Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Natalie E. Norfus - How Conservatives have decried diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts as "woke" in recent years.

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Natalie E. Norfus - How Conservatives have decried diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts as "woke" in recent years. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations.
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Speaker 2: It's to show that she is the secrets of success
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Speaker 2: Rashan McDonald. Money Making Conversations.
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Speaker 3: Here we go.
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Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversation master Class. I'm your host,
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Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald. All motto is never allowed age to be
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Speaker 1: an excuse because I recognize that we all have different
0:40
Speaker 1: definition of success. For you, it may be the side
0:42
Speaker 1: of your paycheck. Mine is inspire you to accomplish your
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Speaker 1: goals and live your very best life. Because it's time
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Speaker 1: to start reading other people's success stories to start living
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Speaker 1: your own. People always talk about their purpose or gift.
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Speaker 1: If you have a gift, leave with your gift. Don't
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Speaker 1: let your friends, family, or coworker stop you from planning
0:59
Speaker 1: or living your dreams. My guests. I've been waiting on
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Speaker 1: her a long time because it is about HR. DEI
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Speaker 1: is Natalie E. Northus. She is the founder and managing
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Speaker 1: owner of the Norfice Farm p l LLC, where she
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Speaker 1: partners with employers on de I and HR strategies. Now
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Speaker 1: they believe there is no one size fits all approach
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Speaker 1: to HR or DEI initiatives. She uses a metric based
1:22
Speaker 1: model to have organizations develop policies and programs and goals
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Speaker 1: that are customized to their needs. Natalie's career has touched
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Speaker 1: on many areas of HR and DEI, including having served
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Speaker 1: as the chief Diversity officer for multi billion dollar brands
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Speaker 1: with responsibility for setting the strategies, vision, and all facets
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Speaker 1: of each brand's DEI initiatives. We'll be talking a lot
1:44
Speaker 1: about the future of the workplace for both employees and employers.
1:48
Speaker 1: Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Natalie E. Northus.
1:52
Speaker 1: How are you doing, Natalie.
1:53
Speaker 3: I'm doing great. Thanks for having me well.
1:56
Speaker 1: First of all, thank you for coming on my show.
1:57
Speaker 1: And HR. The game really changed doing COVID because this
2:04
Speaker 1: country shut down and we didn't know how to deal
2:07
Speaker 1: with employees. Welcous to that walk us up to COVID
2:11
Speaker 1: and then COVID, and then then we start our conversation
2:14
Speaker 1: after you explained walking up to COVID and did what
2:17
Speaker 1: happeneding during COVID.
2:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, you know, I think the workplace was pretty
2:22
Speaker 3: well settled prior to COVID, right, working from home was
2:27
Speaker 3: less common. You know, some employers had telework policies and
2:31
Speaker 3: allowed folks to work from home when needed, and so
2:36
Speaker 3: that meant that HR folks also had, you know, practices
2:41
Speaker 3: and procedures that were pretty well settled. Then we were
2:44
Speaker 3: hit with the unexpected in twenty twenty and for you know,
2:50
Speaker 3: office jobs, folks who worked behind the desk in the computer,
2:54
Speaker 3: it shifted right in ways that no one was really
2:57
Speaker 3: ready for. So you suddenly had managers managing groups remotely
3:02
Speaker 3: and they've never had any kind of training or ability
3:05
Speaker 3: or had ever done it before. You had HR folks
3:08
Speaker 3: scrambling because you're thinking, Okay, we thought it was two
3:11
Speaker 3: weeks and it was going to be four weeks, and
3:13
Speaker 3: then here we are three years later and some folks
3:15
Speaker 3: still haven't gone back into the office. And it really
3:19
Speaker 3: impacted the h part in the human resources because folks
3:23
Speaker 3: were going through a lot, and I would say the
3:25
Speaker 3: biggest thing that we saw that's so different outside of
3:28
Speaker 3: you know, a lot of people working from home is
3:30
Speaker 3: they were bringing home to work and so that meant
3:34
Speaker 3: literally we're at home working. And also because most of
3:38
Speaker 3: us witnessed more sickness and loss than we would in
3:41
Speaker 3: a lifetime in the past few years, where we were
3:44
Speaker 3: dealing with a lot of mental health issues that again
3:47
Speaker 3: people weren't really prepared for. So it's completely changed the workplace.
3:51
Speaker 3: And when we look at the workplace now, I think
3:54
Speaker 3: there's a huge pendulum shift for employees because there's labor
3:59
Speaker 3: shortage is and folks got used to working from home
4:02
Speaker 3: and they're like, we're not coming back. So that's presented
4:04
Speaker 3: even a whole different layer for HR professionals and how
4:08
Speaker 3: to manage keeping folks satisfied enough to stay and do
4:12
Speaker 3: good job.
4:13
Speaker 1: Well, it's important that you speak like that because of
4:16
Speaker 1: the fact that you know, I read a report that
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Speaker 1: say it on remote work, seventy to seven percent of
4:22
Speaker 1: the young people say they don't want to work remotely.
