SPECTRUM reflections on expanding the impact economy

SPECTRUM reflections on expanding the impact economy

by | Jun 18, 2019 | News

Building an inclusive, expansive economy is a daily practice. This work happens through big commitments and small actions as well.

Prompted by Spectrum’s conference moderator, Nadia Brigham, to find a partner for a listening exercise, a Black woman of a similar age to me a few rows up turned to scan the area and made eye contact with me. I climbed around and introduced myself to Brittany.

She whispered to me, “I could tell this guy next to me didn’t take the exercise seriously so I wasn’t going to get anything out of talking with him. But you were actively looking for a partner too, so I think we’ll get along. Plus, we’re both wearing Rothy’s shoes.”

Indeed we did have a great conversation because we made a connection that went beyond our titles, our work histories, our gender, and our skin tone. We shared past experiences of being the proactive students in the front of the class.

Nadia Brighamurges us to build real connections at conference about building an inclusive, expansive economy
Nadia Brigham urges us to build real connections by going below the green line

Stories, not statistics, bridge differences

We know the power of stories to change hearts and minds and to forge meaningful, lasting connections. But in our day-to-day interactions, we default to introducing ourselves with boring titles and jargon and work history as if that’s what will spark some recognition.

Instead of business as usual, our fearless guide Nadia challenged us to go below the green line, to share the non-rational ingredients of who we are, to connect with people across perceived differences. Each and every time we shared our personal stories, our values, and why we feel called to do this work, we forged strong bonds with complete strangers.

We won’t build a more inclusive, equitable economy if we don’t collectively want to. And we won’t want to until we build relationships and trust across our differences.

stereotype content model of prejudice
Stereotype Content Model of prejudice

Princeton psychology professor Susan Fiske and her colleagues developed and tested a model of prejudice with the jazzy academic name of a Stereotype Content Model. Essentially, we treat people differently depending on how we perceive them to have warmth (helpful or harmful to my own life) and competence. If we do not build individual relationships of trust, respect, and admiration to shift our assumptions about entire population groups, then we will continue to treat them very differently.

The means matter

We often think about building a more inclusive economy in big gestures: invest in diverse entrepreneurs, invest with minority and woman fund managers, run a workshop or accelerator just for black & brown founders. Absolutely yes to those initiatives.

However, those are necessary, but not sufficient ingredients for change. How we execute those initiatives is critical. We can’t keep doing business as usual, only increase the melanin of who is doing that business, and expect a whole new world.

Rohit Malhotra, Center for Civic Innovation Atlanta in front of quote that says "Breaking the system means telling the whole story, even the parts that make us uncomfortable."
Rohit Malhotra, Founder & Executive Director of the Center for Civic Innovation Atlanta, pushes us to dig into the whole story

We know that the challenges we’re addressing intersect each other. So to make change more effectively, we need to work through all aspects of how our language, our policies, our systems, and our structures are leaving folks out and/or not actively bringing them in.

As Lisa Calhoun of Valor Ventures put it, “it’s not enough to have good intentions. It’s a daily practice of lowering barriers and making accessible on-ramps. It takes time and effort and humility to develop pipelines that authentically engage women and people of color.”

Economic inclusion involves more than moving financial capital differently. We need to invest social capital, relational capital, and human capital that are implicit in the current mode of business.

Jessica Norwood of Runway Project and Rani Langer-Croager of Uptima Business Bootcamp weren’t there physically, but their frequent urging was: “if we are to truly close the gap of friends & family rounds for entrepreneurs without a rich aunt or uncle, we have to act as their friends and family.” That means using accessible language; listening to, trusting and believing in the individuals; not asking for a lien on their house, and so many other daily practices.

If you’re doing the work right, you don’t need to be the Chief Equity Officer to be building inclusive/expansive wealth. Everyone on your team is advancing equity.

