by Yvette Craig
Take out a blank sheet of paper and list all the words you can
think of that describe diversity. You’ve got three minutes.
Starting now!
The exercise is a typical introduction to a diversity seminar facilitated by Amy L. Batiste, executive director of the Milwaukee Center for Workplace Diversity, a UW–Milwaukee business/community partnership.
Most participants in the exercise, which explores the multiple dimensions of diversity, can list about six or eight words. Batiste explains that’s because most people’s perceptions of diversity are generally limited to race, gender, age, ethnicity, physical abilities and sexual orientation.
Secondary dimensions of diversity can include occupation, educational background, geographic location, income, marital status, body image, learning styles, religious beliefs or faith tradition and work experience.
Batiste won’t hesitate to tell you, it all matters. She’s not trying to be preachy. There is an overall strategic reason why diversity matters.
Statistics show there is unprecedented diversity in America’s work force. According to a joint study of the Business Women’s Network and Diversity Best Practices and the U.S. Department of Labor, by 2010 more than 80 percent of new entrants into the work force will be women and minorities. Businesses and organizations that excel in managing diversity will have a competitive edge in the future, Batiste said.
That is the primary reason the new Center for Workplace Diversity was established at UWM – to provide a critical bridge between the university and the local business community desperate to recruit and retain a diverse work force and build organizations that value diversity.
“For Milwaukee’s success, and its competitive advantage, we’ve got to get down to the cellular level of why diversity is a challenge for us,” Batiste said. “The center is intended to be that catalyst, that connecting point, that safe haven to have those discussions.”
In 2005, for instance, Milwaukee will host several significant multicultural conventions, including the national NAACP convention and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce convention.
“This will have a multi-million-dollar economic impact for Milwaukee,” said Batiste, who holds a doctorate in human and organizational development from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. “It’s also our opportunity to put our best foot forward and demonstrate our progress in becoming more diverse and our community becoming more inclusive.”
The Greater Milwaukee Committee, in partnership with the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce and UWM, endorsed and funded the center. The GMC formed the CEO Diversity Task Force in 2002 to establish several strategic diversity initiatives, including the initial concept of a diversity center. More than 20 Milwaukee-area chief executive officers, led by Harley-Davidson Inc.’s Jeff Bleustein and Manpower Inc.’s Jeff Joerres, raised $300,000 in start-up funds.
The center’s efforts go beyond “Diversity 101,” Batiste said. It is designed to facilitate measurable progress toward the recruitment, advancement and retention of a diverse work force in Milwaukee and southeastern Wisconsin.
While the center primarily serves as a clearinghouse for professional development, collaborative action and the dissemination of expert knowledge from area diversity scholars, it also provides hands-on assistance to local organizations.
UWM will be among the first organizations the center will assist in its diversity initiatives.
“UWM will certainly lead the way,” Batiste said. “In fact, we’ve begun exploring ways that the center can help UWM strengthen its workplace diversity efforts on all levels.”
A natural connectionProfessor Belle Rose Ragins, a member of the business school’s management faculty, was instrumental in the development of the center and is its research director. The center’s Southeastern Wisconsin Diversity Research Consortium will link diversity scholars from UWM with other area colleges and universities to conduct collaborative workplace diversity research.
“I saw local companies and area businesses all sharing common frustration and challenges in optimizing their diverse work force,’’ Ragins said. “The partnership was a very natural connection.
“UWM and Milwaukee have the opportunity to assume a leadership role in the nation in supporting this unique model of a university/community partnership,” Ragins added.
Ragins, who has received eight national awards for her research, is currently examining factors contributing to turnover among women and people of color in the workplace. The study, called “Stopping the revolving door: The role of organizations and community diversity climate in the retention of employees of color,” is being conducted with co-investigators Jorge Gonzalez and Romila Singh, both professors in the management faculty at UWM.
Shortly after the center was created, Robert Holm (now attending the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard) was hired as interim program manager while a national search was conducted for an executive director.
