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 this first segment, The Takeoff, find out just how big the issue 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 first segment, The Takeoff, you’ll hear just how far and wide racism is spread in the construction industry. Once we get a grip on the numbers, Alex will define diversity and the five different levels of it.
Tune into our next segment, The Level, to learn more about creating a belonging environment for yourself, and all the individuals you work with. No one wants to be left out, and it’s often easy for underrepresented groups to feel excluded unless organizations make an active effort to bring them into the fold.
Helpful Links:
Construction Dive Special Report
[00:00:00] Alex: Hey, what's up my friends? Alex Willis here. C e o of Leadership Surge. I want to thank you for tuning into our show today. No bullshit with Alex Willis. The go-to source for leadership development in the construction industry. Today we are diving into a fun topic, but challenging. We're talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion in the construction industry.
[00:00:28] Alex: Many companies are [00:00:30] thinking about it, tip toying around it, challenges with it. How do you do it? Is it important? Today, we're gonna dive in, and I promise you this, my friend. By the end of the today's show, we will agree to disagree, but that's a beautiful thing, right? Because we can do that respectfully and still have trust and respect for each other as we talk about our differences.
[00:00:49] Alex: So we're gonna jump into this on our first segment, the takeoff. So let's jump into it. So, hey, welcome to the takeoff, my friends today. As I said, we're talking about diversity, equity, and [00:01:00] inclusion in the construction industry. Now hear me out. I've been traveling around the US as well as in Canada for the last three years, talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion in the construction industry.
[00:01:11] Alex: And I'll tell you, it is not received well. My friends right now hear me out on this partly because my friends, we've done a horrible job of talking about it. Oftentimes when I go out to local unions, when I go out to companies, when I talk to organizations, Most times when the audience comes into [00:01:30] the room to talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion, they come in highly pissed off.
[00:01:35] Alex: And then they see this black guy talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion. And I've heard all sorts of things such as my audience thinking that I'm going to beat 'em up, talk down to 'em, tell 'em what they're doing wrong. And truth be told, we've done a horrible job of explaining what diversity, equity, and inclusion is.
[00:01:53] Alex: And I think it's time for us to really have a deep dive and understand. How we're all different, why [00:02:00] it's important for us, and the importance that it brings to our industry in construction. Right? So if we think about why, why is it important? Well, Contractors understand this, my friends, we are right now at an all time worker shortage, right?
[00:02:14] Alex: We have a workforce shortage, so we need more people. Let's be honest with that right there. Uh, if we don't get more people, we're gonna have challenges building things. And so where are people coming from? Well, we're gonna have to bring in different people. That means people that look differently, believe [00:02:30] differently from different backgrounds, different areas.
[00:02:32] Alex: And that can be challenging at times when we talk about mixing that with the current construction workforce, right? Especially when we talk about how we think about this thing called diversity, equity, and inclusion. So as we talk a little bit about this, one thing I need you to understand is this, we really have to do a great job defining terms, right?
[00:02:51] Alex: And what do I mean by that? Well, when we talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion, everyone comes to the table with their own definition and most times, [00:03:00] People assume that you mean certain things about it. So I wanna really clearly define that. And we're gonna do that in a second so that you know what we mean here on no bullshit with Alex Willis when we talk about it.
[00:03:10] Alex: But more importantly, I wanna really begin to hone you in on something even more important, which is the value of trust and respect. Can we all agree that no matter who a person is, what they believe, what they look like, where they're from, they deserve trust and respect, right? Doesn't matter their sexuality.
[00:03:28] Alex: You may agree, you may disagree [00:03:30] with it. That does not matter. What's most important is trust and respect, right? So that's the bottom line. That's where we ultimately wanna land here in the construction industry. So, as we talk about it, I wanna bring up an interesting study. There's a magazine called Construction Dive Magazine.
[00:03:44] Alex: Now hear me out. Construction Dive Magazine, my friend, they went to 2,500 job sites interviewing frontline leaders to discuss this thing of diversity, equity, and inclusion. And here's what they found. They found that of the 2,500 job sites that they [00:04:00] interviewed, 65% of the respondents said that they had witnessed a racist incident on job site.
[00:04:06] Alex: So I'd love to pause for a second. I would just want to ask my audience today, For those who were listening in the construction industry, have you ever witnessed a racist incident on job site? Think about that for a second. Most people have, right? 40% of the respondents said that they had seen some type of racial graffiti.
[00:04:22] Alex: 38% said that they had heard some type of verbal or abusive slurs hurled at black or brown or Hispanic [00:04:30] employees. 15% said they had seen some type of noose or racist Object at work, right? How many of you have ever seen a noose or racist object at work? The most shocking stat of all was that 77% of the respondent said that nothing was done to address the incident they witnessed.
