September 2, 2025 • 39 mins
Ep. 231 Yemi Akisanya is Vice President of JEDI and People Experience at Axon
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Afrotech Conference is back and return to Eights Town, Houston, Texas,
from October twenty seven through thirty first, twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Five at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
For years, Afrotech has been to go to experience for
black tech innovators, founders, engineers, creators and investors.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
In twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Is shaping up to be the biggest year yet, though
with fortyzery to tenees expected. This year's conference will feature
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(00:39):
with tracks exploring AI and machine learning, mad tech and
health equity, cybersecurity, climate tech, and much more. Whether you're
launching your first startup, pivoting into a new role, or
scaling as an execut there's something here for you.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Tickets and moving fast to keep your spot nowt at
afrotech Conference dot Com.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
We'll luke you see a black tech green money with
another one you know, I have to bring you not
just like the people that you're going to see all
in the videos, you know what I mean, but the
people who are actually doing the work in some of
these companies and organizations, building these companies from the inside
and making sure that we have opportunities. So today I
(01:17):
want to introduce you to my guy, Yimmy Akasanya, who
is a purpose driven executive and nationally recognized leader in justice, equity,
diversity and inclusion.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Let's make that Jedi.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
It's the shortness of a Jedi with the bowl vision
for creating workplace cultures where everybody thrives. He's the vice
president of Jedi and People Experience at Axon, which developed
security technology products, where he leads global strategy to embed
high performance and belonging into the fabric of the company
across people, practices and products.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Welcome, Yimmy.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Well that was fantastic. Thank you. Absolutely, I'm digging the specs, man.
I normally come on anything I got the best spects on.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Hey, Hey, you know, I get a lot of compliments
on these and I'm I'm like, I'm never taking them off,
So you know, I appreciate it. And so we have
a lot of conversations, especially now, about diversity echoing inclusion,
and I want to talk about that, but I also
want to talk about just why it's important to have
black people in these spaces, and so I want to
(02:25):
talk I want to start here, is how do you
ensure in your role and how do you advocate for
black talent not just being recruited, but positioning roles that
actually influence strategy and innovation.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
It's a great question, and first of all, I do
want to it's the table by saying that I've done
this work in a number of organizations and a number
of very good organizations, and I think that when the
work is being done in organizations that truly see a
(03:00):
value of business case of representation, I think it makes
it work a little bit easier. And so I think
I want to caveat there to say that the work
Axon does. I think there's a recognition not only from
our leaders, you know, whether it's our president Josh e Isner,
whether it's our CEO Rick Smith, whether it's our board
(03:23):
members across Axon, I think they recognize the true necessity
they true need to have a diversity of thought and perspective,
and not only the products that we actually do create,
but in terms of the relationships rebuilt with our customers. Right,
So we are customer obsessed, you know, like people say it,
(03:45):
we mean it. And because of that, and because of
the fact that our customers and vast majory of our
costomers to roll over eighty five ninety percent as we
still grow our enterprise, eight percent of our customers are
you know, folks who are in public safe where there's
law enforcements, federal, you name it. That might be well,
(04:07):
the most diverse group of individuals in the world, right
because they support communities. Some of them look like the
community they serve. And so for us, it's not an option,
like we have to create products that serve the diverse communities,
not just in the US, but globally as well. And
so I think that as a baseline makes my work easy.
(04:29):
Now as I come into this role, I have to
be very very clear that the work we are doing,
and this is with all due respect to the important
work called social justice. That is an important work that well,
if we're being Kennedy and I, that work was so
important that without that work you and I wouldn't be here,
(04:51):
you know what I mean? And so that work is
so important and their arena for that work is in
our communities. Right, But when we talk about d specifically,
we talk about we're walking into a workplace, facility, or
an institution, whether it's academic or professional. That work has
to drive in some capacity performance. And so for me,
(05:14):
the conversation that I like to have well is about
performance is to say DEI is about performance, is about
unlucky performance. And we know that there are barriers in place.
We know that there are inequities due to the communities
we all come from into a workplace. So how do
we unlock those things so performance can be what drives
unless someone tells me. So when I talk about hiring,
(05:35):
I tell people I'm going to find the best talent
around the world. I gotta be intentional, right, I'm not
just going on LinkedIn that has eighty percent A or
twenty percent B. I'm going to go into the black community,
it's brown community, it's that community, this community and find
the best talent. And that's what we're trying to do.
