Name: MPW Summit 2023: De&I At A Crossroads
Uploaded: 2023-10-12
Duration: 18 min 47 s
Description: Sian Beilock, President, Dartmouth Kristin Mugford, Senior Associate Dean of Culture and Community, Senior Lecturer in Finance, Harvard Business School Moderator: Ruth Umoh, FORTUNE

Sian Beilock, President, Dartmouth Kristin Mugford, Senior Associate Dean of Culture and Community, Senior Lecturer in Finance, Harvard Business School Moderator: Ruth Umoh, FORTUNE

MPW Summit 2023: De&I At A Crossroads

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Here, the US Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to consider race and university admissions spanning affirmative action. In a landmark decision. The ruling is forcing many schools to rethink their admissions rules and practices. But the concern about the court's decision goes beyond what happens inside the halls of learning. There's concern in the business world about the effect the ruling will have on the talent recruitment pipeline. We want to dive deeper into the important role higher education plays in diversity, equity and inclusion in the workforce and talk about ways that schools can collaborate with the corporate world to ensure the pipeline promotes equitable outcomes, including access to jobs and wealth creation for underrepresented groups. So let's get some perspective on all of this from two people within higher learning CC and be Bloch is president of Dartmouth and the first woman to hold that role in the institution's 254 year history. Kristen Mugford is the senior Associate Dean of Culture and Community and senior lecturer in Finance at Harvard Business School. Sian and Kristen joined Fortune leadership editor and MP W co-chair Ruth UO for today's conversation. Please welcome them to the stage. Welcome ladies. Thank you so much for joining us. Uh We are delighted to have you at MP W it's great to be here. Fantastic, perfect unison. The Supreme Court's reversal of affirmative action will certainly have far reaching consequences, but it does provide an opportunity for higher ed leaders to articulate the value of diversity and their continued commitment to ensuring diversity and bodies and that will ultimately bleed into the corporate sector. So let's dig in, first of all, what role does higher education play in diversifying the corporate pipeline, CNC kick off? Well, I mean, we are producing the next generation of employees and so what we do um especially at selective institutions is really important. And um at Dartmouth, we really have a commitment to making sure that students regardless of background are able to come to Dartmouth and succeed. And I'm proud that we're one of just seven universities in the country that need blind and meets full financial need without loans for all students across the world. Yeah. Yes. And um at the Harvard Business School, our mission is to educate leaders to make a difference in the world. So we are trying to educate the people who will, who, who dream of sitting in your seats. And just as Melanie Hobson yesterday said that, you know, de is an imperative for companies. I also think it's an imperative for leadership that if you want to be a leader who makes a difference in the world today, you have to be able to lead in the context of difference. And so what does that mean for us, we have to teach our students how to lead in the context of difference. That means how do you listen more than you speak? How do you ask spectacular questions? How do you create cultures that not only invite but celebrate different perspectives? And then very importantly, we practice this in our classrooms. How do you take that different perspective and use it to challenge your assumptions and beliefs and hopefully make better decisions as a result. Because if we can get all of our students to do that, well, I think it has a massive impact on the capability of companies going forward. Absolutely. And I'll just add that this is the skill we learned at Dartmouth. We're actually launching something called the dialogue project which is designed to teach students how to have difficult conversations in the classroom. The idea is to make sure we're centering voices that haven't always historically been centered and then working to have people talk across differences and this is not something that we're endowed with. We have to teach this, we have to teach it to our employees, we have to teach it to our faculty, we have to teach it to leaders. But the data are really clear that better decisions are made when you have people at the table who feel like they belong and can push at each other who feel like what they say will not be taken as an imperative of who they are in psychologists terms. We call that the fundamental attribution error. And part of that is feeling like you can trust one another. You have a community, then you can say things you can make mistakes, you can feel uncomfortable. And I think that's so important for getting to the best outcome. I want to follow up with you because see, and I know you've been keenly focused on women in stem talk to us about your role in the edge conor show. And first tell us what that initiative is. Yeah, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity in our country um to think about the semiconductor industry and how we onshore as a matter of national security. Some of our semiconductor work. Uh One of the problems though is we don't have enough engineers to do this work and it's not just in the semiconductor industry, it's everywhere. Um women make up are not making up a majority of, of the workers and in semiconductors, it's actually very clear, we make up only 15% of the workforce. And one of the issues is that we are not bringing enough women into engineering and technology fields more broadly early on. And so um I got together with actually the only six universities in the country where there are women presidents of deans and deans of engineering to come together to make a commitment to diversify the stem engineering and technology workforce together. Dartmouth and Indiana University are leading this with Berkeley, University of Washington, Rochester and Brown. And we're really pushing an agenda forward that we have to open up the doors to get into these fields. We have to think about multiple entry points. It's not just one weed out calculus class, but how do we think about all the opportunities to show meaning in engineering and stem for our women and especially people of color. And I