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If you’ve been following these posts from the beginning, then you know that the impetus for starting “The Bold Red Line” came out of a desire to share some of my thoughts as I began to engage with others at my company around the creation of a diversity and inclusion strategy.  In my first post, I talked about some of the early influences that shaped my interest in cultures and experiences beyond my own.  I wrote about this in the context of a conversation that hadn’t happened – an opportunity I’d lost out of fear that I might say the wrong thing.

I lot has happened in my life, in my company, and in my country since I wrote that first post.  In the United States, issues of race, gender and sexual orientation continue to make global headlines.  And in the wake of much tragedy and division, the most common suggestion I’ve seen boils down to education, communication, and then, eventually, looking at the systems, processes and policies that continue to create inequity and division between people who were, we believe, all “born with certain inalienable rights.”  Educating yourself, and engaging in conversation with others to better understand their experiences is something that I truly believe is a critical part of the solution.

At my company, I’ve had the opportunity to work with our Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Council to define what D&I means at Joy Global, and how embracing, expanding, and leveraging the diversity of our workforce can make the company better.  We’ve engaged in education and discussion – some of it decidedly messy – that have encouraged us to think differently about the role of inclusion in the workplace.

And personally, I’ve seen the power of simple conversation.  I’m not a confrontational person by nature.  In fact, when presented with the opportunity to engage in difficult conversations, I’ve often avoided them, concerned about unpredictable emotions or getting into topics that I would be unprepared to discuss.  But starting to talk about race and gender equality and LGBTQ issues has opened my eyes to something unexpected.  And that something is simply the glory of the unexpected.  After years of trying to plan and control conversations in the workplace, I’ve started to open myself up to conversations that require me to be fully in the moment, because I have no idea where those conversations are headed.  And I have no idea where the conversations are headed because we’re discussing things that are outside of what I’ve seen and heard and experienced before.  Every colleague with whom I’m having these conversations is a teacher, and I could not be more grateful for their patience and openness.  Every time that I choose to engage in a conversation where I don’t know what to expect, I will undoubtedly learn new things.  And I can use that new knowledge to a better friend, a better coworker, and a better citizen in my community.

I wrote in a recent post on privilege that it would be easy to go through my life as a white, cisgender, able-bodied, male without ever questioning the societal systems that either work in my favor, or that ensure that I don’t have to face a host of inequities on a daily basis.  The best way that I know to break that is to educate myself, to engage in conversation, and then to ascertain where I can share my privilege and work to make a difference.  So I’ll keep learning.  I’ll keep starting conversations.

This afternoon, I finally completed a first draft of our D&I strategy.  Baked into the draft are the inputs from our advisory council, along with thoughts from a lot of one-on-one conversations.  When I thought about how I wanted to structure the strategic plan, I outlined four key themes – Education, Communication, Process & Policy, and Metrics.  What if we, as a company, choose to educate ourselves?  What if that educations sparks a different discussion, and more ongoing communication?  And what if that communication leads us to question and change processes and create policies that enable us to be a more inclusive workplace?  By doing all of that, could we drive measurable results?

I don’t know the answers to all of those questions yet.  I know that the answers will look different for each one of us.  But through my own experience, I’m starting to suspect that we could drive true cultural change – for ourselves, for our company, and for our local communities.  At this point in time, I can’t think of any better thing to strive for.