It's all about, again, the best talent. So unless someone
wills to sit here and tell me that the best
(05:56):
talent does not exist in Brown and black communities or
in women communities or in that doc communities then and
then that's a different conversation on that happen a half.
But as far as we are concerned, we are completely
bullish on finding absolute best talent and I just feel
like we have to look under every rock to make.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Sure we do that.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, I want to come back to that, that global perspective.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
In a second. But you you sparked some thoughts and
I'll say this. You don't have to say it if
you want to. It's cool too. But like you know,
the companies that have made promises to our communities and
have you know, either pulled back on those promises, didn't
fulfill those promises, or denounce those promises. The math over
the next decade says that they need black people, just math.
(06:43):
They can't you know, innovate without them. They need them
as we need They need us as a customer. They
need us in the in the seats, in their in
their rooms, in their boardrooms too, but also on their floors.
So what do you say to the notion that for
those people that believe that they can do this without
(07:04):
black people, And how should we be rest knowing the
math doesn't work for them.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
And you know, I learned this in business school. One
of my favorite classes was a class that was about
It was called selling yourself and selling your ideas, and
it talked about it's very important for us to have
pointy point of views. I mean the point of view
that once you say the point of view, people are
to opt in to support your point of view or
(07:38):
they opt out of your point of view. And so
I want to lay my point of view kind of
similar to what you just laid out their will. I
firmly believe, especially in the United States, that any organization company,
whether it's service based or consumer based, that believes that
(08:03):
the black and African American population it's not a necessity
for success, will fail in the next ten to fifteen years. Fail.
And that's not a passionate statement.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
It's just mad.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
It's small mad. It's just what it is and the
reason why you will fail. To your point, and we
can go into the power of the black community from
a dollar standpoint, but I want to talk about a
talent standpoint. And I don't know if it's just me,
(08:40):
maybe my eyes are just getting open now, or maybe
because I'm one of my forties now I'm starting to
see things clearer. But the power and black talent, the acumen,
the intellectual capac their creativity, the soul, the excellence. Uh.
(09:06):
Once we once we take things seriously, and I think
part of it has to do with it, we gotta
we gotta, we gotta get serious sometimes, right, once we
take things seriously, it could be very scary with regards
to the power that lies behind the work that we do.
And so I feel that companies right now who are
(09:31):
not investing in black communities or investment in black talents
or what have you, or leaving room for other companies
like Axon and others who see the value and who
are pursuing it. Like I give an example because I
guess we can sit and talk about philosophy all all day, right,
(09:52):
but you know, afrottach is a is a great example.
You know, last year was the first time that Axon
made an afrotech and we were plan We're like, hey, listen,
we're not coming here to do a brand activation. And
then this is this is no shot at no one right.
Our goals to come here and find the best talent
and hire them. So we bought hiring managers. We bought
(10:14):
about fifty of our employees. We butt boots, interview boots
and pods, and we walked away with a ton of
talent until we're coming back again twenty twenty five this
year to do it all over again, this time being
more intentional. Right now, we're like, okay, we can get
up to twelve hires. Oh, let's see, can we get more?
And can we get managers and leaders? And so we're
(10:37):
talking a mid to senior level career folks this summer
around and again my point is like it's a wait
and see approach. Well, you know again, just just wash
the clock in five to fifteen years from now, Let's
see the companies who are top of the S and
P five hundred and let's see what they're doing differently
(10:57):
than those who are not on the top or those
who are falling out.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
The top day them.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
How do you measure going back to this global conversation
because you're not just you know, the domestic, you know, VP,
like this is your job across the world. When you
think about the maturity of the effort of DEI justice,
even j D e I Jedi, I'm gonna leaving it
in Jedi and not messed up the acronym here. How
(11:25):
especially with cultural definitions and practices are different than ours
here domestically, how do you balance those goals?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yeah, yeah, it's a great it's a great question. I'll
tell you why. You know, when I when I got
my first global job, I learned quickly that we must
be careful taking the America agenda across the world. And
so I was used to saying, Okay, great, we got ELGs.