4:26
Speaker 1: And I employ people. I'm in the creative space, I'm
4:30
Speaker 1: a marketing, branding company. I don't like my employees to
4:34
Speaker 1: even consider that option because creatively, I need to go
4:37
Speaker 1: back and forth with you. I need to sometimes look
4:40
Speaker 1: over your shoulder, make sure we are on this aligned
4:42
Speaker 1: with the same conversation. So let's talk about the resistance
4:46
Speaker 1: of the younger generation to working remotely.
4:49
Speaker 3: Well, I actually see it the other way. The younger
4:51
Speaker 3: generation typically wants to work remotely. There's a resistance to
4:55
Speaker 3: them coming into the office. There's a resistance to people
4:58
Speaker 3: of all age groups coming into the office. Because the
5:01
Speaker 3: last three years proved with a lot of us were saying,
5:03
Speaker 3: including myself, that we can be productive from home, and
5:08
Speaker 3: so there is definitely value to being in person. And
5:11
Speaker 3: I think the difficulty right now is that people again
5:17
Speaker 3: of all age generations have seen, Hey, some of our
5:20
Speaker 3: companies that the best years they've ever done with us
5:22
Speaker 3: working from home. They make the most money they've ever
5:24
Speaker 3: made with us working from home. And a lot of
5:27
Speaker 3: employers are not really really identifying the value to at
5:32
Speaker 3: least coming in person, you know, a couple of days
5:35
Speaker 3: a week, and so folks feel like it's a scam, right, Oh,
5:37
Speaker 3: you just want me in here because you're paying a lease.
5:40
Speaker 3: You don't want me in here, like there's no real
5:41
Speaker 3: reason for me to be in here. Or if you're
5:43
Speaker 3: you know, some of the bigger companies that own big
5:45
Speaker 3: campuses out west, you own all this land and you
5:48
Speaker 3: own this huge campus, and you just want us here
5:50
Speaker 3: because you don't want to waste your money. And that's
5:52
Speaker 3: what most that's what the arguments become. From my perspective,
5:58
Speaker 3: we need different options for different people. We all work differently, right, Like,
6:02
Speaker 3: we actually had a team call today and two of
6:05
Speaker 3: our newer employees were like, we want to do more
6:08
Speaker 3: in person or we want to do more team building,
6:10
Speaker 3: and I actually applauded them. I was like, I really
6:12
Speaker 3: appreciate y' all for taking the initiative because those of
6:15
Speaker 3: us who've been here a long time were used to
6:17
Speaker 3: just working at home cranking out doing the work. But
6:20
Speaker 3: for them to say, hey, we want we want more connectivity, Hey,
6:23
Speaker 3: I'm all for it, let's do it. I just think
6:25
Speaker 3: you have to really do the analysis to understand what
6:28
Speaker 3: works best for your your employees and your what you offer,
6:32
Speaker 3: what you do in terms of a business.
6:34
Speaker 1: Here's the question I want to ask, now, this is
6:36
Speaker 1: really important, Natalie d You know you hear a lot
6:42
Speaker 1: in fact. You know, it became a buzzword right after
6:46
Speaker 1: George Floyd's death and it just took over the industry.
6:50
Speaker 1: You know, it was it was all about equity, all
6:52
Speaker 1: about inclusive. I remember every company Fortune five hundred company
6:56
Speaker 1: felt there was a need to write or wrong, what
6:59
Speaker 1: exactly is DEI diversity, equity and inclusion? What is that?
7:05
Speaker 3: So I appreciate you asking that because I think you know,
7:08
Speaker 3: when you look at you know, the divisiveness that's out
7:12
Speaker 3: there with some of the headlines, you would think it's
7:14
Speaker 3: something pretty evil, but it's actually pretty straightforward. So when
7:18
Speaker 3: we think about anybody who hears me talk knows I
7:22
Speaker 3: love the Dictionary. So when we look at the dictionary
7:25
Speaker 3: definition of diversity, it means being composed of differing elements.
7:30
Speaker 3: So every single one of us is diverse in some way.
7:33
Speaker 3: Where you grow up, food you eat, whether you're an
7:36
Speaker 3: only child, you have siblings, are you a parent, are
7:38
Speaker 3: you a grandparent? All those little elements make you who
7:41
Speaker 3: you are. So when you think about that term and
7:44
Speaker 3: applying it to people, we all walk through the door
7:47
Speaker 3: with some kind of diversity. Now, when we're talking about
7:50
Speaker 3: it in the workplace, we're usually trying to focus on
7:52
Speaker 3: the groups that are not represented or marginalized. And so
7:56
Speaker 3: there's that piece equity. The most basic death notion of
8:00
Speaker 3: equity is fairness. It gets conflated and confused with equality
8:04
Speaker 3: all the time. Equity is about removing those barriers to
8:08
Speaker 3: access right. You know, some of the most basic examples
8:13
Speaker 3: were if you think back to the sixties, before the
8:16
Speaker 3: Civil Rights Act was passed, black folks didn't have access
8:20
Speaker 3: to that same education or the opportunity to have the
8:22
Speaker 3: same education as white folks did. So when we look
8:25
Speaker 3: at it in present day, what are some of the
8:28
Speaker 3: barriers that certain groups have to entry right, just to
8:32
Speaker 3: get through the door and have the access to that opportunity.
