In Her Words: Diana Ying Liu on How to Invest in & Build an Inclusive Team
Building upon our April 20 interview with Phyllis Njoroge, the content team at Her Product Lab is continuing to explore practices that companies can put in place to recruit and retain people of color, women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Diana Ying Liu is a San Francisco–based instigator, non-linear thinker, and founder of The SIX, an innovation and strategy management consulting organization. She spoke with Her Product Lab about specific strategies your team can develop when it comes to making sure you’re building an inclusive, diverse team.
Develop Your Non-Linear Thinking
Non-linear thinking is human thought characterized by expansion in multiple directions. It is when one’s creative self is allowed to run free. A lot of the clients we work with have been in their roles for 10, 20, 30 years, basically the majority of their adult lives, and they have become unintentionally siloed in their thinking, unaware of their own biases and privileges, and make recommendations and decisions based solely on their own personal experiences. Their thinking is linear and structured, but also fixed, and limited.
Whether you’re working with a transformation team, business, operations, product, or technology team, provide a safe space for everyone to share their different thoughts and experiences to create a holistic point of view. First, do a reality check and make sure you look at the team to make sure you have diverse representation. Then take action to intentionally push your teams to flex their growth mindset and non-linear thinking muscles, so that they can actually create something novel. You can use exercises such as structured and timeboxed brainstorming sessions, anonymous note and voting to highlight the best ideas, bring in analogous inspiration via diverse speakers, or an ‘inspiration wall’, which is a visual walk through of diverse ideas we curate to help the teams think differently. By leveraging different techniques rather than conducting business as usual will help your team make connections and co-create new ideas and concepts that they would not have usually thought of.
Align Your Organization to What You’re Building Toward
The first question we ask founders and executives we are working with is, “What is your vision?” The second question we ask is “Is your team aligned to that vision, and do they know how to execute against it?” More often than not, there is a vision, purpose, or mission statement that has been created, but the leaders and their employees do not connect with it. It is not clear how the company or organizational vision aligns to their day-to-day job.
It is the leadership’s obligation to ensure the necessary steps are taken so that every employee is clear on the vision, the execution plan, the operating model, and their role in how they deliver value in that operating model. In doing so, employees will stay connected and engaged over the longer term.
Get in Early with the Communities You Want to Hire From
Bringing in diverse ideas, experiences, and backgrounds is a no brainer. I recommend targeting LGBTQ+ university organizations such as clubs or business and academic fraternities and sororities. We would work directly with them to co-host special talks, events, and case study competitions.
The energy, creativity, and all around fun that was had was 10x more rewarding (I personally learned so much from the undergrad/grad students and experienced hires that came out to these events). Having these unique and special events also helps build a company’s brand with educational institutions as a whole.
Keep Your Team in a Flow State
Think of the ‘flow state’ the same as ‘being in the zone. The flow state is when you are doing work that you’re incredibly passionate about. It is when you’re so singularly focused and immersed that you’re unaware of other things. So how do you make sure that your team stays in that flow state?
We recommend leaders get to know their direct reports to understand what drives them, what gets them excited, what is their kryptonite. Intentionally create an environment where the day to day is not so easy that they are bored and not motivated, but also not so challenging that the person feels overwhelmed and shuts down. There needs to be a balance of structure and autonomy, comfort, and safety in the work, but also a bit of friction, with opportunities to be pushed outside of comfort zones, to encourage learning to develop and to grow oneself.
