Today, Alex is covering a widespread problem in the construction industry and arming you with the tools to combat it. The problem? A lack of belonging environments and of knowledge surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion, or EDI for short. In The Foundation, you'll find out how alike each and every one of us really is...
We’re sure you’ve heard the words “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” But when you really think about it, do you know exactly what each of them means, especially as it relates to working in the construction industry?
In this week’s episode, Alex is going to outline the building blocks of DEI and he’ll unpack how critical it truly is to our everyday lives. Drawing from his own experiences and in-person trainings, Alex will cover how big the problem of racism actually is, and what you can do to have a positive impact on every member of your team.
You might not agree with everything you hear from the episode, and that’s okay. Just remember, at the end of the day, as Alex says, what’s most important is trust and respect.
What to look out for in today’s episode:
In our third segment, The Foundation, you’ll figure out how to talk about race. And while you might think there are lots of different races of humans out there, you’ll hear the truth from Alex about how alike we all really are. Another key topic that will be covered is unconscious bias, keep an ear out for that one.
Tune into our final segment, The Frame Out, to find out the four tools you can practice to combat unconscious bias and exclusion. Alex wants you to think about these tools as if they were weights you’d lift at the gym. In order to get better in your daily life, you have to workout with them daily. Time to get up for the challenge!
Helpful Links:
Construction Dive Special Report
[00:00:00] Alex: Hey, welcome back to episode three. No Bullshit with Alex. What is the go-to source for leadership development in the construction industry? Uh, in the last segment, my friends, we were talking about belonging and how important that is for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and ultimately that's the end goal.
[00:00:24] Alex: Right. And in this segment, the foundation, we're gonna frame and talk about what's the foundation [00:00:30] around it that you need to really begin to do to ultimately get what you want, uh, which ultimately is this belonging environment. So what do you need to do? Well, there's a couple things you have to overcome.
[00:00:39] Alex: The first thing that most of us have challenges with is this thing called raced. Ah, that's a tough one. Think about that. My friends, most of us, our parents, our grandparents, they told us, Hey, don't talk about a few things in life. Don't talk about race, don't talk about politics, don't talk about religion, and don't talk and don't talk about money.
[00:00:59] Alex: Well, if we're [00:01:00] being honest right now in the society in which we live in, all of those topics face us date. And so we're walking around in our own bubbles, not having real conversations with people, and therefore we have our own information there. Uh, and the problem is this, my friends, when you are faced with some type of information gap, right?
[00:01:21] Alex: So when there's a gap of information, Between you and someone else in your interactions with them if you don't talk about it. What we do as individuals is we [00:01:30] unpack our backpack of experiences and things that we know, and things that we've gone through, and we take our information and fill it and put it in the gap, which leads to great assumptions.
[00:01:40] Alex: And you know what they say when you assume you make an ass out of yourself. And oftentimes we do because we are not having great conversations. So the foundation of belonging is number one, you gotta have great conversations with people and be willing to talk to people to understand and understand them, understand yourself, and begin to just have some of those challenging [00:02:00] conversations, right?
[00:02:01] Alex: And one of those challenging conversations is around this thing called race. So, so as you think about this thing called race, before I tell you what it is, I often ask people a few questions. The first question that I love to ask people is this, how would you define race? What does it mean to you? Think about that for a second.
[00:02:17] Alex: It's a question that most people have never even thought of. How would you define race or what does it mean to you? When I ask that question on job sites, I hear all kinds of answers. Everything from, well, it's, uh, it's skin color. I define race as skin color, or [00:02:30] I define race based on geographic location.
[00:02:33] Alex: I define race based on facial features and physical features, right? We've heard all kind of things that we've heard people kind of throw out because they've never really challenged themselves with that question, right? So think about that then. Then I go a little further. And I wanna ask you my audience, how many races do you think there are?
[00:02:53] Alex: And I want you to understand this. I've heard everything from a few to millions, right? I think I was in Prime View, [00:03:00] Oregon when a guy just looked at me and said, Alex, it's millions. And I'm like, damn, dude. Thankfully I'm not gonna have you all list all of those, right? But traditionally, uh, what people use is their go to my friends, they look at that government form.
[00:03:12] Alex: They say, Hey, well Alex, on the government form, we have black, we have Caucasian, we have Hispanic, we have non-Hispanic, male and female. We have, uh, you know, they kind of go down there, listen at the bottom, we have other right. And I'm the guy who always checks other, and then the black guy walks in the room, right?
