“I am not doing well today. That simple reply opened the door to conversations that were long overdue, and it was the first time that I empowered myself to share my “whole self” with someone at work. When we allow space for team members to share their diverse experiences and who they really are, we open the door for new discussions, better relationships, stronger leaders, and innovation.” – Allyson Cook, Program Lead, Customer Engagement Program at Broadcom.
Work/life integration is the modern equivalent of work/life balance, and inherent in this is the idea that your “whole self” is welcome at work. As the last many months demonstrated, there is less separation between work and personal lives than we originally thought. But this idea of work/life integration and its influence on corporate inclusion plays out differently for different people, when being your “whole self” is a privilege—while some may be comfortable being their genuine “whole self” at work, others (especially those from more diverse populations) still feel a need to wear a mask based on how they are expected to behave but not who they really are.
In the third webinar installation of the Making Our Strong Community, Stronger collaborative initiative on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), ‘Unmasking Our ‘Whole Self’: Can We Create Inclusive Psychologically Safe Spaces in the Workplace?’ we look at how the pressures of the pandemic have heightened racial, gender and additional inequalities.
Panelists for this webinar include:
- Allyson B. Cook, Program Lead, Customer Engagement Programs, Broadcom
- Earl Dixon Jr., Principal Client Services, Vitality Program Tech Lead, Broadcom
- Kevin Norlin, Chief Revenue Officer, Rocket Software
- Tina Tarquinio, Product Management Director for IBM Z, IBM
Dr. Gloria Chance, President/CEO of The Mousai Group, moderated the webinar and held a private Town Hall the next day that offered attendees an opportunity to join the conversation by sharing their experiences, asking questions, providing feedback about what they’d like to see in the next webinar and learning tips on how to grow their own DEI journey or program.
If you missed the webinar on July 28, you can watch the video on the Open Mainframe Project Youtube Channel via the DEI playlist or play it below.
The Making Our Strong Community, Stronger collaborative initiative is sponsored by Broadcom Mainframe Software, IBM, Open Mainframe Project, Rocket Software, TechChannel and VirtualZ Computing. In addition to the webinars, the initiative will also produce articles and blogs about different diversity, equity and inclusion views, strategies, best practices and experiences.
Other resources:
- TechChannel article about the “Unmasking Our Whole Self” webinar
- Video and blog for “How Personal Experiences Shape Corporate Inclusion”
- TechChannel article on highlights from “How Personal Experiences Shape Corporate Inclusion”
- TechChannel article about “Why mainframe executives are investing in diversity and inclusion”
