How Zindzi Burchall is Putting Belonging at the Core of Seventh Generation’s Strategy
Interview with Seventh Generation’s HR Business Partner for Sharehold’s Redesigning Belonging Research
Curated by Lianna Woods
This post is part of an ongoing series in which Sharehold is publicly sharing our in-progress research that seeks to explore and answer the question: What does it mean to belong at work in a time of uncertainty? Are you interested in receiving our research insights when they’re released? Sign up here.
Meet Zindzi Burchall
Zindzi Burchall is Seventh Generation’s Human Resources Business Partner and at the forefront of Seventh Generation’s cultural transformation. Zindzi leads Seventh Generation’s DEI strategy which has recently doubled the representation of self-identified BIPOC at the company. She also leads Seventh Generation’s talent management, performance management, and employee relations strategies.
As part of Sharehold’s research on redesigning belonging at work for uncertainty, we interviewed Zindzi as an HR and DEI leader. Zindzi’s interview emphasized three primary themes:
- The need for belonging at the core of business strategy
- The institutional and personal infrastructure required to create an environment of belonging and the urgency of investing in this infrastructure right now
- Belonging is everyone’s concern, regardless of privilege or background, and businesses must commit to learning about and improving these practices as the fabric of their team changes over time
Read on for a few selections from our interview with Zindzi:
How do you define belonging at Seventh Generation?
“Belonging as I learned about it is a continually evolving concept. It’s important, especially as an HR person and a person of color, to recognize what we are learning now with what is going on in the world. We can’t confine ourselves to limited definitions for things, especially concepts like belonging that for different people will mean different things.
What I try to focus on in leading this work across my organization is the needs of my community. What does my community need in any given instance, whether it is regarding COVID-19 or the Black Lives Matter movement or performing well in their job? What feedback and insights can we gain from our community to help understand how we support them [in a way] that builds the framework for… an employee to feel heard and feel like they have a voice in their experience at work?”
“It is not just in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). It is not just about a person being able to come to work and see other people like them. It is about the conversations they are having with their managers. It is about the conversations we are having as a leadership team. It is also about the direction that our business is moving and in our decision-making practices. It will be exciting, right? Those are all aspects of belonging.
So that is how I am using belonging in my work and how I hope it comes alive for Seven Generation. As a community, we’ll continue to define that and make sure that we’re meeting those needs or doing the work that is necessary to meet those needs. As the business grows, as we gain new employees, as we lose employees, that fabric will continue to change. It’s just about recognizing that it’s something that we’ll continue to learn about proactively and must continue to improve.”
How does the value and importance of belonging compare to other business considerations at Seventh Generation?
“So, right now, [belonging] is a top priority. Maybe two weeks ago*, due to various business constraints, we were de-prioritizing it.
It’s interesting because the work that we do often is put to the sidelines or considered ‘this is just DEI work’ or ‘this is just one aspect of our business’ when in fact it has to be a stronger thread throughout all parts of our business that our people understand more. Today, with the Black Lives Matter movement and what is happening on the streets and people raising their voices, corporations are realizing that this was not just a little project that was launched. Belonging needs to be a more centralized focus, especially in business strategy.
When you think about consumers and creating the right products, advertising and all of these important things that add a lot of business value; if you don’t understand belonging and how to create the right environment for your employees to thrive in, how do you expect your product to thrive in an evolving and dynamic real world?”
Now we need the right infrastructure to support this work.
“Right now it’s been an extra project if you have a passion for it… Now the need is clearer. Now we need the right infrastructure to support this work.”
*This interview was conducted about two weeks after the murder of George Floyd.
Why would belonging be of greater concern for some employees over others?
“When you are a person of color, a woman, or you come from a background that isn’t privileged, you get very used to feeling like the world is not set up for your success. The world is not set up to understand you. So, you put yourself in enriching environments (in college, in your community)that allow you to wrestle with the world and understand and unpack these feelings.
I’ve been lucky enough to encounter people willing to have conversations with me around topics of inclusion and equity. I read literature, and learn from history about why a lot of the things that I feel are true and why I have the power to invalidate the messages I have internalized about who and what I should be in the world. How I should feel, how I should behave and how I should act.
But not everybody has the privilege to unpack these internalized messages. Everyone can’t always relate to that and that is okay. What we must understand is that everybody has a different perspective on things and has a different experience and is coming to these conversations on belonging with a very different idea. The fact that everybody has a place in the conversation is very critical for me because a lot of these concepts can run from people who feel like they don’t belong to them. Like, “I do not need to worry about belonging here, this isn’t relevant for me.” It’s relevant for every single one of us.
That is what I mean when I talk about building foundational knowledge around the work. It is getting everybody invested in it. Because if everybody isn’t invested, there’s no way for us to make that transformational change.”
How has COVID-19 impacted work at Seventh Generation? What challenges has the team reported as a result of these changes?
“It’s been extraordinarily impactful. One, it’s taught us that we don’t have to physically be together to do great work and we can stay connected in many different ways. That’s been a huge unlock.
We’re being more thoughtful about mental health and how employees support themselves. How do you be thoughtful when thinking about parents at home and about how we’re having conversations around the work that we’re requesting employees to complete? We need to ask about capacity and realign priorities. How do you lead an employee or manager through this new environment and coach them to keep their team together?”
How do you lead an employee or manager through this new environment and coach them to keep their team together?
“I think it’s mostly just getting clear on priorities and what work needs to be accomplished. The biggest thing that people are having anxiety about is how they are going to be assessed this year with the personal and business impacts that are coming down from all different directions. How do we evaluate employees in a fair, thoughtful and holistic way?
…We have to ensure our community is aligned on business deliverables and, if things are changing, that we’re communicating those changes transparently. The business is moving so fast, you must be able to just sit down and have the conversation and make the space to build that alignment. Employees [and managers] are on their own journeys… and each person is going to respond to the current environment in a different way. That for me has been the biggest concern raised, and then outside of that, a very important focus on mental health and wellbeing.”
If you had a magic wand, how would you increase belonging at Seventh Generation today?
“Truthfully, this is not the time to have magic wands. It is the time to believe in yourself to get stuff done right. I have always had to dream up a new way and a new idea of what I think Seven Generation can be. It is so important for HR professionals and anybody doing this work to create that dream and to make it a reality. If you cannot where you are, then you are not in an environment that is conducive for belonging. This is how we change the future.”
Further Reading
Throughout our research, we’ll continue to share peeks into interviews and resources.
More from Zindzi and Seventh Generation:
More on Sharehold’s Redesigning Belonging Research:
