Good day, good people. How is everyone today?
Before starting, I want to mention three
points of interest. The first thing is
that my presentation is from my
perspective. Secondly,it's only a very
brief snapshot of the work that we do in
Workforce Management Office within EERE
and thirdly some of the graphics may be
quite offensive to some but I just want
to prepare you. So now that I have your
attention ...let's start with a nice quote
from caller Carla VanKoughnett and here
she said that there is no common sense
when it comes to diversity however when
we look at diversity and inclusion is
very uncommon because it's something
that we have to work towards through
awareness, education, and most importantly
active practice. Then we have Dr. Seuss, a
lot of us are very familiar with Dr.
Seuss. His quote is that sometimes the
questions are complicated and the
answers are simple. However, when we look
at diversity, it's not that simple at all.
It's very complicated and if you were to
do a comparative analysis of Dr. Seuss's
original cartooning and the work that
we've come to love and embrace that
illustrates how complicated diversity
actually is. So that's why I prefer using
illustrations and examples when
describing diversity and inclusion. With
diversity I go back to memories of my
paternal family, which is primarily from
Shreveport and Elizabeth, Louisiana, and I
remember my father cooking gumbo on a
regular basis and for those of you who
are not familiar with gumbo
it is a culmination of a lot of
different diverse ingredients and you
can compare it to bouillabaisse, which is
a French soup and the culture is that or
immersed within making gumbo include
those from West Africa
the Choctaw Nation,which I'm part of not
officially but through legendary
storytelling and the French culture. So
when we look at gumbo there's a lot of
diversity through the types of meats,
spices, and vegetables that are included
in the recipe. So, to me that's a great
example of diversity. When we look at
inclusion, I like to think of the first
day of school especially say you move
from Bronx New York to Iowa
just imagine the cultural change and
when a student comes to school for the
first day the teacher introduces them,
shows them their seat, but depending on
how their new classmates respond to that
students presence will depend on whether
they feel included or not. Are they
going to invite them to play with them
on the playground? Will that student be
on the a-list for the birthday party at
Susie's next month? And when they go to
lunch, will they be allowed to sit with
the cool kids
at lunchtime? And then more importantly
when they're in class and they're asking
questions and participating in the
discussions, will the classmates snicker
and laugh and make them feel
uncomfortable and insignificant or will
they encourage them to participate? To me
that's a great example of inclusion. So
when we look at the OneDOE campaign, it is
geared to help us promote and implement
diversity and inclusion in our
organization. But let's look at our
various missions with the Department of
Energy the mission is a cohesive
progression of strengthening program
operations within the Office of Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy we're
providing the keys to help America
transition into a global clean energy
economy.
For the Workforce Management Office, we
support program mission drivers - such as
training, education, mentorship, diversity,
outreach, and STEM just to name a few. So,
for us, diversity inclusion is the
integral vital part of us accomplishing
our mission within our organization by
celebrating different perspectives of
individuals within our community the
different experiences and their
different lifestyles. Here we see the
three primary goals that we have
established within our organization to
promote diversity inclusion they include
leadership commitment, outreach and
recruiting, and education and training.
When we look at leadership commitment,
the example that really brings this to
the forefront is how we responded to our
federal employee viewpoint survey, we
refer to it as the FEVS. Now if you're like me
when someone asks you to participate in
a survey, you're apprehensive because
usually it's very untimely, it's
inconvenient, and a lot of times you
don't even see the value of your input
of helping them check a box by you
checking a box. However, in our
organization we take the FEVS extremely
seriously. We want to hear from our
employees and we're not afraid of the
results, bring it on because we want to
know how we can improve the situation
within our organization.So we encourage
every single employee to participate
because the more data we have the more
real and representative of that data is
so that we can work with it and not only
do the employees complete the FEVS, we
also have had a series of focus groups -
not for gripe sessions or just
reiterating what they've already
presented in the survey, but to get to
the root cause of what is causing them
to have certain perceptions
and experiences and oh and also to have
them share what their suggestions and
recommendations are. So I want you to
hold on to your seats, this is something
very unique within our organization, our
leadership took the initiative when we
completed the FEVS each year and they
established and assigned champions for
every area of primary concern that were
expressed among our employees and these
major areas include leadership
engagement and communication,
prioritization and mission execution,
recognition performance management, and
career development. And to top it off,
we've also had several of our program
offices take the initiative to do a deep
dive to find out more about what needs
to be fixed within their organization so
that their employees are experiencing
true diversity and inclusion and a sense
of well-being. So, when we do our work,
those are the kind of results that we
want we want people to take initiative, feel
empowered, and move forward. When we look
at outreach and recruitment, we want to
remember that part of that is building
relationships, being creative, going
beyond the walls of your office and
responding to people who are interested
in you. If someone calls your office and
asked for information that is a
tremendous compliment because they could
have gone somewhere else evidently
your mission and your programs are being
heard and people are interested in it, so
we need to be responsive. The example
that I present here is our first STEM
interactive Expo where we invited two
local schools to come in and have face
time with our energy experts and be able
to touch and have interaction with
technology firsthand.
