Alright. We are right at the top of the half hour, and I wanna make sure that I get through everything with you all.Good morning or afternoon depending on where you're located. I am Quenicia Bass. I'm the, vice president of technology learning and development for a bank, and I want to talk about what's at the heart of every great team that exists. That's representation, allyship, how we create access to overall growth through skill development. I've been in technology learning and development for about ten years. And as a really tall, six foot two plus size woman of color in my field, I've been tasked with creating spaces, advocating for visibility, and building out programs that weren't always the easiest to get to. So that's what I wanna talk about today. I wanna talk about how we break barriers so that others don't have to build these ladders by themselves.

So what does that look like? It's this quote that I tend to live by. Representation is not just about visibility. It's about creating opportunities and removing barriers so that others can also thrive. I remind myself of this every time I'm in the room where I'm the only one. Many of us know what that means. A lot of the times, we could be the only woman, the only person of color. And when I'm asked why so why I care so much about equitable access when it comes to training, it's this quote. It's not enough to put somebody on a panel. It's not enough to just promote one person in the leadership. We need systems. We need consistency. We need to clear the path for other people to be able to see.

And that starts with skill development and representation at all levels and then actively working towards that. How are we gonna do that today? Here's kind of where we're headed in the whole thing. We're going to talk about what what do these barriers look like. We're gonna talk about the role that skill development plays in opening these doors. I'm gonna break down what allyship looks like beyond buzzwords, beyond I'm an ally. And then I'm gonna walk you through a really brief framework that you can take back and apply to your day to day job. If something kinda sparks for you, write it in the chat. We're gonna keep building this as we go forward. I only have you for about twenty minutes, so I wanna make sure that I cover everything in that time period.

So let's talk about what these barriers look like and talk about it out loud because a lot of the times, it's silent. So some of the barriers that I think about are underrepresentation. So this is you walk into a meeting, a training, a strategy session. Nobody looks like you. It feels isolating. It also sends the message to you, you are not the norm. You are the outlier here. And the other one is unequal access to growth. So we have those learning programs or those trainings or those mentorships that only go to the high potential people, or it only goes out to those already in leadership, or it goes out to those who went to the best college. You're missing an entire group of people who are impacted, who need this stuff, who just can't get it. We have that quiet or that absent ally shit. So we've all heard people say, I care so deeply about inclusion, but they've never spoken up about it. They've never sponsored anybody.

They've never questioned the decision that their executive team makes. And then we have repetitive exclusion. So this is when someone's name is left off again and again. And when when you ask why, they're like, oh, well, why don't they just apply? Or, oh, we never saw it. But has the system been looked at on why it's happening that way? And these aren't just one offs. These aren't just individual moments. These are patterns. They become baked into how these organizations function. But here's the good news about it. Anything that has been built can be rebuilt. Let's talk about how. How can we fix these barriers? What tools can we have? So, one, intentional skill building access. So if your training program only reaches the same 15% top talent, it's the same people always in these programs. It's not it's not a development program.

It's it's a retention plan for people who are already at the top. How can we fix this? We can democratize learning. We can democratize training. We can offer on demand access with clear pathways and not just random content libraries. We can make technical learning and that upskilling a part of onboarding and track who has access, who doesn't, track who's taking it. Skill building is where equity starts because without it, nobody can move. That next option is data with context. So numbers alone don't tell you the full story. It doesn't tell you where is it unequal, who's getting promoted and who isn't, who's leaving and why. We wanna use this data not as a weapon as it tends to be used, but as a flashlight. Right? Shine it on what's missing.

We wanna pair it with stories, listening sessions, not just surveys. People are tired of surveys. And then when we think about quiet or apps and allyship, we're looking at it's not just vibes. It's structure. So we wanna build sponsorship into these programs. We wanna set expectations for managers to advocate for all talent on their team, And then we wanna use talent reviews. Visibility is not by chance. We have to embed it in. We wanna use inclusive communication and learning design. If only some people see themselves in the training, it's not working. Use diverse names, diverse voices, diverse learning content, have on closed captions, have written visual and auditory sessions. Everybody needs to be able to access the information in the way that works for them.

And kinda lastly on a way that we can break down some of these barriers is accountability doesn't wait for HR. We all have influence. So whether you manage one person, a whole team, or even if you're an individual contributor, you have to speak up when bias shows up. You have to advocate for, hey. Are we targeting this underrepresented group? And don't be afraid to ask who's missing and why. I think a lot of us forget that none of this work is a one and done. None of this work is something you can do one time and just forget about it. We have to use these tools with intention. We have to chip away at the systems that were never built with everybody in mind or or, hear me out, we just build new ones.

We build new ones where growth is visible, access is shared, and people feel like they belong and people feel like they can actively lead. So let's jump into what is the power of skill development. So skill development changes everything, and and and I don't I don't say that lightly. People always say upskill this and upskill that, but it's not just about getting better at a task. It's about reshaping how people see themselves, reshaping how the audience sees them, and there's three ways that I advocate for doing this. The one is confidence. When someone has the tools they need, the language, the technical fluency, they show up different. Confidence isn't just bravado. It's it's competence as well. It's the difference between staying silent in a sprint planning meeting and speaking up to suggest a new approach.