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Speaker 3: That's what we're looking at with equity and making sure
8:37
Speaker 3: your processes and your practices are fair for everyone and
8:40
Speaker 3: give everyone the opportunity to succeed.
8:43
Speaker 1: Thank you for that response, Natalie, But let's get a
8:46
Speaker 1: little more deeper in regards to what diversity inclusion because
8:50
Speaker 1: it sounds like a bad word, a bad three letters.
8:53
Speaker 1: You know, politicians, you know how it became a political.
8:59
Speaker 4: Two.
9:01
Speaker 1: The manipulation, that's what like the you manipulation and because
9:06
Speaker 1: every time you try to you know, equalize a wrong.
9:10
Speaker 1: People feel that the people you're trying to equalize it
9:14
Speaker 1: for are saying people step back and go, why you know,
9:18
Speaker 1: like the people are you know, your people go, why
9:20
Speaker 1: are we celebrating Juneteenth? Why we're worried about reparations? Why? Why? Why?
9:24
Speaker 4: Why?
9:25
Speaker 1: Why? Why? Why are we concerned about the Japanese being
9:28
Speaker 1: put in camps in World War two? Why? Why? So
9:31
Speaker 1: they should get over that. But diversity, the equit inclusion
9:35
Speaker 1: is trying to fix the attitude of people who said
9:39
Speaker 1: you should get over that.
9:40
Speaker 3: Correct, yes and right. So I think when you I
9:45
Speaker 3: just want to touch on what you're saying. I think
9:47
Speaker 3: when people are saying, like, why why are you focusing on,
9:51
Speaker 3: you know, certain marginalized groups, there's a fear that it
9:56
Speaker 3: somehow attacks their own identity, right that making space for
10:01
Speaker 3: folks that have been wronged somehow takes away from you.
10:06
Speaker 3: And I just always try to encourage people to realize
10:09
Speaker 3: that power is infinite. So when people are thinking about
10:14
Speaker 3: why are we worried about Juneteenth, it's almost like if
10:17
Speaker 3: I share my power, it takes away from me. But
10:19
Speaker 3: I always say, when you share your power, it makes
10:21
Speaker 3: us all more powerful. And so kind of getting from
10:25
Speaker 3: I just had conversations yesterday. We're not saying fire all
10:28
Speaker 3: the white guys and hire all the black people. That's
10:30
Speaker 3: not what this is about. But people sometimes have that fear.
10:34
Speaker 3: So when you think about diversity, equity, and inclusion, and
10:37
Speaker 3: again your show focuses on money. So I'm going to
10:41
Speaker 3: focus on money for a second, put aside what your
10:44
Speaker 3: heart has in it. Right, the numbers tell you that
10:49
Speaker 3: when you have diverse teams who come from different backgrounds
10:52
Speaker 3: and have different ways of thinking, you have better innovation.
10:56
Speaker 3: Innovation leads to you making more money. There's tons of
11:00
Speaker 3: research out there that shows when you have diverse leadership teams,
11:05
Speaker 3: you outperform your competitors from a bottom line perspective. So
11:09
Speaker 3: to me, it's a business issue to begin with, right
11:12
Speaker 3: when we're talking about it from a workplace standpoint. And
11:15
Speaker 3: then the second standpoint is because we do live in
11:18
Speaker 3: a society that really puts people in boxes, and it
11:22
Speaker 3: puts us like you fight for your box. So I'm
11:26
Speaker 3: a woman, I have to check woman on boxes. I've
11:28
Speaker 3: got to fight for my box. It puts us in
11:31
Speaker 3: corners sometimes as opposed to being able to say, what
11:35
Speaker 3: do we have in common first, because to be able
11:38
Speaker 3: to have these tough conversations you have to have some
11:41
Speaker 3: level of trust, and that starts off by saying, like,
11:44
Speaker 3: what do we have in common? And then being able
11:46
Speaker 3: to get deeper on some of these tougher topics, like
11:50
Speaker 3: you know, you know what has it been like to
11:52
Speaker 3: be profiled by the police if I knew that about you?
11:54
Speaker 3: I don't know if you have, but if you had,
11:56
Speaker 3: you may not want to talk about that. If we
11:58
Speaker 3: don't have anything any kind of connection trust, And I
12:01
Speaker 3: think that's where we work with people a lot, like
12:04
Speaker 3: get to know folks, don't get so caught up in
12:08
Speaker 3: the terms, because really what this is boiling down to
12:11
Speaker 3: is the humanity of it all. People being able to
12:13
Speaker 3: show up to work and feel like they're valued and
12:16
Speaker 3: that they have a shot at being successful at where
12:18
Speaker 3: whatever they've chosen to do.
