EDIQ is all about creating a space for divergent voices to converge on the topics of equality, diversity, and inclusion. This isn’t about people agreeing or conforming to our values and ideals it’s about encouraging lots of people to join the conversation and in so doing disrupt the current thinking in this space.
My role as one of the co-founders is to pour my expertise into this project and find other people with something interesting to say while supporting you through our unique helpline service. As an editor, I promise to genuinely move away from political correctness and encourage voices which may not present the views of the masses but nonetheless present views that are important and worth listening to understand the landscape within which we are operating. Groupthink isn’t going to create disruption. I also want to ensure that majority voices are heard as well as minority voices and that we are all encouraged to recognise our privilege and use it to drive change. As a Black woman with an authoritative voice on D&I, I must accept that I have the power to influence change and challenge perceptions and stereotypes. As a minority person with power, I have to use it wisely to ensure that it creates unity rather than further divisions between groups. This is my vision for EDIQ I want our subscribers and followers to become a community of diverse people exchanging ideas and challenging the status quo to improve our Equality and Diversity Intelligence. So why not join the conversation by subscribing or following us?
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Welcome to EDIQ! a new resource for Diversity and Inclusion. This magazine will be a vehicle for cutting edge news and views and will give help and support to dealing with pressing diversity issues. Thank you for taking this journey with us! EDIQ gives Roianne and me the chance to help companies serve a previously sidelined section of their customer base. We look forward to sharing our knowledge and to hearing from you- your stories and your solutions. Editions of this magazine will be e-mailed to you(please subscribe) or you can find us on Facebook and on Twitter. Today's insight comes from Natasha, one of the founders of EDIQ. You can be part of a majority in one region, move, and become part of a minorty as was my experience moving from the Caribbean to North America. It totally changed my perception of myself. Diversity covers a very wide spectrum, versus a few years ago when diversity meant being female, or being disabled, or being a minority, in some cases diversity can cover being male. In many cases diversity and minority can mean the same thing. As business owners, you are expected to deal with me - your diverse customer, and diversity in it's entirity. Being supportive of diversity is good business, it also improves your bottom line and it also allows you to maximise efficiency in the workplace. (It's simply the right thing to do, but more on that later.) Today I will look at diversity from a mental health perspective, in another article, I look examine diversity from an ethnic point. With approximately 15% of the world’s population living with a disability, chances are high that you'll encounter a customer with a disability. The topic of disabilities and customer service is an interesting one. I wrote this article while looking at it through two main points: -How best can you serve them? -Is there a way you can make their experience so wonderful, that they will want to come back? Diversity and Mental Health. My interest in Diversity and Inclusion arose from an experience while at lunch. Standing in line in one of my favourite spots for a quick, healthy, inexpensive meal, a customer and a server got into a verbal spar. For simplicity, let’s call the customer John and the server Tom. John was standing in line with his son and was about to pay for their order. John asked for a serving of salsa to accompany his meal. Tom replied, “Here you are sir.” with a smile while handing the salsa to John. Music was playing in the background, I was tapping my foot, the weather was great. Everyone was happy. “This is not salsa! I spent time in Mexico. I know salsa” replied a now belligerent John. “I want the one behind the counter, not this one. The one behind the counter.” He continued. Tom’s expression changed. His smile became forced. He tried handing John the salsa from behind the counter; while replying “It is the same salsa sir, but I would be happy to give you extra servings.” John was not to be mollified. He started “This,” pointing to his salsa, “is not salsa. I spent time in Mexico, I know salsa. I want the one from behind the counter. The good one.” By now everyone in the restaurant had stopped eating and was staring. I clutched my purse and started backing away from John and looking at the nearest exist.” John’s son was with him, and he had started to look uncomfortable. The kitchen staff had stopped their chores and were observing the situation. The customer was