Giovan Lane-Walker — Inclusive Workplace Innovator & CEO of LaneChange Strategies

Puss up your artists done in fresh and you're watching We Talk Weekly. You're listening right here. It's your favorite fly guy, Charles Gregory. We Talk Weekly. Listen. Everyone always asks him if the anybody's me, you email me all type of us. We're trying to find the podcast. I mean, we can find you videos everywhere. All we have to do is go to we Talk Big dot com. All we need to do is go to YouTube or all we need to do it up turn one by channel, turn on higher than seven. Turn on we can find you. But sometimes I. Just want to work out, and I wanted to see to your podcast. I want to hear the ladies in the sis. You will get attendant news or good music. And badly or just simply. I want to hear the interviews from music, anything, sports. I just want to listen. Don't know where to find your podcast. I said, you know what, It's real simple. All you have to do is facts the right person. Watch this, Hey, Alexa play We Talk Weeklies podcast. Here's We Talk Weekly from Amazon Music. Here's where you left off in the latest episode, Olivia Jade, Red Table Talk, Kevin Hart, backlash for Netflix special, No F's Given and more. Ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to We Talk Weeklies after the talk and. See I told you it's not that hard. Ladies and gentlemen. All you have to do is ask the right. Person, ask Alexis. Look, I'm out here. Thanks for watching, keep supporting, keep subscribing, keep telling John. Then we out here like last year. Talking w PPM and P Philadelphia one on six point five FM, we talked weeklies after the talking to your boy Charles and beautiful and the beautiful Lawrence and the beautiful and we are definitely in the building tonight. Super excited about what we have coming up next because you know, I love the interview so classificating. Who do we have to day? Who do we have to date? Today? We have Giavonne lane Walker. She is a scientist turned strategist and a CEO of lane Change Strategy. She helps companies fix broken workplace culture and rebuild trust. She works with leaders to create spaces where people feel seen, valued, comfortable and showing up as themselves every day. Y'all already know what to do. Let's give a warm We Talk Weekly. Welcome to Javonne lane Walker. How are you how are you hello? You want and super excited to have your day, super excited to have you to think. And so one of the things that we do when we have our guests, you know, we always ask how would your day? How was your day to day? How would you think? Oh, my day was good. I actually went to a celebration of life. Okay, and so was able to you know, is the Lord and glorify his name and celebrate a life that was well lived. Okay, fantastic, fantastic, And so you know, we we we talked weekly. Always say, you know, once you come to the show, your friend the show, so you always welcome to come back. So I want to make sure that you know we we put that out there for you because we always love the people who come to the show. But I want to start with like, let's start from the beginning, right, you know, you're talking about so much information, so much knowledge based you. Let's talk let's talk about your schooling, my schooling. Yes, your schooling. You know that that well for knowledge that you have and you know you you know, going from one school to another and all that information and start there. Okay, Well I'll start a high school okay, because we don't need to go all the way back the elementary. So I actually graduated from Strawberry Mansion and from there I went to Virginia State University got my bachelor's in biology pre medicine. Of course, I thought I wanted to be a doctor, but God had other plans for me. So I came back home to Philadelphia, worked in the science field, so doing research at University of Pennsylvania and did some research on AIDS and the so HIV SIV viruses, and then just kind of transitioned my career in science to do research in academia, then biotechnology and ultimately pharmaceuticals, and so that's where I landed, and then from there just kind of progressed my career from science to an HR capacity looking at diversity, acquity and inclusion. Fantastic And since you jumped on it, I think that's a you know, and I was going to ask a different question. But since we're talking about DEI, right, you know, we all know what you know, our current president, how he feels about DEI, and so because that was part of the field that you know, you amplified and you worked hard on the What are your feelings about this new conversation about DEI and now belonging so to speak. Yeah, So DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion has always been a piece of how we come together and work. And so because we're having the conversation now and DEI is considered a bad word, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's gone away. It still exists absolutely, just redefined in a way that is around belonging and fairness and opportunity and whatever other words you. Want to give to it. Right, So, ultimately it just means to kind of make sure that we are creating organizations that are fair and equitable and giving opportunity to the people that. Need it, right. Right. Do you think that DEI has helped companies for specifically, let's just say black people where they had to code switch at one