Diversity and Inclusion Matters. Jason R. Thompson

Foreword

      Dear Reader:

      Covid-19. Amy Cooper. George Floyd. Police brutality. Black Lives Matter. The presidential election. The Capitol Riots. Social justice, systemic racism, equity – these are buzzwords from the past taking on new meaning, emphasis, importance, and scorn for a broader array of people. The United States is stepping into the global spotlight once again while casting a shadow that did not, and will not, serve its legacy well. Diversity and inclusion, for the first time, is becoming one of the most coveted roles in domestic and international corporations. The years 2020–2021 are years that have and continue to redefine how we view the world, how we view our neighbors, and how to have long overdue conversations within our communities and with corporations and governments. A roadmap for these conversations has never been more necessary or critical for the next generation.

      A roadmap created and generously shared by my friend and colleague Jason R. Thompson is what you have here. Jason and I met through our mutual love of sports, he at the United States Olympic Committee and I through Major League Baseball (MLB). After many iterations of practicing law, I had the good fortune of securing my first diversity and inclusion role at the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and have not looked back in eleven years. It was a discipline I was not particularly familiar with, especially in professional spaces (my entry point thoroughly predates the current norm of DE&I practitioners at every law firm and government agency). But once exposed, I quickly realized I was more than ready for this work and that, in essence, I had been a DE&I champion my entire professional and personal life. My USTA experience exposed me to the nuances of a corporate America with the layer of a nonprofit entity. It was a unique and serendipitous starting point to say the least, and it prompted me to go further by gaining experience in other industries that offered a global lens to the agenda. This led to my pivot into DE&I roles at some incredible brands across several industries that prepared me for leadership roles at companies such as Gucci, Major League Baseball, and Harry's. In addition, I lead a DE&I consultancy through my company VegaRobles Consulting, LLC.

I have had a fortunate journey in the DE&I space, but to this day the sports industry remains my first love. It is where I gained my most substantive experience as well as where I built, and have enjoyed, my best professional relationships, many of which have become lifelong friendships. I am proud to include Jason in that pool. I had the honor of meeting Jason in 2014 while I was the chief diversity officer (CDO) at Major League Baseball where I was responsible for developing and leading the D&I strategy for the entire league and its thirty club markets. It was my first CDO role, and I was completely stressed out about destroying the DE&I foundation built by my predecessor. It takes a village, as an adage goes that is worth its weight in gold, in the sports industry.

      Enter Jason, CDO of the USOC, and his brainchild, the Diversity and Inclusion Sports Consortium (DISC). Jason was one of the visionaries and co-founders of DISC, a coalition of DE&I leaders from every major sports organization in North America. This is no small feat, as you can imagine, And yet Jason was able to convince all of us of its need, utility, and the potential impact we could have on the industry. Jason was uniquely able to establish individual connections with all of us through his passion for the subject matter and his general unselfishness as he readily shared his unique approach to DE&I. Jason was deep-diving into data and metrics in DE&I well before they could be Googled. He created programs with detailed scorecards designed not only to hold himself accountable to his role but also to hold his organization accountable to the agenda. Jason's approach (one many of us DISC members riffed upon and leveraged) and DISC influenced many of our approaches to DE&I in sports, moving beyond the performative to the quantifiable impact. New developmental programs were established for existing and aspiring diverse professionals in sports, DE&I education became the norm, and social justice conversations became a bit less daunting (albeit they still remain challenging, but at least we have started).

There is no silver bullet, outlining a perfect way to strategize and deploy DE&I. First of all, every organization is different, and the culture and leadership are incredible influencers on DE&I's success at the company. Second, I know firsthand how difficult it is to find practical advice and guidance when starting a DE&I program. Much of the information out there is either overly aspirational without any real practical or tactical insight or overladen with a heavy dose of metrics/data that only skim the surface by overemphasizing hiring and representation without consideration of promotion, development, marketing, CSR investments, and so forth. Finally, even the good information out there is remarkably dense and (inadvertently) presupposes that DE&I departments are naturally the size of a small army à la Amazon, Google, or Starbucks. Spoiler alert: most are not.

      These challenges lend themselves to the beauty of this book. It provides a comprehensive roadmap for either the DE&I professional just starting out, the seasoned expert seeking a new prospective, or anyone in between. Jason has successfully broken down all the components of a successful DE&I program that lays the responsibility not only of the DE&I leader (as most how-tos do) but also of the organization itself. From his emphasis and insights on engaging internal stakeholders, as well as positioning of DE&I as organizational change to your own self-care as a professional in a very tough discipline, Diversity and Inclusion Matters weaves a comprehensive narrative that will allow any professional with the appropriate dedication, will, and finesse to drive diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout their organization. And the individual chapters equally stand on their own for the professional looking for guidance on a particular subject to help push them to the next level of their DE&I strategy.

      Where the book shines is Jason's clear explanations of the role of data in DE&I. We live in a world where data is king. The use of this data has not always been clear or robust enough to allow for systemic overhaul. For most organizations, DE&I data usually stops at representation and Employee Resource Groups(ERG) participation numbers with targets set to hit achievable and less-scary goals, Jason shares a detailed look at the opportunities available to leverage data beyond representation and optics, moves toward analyzing the numbers to set logical but challenging goals, and most uniquely, explains how to measure the elusive and subjective idea of inclusion.

So why this book versus others? Why not just conduct an internet search for plans or reach out to a colleague on LinkedIn? Because Jason's work is proven. His methodology has made, and continues to make, an impact. His work remains intact at every organization he has been a part of. This is not to say that his work has saved the world (all seasoned DE&I professionals know that is not the

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