12:22
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14:10
Speaker 1: Politics. But why is politics dancing in this? Now? You
14:14
Speaker 1: know two big states that have really used it is
14:17
Speaker 1: Florida and Texas. And it really angers me in a
14:21
Speaker 1: not a not a physical way, but it angers me
14:24
Speaker 1: because they're they're they're they're stretching the truth, they're extending
14:29
Speaker 1: it for potential votes. They're are educating the audience that
14:33
Speaker 1: may already have deep rooted values that that that we're
14:39
Speaker 1: giving too much to the minority community. Your thoughts.
14:44
Speaker 3: So, I think that it's an overreach. I think that,
14:48
Speaker 3: particularly in the state I live in, which is Florida,
14:52
Speaker 3: there's this desire to overreach for an opponent's candidate base
14:57
Speaker 3: voter base. Is really the only sense I can make
15:00
Speaker 3: out of this that you've got to talk this talk
15:03
Speaker 3: and be tough and divisive to get a voter base.
15:07
Speaker 3: But the part that I still cannot figure out after
15:10
Speaker 3: lots of research, is the business behind it, right, because
15:15
Speaker 3: it doesn't make any business sense. Again, forget about what's
15:18
Speaker 3: your heart. We know we all I care about this
15:20
Speaker 3: deeply as part of who I am, But I think
15:22
Speaker 3: about it from business perspective. It's very anti business because
15:27
Speaker 3: when you think about just the fight that's going on
15:29
Speaker 3: with Disney, Disney's one of the largest publicly held country
15:32
Speaker 3: companies in the world, that one of the largest employers
15:35
Speaker 3: in this state, and they have a huge DEI program.
15:38
Speaker 3: So when you're picking a fight with a company that
15:41
Speaker 3: employees a lot of your constituents over something that no
15:45
Speaker 3: one asked you to pick a fight over, it doesn't
15:48
Speaker 3: it's hard to make sense out of it. Also deters businesses.
15:51
Speaker 3: We were slated down in Miami to get a bunch
15:54
Speaker 3: of the tech companies that were formerly based out on
15:58
Speaker 3: the West Coast that were coming here. It's like, Okay,
16:00
Speaker 3: if we're going to be in the deer are you're
16:02
Speaker 3: going to penalize us? Should we come here? Should we not?
16:05
Speaker 3: And so I don't get that from the standpoint if
16:07
Speaker 3: you want your constituents to have jobs, like, what the
16:11
Speaker 3: point is here. I also talk to people all over
16:13
Speaker 3: the state, which obviously we always joke about Miami as
16:16
Speaker 3: like its own static state. Miami is very different from
16:19
Speaker 3: the rest of Florida. But nobody was asking for this,
16:22
Speaker 3: so like it's like a thing where you're like, it
16:24
Speaker 3: wasn't even something that there were like protests and people
16:27
Speaker 3: were fighting against DEI initiatives, so it is very bizarre.
16:32
Speaker 3: I have talked to number of Republicans to try to
16:34
Speaker 3: get their view on it. So I'm like, because I'm
16:37
Speaker 3: a researcher at heart, so i want to understand the position,
16:40
Speaker 3: and the best that I've come up with so far
16:42
Speaker 3: is worrying about a particular voter base, which again in
16:45
Speaker 3: the end, it doesn't track, doesn't make sense in the
16:49
Speaker 3: long run.
16:51
Speaker 1: So how did you become an expert? Yeah, yeah, I'm not.
16:56
Speaker 1: I'm a commentary person, but I am not even a
17:00
Speaker 1: experted and being an expert in this area, what are
17:03
Speaker 1: the qualifications?
17:05
Speaker 3: Such a great question. So for me, I think a
17:09
Speaker 3: big part of my start I always say it was
17:11
Speaker 3: my own identity. So I'm multiracial. My mom was Jewish
17:16
Speaker 3: and her family came over during the Holocaust. My grandparents
17:19
Speaker 3: were sharecroppers, moved up north like a lot of black people,
17:23
Speaker 3: so my grandfather could work in a steel mill. They're Christian,
17:26
Speaker 3: so my whole life was buried in all those different layers,
17:30
Speaker 3: and I've studied other cultures, other governments since i started college,
17:36
Speaker 3: and so I've been always laser focused on other understanding
17:41
Speaker 3: people that are different from me because just fascinating. Then
17:45
Speaker 3: my practice area as a lawyer's employment law, which means
17:48
Speaker 3: I had to learn a lot about DEI to be
17:50
Speaker 3: able to advise my clients and what they can do
17:52
Speaker 3: in the workplace. And then once I was in house,
17:55
Speaker 3: I became a chief diversity officer for brands that were
17:58
Speaker 3: very data driven, which allowed me to learn six sigma
18:02
Speaker 3: problem solving, learn how to tell stories with numbers, which
18:06
Speaker 3: is a lot more effective than talking about feelings. And
18:09
Speaker 3: so I built my sort of DEI practice about firmly
18:14
Speaker 3: about ten years ago in that role and since then,
18:18
Speaker 3: I mean, we study. We are a bunch of nerds.