(11:57):
All right, we're going to hire and look for you know,
to uh, you know, look for organizations that have, you know,
a talent pipeline of the Black community, the Latin, the
Hispanic community, the Asian community. Right, So those were the
things I did in in the US, and then I
got abroad and I spent a year in London working
for a certain company at the time, and I was
looking around and asked a questions, Hey, listen, where can
(12:19):
I find these communities in that community in terms of
like talent pipelines. And some do exist, but predominantly there
were those that were women or or agenda specific you know,
talent pipelines. And I learned quickly like no, no, no, that's
don't bring don't bring America over here, man, we don't.
We don't do things like that. I remember there was
you know, even even from an ERG perspective, I was
(12:41):
looking for an executive sponsor who was, uh, you know,
based out of Italy, and I was like, hey, let's
we got some great year. He's like, no, no, no, no, yeah me,
thanks for we don't do that here. And so there
is a pushback to this idea of culturally, of of
of using affinity groups to the find anything. And then
(13:02):
there's the other piece of where there are true privacy
laws internationally specifically like in the places like France in
Europe that you know restricts you from collecting that data.
Like in the US. You know, the EEOC allows us
to collect actually not allows us, informs us collect diversity
data for protective characteristics and send reports of what that
(13:24):
looks like to them. And so we have to collect
the data and what people have options of you know,
self identifying and not self identifying, or internationally that doesn't
exist in most countries and so you don't even have
the data to use, and so you have to now
collected it within your organization or find ways to work
around those things. And so the bottom line truly becomes
(13:47):
the things that I gotten used to in terms of
like demographics driving my agenda. I was forced to reckon like, no,
let me stop doing that and let's listen for those
at the company to see what they truly need to
be performer like. And then so inclusion became top of
mind and that became the driver Bros. Strategy to say, okay, great,
(14:07):
like what are some of your challenges in your organization department?
Like the employee giving surveys, the inclusion surveys like that
became the true So I say medium for me to
identify opportunity eras to drive inclusion and not your typical
just simply looked to the lens of representation and use
that those markers as success, right, And so I think
(14:30):
that is a shift that we should adopt across DEI,
where it's like, sure, repetation is incredibly important, incredibly important,
but it's not the definition of success. Increasing the black
population by five percent is not success, like that needs
(14:51):
to be clear, or by ten or by fifteen percent,
that is not success in DEI. DEI is about the
experience of cl You can bring a thousand people to
the table will and we don't have voices to influence
decision making. Then how is that success Like success would
be determined by the performance that we have. Performance always
(15:13):
about action, that's what success is about, right, And so
for me, it's like, how do we change a narrative
to shift away from the idea that it's all of
our representation, it's all about like you know, X and os,
and it's less around performance likedi is performance for everyone
for everyone, and equity is recognizing that we're not all
(15:37):
on the same stage. And so that to me, that's
the word. So we think about international and domestic. I
think that the biggest challenges you see is there are
certain laws that prohibit us from collecting data internationally, and
then there's some other laws to help us. For example,
in London or in Europe, there's a law around if
you have over one hundred I think maybe two hundred
(15:59):
fifty the employees, you must report your pay equity, which
is your agenda pay reports publicly. Right, that's a positive
thing that creates transparency. Well in the US, some states
like California and some others are beginning to adapt things
like that, but it's not kind of widespread it across
all nations, right, so so again, I think we are
(16:21):
in the journey of this, of this uh of of
DEI or Jedi or ie D, depending on how you
want to call it. But but I do think there
is not a one size for all and we have
to be very very careful that we saw thinking about internationally.
We must think local first, you know, forget all you
think you know about d I, go local, learn from
(16:45):
the folks there are domestic there, and build from within.