point? Do you think that it amplified people to feel like they can be themselves similar to what the Crown Act did. What's your thoughts on that? So I would say yes, And so I think that it did give an opportunity for black people to see themselves in higher positions because at that point we were being developed and given opportunities to develop ourselves for greater roles in the organizations that we were going to. However, now that there's this. Disparaging cloud over DEI and things are being rolled back, I think that it's causing a negative rollback of what dee I was supposed to be in organizations. I see you not in over there, Tunisia. Yeah, question, I know. Just it's the code switching for me because I still have to do that in my role in society, but I find myself doing it just so that people who look like me, who are coming to a place where everyone else and what's sett into place is typically not like them or probably what they weren't included in the thought process of I cod switch to make them feel comfortable so they can know, Hey, we're relatable. I understand what you're talking about. I can read between the lines of words you're trying to communicate to me. So I do it to be helpful, but I do wish you lived in a world where communication could just be free flowing and people didn't feel those limitations. So I really appreciate, appreciate the work that you're doing. This makes me happy. What made you switch and the looking at the community overall from being you know, in science and then switching over to either you know, strategy. That's a really good question. So I'll talk about my transition from being a lab scientist going in to the diversity, equity and inclusion space. And so basically I was always the only so always the only black woman in science related fields in all of the organizations the departments that I was in, and so I would go to career fairs and seek out people that look like me to let them know, hey, I'm here, I represent you in this field, and you can come and be welcomed and have a career in science if you want to. So that's how I kind of transitioned because I wanted to see other people that look like me where I was, and so transitioned my role from being in science to being more of someone doing outreach and creating opportunities and developmental projects and programs to bring them in so that they can see people that look like them feel like. Employee resource groups played a really heavy part of that because I was affiliated with employee resource groups and so they give you the opportunity to kind of reach out and do that grassroots work that's necessary to show the young folks that we are in organizations like you know, the big pharmaceutical companies and you two can find yourself in them too. Yeah. I think that's a great transition to talk about Lane Was it lane change? It's Lane changed strategy, Lane change strategies. Because when we talk about you know, you helping organizations, let's talk a little bit about that. And what was the impetus in starting. So it actually started because of the work that's being done to roll back DEI. Right, So the executive orders that. Came out that were of disbanding DEI and what it meant to organizations that were embedding DEI practices into the work. And so what I realized was we still will have DEI, but it'll be named something different. And organizations they didn't know what to do after the executive orders were put out, but they knew that having diverse individuals in their organization creating opportunities, making sure that opportunities were being delivered in an equitable manner, and people had a culture of inclusion in an organization, it was necessary. But they didn't know how to do it. And so that's where I come in to kind of help organizations understand how they can continue to do the diversity, equity and inclusion work and remain compliant with what they're saying is illegal or you know, within the lines of what is legal versus not. Now, what does you know? What does that look like for diversity, equity inclusion? Some on a layman's term may think, is that affirmative action or is that something where I feel as though I'm being marginalized based on my gender, my ethnicity, whatever that is that makes me different. What is it that you know what a person do and if they seek out a DEI strategist or someone to help them, like, what is it what would be the steps that they could take if they feel marginalized against a company or organization. Well, yes, you should have some type of a speak up channel that you can go to and make a report that you're being discriminated against or what have you. But DEI kind of culminates all of those things. So making sure that you know, we have representation, we have fairness that is across the board, we don't have any discriminatory practices that are happening in your organization, and we're given opportunities to advance ourselves. And what was your other question, just what does that look like? Then? As far as diversity, equity inclusion. When I hear it, I'm like, Okay, I know that it's something that would be for people so that they don't feel marginalized. But when you have when we did have it, where they've had different type of departments or people that would look over that, what is it that they want to teach the leadership team, what is it that they want to teach to the to