All right. Well, hello everyone. It is 1030 Eastern Standard Time. So I am going to go ahead and get started. So, hi, everyone. I am Kimberly Lewis Parsons.I'm the CEO of bamboo teaming, a boutique coaching and consulting firm where we help senior leaders grow their team performance so they can increase their results and impact. And I wanna thank you all for joining me today for less talk, more action, how to amplify inclusive teaming.

And as I go through, um I'm gonna talk straight through and then I will invite you to note your questions, your comments or your curiosities that come up for you. And when we get to the end, I will pause for questions and comments and we will be able to address those. So to make the most of the time that we have together if you're ready, I'm ready. Let's just go ahead and jump in and get started. So $8 billion the estimated organizational spend in the US on diversity equity and inclusion training in 2020. And yet studies, research and statistics reveal that the needle is barely if you're a pessimist or slowly if you're an optimist moving on the winds in this domain. So I would submit that it's time to hit the reset button on our approach to de I the time is right to shift from spending so much energy on building awareness to integrating actions that move us to real inclusion. And I believe the gateway to this is through teams. Well, why teams we know from research that teams are the cornerstone of employee engagement, productivity and business results. So my bet is that by increasing inclusive teaming, we'll see a higher return on investment in both the people and the bottom line. Now, I know that there are many definitions related to de I.

So let's make sure we're on the same page when I say inclusive teaming, it's not about having diversity alone. It's about having a team that productively manages these differences by practicing behaviors that lead to inclusion as they do their real work, practicing behaviors that lead to inclusion as they do their real work, practicing behaviors and real work. And it's through the intentional practice of inclusive behaviors over and over and over over a period of time that a team can cultivate a habit of inclusion in their team interactions. Now, before we jump into what more inclusive behaviors might look like on your team, let's talk about how teams build new habits. When I'm working with clients. I like to use the outcomes patterns, norms or opn framework by Alexander Calle to help teams adopt new habits that make them more effective. Now, the OPN framework, it says that teams have specific patterns in how they interact and those patterns of behaviors, they result in certain outcomes and why the team is doing what they do is because of norms that is collective beliefs or assumptions that are like underneath the surface driving their actions.

It's kind of like the iceberg model. Teams can more readily see the patterns and outcomes and it can be harder for them to see the collective beliefs they have about how the team should interact. So let me give you a quick example. An area I often work with with executive teams is they wanna become more effective in decision making and a common pattern that I see is that the teams, they talk and talk and talk about decisions, but they never actually make a decision or they walk away and they're unsure of what decision did we actually just make?

Hopefully, this doesn't feel familiar for you. But if you think about this pattern of not making decisions, what are some of the outcomes of this pattern? I'm sure some thoughts just popped, popped in your head. Well, some outcomes I've seen are that decisions take longer for the team to actually make they're really inefficient. Um They may have missed opportunities because of the delays. It took them so long to actually make a decision or figure out what decision was made that the opportunity has passed them by or just simply, it's a waste of time because they often have to come back and keep revisiting the decision or having side side um, hallway conversations about what the decision is.

Now, if you think about this pattern of not making decisions, what might be a norm at play? Well, in the team, maybe the team has a belief that we might make the wrong decision. So it's better for us to talk about the decisions versus make a decision because we're risk averse or maybe there's a norm that ultimately the leader is the one that needs to make the decision. So we'll just talk about it and give the leader information, but we're gonna wait for the leader to do it right. The team may never say that norm, but it's what's underneath driving this pattern of not making a decision and then they're getting the outcomes they're getting, see how OPN works. Hopefully. Yes. Now OPN is like a habit path, what I call a habit path. And by mapping a team's current and desired state habits, a team can better see the gap and where they are to where they wanna be, then they can make intentional choices to engage with one another differently from their desired state. And once they have that gap, they've made a choice of how they wanna engage, then they can practice new behaviors.

Like let's make sure we leave the meeting with a decision and we've confirmed the decision, they can keep practicing those behaviors over an extended period of time until the desired state becomes a sustainable habit. So OK, Kimberly tie this back to inclusion for me. So tying this back to inclusion, I had a light bulb moment that the OPN framework could be used to move the work of creating more inclusion, move it out of this individual conversation space to the team level. So I enlisted the help of my colleague, Shay Adelson. I got on the Zoom with her and I was really excited. I often partner with Shay in team coaching and working with teams to be more effective. And so I said, let's collaborate on this idea. And one point of insight for us is that by coding detractor patterns, what we call detractors, they decrease a sense of inclusion and by coding amplifier patterns that is they would increase inclusion in teams. A team would be able to say here there is a detractor pattern that is present in our team. Let's intentionally choose to practice an amplifier pattern that remedies it. And then once we practice this amplifier over and over, it can create a new team habit and how we interact that leads to more inclusive teaming opn, right?

