Lead the People #61: Inclusive Leadership Today and Every Day with Maureen "Mo" Berkner Boyt
Maureen Mo Berkner Boyt is the Founder and CEO of The Moxie Exchange. She’s spent over 25 years helping organizations grow by creating inclusive workplaces where talented people can thrive. She has leveraged the power of technology to build scalable, actionable, measurable inclusion tools, including the first-of-its-kind comprehensive diversity and inclusion solution, Everyday Inclusion. Everyday Inclusion was named one of the Top 20 Most Innovative Products of 2020, a solution that infuses DEI into daily operations by Forrester Research and has been called, the future of diversity and inclusion.
Top 3 Takeaways
- Aim high. Don’t be satisfied with performance and engagement. Set the bar even higher by striving to create a workplace where people can thrive.
- Run the numbers. We’re beyond the stage of wondering whether inclusion can benefit the business. It simply does. Use readily available calculators to put rationale behind the right thing to do.
- Trust your brain. Our default behaviors can produce something known as an amygdala hijack. Make the time to recognize the brain science that can help or harm those around us.
From the Source
“How do we create workplaces where every single person can thrive—not just be engaged—but thrive? Because when we do that, we can solve some really big, gnarly global issues like climate change.”
“Whether it's Gallup, Credit Suisse, McKinsey, Korn Ferry, lots of universities including Stanford, the data just continues to pile up. Literally on every measure, inclusive teams outperform.”
“When you're talking about diversity and equity, those are systems level things. Who are we hiring? How are we compensating them? Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging is every person, all day long—behaviors, actions, choices, leadership. When you start to break it down in that way, then it's like, ‘Okay, I get it.’”
“Although our brain only takes up a small part of the mass of our body but a lion's share of oxygen, we stay in habit. So to protect that, to protect our big, beautiful brain for that higher level thinking, if we're already in habit, if we want to change a habit, if we can hack into an existing habit loop, we're halfway there.”
“We are, as human beings, hardwired for belonging. Millions of years ago, if we didn't belong, it was a death sentence.”
“We all need belonging. This isn't one group or another group. Fundamentally, we all do. So if we're all walking around what we call nice but clueless—NBC—and we're perpetuating these microaggressions without even knowing it, and people are walking around in constant amygdala hijack, it's no wonder that feelings of exclusion are over 80%.”
“Once people understand the neuroscience of pain, it's unethical to hire and to bring in folks from marginalized, underrepresented, diverse, groups and put them in toxic environments. There's a race for diversity without inclusion. Those are disastrous results.”
Connect with Mo
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maureenberknerboyt/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/momoxieboyt/
The Moxie Exchange: https://themoxieexchange.com/
About Our Sponsor
The Predictive Index (PI) is an award-winning talent optimization platform that aligns business strategy with people strategy for optimal business results. More than 60 years of proven science, software, and a curriculum of insightful management workshops make PI the solution for any company looking to design great teams and culture, make objective hiring decisions, foster engagement, and inspire greatness in their people anywhere in the world. More than 10,000 clients and 480+ partners use PI—including Nissan, Citizens Bank, Subway, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Omni Hotels—across 90+ countries. Learn more at predictiveindex.com.