[00:04:46] Alex: Now hear me out, my friends. I'm the guy who gets called out on most of these challenging job sites when the shit hits the fan. So when we go on job site stand downs for things like sexual harassment, nooses on job sites [00:05:00] or misconduct, and everyone has to stop, work has to halt, Alex usually comes out and does a training.
[00:05:06] Alex: Here's what I've come to find out, that 99% of the people on site don't agree with that behavior that goes on. So, so let me, let's slow down for a second. Think about that. 99% of the people on job site don't agree with the things that they see, the words being used, the graffiti, the sexual harassment, [00:05:30] the racial discrimination, but no one says anything about it.
[00:05:35] Alex: Why is that? Think about that for a second. Why is it that most of us in construction, Alex included, We act totally different in other sectors of our lives. I want you to think for a sec. If you were at the grocery store and you saw a news hanging in the produce section, I seriously doubt that you would just push the news to the side and just grab the carrots, right?
[00:05:56] Alex: You wouldn't do that shit. You, you would say something if you [00:06:00] took your kid to the pediatrician's office and you walked into the bathroom, and when you walked into that bathroom, you saw racial graffiti all over the bathroom, a big penis drawn on the wall. Uh, what would you do? Most people would go to the front desk and say, doc, do you know what the hell is going on in your bathroom?
[00:06:16] Alex: You would say something, you would intervene. You wouldn't just be a bystander. You would actually step in and say something. So why is it in our industry that we don't? So I get a chance to travel around and ask this question, and here's what we find. We find multiple [00:06:30] answers. Things such as people saying, Alex, I'm, I'm fearful for my job, right?
[00:06:35] Alex: So, A real fear is retaliation. Hey, if I say something, I will be retaliated upon, right? That's number one. Uh, we hear that, Hey, I just don't want the attention on me, so if it's not on me, I'm okay with it. Pushing it to somebody else, right? Oftentimes we hear that a lot of our teams, they don't know what to do, where we don't have the right pla uh, things in place for people to be able to [00:07:00] report that kind of stuff.
[00:07:01] Alex: We often hear people say, Hey, listen, leave your feelings at the gate. In construction, we have this tough guy mentality where, you know, we can pick and joke and and and harass people, and they're supposed to have tough skin. Well, I wanna challenge you, my friends, to understand this. What does it look like for us to have the same values and character that we have with our families also at work?
[00:07:24] Alex: And that's where we're going with this. We wanna challenge you to really begin to think of how you are responding in [00:07:30] other areas of your life and bringing that same type of integrity. Those same type of values, those same type of things. We teach our kids into the construction industry, right? So, so in order to do that, how do we do that?
[00:07:42] Alex: Well, first and foremost, we have to really begin to understand what the hell is diversity. So I asked another question to our listeners today, what is diversity and how diverse are we in the construction industry? Think about that for a sec. Now, oftentimes when I hear and I ask that question, I hear crazy [00:08:00] answers.
[00:08:00] Alex: I hear things like, Hey, we're not diverse at all. We are 90% middle-aged white men in construction. And if we look at the outside, that is correct, my friends, but I'm still gonna ask a question. Are we diverse? And more importantly, what is diversity? Right? Hear me out. Most people, they limit diversity.
[00:08:21] Alex: There's two things that we like to call the I test. First of all, they look around the room and they say, oh, do we have different genders in the room? So that's one check of the box. And then [00:08:30] they look around and look at skin color. What does the skin color in the room look like? And if we have different shades of skin color as well as different genders in the room, people say, yes, we are diverse.
[00:08:40] Alex: And I challenge people to understand that diversity so much more, my friends. And if we're going to make a dent in the construction industry to get people on board with this, we have to understand the power of broadening that definition. And understanding that. Truth be told, we are very diverse in the construction industry.
[00:08:58] Alex: I don't care that we may [00:09:00] have the same gender and the same skin color in 90% of our people. But we have to broaden the definition to understand what is it, first and foremost. So, so what is it? Of course, it's the differences in gender, but also the differences in racial and ethnic, socioeconomic, geographic locations, professional and academic backgrounds.
[00:09:20] Alex: Uh, people with different opinions, backgrounds, degrees, social experiences, religious beliefs, political beliefs, uh, sexual orientation, as well as heritage, right? [00:09:30] It's also the differences in our mental and physical abilities. I was in a cool place and for the first time I saw and met a one arm electrician.