So we mapped five detractors we often see in the work we do with teams and leaders and also that were really present for us through our own lived experience. Um and the amplifier patterns that teams could practice to remedy them. So I'm gonna go through these pretty quickly and then we'll have a moment to talk about them. OK? So for example, if the detractor pattern that we call courtesy code switching is present, this is where one team member tries to help another team member fit in or be understood by restating or reframing what they heard because they think others don't understand a team member, right?

So for example, I say something, another team member is like, oh, well, I don't think they understood you. So let me say it for you again in a different way. That's courtesy code switching on my behalf. Then if this is present, what we would recommend is that the team practices the amplifier pattern. Let the person's words be, this is where team members make a commitment to practice noticing their own assumptions that others don't understand. They check their urge to restate or reframe for other people. And there's also uh norm uh an agreement in the team that people will speak up when they don't understand and they will ask for more information, they'll take ownership of doing this. Now, perhaps the detractor pattern of ignoring is rampant. And this is where a team members talents, abilities and contributions, or maybe even their very presence is not acknowledged seemingly because of their identity or group affiliation. And in my experience ignoring, often shows up in how teams communicate with one another on a team when you communicate, I'm gonna ignore you. So in this case, the team can implement an explicit method of checking back with one another to intentionally acknowledge and confirm that messages are heard and received between each other. We call this amplifier pattern closed loop exchanges.

And in our research, we found that this is actually a common practice in certain industries like health care and medical fields where the cost of ignoring someone can actually be someone's life. So that's closed loop exchanges. Another pattern that we've mapped is gas lighting.

And this is a very subtle detractor pattern that may be present. It is where someone doubts, denies or questions the experience of a team member, such that the team member begins to question their own reality. Now, a personal example is that when I was a senior leader in tech, um many years ago, uh I consistently experienced ignoring from certain people that I had to work with. And when I went to my manager to talk through what was happening, my manager would always tell me that I was imagining the ignoring surely that wasn't happening. And there had to be a logical explanation for what I was experiencing, right? So when um gas lighting is present, the amplifier pattern that we would recommend is what we call empathetic mirroring. And this is where a team members, especially the leader mirrors the experience of the gas lit person through empathy and constructive feedback as needed. It can be as simple as the leader saying, not saying surely you're imagining that right? But the leader saying I get it that must have been difficult for you to experience. Um This could also look like the leader checking in with the person to, to see how the leader can help them restore their confidence or support them in having a conversation with another person or the team um where they are experiencing gas lighting.

Now, maybe tokenism is present and this is where projects are assigned or the voice of certain people on the team are sought out because of their identity in an underrepresented group. You know, this is where the female is assigned to work with a female client because you will understand them so much better, right? Or this requires a touchy feely approach. So you should be the one to work on this right now. Again, tokenism is subtle because on the surface, the assignment could be a really great opportunity. But what if team members just don't wanna do whatever that exi assignment is, they're not interested or they'd rather be selected for another project that they have their eyes on.

This is where a team practicing map opportunities to motivators is useful. Teams talk about what type of work motivates them and when opportunities come up, their motivators are taken into consideration versus assignments just being made because of assumed synergy because of my identity in an underrepresented group now, one last detractor pattern uh that we've mapped is boxing out, which is a term taken from basketball.

This is where team members use the physical placement of their bodies or their features to signal to another team member that they are or they are not included. So to remedy this teams may choose to practice the amplifier pattern that we call open body and this is where they establish agreements to exhibit open bodies. Um And that shows that they are paying attention to each other that I see you. I'm respecting you. Um And this could be us being face to face with one another, having agreements on our team that we're going to put away distractions when we are talking to each other. Um If we're virtual, this could be us turning on our cameras and looking at each other, we have a grievance that our cameras will be on and if we have to step away, we'll be right back. So um I would love to hear from you given these five detractor patterns and five amplifier patterns that can counteract them. I'd love to hear from you and see what have you experienced. Um If you take a moment to scan the QR code here, it will take you to Minty Meter, which is a virtual surveying tool or you can go to uh minty.com in your browser and enter in the code that you see on the screen.