18:20
Speaker 3: I work with nerds. I'm a nerd. We love to
18:22
Speaker 3: study and keep up with the trends. And again, just
18:25
Speaker 3: bring the numbers to life, like what are your numbers
18:27
Speaker 3: telling you about what you need to be doing with
18:29
Speaker 3: your workforce?
18:31
Speaker 4: You know?
18:31
Speaker 1: So educate me on this diversit equin inclusion. Has that
18:36
Speaker 1: been around a long time.
18:39
Speaker 3: So in its current state, and how we talk about it.
18:41
Speaker 3: It started off with the d with diversity in the
18:44
Speaker 3: late nineties. Coca Cola was one of the first companies
18:48
Speaker 3: that really sort of put the word diversity to their programming,
18:52
Speaker 3: and then it was diversity and inclusion probably in the
18:57
Speaker 3: twenty tens, and then now we're diversity put an inclusion.
19:01
Speaker 3: But I always say it's a pretty young industry. It's
19:03
Speaker 3: about twenty five years old, young adult, right in terms
19:08
Speaker 3: of like just the methodology around it. But yeah, so
19:11
Speaker 3: not super not not in terms of how we talk
19:14
Speaker 3: about it. But I think that there's always been people
19:16
Speaker 3: out there from the civil rights movement and beyond focus
19:19
Speaker 3: on finding ways in which we all have an opportunity
19:23
Speaker 3: to be to live sort of the so called American dream.
19:25
Speaker 1: Okay, now I've got time to get personal because I
19:28
Speaker 1: implore people. Okay, I imploed people, and I see these
19:31
Speaker 1: companies out here sending emails and laying people off via emails.
19:37
Speaker 1: So impersonal. And let's talk about the relationship between the
19:42
Speaker 1: employer and the employee. Can I I'm miss asking man,
19:47
Speaker 1: not saying I do. Can I question the way a
19:51
Speaker 1: person dresses at my office?
19:54
Speaker 3: Well, so that depends, right, it depends on your workplace.
20:00
Speaker 3: If you work in a hotel where you require people
20:02
Speaker 3: to wear uniforms and someone comes up out of uniform,
20:05
Speaker 3: then you could question what they're wearing. But to the
20:08
Speaker 3: point of it being a job necessity. When it comes
20:12
Speaker 3: to if you have a work if you have a
20:14
Speaker 3: dress code, I'm always encouraging people to make sure your
20:17
Speaker 3: dress code isn't biased and doesn't discourage or exclude folks,
20:22
Speaker 3: and assuming it doesn't as long as people are within
20:26
Speaker 3: your dress code, I always advise not to do that
20:28
Speaker 3: because it could lead to other issues. It could you
20:31
Speaker 3: could if you're only asking the woman why she's dressed
20:34
Speaker 3: a certain way, she might think she's being singled out
20:36
Speaker 3: because she's a woman, or that some other nefarious thing
20:40
Speaker 3: might be happening. But I'm curious why you'd want to
20:42
Speaker 3: ask people about how they're dressed at work.
20:44
Speaker 1: Well, I was like, I just know that I feel
20:48
Speaker 1: so restrictive and I'm an opinionated person. If I somebody
20:51
Speaker 1: come in and I don't like something they wearn I
20:53
Speaker 1: can't say I don't like what you wear. I can't
20:56
Speaker 1: say that.
20:56
Speaker 3: I mean you could, but would that be very inclusive?
20:59
Speaker 1: I mean to I might be helping them out. Who knows,
21:02
Speaker 1: maybe you know, maybe you know. I'm just saying, but
21:06
Speaker 1: that's that's kind of like, you know, just because you're
21:10
Speaker 1: paying a person and I can't tell them, hey, hey, hey,
21:15
Speaker 1: hey hey, don't wear that tomorrow. That does not that
21:18
Speaker 1: doesn't work for you, you know. And that's just a
21:21
Speaker 1: simple statement. They can take it where they want to
21:24
Speaker 1: take it. I'm not going to go into detail. And
21:25
Speaker 1: you said, Rashan, don't do that.
21:28
Speaker 3: I would say, don't do that. Then it doesn't interfere
21:31
Speaker 3: with the work.
21:32
Speaker 1: But then it feels with me. I see it.
21:34
Speaker 4: I see it.
21:36
Speaker 3: Okay, no on this phone.
21:40
Speaker 1: Oh come on, Natalie, Okay, okay, next question I'm going
21:43
Speaker 1: I had to ask. Okay, now, how do you handle
21:47
Speaker 1: people who come in late all the time to work?