the staff, what is that? What does that proposal look like? Yeah, so that it's interesting that you say that. So oftentimes, or I'll say, before the executive orders, there were a lot of organizations that were doing the EI wrong in that they were just wanting to meet quotas. They were putting out metrics to say, we need to make sure that we have x amount of black people or Latin X people in these roles. And so that's when the negative vibe came about DEI because folks then started to feel like, well, they don't have the proper education to be in those types of roles, or they don't have enough seniority to be in those types of roles. You're only putting them in those roles because of their color and so what and that is absolutely the wrong way to do DEI and that's why we're now finding ourselves rolling it back because of the wrong nature that people were doing DEI work. And so now how it should be looked at is kind of understanding and diagnosing what is happening at the systems level of an organization when it comes to their culture, kind of like disbanding it and then rebuilding it back up. So that's what I do. I want to diagnose and understand what's going on in the systems of the organization, What are the behaviors that the leadership have that are voluntarily or involuntarily harming the culture and making it not be a place where people feel like they belong and are included, and give them the tools to do that. Because you know, as people that work in an organization, the number one thing or reason why people leave an organization is normally because of their manager. And so if you help your managers or train your managers to become leaders that have inclusive behaviors, then ultimately you'll be able to keep the people retain the people because you're building the trust up. Because they are learning those tools and skills to build the trust up on their teams and they can get the most out of their team. So what I'm doing is helping organizations get highest performance out of their their people through creating cultures of belonging interesting. So I'm just curious how you would address safe example, our current mayor of Philadelphia who had this this challenge where people feel like she finally she started to pivot when it came to her DEI plan whatever no longer or stepping back from d e I. So if one of her you know, a consultants or strategists came to you and was to ask you, well, how would you what would you recommend for me to do? So it doesn't look like I'm potentially going against a community, but I'm still trying to navigate what's necessary for for the commands of the federal government to speak. You know, how would you how would you go about it? Well, for for one, I would tell them to make sure that they're staying within the confines of what the law is saying about de I. And there really isn't anything written in law that says you can't practice DEI in an organization. And so. As long as you are continuing to remain aligned with eeo C policies, then you'll be fine. What's been I guess put out into the atmosphere is that, you know, DEI is a bad word, and so a lot of people have rolled back and kind of you know, tuck their their tail between their legs and rand because and because of the fact that they are affiliated with government contracting and federal brants and moneies and stuff like that. And so hence the fact that the mayor chose to do what she did because of the fact that, Okay, I need to kind of weigh out my options. Do I want to take away the money that is. Coming from the federal government and lose on delivering whatever I've promised to the people of Philadelphia because I'm standing firm on you know, I'm doing the EI anyway, or can we pivot how we're reframing doing this work and still kind of maintain being compliant with what the law states when it comes to DEI practices. So I would I would tell. Them to make sure that they're reading law and staying within the confines of law, but continue to do the work. Now, I'm gonna bring counselor right now in terms of when when when someone have to navigate or kind of walk through that that great area, right, what's the what's the best way to do that without you. Know, crossing the line so to speak, that if you understand. It, and do you mean someone from an administrative perspective yea, or like an employment So definitely you can't work within your own mind. You bring in your legal team, your strategists, those who have worked with the EEOC and kind of have read through the lines and understand the fine print and then know where the great areas are, because the great areas are where things are not easily explained or not readily broken down into things that you can apply. So it requires some workthrough. It requires other minds, that requires legal approaches, It requires people who have history working in the I so that all those minds can come together kind of work through. This is going to be the framework that we're going to do. And most of the times you don't know what's going to work. You just have to try. You put something together and you work within with all the minds that have grown together, and you start somewhere and with anything mistakes of you made, you'll figure out where those are and you'll clean up and kind of navigate around that to build something fantastic. So what's your organization. Do you see a breakthrough? Do