Um I'd love to hear what are the top three behaviors you've experienced or seen the most in teams? So you've personally experienced it or you've seen it happening in teams and it could be either detractor patterns or it can be amplifier patterns that you see that are present for you. So, um you can, oh, I see some people are in there. I guess if you are having technical difficulties getting into minty meter, then I would suggest that you could just type it in the chat box if that's possible to type it in a chat box and I'll see that as well. Type your top three. All right. Let's see. Let's switch over and take a look and see what people are saying. OK. Things are building. What are the top three behaviors you've experienced or seen the most in your teens, the detractors or the amplifiers? OK. So it looks like ignoring. You all have experienced ignoring and then tokenism. OK? Oh, I love, let the person's words be. You all have seen that teams put that in place and really start to practice that with one another. Stop making assumptions about people's words, right? And let the team ask for support and then gas lighting, you've seen that, right? So the question is, what do I mean by tokenism?

So tokenism is where um projects are assigned or opportunities are assigned to people on the team um based on their identity or perceived identity in an underrepresented group. So, for example. Um Well, Kimberly, you have a background in tech, you go talk to those tech people because you'll be able to understand them, right? Or we're starting um a, an African American um network within our company to help us with diversity and inclusion. Um You are African American, why don't you go represent for our team or our department? Right? So because of my perceived identity in an underrepresented group, I get assigned the opportunity. And again, tokenism, it's uh one of those things where it, it's subtle because it could be a really great opportunity, but it might not match with what I want to do, what motivates me, what really drives me at work. OK. So hopefully that um ma OK, so I'm going to uh switch back over and it looks like if I'm looking at this chart correctly, ignoring and let the person's words be, which is an amplifier pattern. That's amazing to see that um is on here but ignoring tokenism um seem to be some that you all have experienced often. OK. Let's go back. OK. Yeah. Thank you all for taking a moment to share with me what you all have seen.

Um And when we get to questions and comments, perhaps you will be willing to share um how any of those things have shown up for you. Now, what I will say is that, you know, these are the five again that Shay and I mapped um to start with and we know that there are so many detractor patterns and so many amplifier patterns that are present that could be there. Um So what I would say is whether or not your team has one of these detractor patterns or these amplifier patterns present that we've mapped. It might be something else that is present within your team that could be decreasing the feelings of inclusion or increasing the feelings of inclusion. Here's the bottom line of what we want you to remember. The keys to shift from talking about inclusion and trainings, book clubs, et cetera.

Um Shifting from talk to more action that will ingrain inclusion in your everyday is for you all to really focus on first moving the responsibility to create more inclusion from an individual conversation or an hr initiative to really shift in the responsibility to the team and the leader really as a team and as a leader, we're gonna focus on behaviors together and then as a team have an honest conversation to identify a detractor pattern that decreases feelings of inclusion.

And I know it takes courage to have these types of conversations within a team. Um But as a team have that conversation, identify what is it that we do as a team that is drawing from our feelings of inclusion and then collectively agree on what we're going to practice. What will be the amplifier pattern that we put in place to practice more inclusion that will counteract that detractor that's present and then practice it in real work situations, right? So we've made this commitment over the next, you know, two months, three months, we're going to really focus on this amplifier pattern, having this behavior. We're gonna focus on calling it out when we see the detractor pre present and then we'll make the move, make the shift to the amplifier pattern. Do that in real work situations. Pick a time frame. We're gonna practice for two months, bar even lower. We're gonna practice for one month, right? Keep practicing it intentionally until it becomes a habit, repeat that pattern until it becomes a habit. So that's basically the steps to really amplify more inclusive teaming, right? Starts with that team commitment.

Now, I do want to take a moment because I know that this is such a um juicy topic and can be fraught with um how do we actually do this? So I wanted to give us some time to really have a conversation about it, right? So what are the questions and comments that you have either about the inclusive teaming framework or comments that come up for you or um questions about any of the specific behaviors? I'm gonna ask you to use the Q and A panel and drop your question. I think that's how we do questions here or the chat box. What questions do you have? Pausing for questions? No questions. All right. Uh Thank you. Oh questions are coming in. It was a delay. All right. Um So Katie, thank you for your question in a non supervisor level. How would you bring this up to a supervisor to start the discussion and to identify if there are any detractors that are present? So, Katie, though, one thing that I would recommend is for you to um sit down and uh share like, hey, I went to this talk and here's what we talked about. I'm curious about how this lands with you um or is this of interest? So really moving from a place of curiosity as opposed to um maybe having it come across as feeling accusatory or um any of that, right? So sitting down asking your supervisor from a place of curiosity to say, I'd love to talk about this.