21:51
Speaker 3: Yes, ma'am, I mean through performance management? Hopefully you have
21:55
Speaker 3: some kind of expectations that first I think that do.
21:59
Speaker 1: You you do you like, let them roll a few times,
22:03
Speaker 1: and then you are you do you stop at number
22:05
Speaker 1: two or number three? You know?
22:08
Speaker 4: You know?
22:09
Speaker 1: Like I said, let me back up, let me ask
22:11
Speaker 1: you a question. If a person, if your work just
22:14
Speaker 1: start at eight o'clock, eight o'clock, should I expect them
22:18
Speaker 1: to be there and ready to work at eight o'clock
22:21
Speaker 1: or do I or should they arrive on time and
22:24
Speaker 1: then prep for work.
22:26
Speaker 3: It depends on the expectation. You said. Okay, so that's
22:29
Speaker 3: I mean, that's what I was saying in the beginning.
22:31
Speaker 3: Like I think we're in any any workplace issue. You
22:35
Speaker 3: have a rule. Important people know what your rule is,
22:38
Speaker 3: and you're care about the expectation. You know I will yep,
22:41
Speaker 3: I clearly because you're very opinionated. So then the second
22:46
Speaker 3: piece of it is is like once you've set the expectation,
22:48
Speaker 3: which I think a lot of employers failed to do
22:51
Speaker 3: and they're frustrated, but they never told the person what
22:53
Speaker 3: they wanted in the first place. That then when your
22:57
Speaker 3: expectation isn't met the first time you have a conversation
23:00
Speaker 3: about it. Conversations are not confrontations, which a lot of
23:03
Speaker 3: people think. Conversation doesn't mean they're getting fired. It means, hey,
23:08
Speaker 3: was there something not clear about the rule? Is there
23:10
Speaker 3: something that you know is preventing you from from adhering
23:13
Speaker 3: to it so that you're not getting to two, three,
23:16
Speaker 3: four or five. I always discourage against waiting because then
23:19
Speaker 3: you're really annoyed by the time you talk to the person,
23:22
Speaker 3: and then your delivery is often off right because you're like,
23:26
Speaker 3: I've just been watching this person. They just what they
23:27
Speaker 3: just think they can come in at whatever time they
23:29
Speaker 3: want to come in. It's like, talk about it right.
23:31
Speaker 1: Away, Rashan, stop it for a bills up now, because
23:36
Speaker 1: you're gonna go in there with an attitude and they
23:38
Speaker 1: can go right exactly right. Okay, cool, I got that.
23:41
Speaker 3: Avoid the attitude you say to it, just stopping so
23:46
Speaker 3: I like the idea.
23:47
Speaker 1: Okay, you got a dress code, Rushan, that's the situation.
23:52
Speaker 1: Do not tell people, hey, just because you don't like
23:54
Speaker 1: the way they dress. Don't share your opinion. Okay, let's
23:57
Speaker 1: it's address code tied to it at your place a business. Okay,
24:01
Speaker 1: got that right there. And seeing so if they come
24:04
Speaker 1: in to work late, step in real early and nip
24:08
Speaker 1: that in the bud, and also trying to find out
24:11
Speaker 1: why are they coming in late. Just don't assume that
24:13
Speaker 1: everybody is tied to your lifestyle.
24:16
Speaker 3: And there's sometimes there's obstacles, right, Like I mean, you
24:19
Speaker 3: have a team, you know, sometimes in your head the
24:21
Speaker 3: idea sounds great, like we should do it this way,
24:24
Speaker 3: and sometimes like people are afraid to tell you, like
24:27
Speaker 3: but what you want can't happen or it can't happen
24:30
Speaker 3: that way, and they're trying to figure out how to
24:32
Speaker 3: make it happen the way you told them, and they
24:33
Speaker 3: might be wasting time. So when you open up the
24:36
Speaker 3: conversation and say, you know, is there's some obstacles that
24:39
Speaker 3: should be aware of. Sometimes they're going to tell you
24:41
Speaker 3: something you're like, oh gosh, I didn't even think about that, right,
24:44
Speaker 3: and so maybe you make some adjustments. It's not always
24:47
Speaker 3: just your way of the highway. I don't know if
24:48
Speaker 3: you might be your way of the highway. But it's doing.
24:52
Speaker 1: My club, doing my club, you know. Like I said,
24:54
Speaker 1: I've been waiting on dinner because I've been wanting to
24:55
Speaker 1: talk to an expert. I do have an XR department
24:58
Speaker 1: and she does, you know, keep me alive reshall. You
25:01
Speaker 1: can't say that, Jah, you can't do that. So thank you.
25:04
Speaker 1: You're saving me and you ever check I pay you
25:08
Speaker 1: is a value opportunity to keep our company because you're
25:11
Speaker 1: stopping me from doing such a stupid Now are you are?
25:14
Speaker 1: You have a great podcast with a great name. Thank you?
25:17
Speaker 1: What is the Deal d I e al tell us about.
