making sure every voice is heard and valued. 🔊
Equity is about acknowledging and valuing differences, not just treating everyone the same. ⚖️
Leaders are crucial in setting the tone for an inclusive environment. 🎤
Identifying unconscious biases can help leaders create a more inclusive workplace. 🤔
Creating a culture where employees feel valued leads to a more engaged and innovative team. 💪

Key Takeaways

Diversity isn't just about race or gender; it's about different experiences that people bring to an organization. 🌍
Inclusion means providing the space and opportunity for everyone’s voice to be heard and valued. 🗣️
Equity involves recognizing individual differences and catering to them accordingly, unlike equality which treats everyone the same. ⚖️
Leaders play a crucial role in creating an inclusive environment that values all employees. 🏆
Identifying personal biases is key to becoming a more inclusive leader. 🤔
Inclusive leadership significantly boosts employee engagement and leads to better decision-making. 🚀

Overview

Richard Lewis starts by dissecting the pillars of DEI — Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. He explains that diversity is about embracing the different experiences that individuals bring, and organizations should be the melting pot of these varied experiences. Richard emphasizes that inclusion goes beyond mere acknowledgment of diversity; it involves creating intrinsic value around those differences by offering space and opportunities for everyone to engage fully.

Lewis highlights the difference between equality and equity with relatable analogies, showing that while equality treats everyone the same, equity considers individual differences and tailors solutions to fit those differences. For example, in a swag distribution scenario, equity would ensure everyone gets what fits them best, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

Throughout the discussion, Richard stresses the significant role leaders play in embedding inclusive practices in organizational culture. He dishes out actionable advice on how leaders can identify their biases and pivot towards more inclusive practices, such as facilitating open discussions and valuing every team member's input. The central theme revolves around valuing and leveraging diverse perspectives for enhanced decision-making and innovation.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 🔸 Workplace DEI Best Practices 🔸 OPERATOR INSIGHTS Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 - Organizations can put in policies and they can have programs when it comes down to it, it's really about their leader creating an inclusive environment, making people feel valued. (upbeat music) - Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of Operator Insights, I'm Julie Roberts. And today with us, we have Richard Lewis who is our Assistant Vice President of Culture and Inclusion here at Ensemble Health Partners, welcome Rich.
00:30 - 01:00 - Thank you for having me. - Thanks for being in here, we're gonna be talking today about a really important topic and what I kind of wanna start off with is how do you define culture, diversity, equity, and inclusion? - I think I look at it in a way, let me just break all three down. - That'd be great. - Diversity, when I look at diversity, sometimes people think that people are diverse and people aren't diverse. If you think of people as diverse
01:00 - 01:30 you might say that because I'm black or because you're a woman that might be diversity but that would just suggest that whoever the dominant group is, is the norm. And that's not the case. Organizations can be diverse. Communities can be diverse. Churches can be diverse. And that's based on the diverse experiences of the people in those organizations, communities, and churches. So I look at diversity as just the collective
01:30 - 02:00 of different experiences that people bring to organizations, community, churches, such as their fourth. - Sure. - When I think... I'll go inclusion. - Okay. - When I think inclusion, I believe that inclusion is really the intrinsic value placed on an employee's diverse background those diverse experiences. You can have a diverse organization that does not have inclusion,
02:00 - 02:30 which means it doesn't value those associates, those employees, for example, many workplaces look at, or they acknowledge that some people have different religions that they practice during the day. Different religions and spirituality that they practice during the day. Acknowledging is that acknowledging that diversity,
02:30 - 03:00 that background, that's something that's different, but the inclusion would say, "Hey, let's give them a space "so that they can pray or meditate during the day." - Sure. - So that's taking that step in valuing that difference. And when I think equity to me, this is a huge misnomer. Some folk say equity and equality are the same. Not at all in my book. In fact, I think they're opposites, when I think equality
03:00 - 03:30 I think the same. Everybody is treated the same as exactly the same. But when I think equity, I really think differences. I think taking a person in regarding their differences and then treating them or making actions or valuing them based on those differences. For example, if we were... We do swag a lot, here on Ensemble we do a lot of swag- - And tell us what swag - Swag, it's not a group swag, but just the gifts
03:30 - 04:00 that you give away. - Yes. - Those types of things, the t-shirts, stickers- - Memorabilia. - gym shoes, whatever it is you give away, right? And so let's take t-shirts, for example, in a regular company a group might say, "Hey, let's just get us a couple sizes. "Let's get some small, medium, large, "some extra larges so that everyone gets a t-shirt." And doing that, the t-shirt might fit some people, right? It might fit, right? Others may have to make some adjustments,
04:00 - 04:30 may need to tuck it in or cut sleeves off whatever you need to do to make it fit. Or in some might have some physical situations where they actually can't wear a t-shirt but the cases that everyone got a t-shirt everyone's equal if you were to take an equitable approach to that swag or distributing that swag, you would say, "Hey, let's ask everyone what size that they want
04:30 - 05:00 "in this t-shirt." And for those folks that can't wear the t-shirt or don't feel comfortable wearing a t-shirt or physically can't wear a t-shirt let's provide them some other type of swag so they also feel part of the team. So equality versus equity equity is really just taking the differences and helping to go bring value making sure they feel included with the group. - Now, I appreciate you kind of breaking that down 'cause I think oftentimes things are all lumped together
05:00 - 05:30 in that topic and so I think that's really helpful to our audience to know how we define it and how we see the program that you facilitate on a day-to-day basis. - Another quick way to just look at it is in terms of a meeting. And so I think of diversity, as who's included... Who got invited to a meeting- - At the table. - Who was at the table exactly. Equity is the who's trying to get in and can't get in.