Another move that you might make. Katie is in a moment. I'm actually going to um share with you where you can find the article for this. That could be a move to is to have a conversation with your supervisor. Say I've read this article about this. I'd love to get your thoughts and see what you're thinking. So I guess the point that I'm making Katie is to really ask your supervisor for a conversation and enter into that conversation from a place of curiosity um and enter in from a place of inviting the person to have a conversation with you. So if you wanna start there, do it that way with the leader. Right. See, and you're kind of like testing the waters, right? To see where they are and what their appetite is to have this conversation. Hopefully that's helpful. Uh And then I hope I see. Pronounce your name. Right. Vane, how did you successively address your manager? Gaslighting you when you raised the issue? Yeah, that's great. So, this was many years ago when I was in my first chapter of my career in tech. Um and I would have to say, I don't think I addressed it really well at the time, um I went to my manager, I had the conversation. I didn't have like for gas lighting, I didn't know that that was like the thing, right?

I didn't have language for what was happening to me, but I knew that something was happening. Um So I would say for me, the, when I say it wasn't successful, I say that because honestly my um chosen path was just to not ignore, I mean to, to ignore back like I was like, if you won't work with me, then that's fine. I get it. You wanna work with the male that's on my team who's in a senior, more senior position than I am in order for us to move our project forward. I don't have time to go back and forth with you about why you're ignoring me. I will just make sure that everything goes through the other person that's on my team that I see that you have a connection with. So that's why I say it wasn't as successful as I would have hoped because that was my position. That's what I needed to do in the moment in order to make my projects move. Um The piece that was successful for me was um I shared it, I sat down and I had the conversation with my manager um in the organization that I was a member of our performance management.

Um process was based on um our managers would get into a room and talk about what was happening. And what I found out is that I was getting feedback from the other department that I wasn't uh connecting with their people. But because I had the conversation with my manager, my manager was able to advocate for me and be like, well, wait a minute, she kind of said this was happening too. So from that space, I think the win for me was actually sitting down having a conversation so that it could build advocacy um or even put this in the mindset of my manager that it could be happening. So again, I think part of this really is about the bravery is starting a conversation and having a conversation. How do you make a safe space? Uh Elizabeth, it's such a big question for the time that we have. Um That is a really great question, Elizabeth. Um There are several answers. Um that I could go down on that. I would say one of them really is um connecting with the leader. Uh I in the work that I do with teams um and helping teams to be more effective. I always say the starting point is the leader because the leader has so much weight and influence um in how their team perform in the effectiveness of the team and how the team's relationships are. The leader is a central figure in that.

So part of it is helping to awaken the leaders um awareness to what might not be safe. Um The second piece that I would say to that is a big part of psychological safety um is being able to have open conversations. So it could be a matter of as a team like really raising the fact that I'm not sure that we feel safe here, right? Um to have open conversations with each other and really as a team thinking about? Ok, well, what does open conversation look like for us as a team and creating ways of working um of doing that? Right. So, really mapping it out and moving it to the behavioral space? What are those behaviors that we need to have in place in order for us to have open conversation? So that could be another space um to play with in creating uh psychological safety within a team. What methods can one employ when the leader is the one that displays the tracker behaviors. Ah, great question. So it's the leader. Um, well, going back to my previous comment that the leader is central in a lot of this, right? And what happens within a team. And so some of the same things that I started with in inviting from a curious place, your leader to have the conversation, right? Not in, in, not in an incus toy way, but more of, hey, like I just found out this interesting information. Um Let's talk about it.

I'd be curious to know what you think because it this could be a case where the leader might not know that they're actually displaying a detractor behavior. And I will say that as I do this work um as I am partnering with others and really talking about inclusive teaming, um I will often find that it's not a case of people are intentionally doing things. It's a case of they don't know that they're doing things right that are leading to um detracted uh detractor behaviors to inclusion. So part of it is starting a conversation so people can increase their ability to see more of what's happening within themselves. Um And what's happening within others and their teams. Now, if you are on the space where maybe this person is intentionally doing what they're doing, then that is where I would suggest really reaching out to find advocates, right? Going to have the conversation and having finding advocates with either peers to that person. Um, if a person is really blatantly intentionally doing things that are detracted behaviors, um, if you're in an organization that has hr, um, business partners, that would be a great place to really bring them into the conversation.

