Taking diversity from concept to concrete steps
By Keith Woods
One thing that bedevils efforts to make diversity happen in media companies is the trouble people have with definng the term. How does the company make it happen if no one has a clear definition of "it"?
“Too often staffers are reluctant to share their viewpoints because they may differ from those shared by people who employ them. Without diversity of thought, what’s the point?”
Indeed, the twenty-four Fellows who gathered outside of Chicago for their annual "Fall Forum" at the McCormick Tribune Foundation's Cantigny estate in the fall of 2003 got mire for a time in that liguistic and ideological morass. The leader of one group of Fellows at the meeting, talking about diversity in business functions of media organizations, began with this telling caveat:
"We really struggled...with defining what "it" is....It's hard to define what "it" would be here, but I thhink we all were in agreement that we had not reached "it," whatever "it" was.
Other surveys solve the definition riddle by describing parts of an otherwise indescribable whole. When Fortune magazine polls businesses each year and reveals the “50 Best Companies for Minorities,” the editors base their conclusions upon a weighted list of qualities including: representation, promotion rates, accountability systems, company culture, interaction with the community, purchasing practices with minority-owned businesses and inclusion of racial and ethnic minorities in the company’s succession plans.
Likewise, DiversityInc’s “Top 50 Companies for Diversity” list looks at those measures along with questionnaires that gauge the commitment of the CEO, recruitment and retention practices, mentoring, and the degree to which people of color feel valued in their jobs. When Working Mother magazine introduced its inaugural “Best Companies for Women of Color” list in 2003, its 190-question survey examined, among many other things, where women of color could be found throughout the organization and what sort of career development the company offered.
The McCormick Tribune Fellows were thinking along the same lines when surveyed in the summer of 2003. “What,” they were asked, “would be the characteristics of a news company that had ‘achieved diversity’?” They offered nearly 100 traits. Common themes included treating people with respect and dignity, valuing all opinions, ending stereotying in news stories, a culture of mentoring and coaching and an organization that, top to bottom, reflects the communities it serves.
Call what grew from their answers The McCormick Scale
The Scale is a layered, three-dimensional, more complete description of what it means to pursue diversity in a news organization. It describes, from the basic to the complex, from the concrete to the cosmic, a formula for success. It builds a hierarchy from the simple recognition that something needs fixing to actions that enhance the company’s bottom line and even change the reflection citizens see when they look at the newspaper, website or television screen.
The McCormick Scale has five levels:
- Awareness–The company has a vision of its shortcomings and its potential where diversity is concerned.
- Course Correction–The company addresses historic disparities and ends practices that sabotage diversity efforts.
- Doing Diversity–The work of inclusion begins in earnest.
- Ingraining Values–The value of diversity is understood by all, reflected in the workplace and a benefit to the company’s bottom line.
- “A State of Being”–The ills of bias and discrimination have been put to rout in the organization.
In many ways, The McCormick Scale might be a descendant of psychologist Abraham Maslow’s famous Hierarchy of Needs, which declared that people couldn’t achieve their greatest potential until more fundamental needs are met. For Maslow, the hierarchy started with food, water, warmth, safety, love and self-esteem at the lower levels, and rose to what he called self-actualization at the highest level.
In diversity, according to the Fellows, that hierarchy begins with the fundamental need for a discrimination-free workplace that is committed to fairness. It rises to a place where leaders act boldly on their values, where core business practices change and, at the top level, a place where, as one Fellow put it, diversity “happens naturally.”
This new hierarchy sets the threshold for success beyond symbolic hiring, mere representation in news stories or the annual sponsorship of a Cinco de Mayo festival. For diversity “actualization,” the McCormick Scale demands an environment in which people are not just present but heard; a place where stories across difference achieve their greatest sophistication; where the company embraces all people and their communities in its jobs, advertising, circulation and community involvement. The media company at the top of the Scale would, like a person at the height of Maslow’s hierarchy, live up to its greatest aspirations.
