Why HR shouldn’t Focus on Diversity with American Conservation Experience’s Alex Tremble

Better People Podcast

Alex Tremble is an accomplished executive leader with over a decade of success leading HR functions and culture improvement efforts for high-profile organizations like the U.S. National Park Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• The proactive nature you need towards diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• What an organizational culture assessment involves.
• The importance of focusing on underrepresentation rather than diversity.
• Why you need to identify the behaviors behind values.
• How to create a more representative workforce.
• Ways to increase employee satisfaction.
• How to improve your networking skills.

Resources:

• American Conservation Experience
• The Executive Appeal Podcast

Connect with Alex Tremble:

• LinkedIn
• Email

Connecting with the hosts:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables

• 3:24 - “There is a desire to focus on teaching people that different isn’t bad, there is a focus on teaching people to understand and value each other's perspectives, that’s absolutely critical. But the reality is that you and I live in a world where we know the data says that people who are taller generally get put into more leadership positions, people who are more attractive are believed more often, people who are of a certain skin color get this, people who are women or male, the reality is that we don’t live in a fair world so the only way to address these issues is to go into it eyes wide open and say ok it’s wonderful that we have all this great information on why people being different isn’t bad but what are we literally doing to increase diversity in our ranks.”
• 08:24 - “If you live in this fancy world where everything is hunky-dory, then you don’t actually address anything and no one can hold you accountable so having this data and coming out and saying yea this is wonderful that we have done really great in these other areas but over here we need to focus our effort and this is why I personally have moved away from the idea of increasing diversity within an organization to focusing on underrepresentation because representation is much more adaptable.”
• 17:31 - “I don’t care if you like me because I’m black. I’m a black guy by the way, if someone doesn’t like me simply because I’m black I couldn’t care less. If an employee or staff member doesn't like me because I’m black I couldn't care less and this goes for any demographic and the reason not being because I think it’s stupid, I think it’s because I have no control over what you think, I have absolutely no control over what you think but what I can hold you accountable for is your behaviors.”
• 21:06 - “All relationships are based on value, all relationships, even our marriages, our best friends, there’s absolutely no relationship that’s healthy where those individuals from that relationship aren’t providing value to each other.”
• 24:35 - “Many people from underrepresented communities tend to believe in this falsehood, this lie, this propaganda that we’ve all been fed that hard work takes you to the top, it doesn’t I can promise you all right now you all know someone who works really hard and they’re not where they want to be. So hard work is important I don’t want to get myself in trouble here, you don’t get to the table unless you work hard but it’s not hard work that differentiates you, it’s what you were talking about Holly it’s your network, it’s the relationships you have.”