25:20
Speaker 3: That podcast, So what's the deal is diversity, equity, inclusion
25:24
Speaker 3: and leadership. We built the podcast because we found that
25:27
Speaker 3: in many of our projects, they fall or they succeed
25:32
Speaker 3: based on the tone from the top and leaders involvement.
25:34
Speaker 3: And a lot of the leaders we deal with want
25:36
Speaker 3: to do the right thing, but they don't want to
25:38
Speaker 3: say the wrong thing, and they don't want to make missteps,
25:40
Speaker 3: which is kind of impossible, right We're all going to
25:42
Speaker 3: say something and make a mistake, you know, we have
25:45
Speaker 3: to get comfortable with making mistakes. And so we built
25:48
Speaker 3: it so we could, in very short periods of time
25:51
Speaker 3: fifteen to twenty minutes, give leaders practical tips on how
25:55
Speaker 3: to do this work well and how to be advocates,
25:59
Speaker 3: how to be allies, how to make sure that their
26:01
Speaker 3: company is moving forward DEI in a sustainable way.
26:09
Speaker 5: We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass
26:12
Speaker 5: with Rushaan McDonald. You are now tuned into the Money
26:17
Speaker 5: Making Conversations Minute of Inspiration with Rushaan McDonald.
26:22
Speaker 1: I spoke with NBC Today's Show co host Al Roca
26:25
Speaker 1: about achieving the life of happiness and success through the
26:28
Speaker 1: power of yes, it's not about the money, but more
26:31
Speaker 1: about pursuing the opportunity.
26:33
Speaker 4: I love what I do to be in this industry.
26:36
Speaker 4: People say, oh, you work so hard. I said, you
26:37
Speaker 4: know what, My dad drove a bus for eight hours
26:40
Speaker 4: a day, worked a lot of overtime. Sometimes we wouldn't
26:43
Speaker 4: see him for a couple of days. That's really hard work.
26:46
Speaker 4: This is work, But I love what I'm doing. It's
26:48
Speaker 4: not a job. It's my passion. So if in the
26:51
Speaker 4: long term this is going to bring me something, I
26:54
Speaker 4: don't know if it is or not, But all I
26:56
Speaker 4: know is that if I give somebody else the opportunity
26:59
Speaker 4: to do it, then I don't at that opportunity. So
27:01
Speaker 4: I will put in the hours, I will bust my
27:03
Speaker 4: thought to do it because I want whatever's going to
27:06
Speaker 4: come after it's not somebody else.
27:08
Speaker 1: If you want to hear this full interview with Al Rocca,
27:11
Speaker 1: visit money Making Conversation dot com. Keep winning.
27:15
Speaker 5: Now let's return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashaun McDonald.
27:20
Speaker 1: I'm talking to Natalie Natalie Northus. She is the founding
27:24
Speaker 1: and managed in the owner of the Northwest Firm PLLC.
27:27
Speaker 1: She's a she is what I would like to say
27:29
Speaker 1: a DEI guru. She's been calling expert, she has she
27:34
Speaker 1: has pulled my coattail, so to speak, on how I
27:37
Speaker 1: may want to present my workspace in HR. And she said, rishon,
27:41
Speaker 1: you be shut down in a matter of days if
27:45
Speaker 1: you proceed in that direction. But I think that and
27:48
Speaker 1: that's what a needed role for you is in this society,
27:51
Speaker 1: when we have remote work, when we have people who
27:54
Speaker 1: don't see a need to go to college, they want
27:56
Speaker 1: to get certificates can make a nice so they can
27:59
Speaker 1: make money that the four year institution may have given
28:02
Speaker 1: them ten years ago. And so what's next for you?
28:05
Speaker 1: You know, you're articulate. You're down there in Miami. You
28:10
Speaker 1: know hot Miami, you know, and you're originally from the
28:13
Speaker 1: Cleveland area.
28:14
Speaker 3: Correct I am? I am?
28:16
Speaker 1: Now you know Cleveland, Miami too. Come on now, Midwest?
28:19
Speaker 3: Well, and I spent time in I spent half my
28:21
Speaker 3: life in DC and I came here from Chicago. So
28:24
Speaker 3: I've gotten a chance to live in book Chicago.
28:27
Speaker 1: I spent five years there. You can stop talking to you.
28:29
Speaker 1: By cold weather, I know it. I got clothes I
28:32
Speaker 1: still can't wear. No place to put Chicago. But Miami.
28:35
Speaker 1: What is the future for you, my friend?
28:37
Speaker 3: So hey, we're going to keep this train moving, spending
28:41
Speaker 3: the summer in Europe, which is going to be amazing,
28:43
Speaker 3: just to connect with some colleagues there, and again always
28:47
Speaker 3: trying to learn, and we're going to keep pushing this
28:49
Speaker 3: podcast and making sure we're out here making sure our
28:52
Speaker 3: voice is heard. We're very very much for the people
28:56
Speaker 3: and want to make sure that we see a lot
28:58
Speaker 3: of this work that we're we're doing sustain itself over
29:02
Speaker 3: the years and hopefully work us out of jobs, you know,
29:05
Speaker 3: and that I don't know that I'll be in our lifetime,
29:07
Speaker 3: but you know, hopefully we're to that point where these
29:09
Speaker 3: jobs aren't needed because you know, we're working from.