Twanna Harris

Storytelling for Change: Going beyond diversity to create belonging at work

Storytelling for Change: Going beyond diversity to create belonging at work

by | Jun 13, 2019 | Insights & Resources

Recently, our communications team completed the Storytelling for Change course, a free eight-week online course led by global changemakers +Acumen. We expected to learn strategies to better communicate with the public, but we walked away with so much more than that. We ended up with a stronger understanding of our own personal stories and how those stories impact our interactions in the workplace and our perceptions of the world.

One of the most valuable tools we received from the course was a life mapping exercise. Lauren and I thought long and hard about each of our journeys from childhood to the women we are today. What pivotal moments shaped us and made us want to create strong, inclusive communities?

After we drew out detailed road maps of our lives, we each picked one moment that we felt was a turning point in shaping our identities. Turns out, the fourth grade is a critical time for coming-of-age, as we both chose to talk about our eight-year-old selves.

To whom much is given, much is expected

Lauren with family
Lauren, age 16, with her brother and parents

Lauren’s journey took her back to a serene chapel in her school in Hawaii where she learned the concept of Kuleana, “to whom much is given, much is expected.” Recognizing that she came from a background of opportunity and privilege, Lauren has lived her life with the intention to use that power to create a world of balance, responsibility, and righteousness. Being of Native Hawaiian, Chinese, and Irish descent, Lauren has the distinct experience of living in the ‘tweens–between Indigenous, Asian, and White. This has proven to be a major asset in the impact investing space, which exists in between investing and philanthropy, and in our role as an intermediary between often-White investors and communities of color.

Recognizing inequalities in a segregated city

My life map took me back to growing up in Milwaukee, the most segregated city in the US. The daughter of an African American woman from Louisiana and a second generation White German immigrant, like Lauren, I’m also familiar with the experience of navigating two cultures. However, in the fourth grade, I had my first glimpse into the true inequality in my hometown.

Tyana with family
Tyana with her brothers, mom and stepfather, Christmas 1993

I had the opportunity to participate in the Chapter 220 program, an effort to integrate suburban schools by busing kids in from the city of Milwaukee to the suburbs. Being plucked out of my lower-middle-class neighborhood and placed in a school in a wealthy suburb, I was able to see firsthand the disparities that can persist between two ZIP codes only a few miles apart. As I made the daily commute from the Northwest side of Milwaukee to the village of Menomonee Falls over the next eight years, the stark contrasts in these two communities sharpened. I developed a desire to change the stubborn institutional systems that keep so many bright and talented individuals from succeeding simply because of where they are born.

Understanding each other as humans

Completing the life mapping exercise as a team and hearing everyone’s story was a moving experience. We knew our team had racial and gender diversity–we’re 75% women and 50% people of color. But the unique life experiences that led each of us to Mission Driven Finance truly amazed us.

Louie shared his story of growing up as a Vietnamese refugee in Oklahoma, and finally not feeling “othered” for the first time after relocating to Japan. Carrie reflected on growing up in North Carolina and how the concept of place profoundly shaped her own identity as well as sparked her desire to understand how where we live impacts our individual life experiences and influences how we build communities.

Knowing where we all came from beyond the bullet points on our resumes created a breadth of understanding of each other as humans. It validated the unique qualities we each bring to work every day, which will allow us to truly tap into the diversity of our team. More and more companies are realizing that the full benefits of diversity cannot be reached by simply having women and people of color in the room–they must be empowered to bring their full selves–with the personal and professional life experiences, culture and complex history that entails–to the table. True diversity in the workplace comes from a culture of openness and honesty rather than assimilation.

“As a White male, it was very powerful to hear the stories from my team of bias and discrimination that is still happening in today’s world. I certainly understand that these are difficult things to share, and appreciate the team’s willingness to open up. If we aren’t aware, we can’t work to counteract those negative forces and may assume the world is better today than it really is. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of work to be done.”

—David Lynn, Co-founder and CEO of Mission Driven Finance