Why is this a great example of diversity
inclusion? Because the body of
individuals involved in this initiative
were across the department, including all
of our technology programs and the
schools that participated - HD Woodson and
McKinley Tech were part of the planning
process. We didn't just shove it down
their throat and just said this is what
we're going to do, we wanted to hear from
them how we can make this a success and
it was. So this is how we build
relationships and fuel active an active
stem pipeline to build up our workforce.
And that relationship with these two
schools have continued when you continue
to share information and have even
been invited to be a part of their
advisory board. Then we have training and
education. The example I would like to
present to you is our student volunteer
internship program. Why is this unique
and a great example of inclusion, it's
because it doesn't fit the mold of most
internship programs, it allows for
flexibility. So you're not designated to
participate in the internship only
through three months during the summer,
it's all year-round and students are not
confined to only being in STEM
disciplines and having a certain GPA
they can be in a community college or
even a trade school. So this program
helps establish competitive a
competitive edge for long term success,
but just don't take my word for it look
at these smiling faces. The interns are
happy, they're engaged, and they're
participating and not just taking my
word let me share with you what the
majority the overwhelming majority of
our interns have to say about their
experience in our organization. That
they're treated with dignity and respect.
They're treated as professionals the
work that they do complements their
interest and they feel that it's
important and valued and also that their
work they can see immediate tangible
results on how what they contribute
supports our mission.
So here's one of those offensive
graphics... and you may be saying why is
there a frog in the presentation? There
are two reasons - one its my presentation, two
- I love amphibians specifically frogs
and when I look back on my childhood
imageries pop up growing up in Texas and
frogs croaking in the wee hours of the
morning and when you go outside they're
hopping through the grass its filled with
Dew and there's Mama Brock, my father's
mother, who would on a routine basis fry
frog legs, which I never took part in and
then there's Mrs. Burnett my science
teacher in high school who just praised
me endlessly under superb dissection
skills that I had on dissecting the frog
in class, but more importantly there are
two important facts that we can learn
from frogs one is that it's impossible
for frogs to hop backwards, two- they cannot
turn their heads to look behind them and
I like to compare these characteristics
to our organization. We're
forward-thinking progressive and we
enable our employees to move forward. So
in keeping with the concept of moving
forward in mind, let's look at three
things about leading an
inclusive journey. One is that it's real.
The day that you're born into this world
and the air slaps you in the face, I'm
sorry, when you emerge into your new life
and the wind caresses your cheek, the
journey has begun - whether it's short,
long, complicated, with ease, there is a
journey and a journey you will have. The
other is that it's ever-changing and the
only constant in life is change and we
experience that regularly within the
work that we do. Thirdly it's
self-directed. When you get up in the
morning, you make a conscious decision to
go to work and if you run into a detour
you can sit and wait for the road to
clear or you can take another path and
possibly get to your original
destination or even
more inspiring maybe you end up in a
place is more blissful and rewarding. So
while you go along this path remember to
be present - physically and mentally, take
off your mask,
show us what what you're made of. We want
to know about you and then be receptive
to do the same for others. Then you need
to be vocal, voice your opinions, share
your ideas, offer solutions to problems.
Be accountable, be responsible and take
ownership of your work and we also need
you to be available -you can be present,
but not there. How many people know
situations like that? So you want to be
available, you want to participate, engage,
share your ideas, your experiences and
your skills with others and then you
want to be courageous. It's very
important to continue learning so that
you can grow, we never arrive that's
number one mantra that my mother has the
second, she's 92 by the way, is that as
long as there's breath in her body she
will continue to learn. So education and
learning is continuous and it's vital for
having a happy existence. Ben Fletcher
makes a very good point, he connects
inclusiveness and well-being. He says the
more inclusive a person is, the higher
the sense of well-being and to add to
that when someone has a high sense of
well-being, they're more productive and
how much more can your mission benefit
from people who have a high sense of
well-being and productive. So, I've given
you several images and descriptive, visual
descriptive, concerning diversity and
with that diversity and inclusion is
exciting, it's empowering, is invigorating,
it's flavorful, is forward moving and
progressive. So,
in conclusion, I just want to end with
this poem.
It's titled "An Upper View."
Standing here on gilded edge a breeze of
hope and trout my head the skies and
still the earth returns to a place where
I must learn that visions though they
may be few they all provide an upper
view. So keep a clear perspective to
effectively navigate your journey no
matter what the view is and take
advantage of the tools and resources
that are available to you. If you have
any questions feel free to contact Dr.
Soto or myself we reside in room five E
zero three six and with that I wish you
a good day and a good journey