[00:03:28] Alex: But think about that. [00:03:30] How many races are there? And I want to push you even further. How do we decide which race someone belongs to? And hear me out. My friends don't give me that bullshit about, well, Alex is not my job to do that. I don't do it. We all do it. Let me give you an example. Oftentimes when we hear people talk based on their accent, we begin to decide, oh, I think they're from this part of the world.
[00:03:53] Alex: We may not say it out loud, but in our minds, we start churning on based off accent. Based off of [00:04:00] clothing that people wear. Hey, if you tuned into today's episode and you're looking at it on YouTube right now, you saw me in a full-fledged dashiki doing this show, you would say, I think that dude's from Africa.
[00:04:10] Alex: Right, based on what I'm wearing. Right. So understand, we do it based on clothing. We do it sometimes based on what people eat their religion. If I told you for the next half of this show, my buddy who's Hindus coming into class, just hearing that right now, what do you visualize that person looking like?
[00:04:28] Alex: Most people visualize [00:04:30] someone with brown skin from Asia, right from that, that that Asian kind of area. Think about that because we use those contact clues. We fill in our own information and we make these assumptions, right? I often ask people to look around the room or to look around their job site and their team, and who do they think they're most similar to, genetically, biologically, and why?
[00:04:52] Alex: Most times people pick people who look just like them. Same eye color, same hair color, same skin color. And then the last question I want you to ponder on [00:05:00] today, on today's show is this. Where do you get your source of information from as it pertains to race? Think about that. What's your source of information?
[00:05:09] Alex: For most people, it's family upbringing, it's life experiences. It's the neighborhood that I grew up in. It's my school system, social media, the news. I want you to think about that. How different. All those sources for all of us. [00:05:30] So we pull all of this information from all these different places, all these different sources.
[00:05:35] Alex: We're left with our own ideas, our own experiences, and we never talk about it. So it's as if we're walking around in bubble with our own thoughts about race, ethnicity, and others, never talking about it, and oftentimes making horrible assumptions about other people. Right. I think the, the worst I've ever heard.
[00:05:57] Alex: It made me laugh. I had a buddy of, of mine [00:06:00] in a, in a class, and we were talking about it and he threw out this. He said, Alex, they're sub to this thing called race because all black people have an extra calf, G. Right. That's why they can jump so high and dunk. And I'm like, well, damn dude, I can't dunk, so I guess it jumped over me.
[00:06:16] Alex: Right. So, so understand when you have these kind of conversations and you're trying to create belonging environments, sometimes you have to keep straight, face, a straight face and say, huh, that's interesting. Never thought about it that way, or never saw it that way. Right? That [00:06:30] was one of those times I had to use that.
[00:06:31] Alex: Oh, that's interesting. Never thought about it that way. Right. Well, let's dive into this thing called race a little more, in a little more detail. There's something called the Human Genome Project. For those who are interested. Check it out. Here's what it was. Uh, scientists went all over the world sampling the d n a of people, right?
[00:06:52] Alex: They wanted to see what's up with this thing called race. Is it real? Is it something to it? How many races are there? Are there genes and one group of people [00:07:00] that are not in another group? So they spent billions of dollars in about 13 years doing this study, comparing dna. Here's what they found, my friends.
[00:07:08] Alex: After 13 years and billions of dollars spent on the study, they found that, truth be told, there is no such thing as race. We are 99.9% alike. Think about that. All of you who are listening in, the millions of viewers who are listening in right now, 99.9% like [00:07:30] acts. You may not look like me. You may be a different gender.
[00:07:34] Alex: You may have different skin color, you may have blonde hair. But we are 99.9% alike. The differences that you see only make up 0.1%. Now, here's the crazy part. Society has us focus all of our damn time on the 0.1%. So instead of creating belonging, environment, society, news, media, social media, uh, sometimes friends, family, peers, we [00:08:00] focus on that other side and we create great, great gaps between us.
[00:08:04] Alex: Here's the crazy fun fact for you. Crazy, stupid, fun fact of all the species on the planet, we are the most alike, my friend. Think about that. Of all the species on the planet, we are the most alike at a similarity rate of 99.9%. The closest species in similarity rate within themselves are chimpanzees. Now chimpanzees have a [00:08:30] 98.7% similarity rate within themselves.
[00:08:33] Alex: I don't know about you, but shit, every monkey looks alike to me, right? It's a damn monkey. But think about it. They look so similar, yet we who look so different, have a higher similarity rate within ourselves than they do within themselves. That's the jacked up part that gets us messed up. So as we talk about belonging environments in construction, the first thing we have to do is really set foundational [00:09:00] groundwork with facts.
