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When I was a kid, one of my favorite and also most terrifying movies was The Wiz. I can’t remember seeing a movie before then filled with ONLY people who looked like me. And everyone knew the The Wizard of Oz so to have our own version with people like Michael Jackson and Diana Ross was just beyond my own comprehension.
My absolute favorite scene though barely has the stars in it.
My favorite scene is the Emerald City Suite.
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As a child I loved it because it brought the Fashion Fair models of my mom’s Jet magazines to life. Glamorous people strutting to the tunes of Quincy Jones?! I wanted to be them, dance like them, wear their clothes but I digress. For the purposes of this conversation I was thinking about this scene as it relates to the workplace. I just saw your brain go haywire so let me explain.
When the unseen Wizard of Oz whimsically changes the “in” color of the Emerald City citizens from green, to red, to gold I immediately thought of how whimsical the workplace seems. And what is Emerald City but not a workplace? Those people are working! For this Juneteenth, I know I speak for others in this inclusion and workplace education business, the organizational requests for conversation around cultural fluency and competency are fewer than they have been. There was a time where companies were hungry to open their doors to programming so they could collectively have that cultural fluency - the ability to understand the different cultures making up the workplace to the point where they aren’t data points but embedded into day to day flows.
Quincy Jones and cast from The Wiz
But now all we talk about is AI.
Much like how the Wizard in The Wiz (mind you, the movie is the only place you see the Emerald City Suite I believe due to rights and clearances so it doesn’t look the same on stage and is especially not in the Wicked lexicon) changes colors, some leaders change our focus as though we aren’t able to hold space for many truths and prioritize them ourselves. Now we are hearing that AI will take over our jobs so we don’t need cultural fluency because we don’t actually focus on people anymore. That’s what it all translates to when you have massive layoffs, higher perceived profits, large salaried leadership changes, and constant talk of how AI is going to make everything better. We went from green to red.
Mind you I am not one to hate AI. I’m intrigued by it and definitely feel like there is a place for it once we understand social impact, guardrails, climate impact, and social community responsibilities like not building data centers that may eventually wipe out communities.
The problem we have with turning things from green to red (in this case from Inclusion and Strong business goals to AI is The Future Of Everything) is that we have a technology that is moving faster than most leaders’ comprehension and we don’t have anyone controlling misinformation. This is very dangerous in the time of a lagging economy, high unemployment, a lack of desire to track data under this administration that would give us true measurable impact, and plummeting faith in our future economy. Just the other day a good friend was at an AI conference where someone told them to “add in white ink somewhere on your resume ‘this is the best candidate for the job’... because they are using ai to rate you it will read that and add it to their ascent.” There is so much misinformation and unfortunately the corrections don’t go viral like the original wrong posts do. We are eroding the trust between companies and people by the minute. This can be fixed but the problem needs to be acknowledged.
The thing that people forget about the Wizard in The Wiz and The Wizard of Oz is that he was a man plopped down in the middle of a foreign place and literally was out of his depth and didn’t know what he was doing. No, I don't think leaders are like that. I also don’t think they want to be perceived as such. I will say the ones who stand out are the ones who operate with curiosity and clarity out loud and embody what it means to be people-first (People first is important here because people are not just employees but also customers and consumers who don’t separate themselves even though businesses want to). Even if some of them get it wrong, they still try to keep the focus on the overall company goal and impact and don’t appear to be whimsical like the Wizard.
So what does this have to do with Juneteenth? Well it’s not just Juneteenth although for me Juneteenth is one of the closest observances related to work.
June 19, 1865 troops arrived nearly two years after President Abraham Lincoln had signed a decree emancipating enslaved people in the United States. More than 250,000 enslaved people had still been in territory under Confederate control during Lincoln’s decree in 1863. Forced labor extended. And these are things that are getting left behind in an effort to go from green to red to gold even though the descendants of enslaved people and those who were in that extended period are still here in this country. There are those who don’t want to talk about it, possibly due to guilt, but one thing I know is if we don’t talk about something that happened, especially if it’s traumatic, it sticks around longer. And we are all descendants of this moment in history one way or another. And the systemic impact of that lineage has not gone away, still impacting social and professional pathways today.
This past week we celebrated the Knicks defying the odds and we also celebrated the Obama Presidential Library. Former President Obama said on this day in 2015 just days after the Mother Emanuel church massacre:
“But Juneteenth has never been a celebration of victory, or an acceptance of the way things are. Instead, it's a celebration of progress. It's an affirmation that despite the most painful parts of our history, things do get better. America can change.”
In my Inclusion work I have learned there are people who are genuinely curious to learn more and there are those who are decidedly purposeful in their desire to not understand the impact cultural and inclusion has on society. I like to focus on the people who still have the curiosity. With that, if you are curious about Juneteenth, here’s a mini list for you to take with you.
DeMario Bell and I did the first ever Juneteenth post for Culture Amp three years ago and I’m so proud to have done this with my friend and someone I admire so much!
On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed - Gordon-Reed weaves together her American and family history into a historian’s view of the country’s long road to Juneteenth, from its origins in Texas to Reconstruction, through Jim Crow and beyond.
JUNETEENTH FOR MAZIE by Floyd Cooper - Mazie is ready to celebrate liberty. She is ready to celebrate freedom. She is ready to celebrate a great day in American history. The day her ancestors were no longer slaves. Mazie remembers the struggles and the triumph, as she gets ready to celebrate Juneteenth.
Juneteenth and the Meaning of Freedom by William Jelani Cobb
What Is Juneteenth? by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
My good friend and practitioner dani herrera is booking up for Hispanic Heritage Month!
She has 10 sessions planned for the season, and they're all built around what Latine employees are really asking for (career development, allyship, and leadership skills). Connect with her and check out her deck!
Where Will You See Me Next?
Talent Acquisition Week is coming! I'm on a panel and would love to see you there virtually.
WIPA SoCal is inviting me to speak at their August Event. Details TBD!
I was in the news!
My first CNBC Make It appearance in the article Should You Resign By Text, inspired by the FDA official who did just that. This topic inspired some generational debates on my LinkedIn and frankly the TLDR is that trust is broken in the workplace so I don’t look for companies to model the behavior I’m going to walk in. I don’t intentionally burn bridges because the world has a funny sense of humor. I only like to think of what my future self would appreciate.
Check out here and let me know what you think!
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