I think any other approach would be will be the
wrong way to go about this.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
You know, during COVID we had the whole work from
home or hybrid for some companies, but work from home
proliferated and then over the last six months a year
or so, we have, you know, kind of a return
to office approach many companies are embracing. And when we
did the work from a home, we had a lot
(17:14):
of black people who felt like they were free from
the microaggressions that you know, happened in the office, and
a lot of for a variety of reasons, a lot
of workers appreciated that work model. However, it came also
with it downside in that you know, sometimes proximity to
(17:34):
leadership is where you get elevation, and when you're not
seeing Tom.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
At the water cooler or Sarah at the water cooler.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
It may be difficult to recognize that talent that they're
bringing in order to provide opportunity for them.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
So I want you to kind of set a landscape
of what the next.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
You know, twelve, twenty four or thirty six months looked
like for black people trying to find elevation and some
of their companies are going back to the office, some.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Of them are remaining hybrid or work remotely.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Just what does it look like and how should we
position ourselves considering even AI is coming for a lot
of these jobs.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
Yeah, no, for sure, thank you for that. And let
me talk about the AI part. You know, I heard
somewhere that you know, AI is not going to steal
jobs from people. However, people who know already use AI
(18:34):
and use AI is going as two people's jobs, right,
And I thought that was a really interesting difference there.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
But I would say, I gotta pause you that because
I've heard that also.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
But I'm like, yeah, that I've there are certain roles
I have not hired four because I didn't I have
AI now, so it may not for by and large.
You may not lose it, but you may not have
got it also, no doubt about it.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
I think I think you're right. And here's how I
interpret that. Right, Let's just draw some fake numbers. Listen,
there's one hundred jobs before AI came into the picture.
One hundred jobs exists pre AI. I do believe, like
many people believe that out of those hundred jobs, about
maybe sixty percent are going to be are going to
(19:22):
be gone because AI is now being in the picture.
But I do believe another one hundred jobs will be
created by people who want to use AI. So now
you're going to see one hundred and forty jobs. However,
you lost sixty. Does that make sense for me? Is yes,
without a doubt. Like you know you're hearing companies or
(19:45):
you talk about, hey, listen, how can AI make a
job you know, more efficient? How can you eliminate certain roles?
How do you listen? We're not going to going to
be on a hiring freeze. If you if you have
a job to get done, I think you think about
how AI can be doing right. So, yes, these things
are happening, But without a doubt, I still think that
knowing how to utilize AI. It's going to make you
(20:06):
so valuable in this market. And I think, black folks,
we must, we must become experts. We must become the
users of it. We get creative with it, make music
with it, make movies with it. Like, let's bring it
into our culture where when I talk to you, well,
if I send you an email or a text message,
I run it through AI. Hey, we write this because
(20:26):
I want to talk to Lucas about this, Like, let's
make it our habits, because I think what that allows
us to do is develop the competencies right for this
new building industry, right that the market is begging for.
I mean, I'm sure you've seen the news around Meta
and all this. Other big companies pay millions of dollars
(20:47):
for telling right, why can't we be that? Because we
go get the skills, go get this if we're the
ones holding the skill sets. I mean, and before I
get like your other question, you know, I'm passionate this
because I remember and you remember this because we're old enough. Well,
like the dot com era when the Internet was just
becoming big. I remember AOL. You know you've got men
(21:08):
where someone calls your mom the in and of a
caught off. I used to be so mad on the phone,
like Mom, jet off, this phone calls so I can
gonna lie like like thousand days of dial up in X,
Y and Z, and I wish I would have invested
in building skills as a software developer or a design
because you think about the nineties to two thousands, that's
who made all the big money huge, right and thankfully
(21:32):
when you think about who came into the industry at
the time, think about India. India caught on quickly and
invested tremendously their high schools, their universities. Right, they built
software developers. Look around most tech coming today, who's leading them? Right?
We can do the same exact thing with our community,
Like we just need to make sure we position ourself
(21:53):
in a place early on, and it's not too late
to do that. So so my point about about AIS
and I love that Mortgage and Morgan and what Glavity
is doing with building the community around AI is exactly
what we need everyone to do. Like we all like
my daughter is eleven years old, listen with Jacks may person.
I don't know, I'm like that, tell me what it says,
(22:16):
Like we have to do this because I think that's
a way forward. Okay, Now what was the question, because
that was.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
The yeah, yeah, talking about like this, the whole work
from home model. You know that COVID spurred on and
then return to office and what that means dynamically for sure?
Speaker 4 (22:34):
For sure. Here here's here's the truth is this is
that we are seeing there a strong wave of RTO
in the next three to four years, maybe even five years.
The majority of conference will be back in the office.
That's just the wave. Okay. And and to your point earlier,
the way you introduced a question, I appreciate it because
(22:55):
you're right. You know, many of us have found a
sense of being away from an environment that maybe produce
a ton of microaggressions or biases or what have you.