05:30 - 06:00 Who's trying to get in and can't and inclusion is has everyone's views been heard and acknowledged, considered. - Right. - Okay, that's helpful. Let's zone in on inclusion just for a minute. - Sure. - There is a lot of buzz about inclusive leadership. - Lots of buzz. - Lots of buzz, so talk to us a little bit about what's happening in that space. What's important for organizations to kind of look at with a different lens. - Gotcha. - Inclusive leadership is really
06:00 - 06:30 what I consider the core of DEI. I was reading the other day that employees when it comes to feeling valued, 70% of that feeling comes from what they see and hear from their leaders. I can't remember which article it was, but 70% of their value base is based on what their leaders do and or say, so organizations can put in policies
06:30 - 07:00 and they can have programs when it comes down to it. It's really about their leader creating an inclusive environment, making people feel valued. And so when you talk about inclusive leadership, it's about leaders taking ownership of that dynamic and saying, "Hey, I'm going to help create, "I'm going to help use these programs and these policies "so that my associates feel valued."
07:00 - 07:30 And the benefit of course of feeling valued, of employees feeling valued is that you're going to reap the benefits of that experience, those different experiences, that diverse experience in decision-making and thought when it comes to understanding concerns and being able to create solutions around those things, having different perspectives is what really gives you that competitive advantage. - Yeah, and taking advantage of
07:30 - 08:00 all of your team members, right? - Absolutely. - So what are some tips and tricks that you would suggest for leaders to engage themselves in or push them forward in that idea to make sure that they are leveraging their entire team? - Gotcha. A couple things. The first thing I would absolutely say is just try to identify your biases, try to identify your bias. 'Cause a lot of them are unconscious, right? - Right. - And we all have biases.
08:00 - 08:30 Either you don't know you have them, but you have them. There's lots of biases out there, but identifying those biases that you might have or some might call them stereotypes that may be an easier way to understand that. So you might have grown up with a very caring and nurturing mother but she may not have been very business-savvy or that wasn't her thing. She didn't wanna get into that. And so you might unconsciously say, "Hey, when I encounter a woman in business
08:30 - 09:00 that she might be very caring but she's not competent when it comes to other things." And that can affect your thinking when it comes to hiring, promoting, evaluating, all those things. But if you're conscious of it, you're like, "Hold on, let me think back. "I see a woman, I'm working with a woman. "Let me evaluate, let me hire on a way that "I'm gonna take my bias and put it aside "and just look at her for who she actually is.
09:00 - 09:30 "Not for what I think she is, "not for an experience that I had before." 'Cause it also happens with people you don't like, right? This person happens to remind me of that person, and is like. - Yes, absolutely. I think for me personally, one of the things that I've challenged myself to do is to ensure that I'm using more inclusive. I tend to say, you guys. - Yeah. - That just is natural to me. But I recognize probably over COVID,
09:30 - 10:00 when you stare at those little- - Boxes. - little boxes - Those Zoom boxes. - Those little Zoom boxes, the Brady Bunch Squares, I was like, "I'm not being very inclusive with that statement, "not by choice, but recognizing it, "I think is something that, to your point, "recognizing the bias "and making a conscious decision and effort." - And it's those little things, and generally it's those little things, if you think of, in a meeting, many times folks will allow
10:00 - 10:30 the most dominant speaker, the person with the most experience to say and dominate a meeting. Sometimes leaders allow that as well, they open the floor and then that person starts going saying- - They walk right in. - This is my idea. This is what I think, this is what I feel. And maybe new team members or members that aren't as forthcoming or feel as confident in that they might just sit back and just listen. They may have a great idea. They may have something to share but they don't because they feel intimidated
10:30 - 11:00 or they don't feel they have enough experience. Or they haven't been with the company long enough. From a leadership standpoint, a leader could create some meeting rules which might say, 'Hey, we're gonna do a quick round-robin "after every major discussion that we have." And that may not even have to be very live. It could take place as a quick email, post the meeting or a quick survey just so that we're getting everyone's ideas including everyone in this decision. Again, that's creating that value.
