7, 2016: Stand Up, Speak Up
I was reading a post by Ellen McGirt,1 senior editor at Fortune magazine, called, “Why Employers Need to Talk about Shootings of Black People,”2 after 24 hours of drifting in waves of despair about the murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Her article highlighted the need for employers to go beyond the idea of inclusion to the more resonant emotion of compassion. She argued that when two Black men are killed by police, one at a traffic stop in front of his four‐year‐old daughter, employers must recognize that their employees, like much of the rest of the country, are likely to be deeply affected. I nodded my head with her clear, fierce, call to employers to go beyond their comfort zone.
And then I realized: “I'm the employer.”
I'm the CEO of Truss, a highly diverse, remote‐first software development company. My cofounders and I worked hard to make our company inclusive, using “radical candor”3 to address issues that many companies avoid. But news of these murders required more of me. First, as a Black man, I felt unmoored and vulnerable. There is no sign on my car nor a logo on my jacket that reads, “Don't shoot, I'm a CEO.” At the same time, part of my job as a CEO is to set a foundation so our employees can continue to do great work. My silence would be turning away from that responsibility. I needed to write a speech that acknowledged that while I'm a leader … I'm also a target.
This is what I wrote that afternoon to the Trussels, our employees.
Many of my friends are “calling in Black today.” Much respect. For those who can't or who choose not to, it's a hard, hard day to grapple with two police murders of Black men while still maintaining our professional demeanor and standards of excellence. (Note: We do that every day. Today is harder.)
If you have a work colleague who is Black, or who is connected deeply to these shootings, please read Ellen's article. We're all “whole people,” and understanding how trauma affects work can make this a better company for everyone.
We can't have the benefits of a diverse and vibrant company without acknowledging when it gets hard. Today is one of those days for me, and “as an employer,” it feels awkward, challenging – and necessary – to address it. Personally, I'm exhausted, so I'm not up for engaging in conversation. But I can create a tone and a space where Trussels can engage without fear of reprisal, toxicity, or indifference.
Let it be so. However you choose to engage, at minimum read Ellen's article, take a moment to reflect, and take care of each other.
This was one a moment when I moved to my edge, when I had to step into the unknown, feeling uncertain, and decide how to address a complex issue. I suspect you have encountered this moment too, like the other leaders you will read about in this book. What you will learn is how to stand up, speak up, and move forward anyway. You will learn how to practice, so when the moment comes, you are centered and ready to provide the leadership your team, company and our communities need.
Notes
1 1. Ellen McGirt's Race Ahead newsletter for Forbes is a consistent, prolific (nearly daily) resource for the intersection of business, race, and culture filtered with her keen journalist's eye.
2 2. Ellen McGirt, Why Employers Need to Talk about the Police Shootings of Black People, Fortune, July 7, 2016.
3 3. Kim Scott, Radical Candor (St. Martin's Press, 2019).
Introduction
Once in a generation, there is an event that fractures our experience. The summer of 2020 offered three: protests against racial injustice, massive forest fires in the western United States, and a worldwide pandemic. We can't unsee the knee on George Floyd's neck, supernatural orange‐smoke skies, or the faces of intubated elders dying of COVID alone.
Many of us had to respond to these unprecedented events and make decisions without guidelines or playbooks. Should we ask people to keep working while they're at risk of exposure to COVID? How do we support our teammates during the workday, while they are simultaneously acting as elementary school teachers to their children? Let's be honest – how many of us froze when we didn't know the answer to those questions? I know I did.
We're all susceptible to these responses. Some are rooted in neurochemistry – the well‐known flight‐or‐fight response. But others are rooted in our inherited leadership and management models, based on nineteenth‐century factories, where systems were well understood and problems had a singular “right answer.” We've been rewarded since kindergarten for raising our hand first with the right answer, preparing us to be “decisive” adult leaders.
But twenty‐first‐century problems like racial injustice, climate change, and pandemics are complex. The key property of complex systems is that they are not well understood, there are many unknowns, and problems often do not have a singular right answer. As a result, there is the risk of causing unintended harm. In short, the nineteenth‐century management model is a mismatch for today's leaders navigating complex systems. Many of us know it.
In the early stages of the COVID pandemic, as we realized that the impact was not measured in weeks, but months, I compared strategies with highly experienced, successful leaders. Out of the public spotlight, they were anxious and flummoxed, and they finally admitted, with grief and exhaustion, “I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. I don't have the right answer.” The fissures that opened this decade are a vivid wake‐up call that the “new normal” is complex, and we need new mindsets, processes, and practices to match.
Move to the Edge, Declare It Center is a framework to help leaders of organizations and teams navigate through complex problems when they don't know the “right” answer and there's no predetermined plan, playbook, or procedure. Move to the Edge is a set of practices, processes, and infrastructure to address complex problems, and Declare It Center is a set of methods to systematize, scale, share, and sustain the best approaches throughout an organization.
This book emerges from two distinct sources. First, from my experience as CEO and co‐founder of my company, Truss. Since 2011, we have developed human‐centered software to help our clients navigate complex, global, consequential problems, from helping to fix Healthcare.gov to modernizing supply chain and delivery logistics systems for some of the largest organizations in the world. We built a company that's been remote‐first for over a decade, exceeds our industry in diversity and inclusion, and is anchored by a values‐driven culture that helped us stay connected through the pandemic.
The second source is a lifetime of being on the edge, navigating the pursuit of excellence from the distinct vantage point of being an outsider. While I have a history of firsts – first in my family to college, first NCAA National Champion in any sport for Duke University – as a Black man in the United States, those firsts do not protect me from being a target of racial violence and discrimination. Every “routine” traffic stop has the potential for a deadly outcome, and