Like that is that is a very very fair statement
to make, without a doubt. I think what we have
(23:15):
to remember is that being isolated, being outside of proximity
does have unintended impacts on our careers. It really does,
and we have to be careful of that. Not because
we're black, or not because we're white or what have you,
just in general, it's just the way that it is,
like you know, proximity builds relationship and relationships is what
(23:40):
makes a difference in corporate America. Those who have strong
relationship with people, they're the ones that get the opportunities.
Think about you and your friends. You know, the best
friends get the best of you. Your best siblings get
the best of you. I know, you know, we shouldn't
be favoritism at the point, right, It's no, it's a
human nature thing. It's no different. And when it comes
to work, and so you know, I encourage and again,
(24:03):
for example, my role is fully remote, and so but
I do seek every opportunity to get in the office
because I do know no one's better for me selfishly.
I think it also is better for others to be
able to see me and for me to see people
and learn from people. And it's easy to talk to
me walking across the hallway than sending me a zoom
(24:24):
meeting to talk for thirty minutes. Right. And so these
are the things that I think we've we've lost some
of those things. And I think our community needs to,
you know, gabblize together and say, hey, listen, how can
we find a bridge where we're able to get back
into Forgive me for the sake of this example, into
this war zone where there's my progressions and biases happening, Like, sure,
(24:44):
those things are real, but how can we create carbon
space where we could be effective and slip out right
or if it's happened at a rate that is a
bit much, maybe consider that we're in the right organization
and can we start to look and find companies that
maybe will provide less of that kind of environment than
we'll we currently have. So I do think there's a
(25:06):
sense of like self bootstrapping that we must do. But
I also do think that we also have to be
very keenly aware of what is a trend, what's the
market shifting to its and allto Again, it's gonna be
something that and ALTM has started for a return to
to office. It's something that a lot of companies are
doing across the nation. And again the next five to
(25:28):
ten years, I think this will look like pre COVID days.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Yeah, you said something there.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I'm gonna attempt to eloquently formulate the question because you
just had something that sparked my interest, and that was,
you know, these thirty minute meetings, and I've heard and
this is kind of more like a you know, just
a way of working that is efficient, you know historically
at least in my experience, my days in corporate which
were not for me. But people schedule our long meetings
(25:56):
and and you just easily said the minute meetings. And
that made me think about the way I work now,
Like I do not accept meetings over forty five minutes.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
I'm just not.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
I'm gonna ask you to resend the calendar invite because
I'm not doing that. And it just made me think
about the relationship between your office and HR and how
you work with people and the I don't know if
it's an integration between the two or collaboration between the
two departments, but how does it work with your office
(26:29):
and with people operations?
Speaker 4 (26:32):
Yeah, and so it's so DI comes in many different forms, right.
There is the I that does community facing. Uh, there's
the I mean customer and community facing. There is d
I that is people, I mean employee facing, and so
(26:52):
at Axon I Jedi is is all of the above.
But the largest part of what we find the most
opportunity in our company is through our talent acquisition. We
want to hire the best talent in all communities. We
also want to make sure that once that talent comes
(27:13):
to act on they have a culture is able to
harness their diversity of thought and perspective and produce betterformance.
And the last piece is to make sure that we
have colleagues and managers and leaders who have the capacity
and intellectual understanding on how to lead diverse individuals globally.
(27:38):
And this is not just about color or gender. This
is like folks who work from a different tree who
have different communications hos high context, low context right. And
so for us that work is done within people operations,
Like my role is the vice president of Jedi and
People Experience, and so I have to be under the
people operations and under our Elizabeth who leads people operations. Here.
