An Interview With Vanessa Ogle
Diverse Representation in Leadership — People have a greater sense of belonging when they see people who look like them in positions of leadership. Additionally, we better serve diverse communities when everyone has a seat at the table. This allows our strategies to be more innovative and inclusive from inception.
In a world where diversity is often acknowledged but not always celebrated, we are taking a step forward to highlight the importance of inclusivity in building strong, vibrant communities. This series aims to explore the various facets of diversity — be it racial, cultural, gender-based, or within the differently-abled community — and understand how embracing these differences strengthens our social fabric. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Ash Beckham.
ASH BECKHAM is renowned for her impactful TEDx Talk Coming Out of Your Closet. The passionate leader for equality has achieved notoriety as the “accidental advocate” through her in-demand corporate speeches and workshops. Focused on fostering equality and inclusion, her influential book Step Up: How to Live with Courage and Become an Everyday Leader serves as a powerful call-to-action for individuals from all backgrounds to embrace a new paradigm of leadership at any level and furthers measurable and purposeful change both in the workplace and communities at large.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion about celebrating diversity, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
I often refer to myself as an “accidental advocate.” I’ve always known who I am and what I stood for, but never really thought about how my life impacted those around me until I had an influx of kids in my life. As my nieces and nephews and close friends’ children got older, they would hear schoolmates use the word gay in a pejorative way. Their words may not have been overtly homophobic but pejorative nonetheless. I also recognize that these classmates were not bad people they just didn’t know what they didn’t know. It was then that I began to realize these disparaging remarks would land either directly or indirectly on the people I loved. When I stepped into the spotlight of advocacy, my goal was not just to have people stop saying gay in a negative way but to understand WHY they shouldn’t say it. When you know better you do better, but until you know you are sort of stuck. I also knew this was not just the case for kids in my community but for many other people as well. I began to want to help educate without shaming and my passion for leading inclusivity education was ignited. My TEDx Ignite Boulder talk, “Coming Out of Your Closet” in 2013 was my first effort toward that goal.
Can you share an interesting or hopeful story where spending time with someone who did not look like you or who was different from you taught you something that has been useful to you?
In my book Step Up, I reference a friend who I assumed had similar political beliefs to me based on the work we did together. When an interaction turned adversarial, his bravery in telling me why he held the opinions that he did, not only diffused the situation but forced me to see his humanity. This by extension allowed me to see the humanity of 50% of the country who voted differently than I did. As we face continued political, religious and emotional divides in this country, I would encourage everyone to approach conversations with care be open to listening without assumption.
Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Positive Humor — If you cannot find levity in some of these serious conversations, they are much more difficult to pursue. Giving people permission to laugh allows them to engage.
Humility — In my stories, I am rarely the hero. When I reflect on my missteps and stumbles, that are so often universal, I frame them as opportunities for growth. We do not relate to people who are perfect. We relate to people who are real and no one striving for personal improvement is flawless in their efforts. My vulnerability in showing that makes these conversations much more accessible.
Can you share a personal story that highlights the impact of diversity and inclusivity in your life or career?
Without diversity and inclusivity, I have no career — or at least not this one. The evolution of the field has been fascinating to me. When I started, people were most interested in their diversity being acknowledged. A compassionate workplace was one with an awareness that individual diversity leads to unseen challenges at work. It was an HR issue to fix. Now the best organizations are striving to create a culture of belonging for everyone. These workplaces strive to be organizations where people are included not in spite of their diversity but because of it. It is amazing to see when true value is placed on diverse perspectives.
How do you approach and manage the challenges that arise when working towards creating more inclusive communities?
You have to embrace that it is a journey. Truly inclusive communities do not happen overnight and they are not void of disagreement. The key is HOW those disagreements are handled. How are concerns voiced? How are they responded to? How do we see every conversation as a mile marker rather than a finish line? When we embrace the journey, our personal and professional development is focused on giving people the tools to have hard conversations rather than training politically correct robots on how to avoid those conversations.
What innovative strategies or initiatives have you implemented or observed that effectively promote the importance of diversity and inclusivity?
The best strategy I have seen is educating and empowering everyone in a given group to communicate authentically. Through storytelling workshops, authentic communication trainings and “hard conversation” sessions, colleagues build the skills and the trust to actually talk about what needs to be talked about in a way that is efficient, respectful and empathetic. Training and development reflects what we truly want as an organization. You need to ask yourself if you are training people to avoid conflict or find resolutions. Those two things require vastly different approaches.
In your opinion, what are the key elements that make a community truly inclusive, and how can these be fostered on a larger scale?