think Dartmouth is a great test case. We're actually the first engineering school in the country to have gender parity at the undergrad level. And it's because you don't just do engineering through calculus, you can do it through design thinking, you can think about it in terms of social impact and that's so important. Everything we're doing in the technology space is not about technology for technology's sake. We have to really couch it in terms of how it's having an impact for good in the world. Uh Kristen, you brought up the great points that you're working with the next generation of leaders. Certainly the next generation. Well, hopefully next generation of most powerful women, what will it take to ensure that they're able to land in leadership roles in the future? So one of the things we know in looking at research on women is that there still are big thriving gap. And I see this as I talk to my students, they are, the good news is the world has changed in the appetite for companies, particularly in finance, to want to hire women. I remember the day when I would go see firms when I first got to H BS and they would tell me that they weren't hiring women because women didn't want to do private equity. And I remember I put together literally a resume book of 100 resumes and sent it to every private equity firm I could think of and say, ok, what's your next excuse? Those times have changed? And that's great. But there's a difference between hiring and thriving. And part of what organizations are realizing is that we have to kind of close these striving gaps and those appear in a myriad of ways. We know women get less effective mentorship, they get less sponsorship, they get less quality and quantity of feedback, they get more office, health work, they get fewer stretch assignments, the list, they get less of just the understanding of how to get things done in an organization. And so part of what we're trying to do at H BS is do the research work with companies to try to close those thriving gaps for women. And I also think this is a role where universities can partner with industry. We know women often go in and out of the workforce and there's not great on ramps in many fields. So I know this is happening at H BS. It's certainly happening at Dartmouth where we're thinking about how an education for life means that you can reskill think about what other career opportunities are out there work with the realities that a lot of women face in terms of how they engage in the corporate world. So that we're not losing great talent regardless of whether you care about gender equity or diversity, which I know we all do. But the this is not about that. It's about losing talent at the table. That is what we are missing. And all of the work that I think we do is about making sure the best talent is at the table so that we can help ensure that we have the best outcome. Same question for both of you. Let's see. And I'd like you to kick it off. You're the first woman to be elected president in Dartmouth's 250 year history. Quite the feat as you reflect on your arc from education into the professional sector, what was catalytic in reaching this level? Well, I mean, I think this is a lot of people often say this, but it was having great people around me and, and great mentorship. And I want to be very clear that that mentorship is not just from women, it's from men too. Men have a real responsibility here to help uplift the best talent, regardless of gender, regardless of race. And I think this is true for so many of us. And so when we see problems with networks, when we see women not getting that same type of support, not just mentorship but advocating. Um you realize how we fall off a ladder and how we get into the system and then don't succeed to the top. So it was having great people around me and also really defining for myself, a set of principles that I abide by. That's hard to always stick to those as in leadership roles. But it is the center of what I do and those principles are what? Well at a university level, for example, I think it is really important for institutions to lead, take stand that allow dialogue on both sides of an issue. I want, for example, people to be able to voice opinions that are different than my own. And so I bring a real push around free expression, around creating brave, not just safe spaces where we can have differences of opinion and people hear each other on issues that they don't agree with. It means oftentimes as a leader, not taking stands on particular issues that people want me to have because I'm trying to create a situation where other people have a voice in the room. Um I also bring a principle around diversity and an understanding that the data are really clear about the impact of diversity. And of course, I bring a great admiration and excitement about being a in an institution and in a leadership role where we are training the next generation of impact makers. Same question for you, especially given the fact that you were the first ever woman partner at Bain Capital, one of the largest private equity firms. Talk to us about that career arc II I think similar to Xian, you know, I had the benefit of great mentors and my mentors couldn't look like me. Um And I was surrounded by great people. And I do think that one thing I see now I have the great joy of for me, you know, academia is my second act and the ability now to be able to give back. And in many ways, see as my mission to make the path clearer for the women and the diverse people who come behind me is just a great opportunity. Uh Again, for the book, I sorry for, for you, Cian, what skills uh are you finding that your students need to be job ready, especially women to be job ready? Um And, and really thrive post education? Yeah, I will say that there is this idea that if you have a liberal arts education and education across the arts and sciences um that you're not job ready on day one, I think that's exactly very far from the truth. It's opposite of the truth, what a liberal arts education is teaching our students is how to think, not what to think that's a very important distinction, how to think across multiple fields. And then you combine with that experiences in businesses, in government, in nonprofits in the education world that are helping our students think about what they learned in the classroom and apply it. And that's what I think you really need to be job ready at day one. So I would love to see more universities and companies partnering on this to think about how we give our students those skills in vivo as they're going through their education. Because the reality is we want students who are learning how to think and who are learning what questions to ask. And especially as we deal with how we're going to cooper with A I in the future. It is about thinking in a different way and that's what we teach students with an education across the and sciences. Anything to add to? That sounds fantastic. Um You both have repeatedly mentioned the importance of partnering with businesses. How can colleges partner in a meaningful way with the private sector to provide all students but especially those who are from underserved or under resourced backgrounds with real world hands on workforce experience. Do you want to start? Sure. So we need partners in three ways. First, we of course, need partners to create opportunities for our students. 