29:13
Speaker 1: A you know, you know there's going to be the
29:16
Speaker 1: cast system, but there's always if you're all have the
29:17
Speaker 1: same color, it's going to be the cast system. Everybody
29:19
Speaker 1: wants to be more important than the other person, so inclusion.
29:23
Speaker 1: I close on one this thing being that I'm a minority,
29:27
Speaker 1: and this is something I've been noticing more. I've noticed
29:30
Speaker 1: I'm always trying to compete and I've noticed that the
29:33
Speaker 1: word minority is starting to become more associated or maybe
29:37
Speaker 1: I just didn't notice it were white women because white
29:40
Speaker 1: women are sliding into the minority landscape. When you're talking
29:44
Speaker 1: about diversity, equity inclusion, who exactly are you referencing.
29:49
Speaker 3: So we don't use the word minority because it to
29:54
Speaker 3: us is somewhat white centered, and that it suggests that
29:57
Speaker 3: people of color are a minority and we aren't. If
30:00
Speaker 3: you look around the world, people of color are the majority.
30:03
Speaker 3: So that's why you'll hear me say underrepresented groups are
30:06
Speaker 3: marginalized groups because we're not represented in positions of power.
30:11
Speaker 3: Diversity in equity inclusion touches everyone. The reality though, is
30:16
Speaker 3: that there's certain groups, so meaning like even a fifty
30:19
Speaker 3: year old white guy is included in DEI in terms
30:22
Speaker 3: of maybe they're more of the ally to folks that
30:25
Speaker 3: are not represented. But when we think about it, everyone
30:28
Speaker 3: plays a role in DEI. So I mean to your question,
30:32
Speaker 3: there are situations where and there's still a lot of
30:36
Speaker 3: very male dominated industries where women are underrepresented. So that
30:41
Speaker 3: would include white women being underrepresented in some cases. When
30:45
Speaker 3: you look at black people in particular, the types of
30:51
Speaker 3: inequities that black people have faced since the dawn of
30:54
Speaker 3: time in this country have we've just had a really
30:57
Speaker 3: hard time on doing them, and so I think that's
30:59
Speaker 3: why you you hear a lot of conversation around race
31:02
Speaker 3: and black people in particular, because a lot of us
31:05
Speaker 3: are still like, we're still waiting for you to fix it, right.
31:08
Speaker 3: So I think that's why sometimes these things get completed.
31:11
Speaker 3: But at the end, every single person has an obligation
31:15
Speaker 3: to take part in some form of DEI effort of
31:19
Speaker 3: whether it be from recognizing your privilege and your power
31:23
Speaker 3: and being a mentor or a sponsor for someone, whether
31:26
Speaker 3: it being using your voice and saying, hey, look, you
31:29
Speaker 3: know we're not doing right here. We all have a
31:32
Speaker 3: role here.
31:33
Speaker 1: Awesome. I really want to thank you for taking the time.
31:36
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me.
31:37
Speaker 1: What is the deal? DEIL that's a leadership group tied
31:41
Speaker 1: to diversity, equity inclusion. I always say that you know
31:46
Speaker 1: your purpose. Your sense of purpose is always important. There
31:48
Speaker 1: always be a place for it. And that's why I
31:50
Speaker 1: really really appreciated you allowing me to be very serious
31:54
Speaker 1: and kind of like post fund it myself from an
31:56
Speaker 1: HR perspective, because I've learned that people can hear information
32:00
Speaker 1: in different ways, and it's important that they hear it
32:03
Speaker 1: and accept it as being accurate. And bringing on my
32:06
Speaker 1: show Money Making Conversations Masterclass a DEI expert was very
32:10
Speaker 1: very important. And again, when you get back from Europe,
32:13
Speaker 1: you're out there doing your thing. Let's connect in the
32:16
Speaker 1: fall because that's a whole different atmosphere. We'll find out
32:19
Speaker 1: how they steal treat DEI in the political world and
32:22
Speaker 1: see if we still have a place we can call home.
32:24
Speaker 1: But thank you coming on my show.
32:26
Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you have a good one.
32:28
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you, I really do good.
32:31
Speaker 5: Thank you for joining us for this edition of Money
32:34
Speaker 5: Making Conversations Masterclass. Money Making Conversations Masterclass with rough Shan
32:40
Speaker 5: McDonald is produced by thirty eight to fifteen Media Inc.
32:43
Speaker 5: More information about thirty eight to fifteen Media Inc. Is
32:46
Speaker 5: available at thirty eight to fifteen media dot com. And
32:50
Speaker 5: always remember to lead with your gifts.