Corean Reynold was recently appointed the Director of Nightlife Economy for the City of Boston, where she brings a wealth of experience and a passion for fostering an equitable and thriving nightlife ecosystem.
10/04/2023
6:00pm - 7:30pm
Roundhead Brewing Company
Don’t miss our upcoming Government Affairs Forum with Massachusetts State Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg. Register now!
10/11/2023
9:45am - 11:00am
Bank of America
Learn about new ways of utilizing the professional apprenticeship model to create diverse, sustainable, and scalable talent pipelines.
10/12/2023
10:00am - 11:30am
Edenred
Designed for mid-level managers and supervisors, this new certificate program addresses workplace well-being through unique, innovative, and actionable methods.
Join our Transformational DEI Certificate! Our comprehensive learning & development offerings are designed to connect and grow strong leaders who lead both inside and out of the office.
Our Women’s Leadership Program enables you to take your leadership to the next level by arming you with the most in-demand leadership toolkit.
Our Boston’s Future Leaders (BFL) program provides emerging leaders with a socially conscious and civically engaged leadership toolkit, as well as the opportunity to apply their knowledge through experiential assignments.
Our Economic Inclusion Committee provides strategic support around research, policies, and programs that are focused on building equal opportunity.
We are developing an ecosystem of corporations and partners with the influence and buying power to transform economic inclusion for minority business enterprises (MBEs).
The Fierce Urgency of Now Festival brings Boston’s diverse young professionals together with business leaders, organizations and their peers to build connection, advance careers and ignite positive change.
09/12/2023 -
09/16/2023
Greater Boston
City Awake empowers young professionals in a variety of ways that encourages these rising leaders to stay invested in the region’s future success.
BIMA (the Boston Interactive Media Association) serves a vibrant community of like-minded professionals from agencies, brands, publishers, and ad-tech companies with business interests in the New England market.
For nearly 30 years, the Chamber’s Women’s Network has connected female professionals of all background and career levels. Today, our Women’s Network is the largest in New England, strengthening the professional networks of women each year.
The Massachusetts Apprentice Network convenes employers, training providers, and talent sources interested in developing and implementing apprenticeship programs in occupations across industries and statewide in fields such as tech, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and more.
We support small business through public policy initiatives, events designed to connect small businesses in Greater Boston to their peers and established business leaders, professional development offerings, and free small business advising.
Explore our mission and values to better understand how we are leading the business community forward.
Our member directory is your resource to discover, connect, and engage with Boston’s businesses from every industry and sector.
Last week, we hosted a sold-out Women’s Network breakfast, which featured an expert-led panel on workplace culture. The event was moderated by Su Juon, Principal of Diversity@Workplace, who also conducted a workshop on unconscious bias, a part of our new leadership workshop series, following the main event. Panelists included: Andrew Dreyfus, President and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts; Christina Luconi, Chief People Officer for Rapid7; and Grace Speights, Partner at Morgan Lewis. The level of excitement and audience participation was a true testament to how critical the topic of workplace culture is here in Boston, especially given current sociopolitical climate. Whether you are a business leader seeking to make a change, a manager looking to improve employee morale, or someone who is simply interested in the topic, workplace culture affects us all and there is much to be learned about it. Here are some takeaways from the event to get you started:
Make diversity and inclusion training an integral part of your company.
In a time when movements such as #metoo are fighting to create true equality in the workplace, it is imperative that companies think critically about their diversity and inclusion training offerings, or lack thereof. Diversity and inclusion training should be treated as seriously as any other component of your company, and the same business discipline should be applied. An easy way to start this is to make sure that there is an awareness of issues within your workplace – at all corporate levels. This will allow you to take a clear look at the workplace environment and notice areas of improvement, so you can begin rectifying them.
Do more than train, teach.
Though the topic of diversity and inclusion extends far past the workplace, training should be pinpointed so that employees know how to handle workplace-specific situations. Typically, trainings that are more discussion-based have the best results, especially if they delve into specific scenarios and explain how to handle common situations. Trainings should address how to appropriately manage people in an inclusive manner, not simply how to reduce the risk of formal complaints of this variety. One way to do this is to set performance objectives specifically related to diversity and inclusion. This promotes accountability and engagement while also reinforcing the importance of inclusivity in your workplace’s culture.
If you can’t find talent, cultivate it.
A trite excuse employers often give when justifying their lack of diversity is an overall shortage of minority talent. Though this is simply untrue in many cases, for those odd instances where it is true, there is a solution. Instead of finding talent, companies should look to cultivate it. A business invests in many things, and diverse talent should certainly be one of them as diversity provides a proven return on investment. A more diverse and inclusive company is a more financially and economically successful company – in all markets – so companies can only gain from diversifying their workplaces. Additionally, it is important for lower-level employees within your company to see people that look like themselves in positions of power; this gives them the ability to see what can be possible for them and will motivate them to perform better. A feasible way to begin incorporating this into your company is to think more about talent management, specifically by identifying talent in the organization early, promoting them when appropriate, and giving them opportunities so they can create career paths that works for them.
It’s about more than compliance – it’s about accountability.
It is important to create a cultural value system within your team to ensure that if any instances violate company diversity and inclusion policies, they are dealt with appropriately. This must be done on not only a legal level, but on a personal one as well. A legal defense is not always sufficient in satisfying an issue in a way that will make all parties involved comfortable, so employers should take a people-centric tactic when dealing with these issues. It is crucial that managers at all levels hold themselves and one another accountable for mistakes that they make, not only to reduce risk but also create a workplace culture that promotes positive inclusion behaviors.
We’re all pickled. Let’s just make progress.
In the unconscious bias leadership workshop, Su Juon explained that there is no way to eliminate bias – it is something inherent in all of us as humans – but we should make an effort every day to curb our impulses and create a more inclusive, dynamic workplace. According to Su, the way to do this is to first acknowledge that there are a plethora of different types of biases that we succumb to each day both overtly and covertly; then apply a conscious effort to change these things. However, eliminating bias isn’t a one-day, one-week, or even one-month initiative – it is a lifelong journey. If we improve within ourselves, and our organizations by extension, progress is being made and there is merit in that.
Our next Women’s Network breakfast will be held on Wednesday, March 27 and will feature special guest Lisa Wieland, Port Director at Massport. Find out more information and RSVP here.
If you are interested in our leadership workshop series, we will be hosting our next event on Wednesday, March 21 and will cover the topic of polarity management. Learn more here.
If you would like to see photos from the Women’s Network event, click here.
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