upset, the staff were upset, the patrons were upset, I was upset. Every person in the restaurant was upset. Tom, left his station to go get more salsa for John with simmering resentment. He returned with a different serving of what was clearly the same salsa and handed it to John. John, now mollified, took his salsa and found a table. I stepped up ready to pay for my order, when Tom stated, “It is the same salsa.” in a low churlish voice, which other servers heard. They rolled their eyes, and another server, repeated “It is the same salsa!” while customers including Tom and his son sat less than 5 feet away. Glancing around the restaurant, I could see that people had not resumed eating, and were clearly still uncomfortable. I leaned into Tom and quietly said “You can de-escalate this.” To which he mutely stared at me. I was sure that he had no idea what I meant. I imagined the stories that everyone would re-tell. I sat at a table outside, away from John, and pondered about what had just happened and recalled a story that motivational speaker Zig Ziglar told- Who is pulling your cat? Here's an excerpt of that story: Mr. B was the top dog in a very large company. Every morning, he met some of his buddies for breakfast. One morning, he lost track of time, looked at his watch, and realized he was going to be late for work. He left the restaurant and jumped in his car. He barely had the engine started when he threw it in reverse to back out. He burned rubber leaving the parking lot. As he got on the freeway, he put the pedal to the metal and took off. As he sped down the highway, he looked in his rear-view mirror. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the flashing lights. He pulled over and rolled down his window. “Where are you going in such a hurry,” the officer asked. “I need to get to work,” he replied abruptly, “I’m a very important man,” declared Mr. B “Well, you’re not above the law,” the officer said. “I didn’t say I was … but shouldn’t you be chasing real criminals and leave me alone?” That was the wrong thing to say, because the officer replied, “I’ll leave you alone in a few minutes. Let me see your driver’s license, registration, and proof of insurance.” Mr. B handed him the requested information. Then he sat there and stewed. As the minutes passed by, he got more and more angry. The officer came back and handed Mr. B a ticket, along with the rest of his documents. Mr. B grabbed them out of the officer’s hand, rolled up his window, and took off down the road. By the time Mr. B finally arrived at work, he was very unhappy about how late it was. The first person he saw was his sales manager. “Good morning, Mr. B” said the sales manager with a smile. “There’s nothing good about it,” barked Mr. B, “I want to see you in my office NOW!” The sales manager followed him into his office, and Mr. B threw his coat down on the couch, obviously peeved. “You fell short of your goal last week for the second week in a row. I want to know what you’re going to do to get back on track and I want to know now.” “Mr. B,” the sales manager objected, “We just talked about this yesterday. We have four big deals. Any one of them will put us over the top and I’m sure we’ll get at least one of them.” “I’ll believe it when I see it,” Mr. B blurted out while looking at some papers on his desk. “You’re dismissed.” The bewildered sales manager walked back to his office, and promptly yelled at his assistant for not having the documents ready for him to sign, despite the fact he’d just given them to her. The assistant stormed out into the lobby, threw the pile of documents on the receptionist’s desk and said “I need these typed right now, and don’t go to lunch until they’re ready.” The receptionist arrives home, late because of the extra work she had to do, that wasn’t even part of her job. She sees her twelve-year old son, pants pocket torn, lying on the floor in front of the television, and she lays into him. “I work hard all day to buy you clothes, and I get home from work and see you’ve torn another pair of jeans, and all you do is lie around the house. I would appreciate a little help around here. No more television for you…go to your room.” Muttering to himself about the unfairness of it all, the boy heads to his room, when the family cat unwisely chose that moment to cross his path. The boy kicked the cat and sent him scurrying from the room. Ziglar always ended that story by asking, “Wouldn’t it have been better if Mr. B had simply gone to the assistant’s home and kicked the cat himself?” Everyone involved would have had a very different experience if he had done that. In real life, if it difficult or even impossible to pinpoint where things go awry and why they go awry, as was the case with John and Tom; John potentially ruined Tom’s day, John may have ruined the day for many members of staff, and while my day was not ruined, I have not gone back to that restaurant in months. I haven't gone back because of Tom. Tom offered poor customer service