you see a AHA moment with the work that you do? Do you see any challenges with the work that you do? When we're thinking about your strategic plan with your organization, what are your thoughts on that in terms of you constantly building and growing? So I feel like. Being able to give them clarity in a really ambiguous, complex situation is really helpful. That's when the AHA moments come because they then start to look inward and examine what's happening in our four walls? How can we create change that ultimately impacts our bottom line? Because if we really think about it, it all is based on you know, what are our shareholders saying? And how are we making the money that we want to make? But so they need to kind of look internal and so I think that that's when the AHA moments come into play, when they kind of turn off what's happening outside and think about, well, how are we structured? What can we do that is. Going to impact not only the bottom line but the people, Because if we impact the people, that's going to impact our bottom line. I have a question, and this is. Kind of like a pushback to what was I guess the consensus of a lot of people when d I was before I guess it was you know, canceled, dismantled. There there was a percentage that they stayed, which DEI represented more white women than it was intended for as far as black people, it was more intended for the LGBTQ community. It was. So with that being said, could you give us a more I guess from it being your wheelhouse educated information that will let us know was that intended for us? And why is it that we're fighting so hard for something that numbers are showing it didn't benefit us. That's a really good question. And I think you're mainly talking about affirmative action, right, and so, yes, affirmative. Action was put in place for us. And I feel like, you know, over time, people kind of hitched their wagon to our train, but then kind of flip the script and used it for themselves. And we as black people, we always allow people to kind of hitch theirself well protecting everybody, and we're not protecting ourselves. And I think that you know, if we could get together and band together and just kind of do the work for ourselves, that we would have much more success. But yes, affirmative action was created for us. Okay, So the. DEI numbers are really for people who were saying that they were looking at the affirmative action type of because when you've run the de I percentage and you're looking for diversity, equity inclusion percentages show that it's really for like I said, the LGBTQ community and more for the white women community. It doesn't mean benefit. Let's just say black women. Are those numbers speaking towards d I or are those numbers from what you just said, like the affirmative action because I'm looking at I'm thinking of it more from a DEI because we we actually had a guest on the show who was speaking about that and that they you know, with the administration now canceling DEI and saying, hey, it wasn't even something that benefited us. That's why I wanted you to let us know, No, that's incorrect. D e I did benefit us, do you I was something that did help you know, black women in you know, corporate America to be able to be not on the pay scale of you know, being unrepresented. And before you jump into that, I think the context was about using the word minority groups, right, And so when we talk about minority groups, historically you had these quote unquote marginalized groups, which included women as being a marginalized group, and it pointed more towards white women and black women just kind of looped into black folk as opposed to right, and so these are the disenfranchised groups. Whatever. So I just wanted to get some yes, gotcha? Okay, So the question is is that is it something that benefits us? D I well, you know, I guess it's going to be framed another another word, but is in you know, from belonging. Yeah, but is it something that benefits us? I feel as though it does. Okay, yeah, I feel as though DEI belonging inclusion work. It does benefit us, but then at the same time it benefits the whole. So like it's going to benefit those marginalized groups that you talked about, right, So we then get lumped into the marginalized group category. But I mean, as black women were the most educated demographic in the world, So. I mean, I don't know what else you say. The numbers show that the number. Last question when when staff is coming to leadership and they're saying that they are burnt out, and you know they're not so much underpage, just burnt out. What is something that you know with your company, your organization could help other organizations and companies that you talk to their staff or talk to their leadership on how to help staff members because of work life balance. That's a really good one. I would probably try to understand what are the dynamics, the working dynamics and the team. Is there something where we can kind of level the playing field as far as workload is concerned. Is somebody taking on more than what they should and kind of try to unpack that, diagnose what's going on inside of the organization so that we can kind of recalibrate and rebalance what's going on. But then also to understand what kind of benefits packages do you have for your employees. Do they have an opportunity to talk to a counselor