[00:09:01] Alex: Understanding that we are more alike than we are different. Regardless of how I talk, regardless of what I look like, regardless of all of these other factors, we have a lot in common. When I can understand that, I can really begin to bring empathy and compassion to those around me, and it a, it allows me to see commonality and to really begin to treat people differently.
[00:09:22] Alex: Right? But, but here's the deal. Understand this, your view. Of diversity, your view of others [00:09:30] is often predicated on your upbringing, the opportunities in your life, the experiences in your life, and all of those things shape us, right? They shape us, and it brings us to this really, really crazy thing called bias.
[00:09:43] Alex: So, so, so understand this, this thing called bias is very, very challenging, uh, because oftentimes it leads us and guides us without us even realizing it. And oftentimes we don't even understand the decisions that we're making based on unconscious bias. So what the hell is unconscious bias? Well, here [00:10:00] it is.
[00:10:00] Alex: My friends. Unconscious biases are learn stereotypes that are automatic, unintentional, oops, deeply ingrained, universal, and able to influence your behavior. Automatic. Oops. I didn't mean to hurt anybody. I wasn't trying to do that. Right. Deeply ingrained, universal, and able to influence your behavior. True story.
[00:10:21] Alex: So check this out. Several years ago we moved here into, uh, Naperville, Illinois, and we moved into a great neighborhood. I'll tell you, this is not the, the neighborhood I [00:10:30] grew up in. Uh, it is just a different neighborhood and it's a great neighborhood. The neighborhood I grew up in at the time was a great neighborhood.
[00:10:36] Alex: When I grew up, we had great people around us, right? But just a different neighborhood. So, Uh, just to let you know, Neighborville has been voted as, I think the top 10, uh, over the last 10 years, I think the top five places to live in the us right. So we bought a house. In this neighborhood, we bought a house in a cul-de-sac and my realtor and I were standing in the front yard, right?
[00:10:55] Alex: So my realtor and I are standing in the front yard, the neighbor across the street, which happens to be [00:11:00] about a 65 year old white male, saw someone was buying the house. And for the story, I have to let you know, my realtor is a white male, 44 year old white male. Uh, I'm a 44 year old black male, and we're standing in the yards dressed the same, laughing and joking.
[00:11:14] Alex: The neighbor looks out, sees someone by the house buying the house. Wants to come across the street and welcome the new neighbor to the neighborhood. So he comes and you can see as he's walking, he starts slowing down because he is looking at me, he's looking at my realtor, he is looking at me, he's looking at my realtor, and all of a sudden he looks at my realtor one more [00:11:30] time, grabs my realtor and starts hugging his neck and says, welcome to the neighborhood brother.
[00:11:34] Alex: We're so bad to have you here. Right. And my realtor, who is cool as shit. Looks at him, he pushes the guy off. And I hope you, if you're watching the video, you'll see my face on this. He gives the guys just the craziest look ever. And he says, and he smiles a smirk on his face and says, I'm not your neighbor.
[00:11:51] Alex: That's your neighbor right there, right? And he points over there to me, and the guy turns to me and he says, oh, I'm so sorry. Welcome to [00:12:00] the neighborhood, brother. We're so glad to have you here. He grabs me and starts hugging my neck. And so I want you to think about that for a second. Pause for a second.
[00:12:07] Alex: In that moment, as my neighbor's coming across the street, Trying to decide who is the homeowner? Is it Alex? Is it this other guy? Is it Alex? Is it this other guy? Understand he wasn't trying to purposefully hurt Alex's feelings, but based off of his background, based off of previous information he's seen, he's been in this neighborhood 35 years.
[00:12:27] Alex: He hadn't seen families that look like mine. Shit, I've [00:12:30] been here five years. I hadn't seen families that look like my right. So, so based off of all of that, the price of the house where it is, he assumed that it wasn't this guy. Bias, unconscious bias. He wasn't purposely trying to hurt me, but operating on autopilot.
[00:12:46] Alex: Right? And we all do it, my friends. So understand this, even in that same conversation as we're working and talking, uh, bias even slipped out in the words that he said. So he's congratulating me, welcoming me. Let me know how awesome the neighborhood is and [00:13:00] how my family's gonna love it. And it's like, Hey dude, listen, this neighborhood is awesome, man.
[00:13:03] Alex: Your family's gonna love it. And he pauses really quickly and he looks at me and he leaves in and he says, you don't have to worry about any gunshots nesting. And I'm like, in my head, I'm like, damn, right now I'm a black guy with tattoos. And so he saw that, he was like, this kid clearly grew up in the hood, right?