[00:09:40] Alex: Think about that. One arm electrician in the crazy part is this. He was a badass and would outwork everyone. Not only was he a badass, he shot a 70 in golf. I told him, I said, Hey dude, you and I should both quit our jobs travel around the us go to every freaking country club in America. They would see you with one arm, meet this black [00:10:00] guy with tattoos, and they would assume we couldn't play golf and we could hustle the shit out of everybody.
[00:10:04] Alex: Right? Why? Because people have bias and stereotypes when they see certain things, they start hagging and categorizing people, and we'll talk about that in an upcoming segment. But let's think of diversity. I need you to understand diversity is broader than gender and skin color, right? So, so to help people understand this, we help them to understand that there's so much more beneath the surface when we talk about it and we cheapen diversity when we [00:10:30] limit it to gender and skin color.
[00:10:32] Alex: Why is this important in the construction industry? Well, here's why my friends, let me slow down for a second. If we are being honest and if 90% of our industry are middle-aged white male, And if we've shortened the definition of diversity to include women and minorities, who the hell are we leaving out?
[00:10:53] Alex: There's a large segment that we're leaving out, and please understand when you come in with a diversity, equity and inclusion with [00:11:00] a short definition of diversity, you create a great divide within your company and within your organization, and it becomes a us against them now versus. Broaden that definition, everyone understanding that we are in this together.
[00:11:18] Alex: Diversity affects all of us from age to mental abilities to physical abilities, to what I'm capable of doing to my pace of work where I [00:11:30] live, my family values, my political values. Understand that there's a gauntlet when it comes to diversity, and I'd love to share that with our teams to help 'em understand it.
[00:11:38] Alex: So if you're listening right now, visualize this as we talk about diversity. I love to show the gauntlet of diversity, right? Understand this. The most diverse thing about all of us in this room listening or in a, in a, in a training room, is our personality, right? What makes us laugh, how we think, how we talk.
[00:11:55] Alex: All of those things. That's the core of diversity, right? If we broaden it, we have what we like to call the [00:12:00] internal. These are things that we see with our eyes, things like our age, our ethnicity, our race, our sexual orientation, those type things that that second level, we see those things that we begin to categorize and put people in boxes based off of the eye test, but we forget about the next level up, which is the external.
[00:12:19] Alex: These are things that we add to our lives. Things like. My socioeconomic status where I choose to live my political beliefs, right? My religious beliefs, what I [00:12:30] look like, my appearance, my interests, my hobbies, all of those things. And understand that little change there can change a lot. I'm, I'm gonna joke on myself for a second.
[00:12:40] Alex: I want you to think about this. Two black males. I'm a 44 year old black male, right? 44 year old black male. If you have one who grew up in Chicago where I currently am, right, and another who grew up in Mississippi, although they look alike same age, would they see the world differently? My friends, I'm gonna tell you, [00:13:00] as a 44 year old black man, hell yes.
[00:13:02] Alex: Right. So they may have the same religious beliefs, they may have the same political beliefs, they may have the same skin color, but just because of one small factor, it makes a huge difference, right? So let's keep going. What's the next level of diversity? Well, it's what we like to call the organizational.
[00:13:18] Alex: What's the organizational? Well, this is what we do for a living. I want you to think about this, your management status. Union affiliation, the location, your trade, your profession, how long you've done it in a [00:13:30] tenure, all of those things matter, and they give us a different level of diversity, right? And at the very, very top, my friend, we have the era when you were born, understand historical events.
[00:13:42] Alex: You've gone through political events, you've experienced tragedies that you've gone through, all shaped how you see the world. So I want you to really think about that for a second. If we had four middle-aged white males who were all from Des Moines, Iowa, [00:14:00] that we put through the diversity gauntlet, would they end up in the same place?
[00:14:06] Alex: Hell no. They would not. They will be all over the board, my friend. So please understand this diversity, the thought of this, the definition, it's a broad net. The better we are at casting this broad net, the better we are at coming on the same side of this together, understanding that diversity benefits all of us.
[00:14:27] Alex: And as a team, we make our team better, stronger, [00:14:30] and more efficient when we understand that diversity of height, weight, size, skin color, ethnicity, language, family status, sexual orientation, all come together to build a strong team. Right. So I need you to understand that. So we're gonna dive deeper into this in our next segment as we talk about the level, when we level out to understand what it truly means to not only focus on diversity, but to take it to the next level of true inclusion.
[00:14:58] Alex: I'll see you in the next segment. [00:15:00] 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. 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.
[00:15:18] Alex: We would 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. Please, please, please write that in so that we can begin to do some research and talk about that subject [00:15:30] so that you can go out and be the best leader possible.