what does time off look like? Those are the types of things that I will kind of try to unpack to understand, well, what's really going on because there's something that's happening in this system that's causing your people to be burnt out. Awesome, Yeah, yeah, So when we get to uh, you know, moving forward, right, And we think of like your organization and the legacy that you would like to leave for that. What what does that look like for you? What would that be. For me? The legacy that I would leave is creating organizations that help people thrive, where everyone feels as though they belong, that they can come there and be their whole selves to whatever capacity that is. I did hear just back there talk about code switching. That is very real. So we want to we want to make it a place where, because we spend most of our time at work, we want to make work a place where you can feel free to be there and not have the code switch. Yeah, that's that's what I want to do. I want to make work be free. Yeah. You know. The funny thing about cold switching, right is most black folks know or understand what cold switching is. White folks don't necessarily understand it. Right because they never really had to do that exactly, and if they, when they do it, it's. More of a mockery or trying to kind of colonize a culture, so to speak. Right, we do it because it's necessary, a necessity for us, right, And so when we when we think of like cold switching. Is it actually a bad thing? Like when you think of cold switching in the context, right, if we really pull back the layers and to have it discourse, it's cold switching a bad thing. I don't think it's a bad thing. I think it's a sad thing you. Have to do that. I love that my husband and I are on Blackish binge. I thought I was the only one who watched that. No watch it all the time. And they were talking about code switching and he had to kind of school his colleagues what does that mean. It's like your voice when you called an insurance company, when you call it a lectric company. So I don't think it's a bad thing, but I do think it's a sad thing that we shouldn't have to do because we should be able to be ourselves. Fantastic, fantastic. I would make sure I let your husband know to watch black a yes too. Oh that's our That's one of my favorite shows. They canceled it too quick. Yes, yes, So shout out to you. I want to thank you for coming to the show. And before we let you go, why don't you let everyone know how to get in contact with you? Do you have any thing coming up, so people can kind of follow all. That absolutely for sure. So you can reach me on my website at Lean Change Strategies dot com. I do have leadership briefs that I run on a monthly schedule, and the next one is all about the trust collapse. It's going to happen on April twenty third, from six to seven pm. You get some free diagnostics and you know a tool to take into work in that week after you attend. What does a tool look like? So when you say in a tool, what is that? So you'll get a diagnosis on where you fall as a leader in your trust capacity in your team and then we'll talk about how you can implement trust or start to begin building trust on your team next week? Yeah is it? So do they sit down and get that? How do they get the tool? Like? What is it like? So I have a toolkit that's all based on trust and how you can make templates, templates, scripting, all of. Those types of We need to talk because I see an AI for that. Oh yeah, and that's something we can talk about because I. Love we need to we need to ask about AI because we're doing basically we talked weekly has been doing uh platforms and panels about AI, and actually Charles just did a two of them workshops. Okay, so one of the questions are about AI. What's your thoughts on it? Do you think it should stay around? Is it helpful? What's what's your thoughts? I absolutely love A. I I'm all over Claude right now. He and I are co workers, best friends. But yeah, I absolutely love AI and I think that it should be utilized as much as it can be. But at the same time, I'm a sci fi movie watcher, and I don't know is a I gonna take over? We don't know yet. They're are determined. But I do love AI, and I do think that it's just day around, and I think that people, everybody should learn to begin to use it and use it properly. Of course, then you know, we talk about the legal aspects of it and the ethics of it, and you know, that's a whole other rabbit hole to go down. But I love AI and it's just stay around. Fantastic, fantastic. How can I get back in contact with you? Real good? Sure? Lane Change Strategies dot Com. As I said, we have leadership briefs. The next one is on the trust collapse on April twenty third, looking forward to seeing people there. Fantastic. All right, then you have it, ladies and gentlemen. What a fantastic and if you I appreciate you for coming. And one thing we say is once you come to the show, your friend to the show, so you're always welcome to come back. So when I further do classy lady, classy lady, were in the building, you ready for to go. Out real quick? Supposed to be with me, supposed to be with me. All right, y'all, don't go nowhere. We'll be right back after this. We got another dynamic interview. Y'all will be Hey, this is. Cannot be complete unless you listen to or why should we talk quickly? Please believe in b