[00:13:22] Alex: And, and so when he walked away, My, my realtor was like, damnit, dude, where's the nine millimeter? When you need one? You [00:13:30] should have pulled out a nine and said, nah, yet bitch, and started shooting a gun, right? I'm like, dude, that would've been freaking hilarious had I done that. Right? But, but here's the deal.
[00:13:39] Alex: Great guy, great guy. But because of his upbringing, because of his experiences, because of the things that he see, allowing bias to lead him in guiding. So this thing called bias. How do we have it? Why? Well, because your brain can only handle. 40 pieces of information at a time. But understand it's my friends.
[00:13:58] Alex: You are bombarded at [00:14:00] every moment with about 11 million pieces of information. So your brain says, Hey, wait a minute, I'm gonna help you out, my friend, because we can't filter all of this stuff based on the news that you watch, music, that you listen to how you grew up, experiences that you had, friends that you're around, all of these things, we're gonna bring it together.
[00:14:17] Alex: And in the background, we're gonna compute on all of this going on in your head and we're gonna help you make decisions about people. Safe, not safe. Trustworthy, not trustworthy. That person you can go with. That person you can't. And we do that based on [00:14:30] limited information. And here's the crazy part, our brains tend to operate at extreme levels.
[00:14:36] Alex: So when we hear certain things about people, we tend to go into that fight or flight mood and protect ourselves. When truth be told, our lives really aren't in danger at times. Right. And it comes to this concept called anchoring, right? There's a concept in behavioral economics called Anchoring My Friends, and what is, what the hell is anchoring?
[00:14:53] Alex: Well, anchoring says this, whenever you see something very vivid [00:15:00] on television in real life, it's an experience that anchors in your mind and you never forget that experience. And so now anytime you come remotely close to anything like that, Your mind goes back to that anchor and you begin to pull from that data, uh, information, you fill in the gap there, and that's how you make your decisions, right?
[00:15:25] Alex: I want you to think about that. So this thing called bias, how's it formed? Well, based [00:15:30] on life observations and life experiences, we begin to understand the world a certain way based on those experiences. But we have to understand those are limited experiences, right? But we understand the world a certain way.
[00:15:41] Alex: When we begin to understand the world a certain way, we then begin to build hardcore beliefs and assumptions about the world, about people and all of these things. And from there, my friends, we eat. So if you're going to try to tackle this thing called bias, what you have to do, if you're gonna build belonging environments, you have [00:16:00] to do what I like to call reverse engineer your life.
[00:16:02] Alex: What do I mean by that? Well, before you act, Put up that mental stop sign and slow down and say, well, wait a minute. Let me challenge my beliefs and assumptions. Say, wait a minute, why am I thinking this way? Is there another potential way to look at the situation? Based on that, try your best to begin to understand the world differently by looking at different perspectives and different point of views.
[00:16:24] Alex: And try your best to get around different people so that you can have different experiences [00:16:30] to build that database of different perspectives so that you can pull from those instead of putting information in based off of only your life experiences, my friends, right? So by doing that, you can begin to live great foundation for creating belonging.
[00:16:45] Alex: But now here's the deal. What are some practical tools? I need you practicing so that you can make sure teams stay together, that you're able to do a great job of holding this belonging environment together. And here's the deal. We're going to dive into a little [00:17:00] more on this next segment called the Frame Out, and we're gonna really frame it out.
[00:17:04] Alex: And show. How the hell do you do this? I mean it. It is one thing to talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion, but what skills do you need? What skills? Once you constantly practice, how can you teach your team certain things so that they play fair in the sandbox? Don't worry, my friends belonging, we're going to not make it so high in the sky and mystical and magical.
[00:17:25] Alex: We're really going to show you a fuel tools. I like to show [00:17:30] four tools. Four tools, and we'll talk about that in the frame out. That if you do these four things, it creates a phenomenal environment. An environment where we can be trusting and respectful for all, as well as a strong belonging environment where people feel like their best self.
[00:17:49] Alex: And even when you have challenges, as you will, you'll know how to fix it and how to put teams back together. So I look forward to seeing you in the next segment when we talk about these four tools and frame it out. [00:18:00] Hey, thank you so much for tuning in to No Bullshit with Alex Willis, the go-to source for leadership development in the construction industry.
[00:18:07] Alex: Uh, I wanna just, uh, encourage you to subscribe, uh, via YouTube or your favorite podcasting platform. Please, please, please leave comments and questions that you may have. We will love to hear your feedback about the show and if you're having a leadership challenge. I wanna remind you, we are here for you.
[00:18:24] Alex: Please, please, please write that in so that we can begin to do some research and talk about that subject so that you can [00:18:30] go out and be the best leader possible.