Batiste, who officially came on board Dec. 1, 2002, credits Holm with zeroing in on the needs of Milwaukee-area organizations early on. In fact, Diversity Luncheon Seminars, held from September to April, attracted more participants than anticipated.
Diversity is not easy to talk about. Bring up the topic
of race and ethnicity, and people usually get defensive. Yet more than 800
area leaders from public and private organizations from across the area,
including Madison, Kenosha and Chicago, wanted to talk about it,
Batiste said.
In March, Holm and Batiste conducted five focus groups with area human resource leaders and diversity practitioners to get feedback on the strategic direction for the center.
“We’ve designed most of our seminars and programs with the skeptic in mind,” said Batiste, noting that educating skeptics about diversity, and convincing people who are naturally resistant to change, can be challenging and requires special skills.
Batiste, who led diversity initiatives at Saturn Corporation and General Motors before coming to UWM, moved to Milwaukee with her husband, Michael Woodwick, a Minnesota native who is attending classes at UWM.
A self-described “Air Force brat,” Batiste said her decision to accept the executive director’s position was not simple.
Batiste had never visited Milwaukee prior to being hired. She had worked with employees of Johnson Controls in Glendale, and was encouraged by Art Smith, president of Keystone Travel in Milwaukee, and others, to accept the UWM job.
Then she did her own research on Milwaukee and found, among other things, that the community was segregated, and the city was viewed as a place that needed to improve its diversity hiring practices.
“There is great disparity in this community and many barriers that go back historically,” Batiste said. “Milwaukee has a very distinct culture. You feel it when you come here…. It was very clear to me when I hopped off the plane.”
The San Antonio native added: “For all the stories I heard that would discourage the average person, the more interested I became in the challenge.”
Batiste sealed her decision to join the university when she spoke with Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher and other area chief executives who were eager to promote a diverse work force.
“This is a power-packed diversity initiative because CEOs created it and are directly involved in its implementation,” said Batiste. “The overwhelming theme I kept hearing was that Milwaukee is a place of emerging possibility. Milwaukee is about to turn the corner and is ripe for an exciting renaissance. Fresh leadership is emerging…and I’ve seen evidence throughout the community of positive energy that will support change.”
The center will be formally launched in October with a new “brand” name – IDEAL Milwaukee. That’s because the need for diversity knowledge and training extends not only to the workplace, but to the marketplace and the larger community as well.
The “IDEAL” in the name stands for the Institute for Diversity Education and Leadership. In the next two years, the initiative will focus on building leadership capacity at all levels to support and increase gains from diversity and inclusion efforts in organizations and communities. The approach includes:
Drawing on her experience as corporate education director at GM and supplier-diversity manager at Saturn, Batiste said she intends to create a corporate/university partnership aimed at making Milwaukee the “go to” place for successful diversity models.
“I benchmarked other cities,” Batiste said. “There have been attempts by other cities to figure out how to do a business/community partnership on the issue of diversity. The missing ingredient, they found, was having a neutral zone, which a university can effectively provide.
“A university lends credibility. A university brings phenomenal expertise and resources to the table. And, a university has the research capability that is often missing in community initiatives,” she added.
Batiste grew up in a family with a long line of achievements in civic leadership and higher education.
Her parents, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Harold and Gertrude Batiste, are known for their tireless leadership in social and religious endeavors.
Batiste’s grandfather, Julius S. Scott Sr., was president of Wiley College, a private liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church in east Texas. Her uncle, Julius Scott Jr., recently served as interim president of the Medical College of Georgia and special assistant to the president for diversity initiatives. And her cousin, John L. Smith Jr., was the 12th president at Fisk University.
It’s no surprise that her personal philosophy is based on “answering calls to serve.” And the UWM job was one of those, she said.
“I’m an architect in many ways,” Batiste said. “My passion is in designing systems for greater organizational effectiveness and in helping individuals and organizations learn so that they can more effectively lead and manage a diverse work force. It really connects all the things I care about most in my professional life – people, service and learning.”
Batiste said she looked forward to the day when she was no longer needed in this job. That would mean diversity was IDEAL.