11:00 - 11:30 I value what you think. I value what you did in your other company or even saying that, "Hey, you're new to Ensemble, "have you seen this done a different way? "Have you had any experience? "Have you seen..." We do it all the time for orientation things, "Hey, at your last company or someplace else, "what did they do in orientation "that you enjoyed or that made you feel a certain way?" So, just asking sometimes. - No, that's a great tip. What about, we all have those folks on our team that
11:30 - 12:00 some are more vocal, some sit back, they're more reserved, right? What do you do to pull those folks forward in conversation aside from making the space and inquiring? Is there anything else that leaders can do to make sure that they're listening to their entire team? - Yeah, absolutely. And one of the things that I loved to do, I create one-on-one meetings and my one-on-one meetings especially the initial ones are not about business at all.
12:00 - 12:30 I just need to know you. I wanna get to know you. And more so, I also want you to get to know me. There are lots of times where the first real interaction between a leader and an employee or a team member might be that quote, unquote debts corrective action time. I'm too busy, I'm working on these other things. I've got a large team. I can't make the time to talk to everyone. But then when it comes time
12:30 - 13:00 when there's something that went wrong, that's the first real interaction. And you don't want that to be. You want to create a relationship with folk and you have to make the time to create that. And so in my one-on-ones it's really about, "Hey, let me get to know you." I'm not talking about business. What do you do? How you do it? Let's identify some of your similarities because if we can come up with some common ground that's gonna make it easier for chitchat, for us to talk.
13:00 - 13:30 And then once I create that level of relationship, I have some type of rapport. Even if my next conversation with you is a corrective action piece it's gonna truly feel like corrective action. "Hey, you're veering off the path. "Let me get you back on the path." As opposed to feeling like a write-up, which is a totally different feel, right? So for me, if you can create that relationship upfront as soon as that new team member comes and then create them a pathway
13:30 - 14:00 into being accepted into the group, helping that person, introducing and then maybe partnering that new employee or that current employee with someone else on the team, maybe a dominant person, so that sometimes I've got that meek deal but I'm working with someone who's dominant. I can talk to the dominant person and the dominant person brings my ideas forward as well. - Now that's great advice. I think that you've given a lot of good tips but are there any formal like resources
14:00 - 14:30 that you would suggest if there is a leader, a new leader to the space, healthcare or not. Our audience is full of folks that don't know much about healthcare revenue cycle, but what are some resources that you would advise to check out or read? - There is an article by, I forget the name of it, but it's by Bersin, by Deloitte. Deloitte not dilute, Deloitte. Bersin by Deloitte.
14:30 - 15:00 And it talks about inclusive leadership. If you just google inclusive leadership, Bersin by Deloitte, you'll find that article. In that article, they talk about six characteristics of an inclusive leader. And it is a powerful, powerful piece. It's a longer read. I'm not a book guy generally, I'm more of an article guy, but this is a great article. It breaks it out. Lots of graphics. I love pictures. - That's very helpful. - Yes. I would definitely suggest that.
15:00 - 15:30 - Okay. So here at Ensemble, you oversee the diversity and inclusion program. If we have someone in the audience that is looking around in their organization and is hearing this message and wants to start a program that would focus on this very important work, it could be daunting. - Absolutely, absolutely. - What would you advise that they do to start? - To start? I would definitely start with myself. I would get in talk about my biases.
15:30 - 16:00 I would work with folks in my organization. Generally, HR is a place that you wanna go but the first place I would go is my leader. My leader, I would say, "Hey, I'm interested. "Here's some things that I'm noticing. "Here's some things that I want to change. "Here's the ways that I think we can improve our situation." Again, it starts really at the local levels. If you start working in your team and work your way out it's going to have this grassroot effect
16:00 - 16:30 as opposed to trying to start big and push it down. - Sure. - Right. So I would definitely suggest, try figure out what you want to do. Is there something that you're concerned about? Is there something that really moves you, see what you can do about that individually first, take it to the next step of working with your leader and your team, and then move from there. - That's good advice for them. What would you do if maybe a leader is experiencing
16:30 - 17:00 some situations that they want to include others and they're trying and it's really maybe just not taking off. - Yes, yes. - What would you suggest, from a getting over barriers perspective, that they do? - Gotcha. I've noticed that sometimes we as leaders we might have, for lack of a better... We may have a reputation and bringing someone else in to help facilitate that conversation
17:00 - 17:30 or in some cases, to even try to get a better understanding of what the team is feeling or what the individuals on the team are feeling. Or if there are people that are feeling marginalized, having conversation with them directly about that and sometimes bringing someone else in, it doesn't necessarily have to be someone outside the organization. It could be someone who's respected in the organization. It could be someone that that particular team or those particular team members respect having them come in, have the conversation
17:30 - 18:00 to identify what those challenges are and then you can go back and start to plan. If you have someone in that space of DEI or if you have another leader you can sit down and kind of plan a course of action, of what we can do to help get past that into getting more inclusive and get that group maybe a little more comfortable voicing those concerns and coming to the table. And you gotta be open to what they're saying and to wanna take action. So that's important as well. - Okay. So we're gonna switch gears. You've told us a lot today about diversity, equity,
18:00 - 18:30 inclusion, which is really great, but I wanna talk about Rich Lewis and how he got into this work. - My favorite. - Yeah, so tell us how you got into this work and specific in revenue cycle with that focus. - Revenue cycle, oh wow. This isn't my... I didn't go to school for this, this isn't something that's I grew up saying, "Oh, when I come an adult, 'I wanna be a diversity and inclusion." Nah.