But again, I will say oftentimes I find it's not that people are intentionally blatantly doing things. It's more, it's not even in their awareness, they don't even know. Right. That what they just did was courtesy code switch for me until I tell them. OK. Um Last question we have here thought provoking in a team where there are many people the same and a few people not the same. Uh In the case with many tech start up teams are leaders even going to recognize a detractor pattern or recognize there is value in addressing them point. I was just making what are the key benefits we can start discussing with scaling tech um co-leaders that will get their immediate buy in. So, um lovely. This is what I was just saying. A lot of times people don't even know that what they're doing uh is the detractor pattern. Um They don't know that their behaviors are causing these um feelings of less inclusion within the team. So again, it is about taking a conversation to them, asking, asking to sit down and invite their thoughts, their perspective or introducing them to this material and saying, hey, I think this might be useful within our team um another way that you could approach, this is I love to do ways of working um sessions with teams and this is where we pull everyone together on a team.

And we talk about what are the ways of working that you want to be true in this team in order for you all to be as successful and effective as possible. And in that ways of working session, you get really specific around behaviors, right? Really specific around behaviors, right? So for example, if someone says, well, we want more trust in the team, then in those ways of working session, I'm like, OK, well, what does more trust look like? Give me specific behaviors, things you will be doing or not doing, saying, not saying with each other and how you interact, right? So get as behavioral as possible to then help and it's not just what are the ways of working that we wanna have just because they're nice for us to have. But nick to your point, their buy in, how is this relevant? It's getting behavioral in the context of it's gonna help us be more effective as a team. It's going to help us be more successful. We're gonna have higher performance, we're gonna have greater results and really couching the conversation and that perspective. OK. Yes, I know.

Um So trust is one of those nebulous things that I like for teams to get really specific about. We need more accountability. I work with teams to say, ok, well, get specific. What behaviors are you all doing? If your team is more accountable or less accountable, right? You can pick any of the topics and really have this ways of working conversation. Ok. So for the sake of time, thank you all. I just want to say thank you for all of the questions and the comments that you dropped. Um And this is a huge topic. We could continue to talk about this um And go deeper. But here's the thing that I will say is that before you go, my hope is that you will move from. Oh, that was an interesting topic or I'm more aware than what I was before and really take this to action. So I would say that every person, no matter what seat you're sitting in, every person has a role that they can play to create more inclusive teams in the spaces that they work. Doesn't matter if you're the leader or not the leader. Um You have a space that you can play, you have a sphere of influence. So what's the most powerful next step you will take to champion more inclusion in your team? I'm gonna ask you to write it down and be specific.

What is the most powerful next step you will take to champion more inclusion in your team. Oh And by the way, if you're like, well, my team is good. OK. Well, what's the most powerful. Next step you will take to champion more inclusion in maybe a team that is around you somewhere else in your spirit of influence. Write it down right now. OK. Hopefully you all came up with something. It might be, hey, I'm gonna just go have a conversation with my manager and start to open the door for us to talk about this. Now, I know that our time was brief today and I went through things really quickly to make sure we could get an overarching understanding of the amplifier and a detractor patterns. Um And we only scratched the surface. So what I would invite you to do is to join our learn journey. As we are um on a mission to amplify inclusive teaming. You can subscribe at inclusive teaming.com and there you can download the fuller article that will talk about these things, give you examples of what we're talking about um along with giving you practical resources to help you go deeper, challenge you to go deeper in these areas in these pattern pairs.

And I'm also very excited to share with you that Shay Adelson. And I, we um co-wrote an article that will be published in HBR online tomorrow, so very timely. Uh so please check it out and share the article with others. And again, that could be a nice way to like open a door to the conversation. The last thing I would say in our four minutes is before you go, feedback is a gift and I would just ask you in the chat box, please leave a star rating of 1 to 5 of this talk. Um 12345 and your biggest takeaway in the chat box. So five and my biggest takeaway is um, go have a conversation. And with that, I want to say thank you. Thank you to women in tech for having me. Thank you all for taking the time to um come and visit and explore this topic with me. Have a great day. Please leave feedback in a chat box. Thank you. Yay. Wonderful, over here as well. Thanks for all the feedback. Wonderful. Ok, great. You all have a good day.