Commercial Integrator May 2021 - 37

challenges and successes so everyone
can learn.
Individuals who sign the pledge are
asked to consider joining AVIXA's Diversity
Council and participate in future council
events, take part in diversity and inclusion
surveys, as well as participate in future
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) events.
But the release of the pledge doesn't
mean the work of the AVIXA Diversity Task
Force has reached the finish line, says
senior director of communications and task
force member Joé Lloyd. In fact, the pledge
in many ways is the first step in a long-term
effort to increase diversity, equity and inclusion across AV.
" It's a starting point, " she says. " It's by no
way an end point. This is the beginning of
change. This is a conversation we're going
to be having year after year.
" The goal is seeing the demographics
change and our stages such as InfoComm,
our webinars and other events change.
That's the accountability part, " says Lloyd.
The focus for now is finding as many people across AV to take the pledge as possible,
says Lloyd. From there, AVIXA will talk to and
survey its membership about the pledge and
what steps the association should take to
move the effort to the next level, she says.
" We want to know what we should do
with the information to make real significant
change, " says Lloyd. " There's more than just
saying 'I care.' "
The Ivan Joseph keynote at the 23rd
annual NSCA Business & Leadership Conference in February was " a significant next
step in these efforts, " said LeBlanc during
the association's DEI workshop last month.
Joseph highlighted the importance of
a diverse workforce and leadership team
in his recent NSCA Business & Leadership
Conference keynote, saying diversity is
good for a company's bottom line because
" diverse teams bring diverse perspectives,
which moves us in the right direction. "
He pointed to " tons and tons of research, " including from Harvard Business
Review and Forbes magazine as supporting the premise. He notes boards with
women have higher innovation and boards
with diverse ethnic makeups have higher
profits as a rule.
" All the data tells us over and over
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again that diverse teams bring diverse
perspectives, which moves us in the right
direction, " said Joseph. He says leaders and
those who make hiring decisions must do a
better job of changing the stalled-out diversity efforts that have been largely stagnant
since the 1980s.
It's important to " challenge inherent
biases, " said Joseph. " They impact the way
we lead and the decisions we make. Diverse
teams work precisely because they're harder.
You have to compromise and work together. "
Business leaders must fight " systemic
challenges " to attract and recruit talent, said
Joseph. Those challenges include where
you advertise your job openings, he said.
" We have to think about the way we
think, " said Joseph. That includes eliminating biases of all types, such as conformity
biases, halo effect biases, the horns effect
bias where one bad thing poisons the well
and the attribution bias, where you explain
away one person's success.
The conformity or affinity bias comes
through when someone notices a person has
a similar background to them so they assume
the rest of their attributes are also good.
The halo effect comes into play when a
person's first impression gets applied to
the rest of their work and the horns effect is
the opposite, meaning one bad trait makes
those considering the person for work
wonder if there's more trouble.
An attribution bias comes through in a
more subtle way when those with similar
backgrounds celebrate the work of those
who are like them but explain away the
success of a person whose background is
different, said Joseph.

Celebrating Diversity Matters
for Your Company
While the focus of Joseph's BLC keynote
was all about eliminating the idea of judging
people based on different traits they have
and backgrounds from which they come,
he noted that it's still important for business
leaders to pay homage to the different cultures and experiences of their employees.
That could be as simple as an office party
celebrating Diwali or a potluck lunch featuring foods from the various ethnic backgrounds represented by the employees.
" We should celebrate the things that

AVIXA is urging everyone in the AV industry and beyond to sign the AV Pledge for
an Equitable Future and read its inclusive
language guide.

make us different, " said Joseph. " The longer we keep talented people, the better it
is for the bottom line. "
Recently, New Era Technology managed
solutions account executive Chris Turner
shared some of his experiences with CI
readers, noting his Asian-American heritage often surprises those who meet him in
person because his name doesn't give any
clues about it.
" When someone hears that name, it's
easy not to associate it with someone
that is Asian-American, " said Turner. " In
the past, when I submitted job resumes
and subsequently went in for interviews, I
could read the surprised reactions on the
interviewees' faces.
" Ultimately, there should not be a
reaction. A reaction showcases that the
interviewees intentionally or unintentionally
were putting me in a certain category-one
I did not fit, " said Turner.
Both Joseph and Turner call out the
business benefits of embracing diversity,
equity and inclusion. There are proven
bottom-line benefits to having a leadership team that hires people from different
backgrounds.
" This industry can't be one-dimensional
if it wants to serve our customers' increasingly global market, " wrote Turner. " If you
don't know how to deal with other cultures
and diverse individuals, you will not make
advances with your evolving customers.
" If we can embrace DEI within our own
corporate structure, we will do well with
customers, too, " he wrote.
Turner also noted that a corporate focus
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