I think if you first look at that data in regards to where you’re bringing in revenue, and where you’re advancing revenue, and you also look at your people data, you’re starting, just starting – it doesn’t tell the full story – to tell a story about where you could advance DE&I within your organization. And any person who’s running a company is going to be interested in understanding that data. A good chief diversity officer will know how to relate that to a plan, and a strategic plan in regards to year one, year two – I call it five years to really have a great diversity strategy that works, because then you can compare and it’s also an uneven number, so it allows you to deal with reality. But that’s how you start the conversation about looking; the data does not lie, the data is what it is. Sometimes people don’t want to absorb that data or believe that data, but in most cases, if you’re serious around DE&I, which I think as a result of last year, most people are, you start to make those hard choices around investing and putting money into programs and advancing programs, getting rid of some, getting new ones. But you are also now having a conversation with your employees that says they are valued – not just some, but all employees.

When we think about data and how that informs strategy, we really think about data on three levels. The first is awareness and engagement in content – you know, the very traditional way you look at any learning platform, I guess. The second and the one that we kind of can help most with is measuring behavior change: how can you measure that people are taking action? So we do that through lots of micro-pulses in the work we do, and it means that we can continually check in on what’s working and what doesn’t. And then most importantly, be really agile about your approach to then go, “Okay, so why is this getting blocked? What can we understand about it? What can we what some new content you can put out there? What’s the story? How can we bring in influencers in the organization to help people get past this?”

I think one of the challenging things is being in all places at the same time. That’s challenging. We’re a global company, so there’s a overall global DE&I strategy, but DE&I in the United States looks very different than our DE&I in China, or Japan or India. So the challenging pieces, when you’re looking at global diversity, and you’re dealing with sovereignty and you’re dealing with laws and legislation and rules within that country, etc., that can be challenging. Think about a lot of the Islamic countries where they may view very gender very differently – not all of them, a lot of them are getting better – but it can be challenging. And as a company, as a corporate entity, you’ve got to work through that without losing your values.

Ultimately people want help, right? And they want to be nudged through it. And a lot of people, you know, they don’t not engage in something because they don’t think is important. They just have a lot of things to compete with.

How do you give people the fear of missing out and want to be involved. We also have something called FOBSMO, which is the fear of being seen to be missing out, which is also really powerful. So I know I should be doing something about this, how do I? And the best way to pull those people in are notifications that are driven by peers, so someone doesn’t have to be the CEO, or them kicking it off, and it really being genuine, authentic is also very important. But having that visibility of your peers doing things, interacting, asking questions, those notifications from our platform are six times more effective at bringing people back than just kind of content being drip-fed, or some message from the CEO. So just keep in mind that people find these experiences enriching – don’t worry about over-bombarding them with messages – they’ll choose to have what they want to take. But really, if you want to help them create a new standard for what good looks like, then make it really practical, make it really bitesize, and really helpful for these people to be better, and be seen to be doing better.

The focus on individuality, right? That’s what having technology, particularly in DE&I can do and have a massive impact on. Because whether you’re on your computer, or whether you’re on your mobile phone – my preference is the mobile phone – you have this app that you can customize to your need, you can use it when you want it, you don’t have to do it in the office, you could do it on the train to work – remember when we used to go to work on the train – you could do it in your living room, and you know, wherever, on your jog, through your phone, your watch. The fact that technology is now customizable, there’s a comfort level with people trying to understand DE&I more, and looking at resources, etc. And if you have the right app, you’re able to really advance your own identity.