100% of what we do at Harvard Business School is case study. So all of our students learn by seeing case studies. And it is particularly important for our students to see themselves in the protagonists of these cases. So one thing we need from companies and from leaders are examples that we can use to teach our students. The third thing that we need is frankly help from companies as sources of research. So we have lots of faculties who are trying to do research on DE I and understanding what works and what doesn't work inside companies to do that work. Well, we need companies who have the bravery to share their data, to partner with us, to help us understand what works. So we can then share that without the community. Yeah, I mean, I love all of those and I would say that it's, it's a blurring of boundaries, right? It's not that you have an education and then you go into the workforce, how do we think about the workforce actually coming into education? So as part of this edge consortium, we're launching, we're going to be having a convening in DC this month with leaders of the semiconductor industry to talk about the kinds of skills they need with our faculty who can then put them in the classroom. And it's those conversations that often don't happen. We see our job is to develop students, companies, sees their jobs to hire students. And we have to think about this in a new way and this is all about partnerships, how we can think about how we partner and it's not just handing off one, leader to the next. I wanna go back to touching on the Supreme Court's reversal of affirmative action. Um, it's obviously the top of Du Jour, uh, obviously colleges can no longer use race as a consideration, um, in, in who they're, uh, accepted into the universities. But still how can colleges at least plan to ensure or maintain a student body that is representative of the workforce, but certainly of the US communities they serve. It's a great question. And when we talk about the good decision, I also want to be clear that different people can have different views on the decision. I think that's actually really important for university leaders to put out there because that opens up a space to have a discussion. But for me, what's not on the table is this principle of diversity that we know that having a diversity of views of lived experiences leads to better outcomes. And so then the onus is on us as an institution to go out there and get those students. And I think oftentimes colleges are passive receivers and universities are passive receivers of students. We need to be out there recruiting those students talking to them about the fact that a Dartmouth education is remarkably affordable, that if you have an option to go to Dartmouth, you will come out with very little and or no loans that we will help propagate you into a community for life and we have to be in rural areas, in cities, in places educating students who might not understand what's attainable to them. The onus now is on us as an institution more than ever to go out and get the best and brightest regardless of background. Same question for you. I would echo that we have to double down on recruiting and talent. I worry that this Supreme Court decision has a chilling effect on students not applying that somehow they now believe that they don't belong at Harvard Business School. I also worry that it has a chilling effect for companies in not continuing to do this work, you know, diversity, thriving, having the workforce where every and can feel that they belong, can have their work valued and to be able to do their best work is hard work. And I think it's more important than ever that we as organizations are making the case for why difference matters that we are making sure that we're describing diversity in ways that everyone can see themselves in effort and that we're continuing to stay the course in this commitment to diversity as a value. Yeah, I'll end with this final question. When you and I were talking Kristen, you were sharing with me just how thirsty for lack of a better word your students are for mentorship. What advice, what takeaways do you have for the women here in the room? Yes. So I would say two things. First. It is a wonderful joy to get to spend time with um people who are in their late twenties who are seeking to sit in your seats. They inspire me every day. They give me great hope for the future. They are incredible and they need your help. I think as we talked about, there are real gaps and challenges for people, particularly women, people of color who are different and they need the women, frankly, the men who are in the room where it happens to make change. So I would just encourage all of you. You are the most powerful women to use your individual power to importantly use your color, active power in the room where it happens to make the changes that are needed in the organization so that we have equity so that everyone has the opportunities to be able to thrive. And I would just say that we have a built in mechanism to do that, which is where you went to school. I think alumni bodies and the ability to connect through your institution is such a powerful form. I find that we, we often don't take that and especially women as they're busy and leading companies and dealing with often families may not be thinking about that, but it's such an important way to get involved. And it's such a great mechanism to talk to people who were in similar experiences that you were about where you are now. Absolutely. Thank you so much, ladies for your time. Thank you.