and it affects my perception of the restaurant. I begun to see more interactions like the one between John and Tom. There were interactions in the library, in the supermarket, at the movie theatre. While I am not trying to diagnose John with having a mental health issue, there were other instances where it was clear that some customers were suffering with an issue; and I realised that customer service training marginalised customers with mental health issues! I noticed that when customers became confrontational, other customers responded by putting their goods down and exiting the area and the store. For example, imagine that you open the door to a restaurant and you hear voices raised in disagreement, most customers respond by closing the door and taking their business elsewhere. Even though they arrived with the intent to support that establishment. The same happened with the library, the movie theatre or any store. I arrived at two conclusions; 1. Customer service is not only a personal experience, judgement is based on the treatment of all customers, including diverse customers. So, when John receives untrained service from Tom, I have a negative memory of that place and I stop supporting that business. However, with training, we can change the way Tom reacted and therefore change the experience that customers have when a confrontation arises. 2. As a customer, I did not care why John was treated the way he was; I cared only that I was uncomfortable . Could the staff have been handled differently? Yes, they could have done things differently. Roianne and I can help in areas like this. If your business is customer facing, please get in touch. We are experts in building a brand that embraces Diversity and Inclusion. I hope that I gave you something to think about, and I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Natasha PS. Please join the conversation. I have a question for you, and it is an unusual one, but what is the connection between Pomeranian dogs and Gender Stereotyping? I will return to that question later In the meantime have a think about it while you read on Pomeranian dogs are extroverted, friendly, playful and intelligent, and also known as Pom pom, Pom, Deutscher Spitz, Zwergspitz, Spitz nain, Spitz enano and Zwers They are also small dogs and unbelievably cute. and I utterly adore them, and I intend to own one Does that seem OK to you? Now let’s consider Gender Stereotyping... Gender Stereotyping is defined by the United Nations as “the practice of ascribing to an individual woman or man specific attributes, characteristics, or roles by reason only of her or his membership in the social group of women or men” The United Nations also states “ Gender stereotyping is wrongful when it results in a violation or violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms “ So, did you think it a bit weird or odd when I said as a man that I utterly adored Pomeranian dogs and intend to own one? If you felt it a bit weird or odd, then here we have the answer to my earlier question as to the link between Pomeranian dogs and Gender Stereotyping Because let’s be honest, it is not normal for a guy to own a Pomeranian dog and to say openly he adores them, as they are cute, small, fluffy dogs, and Gender Stereotyping tells us a man needs to have a dog that suits a man, for example one which is larger and not small and cute and fluffy, and is therefore “manly” I hope this helps you to appreciate how ingrained gender stereotyping is and how deep it is within us So only by challenging these assumptions and looking at things afresh, can we make real progress in ending gender stereotyping I hope this conversation helps And to close, here is a pic of a cute Pomeranian, aren’t they sooooo wonderful :) About the Author
Kevin Lyons is Senior HR Manager at Pearson in London, the FTSE100 organization with global presence, and the world’s learning company. Kevin’s passion is Talent, and what he sees as the twin pillars of Talent Management, Diversity & Inclusion combined with Learning & Development. He is also fascinated by the impact of technology on HR and wider society. Kevin has a career spanning Human Resources in leading companies and is a regular voice in media communicating his views regarding Human Resources. EDIQ Magazine is the brainchild of Natasha Solomon and Roianne Nedd. It’s purpose is to bring together their expertise and passion for diversity and inclusion and writing into one project which is the EDIQ Magazine.
Identifying a gap in the market for high quality and thought-provoking content aimed at people with a personal or professional interest in Diversity and Inclusion they started to bounce ideas off each other via WhatsApp and email as they live in different countries and operate in different time zones. Two women with a common purpose are formidable and it was inevitable that something amazing would happen when they decide to collaborate. EDIQ Magazine aims to:
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