The Headspace: Thinking about Ways to Attract

The golden rule, is to treat people as you want to be treated. That is a lot of wisdom but it is also a huge responsibility. When I first started learning about diversity, I was tasked as an employee to help recruit talent of people that were African American, First Nations (as we said in the early 2000s) and Latino(a) American (another term we used in the early 2000s). My supervisor and other leaders I worked with, were genuine in their desires to bring in the new talent, but I think they addressed this issue of diversity from their perspective.

I was supported going out and presenting to a group of young people and telling them that NC State was the best place to go. I soon learned that many students wanted to go to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and Duke University. Both of these schools were more known and had more notoriety as basketball champions. It’s not that NCSU were not Champions, but they had not won a title in a couple of decades at that time. I had to think about other attractions that would capture the attention of the youth. I was trying to think of something that we could champion that was different than our competitors.

Similarly, as I was promoting diversity In the College of Natural Resources, I noticed that many of my colleagues were not enthusiastic or supportive of diversity efforts. I noticed it because when it was time to go recruit, many of them did not want to come to an event. Sometimes when I needed a speaker at a program, faculty would not come to that. It was easier to get department heads and the Dean to come and speak, but technically they were not at the age that would make a student feel that this discipline was a viable career for them. One idea is that the students did not see themselves in the leaders that were coming to speak, but it was not just that. I noticed that the students and their parents were more focused on how they were addressed, as well as, what the school was offering. When I had scholarships to offer, it was easier to recruit. I am not saying that people were money hungry, but I am saying that people were hungry to send their child to college and some assistance would go a long way.

Once I started bringing the aspect of fun to the presentations and speaking about our disciplines of forestry, paper science and parks, recreation & tourism management in more cultural ways that made sense to the audience, I started getting more interests. If I could relate forestry to water in their homes, or something in their neighborhoods, it made sense. If I could talk about products that came from our industries that was entertaining. Something was still missing.

When I started infusing hip hop in my presentations, the students felt more connected to me, and I became someone they could talk to about their interests. Also, when I let the parents understand how I felt as a black forester in Montana, after I graduated college and I wanted a community back then, and their child will have a community working with my office that would look out for them, I had the trust of these families. As a result, we started getting more recruits. Fortunately, it was not about the money, but it was about the kind of time I was spending and the type of genuine attention that I was giving that made the difference. I started thinking about why people were not or did not support our diversity efforts and I noticed the same thing. It’s not that they did not want it, but they were hungry for something, success.

Diversity being a new concept at that time, people coming out of the kindness of their hearts was not a viable expectation, just like telling a young person to major in something they have never of heard of, was not a viable method to capture their attention. Instead of talking about diversity as the right thing to do, I started talking about diversity as giving us a competitive edge. My office started talking about diversity through the business case and saying that with more diversity we can compete with other schools. More people started getting involved but still something was missing.

Then I started learning about diversity strategies. While it was great to learn history of different communities, the tactics of getting people to embrace diversity came from a place of guilt. I saw presenters use painful stories to capture the attention of spectators that were white. Sometimes, there were tense presentations that would have facilitators in peoples’ faces and I never gravitated to that method. However, when people would come in my office and I would have one on ones with them, oddly I noticed these individuals would be helpful and participate in our programs. That is when the platinum rule started making sense, treat people as they want to be treated. I noticed that to achieve diversity, causing guilt was a tactic and using the business case was a method, but for me neither would work because I am not motivated by money nor am I driven by guilt. I started creating ways for people to see themselves in diversity. I started breaking down the principles of diversity and inclusion in more personal and professional ways that would help people see themselves in the work I was doing. I started to connect my work to their success. then I caught on to the people that worked with me started seeing my success as their success. We had to get in the vehicle together.

As a diversity professional, the relationship became the nucleus of my work. If I can talk to you, hopefully I can reach you. If I can reach you, then I can teach you. If I can teach you then you can teach me and we can lead one another. While I was recruiting students and some of them enrolled in my courses, all of them were teachers and I learned from them. As I was connecting with faculty and learning about their research, I was teaching them about diversity in the way that I was holding their attention.

Applying the platinum rule now is simply to remember that no matter who you work with, everyone wants to feel important and not in a famous type of way. People want to be heard and respected. People want to feel valued and cared for, but they want it the way that they want it. Therefore, you cannot treat everyone the same, but you can address people the same way, with respect and curiosity. Make sure the reason you do what you do is about you, but make sure the tactic you use is about the ones you are aiming to reach.