First and foremost, people need to feel safe. If we do not feel safe physically, professionally, and/or emotionally, it is much more difficult to find the courage to have tough conversations. When we feel a threat, real or perceived, we are biologically wired either fight, flight or freeze. When you know that you can bring your most authentic self into the space on any given day, regardless of what that authenticity looks like on that day, and truly believe that you belong, that is a culture of inclusivity.
Based on your experience and research, can you please share “5 Ways We Can Build Inclusive Communities”?
1 . Diverse Representation in Leadership — People have a greater sense of belonging when they see people who look like them in positions of leadership. Additionally, we better serve diverse communities when everyone has a seat at the table. This allows our strategies to be more innovative and inclusive from inception.
2 . Accessibility Assessments — We must constantly ask ourselves “who feels excluded from our community.” Are spaces accessible? Can we make accommodations for people with disabilities or those who are neurodivergent? Do scheduled events have regular conflicts such as child care, religious practices, work schedules, etc.? Who are we leaving out? When you ask these questions, you can be more in tune with the solutions.
3 . Cultivate Inclusive Language and Communication — Similarly to the accessibility assessment, you need to ask if anyone could feel excluded by our communication. It does not matter that we used our best intentions or whether or not someone “should” feel excluded. Intent matters but impact matters more. We must be willing to evolve as our community and our understanding does.
4 . Continued Education — Inclusivity is not a one-and-done concept. It must be continually woven into all professional and personal development that we do. Inclusivity evolves because we are regularly assessing who we are leaving out, so our education must evolve as our awareness does.
5 . Collaborate with Diverse Stakeholders — You can create the most inclusive community in the world, but your community members must interact outside your community. How do we share best practices and learn from others outside our community that represent the diversity around us? When you continue to engage outside of your organization you can be more informed and more inclusive on the inside.
How do you measure the impact and success of diversity and inclusion efforts, and what changes have you seen as a result of these initiatives?
You must collect data. Without data on the experiences of the people you are working with, you have no starting point. People are sometimes reluctant to do this because it might expose where they are falling short. However, you have to know where you are to figure out how to get to where you want to go. Also, what gets measured gets changed. Adding inclusivity goals into annual performance reviews is an easy way to individualize inclusion. This is not a top-down dictate. Each individual is responsible for contributing to a community of inclusion as much as they can in the ways that they can. Self-determination on this path allows for attainable goals and encourages everyone to feel part of the solution. Let’s figure out together how we get there.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would educate and empower people to communicate authentically. When we can do that, we not only have epic clarity in what is authentic for us in any given moment, but we also harness the power create brave spaces where others can be authentic. When we are clear we are confident and when we are confident we can find the courage to be curious. We can ask the right questions to bring awareness to what is authentic for others. Then we start to collectively raise the bar so authenticity becomes the standard, rather than the exception.
How can our readers further follow you online?
ashbeckham.com / Facebook and LinkedIn — ashbeckham / IG — @theashbeckham
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you continued success in your great work!
About The Interviewer: Vanessa Ogle is an entrepreneur, inventor, writer, and singer/songwriter. She is best known as the founder of Enseo which she and her team grew into one of the largest out-of-home media and connected networks in the world, serving more than 100,000,000 people annually. Vanessa’s talent in building world-class leadership teams focused on diversity, a culture of service, and innovation through inclusion resulted in amazing partnerships and customer relationships. She collaborated with the world’s leading technology and content companies such as Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and Dish Networks to bring innovative solutions to the hospitality industry. Enseo has also held an exclusive contract to provide movies to the entire U.S. armed forces for almost 15 years. Vanessa and her team’s relentless innovation resulted in120+ U.S. Patents. Her favorite product is the MadeSafe solution for hotel workers as well as students and children in their K-12 classrooms. Accolades include: #15 on FAST 100, 50 Fastest Growing Women-Owned 2018–2020, Entrepreneur 360 Best Companies 2018–2020, not to mention the Inc. 500 and then another six times on the Inc. 5000. Vanessa was personally honored with Inc. 100 Female Founder’s Award, Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and Enterprising Women of the Year. Vanessa now spends her time enjoying her children, sharing stories to inspire and give hope through articles and speaking engagements. entrepreneurs-to-be with her articles including her LinkedIN newsletter Unplugged. In her spare time, she writes music with her husband Paul as the band HigherHill, teaches surfing clinics, and trains dogs.
Please connect with Vanessa here on linkedin and subscribe to her newsletter Unplugged as well as follow her on Substack.
Celebrating Diversity: Author Ash Beckham On How To Build Inclusive Communities was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.