The McCormick Tribune Fellows were asked this question: What would be the characteristics of a news company that had “achieved diversity”? Their answers formed five distinct levels of achievement, called the McCormick Scale.
Level One: Awareness
The organization is aware of the value and challenges of creating a truly diverse company and has decided to do something about it.
Level Two: Course Correction
The company is doing foundational work in creating a diverse workforce. Attention is focused on matters of fairness as the company addresses historic inequities in hiring and business practices while correcting long-standing flaws in coverage and content.
- Equal Employment Opportunity laws are obeyed
- The company deliberately and systematically erases obvious ethnic disparities
- The company has a clear definition of diversity and a vision of what it would look like in the organization
- There is a broad pool of diverse employees
- Diversity training is in place
- There are strategies in place to deal with problems around race and gender
- Departments are investing money in training, internships and staff development
- The staff is encouraged to speak up
- There is some content and advertising diversity
- Stories are framed better (no more stories of “us” and “them”
- No more stereotypical coverage
Level Three: Doing Diversity
The news organizations act on its stated values by tapping into the diversity of its workforce. The range of concern regarding diversity extends from the very bottom of the organization to the very top and extends outwardly across departments and into the community. Diversity becomes a value on three critical areas.
1. In the organization’s environment
- There is full integration up and down the organization: advertising, newsroom, production, front office
- Company respects and embraces differences
- People treat one another with respect and dignity
- Unfounded fears about diversity have been rooted out
- Company benefits meets the needs of all workers
- The company values diversity of thought, culture and style
- People feel comfortable sharing their opinions
- The company articulates its core values
2. In the newsroom
- There are lots of debates
- The company reshapes its news coverage to better reflect and serve the diversity of the market
- The company reshapes the perception of the public, using people of color as experts in issues other than race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality
- The company includes people of color, gays, lesbians and white women in decision-making, news values conversations
3. In community relations
- The organization embraces all communities it serves
- The company address issues relevant to the community
- The organization is engaged in an ongoing dialogue with the community about issues of prejudice without fear of where the dialogue might lead
- The company promotes and sponsors diversity programs in the community, including its philanthropic efforts
- Ideas and solutions are encouraged and treated as valuable
Level Four: Ingraining Values
The news organization is reaping the benefits of its work in diversity from integration of the top ranks to financial rewards on the bottom line. The value of diversity is understood throughout the organization.
- The top-ranking officer sets the example
- Top management is fully vested in the work
- Executive and management ranks are racially and ethnically diverse
- The diversity plan is clearly state throughout the company
- Middle managers are trained to cross boundaries and break glass ceilings
- Members of the community’s disenfranchised neighborhoods see the newspaper as an advocate for fair treatment
- The diversity strategy is tied to the bottom line
- The company is profitable and growing financially
- The company used new and modified products to tap into communities of color
- There is an unwavering commitment to good and ethical journalism
- Readership is high
- Prestigious jobs (White House correspondent, foreign bureaus) are also assigned to journalists of color
- Employees no longer fear discussing differences
Level Five: “A State of Being”
The ills of bias and discrimination are put to rout in the workplace. For some, that is the consequence of daily vigilance on the part of those who keep diversity at the center of thought. For others, this new ‘state of being’ no longer requires conscious attention to diversity. Instead, this happened naturally.
One vision…
- Management is talking about it everyday
- Decisions take diversity into consideration
- A strong recruitment and retention program is in place
- Diversity is celebrated throughout the organization
- A diversity plan is in place that is focused and includes reasonable deadlines
Another vision…
- Less time is spent talking about the subject
- The company is so diverse that race and ethnicity need not come into play in hiring and promotions
- The workplace is truly colorblind
- There’s no need for a diversity plan
- Gender, race and ethnicity fall from the conversation
- Diversity is no longer an initiative. It is a state of being.