18:30 - 19:00 It wasn't my thing. So I started with Ensemble and my background is really in education and learning and development. And so over my career, one of the things I've always been drawn to just development and creating relationships to help people develop. Again, if I can relate to you and I can help you, you'll feel more comfortable with me helping you and during that time I'm still learning. So it was just a win-win for me. But here at Ensemble, we had an opportunity
19:00 - 19:30 to create a council for diversity. And it was just something that I was passionate about. I didn't even know I was a passionate about it until I really heard what it was about. So a lot of the things that the team was talking about, there were things that I personally relate it to. And I was like, man, I felt convicted. It's like, "How can I help?" How can I help? And that led to, "Hey, can you lead this?" And, "Hey, how can you work on this?"
19:30 - 20:00 And then it's the passion just kept growing. The fire just got hotter and hotter. And I had an opportunity at one point to actually lead it for the organization. And man, I was just thankful for the opportunity. Once I got in, I started a certification about it, about DEI and realized, I didn't know anything. (Julie laughing) - That's where all the great learning starts. - Exactly. I was like, "Oh my gosh." And so I took this certification course
20:00 - 20:30 and I learned so much. A lot of the things I was passionate about, I realized that there are proven methods. There are studies, there are lots of data that can help us improve. I had the passion, but now I'm starting to learn some of the techniques that go along with it. And this a very robust community, this is one of those spaces where kind of like what we're doing with this piece.
20:30 - 21:00 We don't mind sharing. We don't mind sharing. And then that community, everyone wants everyone every community, every organization to be diverse, to be equitable and to be inclusive. And so they don't mind sharing their ideas. And so for me, this is like the ultimate community. - [Julie] Right. - I'm excited about it. I'm excited about the opportunity I was offered here to do that, but yeah, I'm locked up. I'm locked up. - You do an amazing job here. I think when I think of you and we've known each other for a while, you are a lifelong learner,
21:00 - 21:30 you love to share information and ideas, which is why I think you're the perfect person to be able to continue to bring this topic to light and continue to develop it in terms of just having an ambassador type program so. - It's almost like you read my dating profile. (laughing) - Well, that's good. All right, so one last questions. - [Rich] Yes. All right. I'm gonna pick up the question that we pulled from a random... Oh, okay yeah.
21:30 - 22:00 - [Rich] Oh, oh. - Yeah. - [Rich] Oh, oh. - This is like fishbowl. Ensemble loves our fishbowl. - You gotta love a fishbowl. You never know what you're gonna get, right? Like a box of chocolates. - So if you could tell your 18-year-old self anything, what would that be? - Okay. My 18 year-old-self? Let's see, there are a number of things that I'd probably tell my 18-year-old self. - Say for work, please. - Say for work.
22:00 - 22:30 First thing I would tell him is to create the sarcasm font. Create that, we need that in life. I would tell my 18-year-old self to continue learning. Continue learning, never think that you can't learn something from someone. On a regular basis, I learned things from my kids. I learned things from my neighbors, from the folks at church and definitely the people at work. If it wasn't for that attitude,
22:30 - 23:00 and at one point I didn't have that attitude but if it wasn't for me getting back into that attitude, I definitely wouldn't be where I am today. I definitely wouldn't have been able to help people along the way, but I would tell my 18-year-old self and any other 18-year-old selves out there continue to nurture and feed that desire to learn. It's always much more to learn. - Absolutely. Well, thanks, Rich, for joining us today.
23:00 - 23:30 We appreciate you bringing this really important topic to us and sharing your knowledge with us. - Thanks for having me. Anytime, anytime. - Be on the lookout for more Operator Insights. (upbeat music)