We need people to feel confident to do those things even in rooms where they are the only one represented there. It's the junior engineer, the junior designer who suddenly feels comfortable presenting in an all hands meeting. It's the analyst who realizes, hey. I'm not behind. I've just never been invited into the learning loop to be truly successful. I've watched people walk into training rooms not sure if they belong there and walk out saying, oh, I'm ready. I can do that. And that shift, that's one of the powers of development when it's done right. The one is access. So let's be honest. We know a lot of programs, a lot of learning, a lot of training doesn't feel accessible because they're invite only. They're too technical for beginners.

They're only designed for those who do well in virtual seminars. But access is more than just, like, logging into a platform. It's understanding how to use that content that it's given to you to grow. So if learning is open, if it's structured, if it's visible, we should have a pipeline for leadership, for promotion, for innovation. We should give people room to flex the muscles that they've just built. So the company I currently work for, we didn't just say let's train people on the cloud. We were explicit in let's tie cloud training to business strategy, and we mapped those skills gaps. We didn't we didn't just limit it to those who already have their knowledge. We didn't limit it to the best of the best. We needed everyone.

Because when you widen the circle of access, you widen the circle of influence. And then that last one is is that growth. Growth doesn't always mean upward. Growth sometimes means forward. It means options. It means movement. For some people, growth is stepping into leadership. It's it's moving up the ranks. It's shattering the glass ceiling, but that's not the case for everybody. For some people, it's switching from marketing the product or upskilling from admin to data analyst. For some, it's staying in their current world because it's changing and learning the new skills to fit the change. Cloud, AI, automation, cybersecurity, they're not buzzwords. We're reshaping what it means to be technical, what it means to collaborate, what it means to lead. And if we don't include everybody in those learning conversations, we are shrinking our capacity to evolve, not just as leaders, not just as employees, but also as organizations as a whole.

So at my day job, the programs that I lead don't focus on skill. They focus on strategy. So I will never just offer on demand classes. I want people to also be able to take them with an instructor. I want people to be able to go in a sandbox. I want people to be able to have peer to peer conversations. We make sure leaders understand not just the what, but the why. We wanna measure impact, not just completions. Beatrice, personal and professional progress because you're always evolving. You are never staying stagnant. Absolutely. Access access alone just is is not enough. Let's be honest. Getting someone into the room is step one because once they're in the room, they need advocates. They need feedback loops. They need projects. They need sponsorship. They need psychological safety and space to grow without being perfect, and that's that's where allyship comes in, and that's what I wanna talk about next.

It's one of those words that sounds really good in your company value statements, but it's pretty vague in practice. So let's break it down. Allyship is not a personality trait, full stop. It is a behavior. It is a active decision that you make over and over again. Number one, listen. Listening sounds easy, but people don't really do it well, especially those in positions of influence. Listening means not interrupting, not rushing to fix or defend. It means believing someone's lived experiences even when it makes you uncomfortable. So if someone tells you, yeah. I was the I was the only black woman in the room. There's no way. That's the opposite of listening. And sometimes the most powerful thing an ally can say is, thank you for sharing that. What do you need from me? Because maybe they're just venting. The thing is learn. Allyship isn't just something you arrive at. It's a constant process of learning and unlearning.

Learn how bias may be showing up in feedback. Learn what systems are keeping people from advancing. Learn how micro aggressions feel even if you've never experienced them. Don't wait for somebody to teach you what allyship looks like. Learning is your responsibility, and that's what makes allyship a active part. It's not just something you can support. Amplifying is using your voice to lift someone else's even if they're not in the room. It's saying, actually, that idea came from Maria. It's nominating someone for a project because you see their potential. It's asking who's not speaking right now and why. You amplifying someone else's voice and you change how others see them. Speak for people in a room where they're not in yet or haven't gotten to yet. Advocacy, which is my kind of that last what does allyship look like, it's it's where it gets active. It's putting your name on the line.

It's sponsoring someone for a stretch role, recommending someone for a conference, a promotion. I've been in rooms where a single advocate made the difference between someone being seen or overlooked again because it happens a lot. It's not about being the hero. It's not about making yourself look good. It's about being the person who opens the door and holds it long enough for others to step through. It's about building the prongs on the ladder before we hit the glass ceiling. So if you've ever kind of been like, okay. Well, what can I do to support equity? What can I do to support allyship? It's a daily practice. It's what you're doing when there's nobody else watching you do the thing. So my call to action for you all who are here today, I want impact.

Impact requires movement. So three things. Sponsor someone. Look around. See who's doing great work. Don't just mentor them. Recommend them for a project. Say I believe in them. It's the fastest way to accelerate equity, and a lot of people don't do it on purpose. Push for inclusive programming. If you're in learning, leadership, middle management, find out who's being left out of conversations. Make sure your program is accessible across all levels. A lot of the times these leadership programs focus on our exempt employees and leave out our nonexempt employees. Why? And then I want you to challenge a bias. I want you to challenge somebody's bias. If someone's always getting interrupted, say something. If a hiring panel says multiple times, it's just not the word culture fit. Why? That training invite list feels familiar. Ask who's missing. The moment the challenge bias isn't next quarter. It's not next year. It's today in the rooms you're already in.

You don't have to do all the three of these. Pick one. Start small. Be consistent. Breaking barriers doesn't happen with a single keynote. It happens when you decide to make equity a habit. And kind of my favorite quote to wrap it off is breaking barriers begins with intentional actions. We can create workplaces where everyone belongs. Breaking barriers isn't an accident, it's intentional. I'm here because somebody broke a barrier for me and they didn't just do that with words and I can do it for other people. So I appreciate you all for being here with me today. I wanted to give time for kind of questions, and feel free to connect on link.