(28:02):
That's on because my day to day partners are Head
of Transition, our head of culture, our head of internal Communications,
ahead of talent management, ahead of L and D. These
should be my partners on a day to day basis,
where our conversations I'm able to influence your thinking vice
versa and build something that is integrated in all that
(28:22):
we do. And it not be like I'm this independent
third party like the CIA that has to work with
the state police. Some people do that in my work
for them, but for us, we find that unity and
collaboration in terms of being colleagues allows us to kind
of have a single strategy that has embedded work, and
(28:46):
for me, that seems to work a lot. Right. For example,
in my former company, I reported into the chief marketing
officer right now. It was great because I was really
really customer focused and community focused, all about like, how
do we get small business doing better? How do you
make sure that black businesses are getting highlighted just as
much as any other businesses. How do we make sure
that women owned businesses are gained opportunities that other business
(29:08):
a happening? Right, So it was very and I still
also have the employee piece, but the biggest piece of
my budget was spent around community and our partners. Whereas
here it's a bit different, right, Our customers are law
enforcements and so for that they're focused more on how
to recreate a sense of safety in our communities. And
(29:30):
so that's type of conversation that I think. It depends
on the organization, the product and sertas you provide or
solutions you provide, and with that information begin to align
where you can make the most impact. And for us
here as people operations.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
What strategies that you've been doing this a while. You
used to do things in the beginning that work then
no longer work. What are some of those things that
you find no longer work, But some of your counterparts
and other companies these they are still set up that
way and you like to update.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
That's a great question. One of the things I used
to talk off about what de I was to say
there are three reasons why people were doing DEI. One
was a compliance reason. So the e the EOC has
you know, made some demands to say, to be a
federal contractor, you must have X, Y and Z representation
(30:26):
of A B and c uh. Two.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
That's gone to that's gone, isn't it. Yeah, that's gone.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, that's gone in a unique way. Right,
that's gone because they have redefined what that means. So
now there is a thing called like illegal d I
and what legal DI looks like from the EOC that
helps describe those two things. And so it's gone in
the way that we used to know it. It still
exists in a way that you know, obviously we're protected
(30:53):
against discrimination and harassment and things like that, right, so,
but it looks very very different. So in the past,
a person could sue because you know, maybe I applied
for a job I didn't get in and I think
it's because of A, B and C. And they could
soon create a case in EOC and they will go
after the company and figure out things and you know
who knows come up in the settlement maybe what have you?
In today's day and age, with the current administration, that
(31:14):
looks a lot different, okay, And so that compliance piece
looks different. And I think that we must look at
our corporation and look at our JEDI strategy and what
we're doing to make sure that we're not still going
with the idea of like compliance being what compliance used
to look like. That has changed. And so I think
that's one thing that some companies to probably leaning on
(31:35):
that they must kind of come to terms with what
it is today. Two is UH, you know d I.
The re emergence of d I came after twenty twenty
the unfortunate death of you know, George Tiller, you know
UH and many others, Jory Floyd, Bana Taylor and many others,
and and the civil unrest and the power of social
(32:01):
justice gave an energy to d I like we've never
seen before. If you remember, in twenty twenty one, LinkedIn
reported that the most number of jobs on LinkedIn leadership
jobs over director level were DEI jobs. By far right.
We saw our hiring increase. Everyone was a d person
(32:23):
and for most people who got hired with people who
came from not a background that was focused on this
step of work. Well, I being one of them, right,
I was leading, you know, this was pre I got
I came to the position some ten years ago, so
right before not so long before George Floyd. But during
(32:43):
that period I did see a lot of folks who
got the job because of their passion, their leadership competencies,
their communications skills and so on and so forth. Like rightfully,
so nothing against them, but I think at this point
that we are now, passion is not enough. We need
We need people who have the competency to lead, who
(33:05):
have the ability to to seek out and understand compliance.
And the landmark has shifted. People talk about the attack
and d I. I like to talk about the scrutinity
of d I. We are under a microscope. Everything we
do must make sense, and it doesn't make sense. There's
a red flag. And for some people they're happy about
(33:25):
it because like, oh yes, thank God about time, because
I never like d s up anyway, it's pretty much much,
you know, too much, you know, reversing so much of
the things we've done in the past. And but for me,
I think it's a moment where we need to kind
of I appreciate the scrutiny because I feel struggling that
if after this moment we're able to survive, and which
(33:49):
we will, the scrutinity and and forgive me the attack
on d I, like many people say, I think what
would happen is a rebirth of what DI looks like
that is now competent, legal and clear. So this idea
that when someone does a mistake in their job and
they happen to be from a minority group, oh, it's
(34:09):
a DEI higher that has to go, this idea of
tokenism to say, oh my god, well you just got
hired to this role. Oh because he's black. That's why
that's gotta go. Right, So we're in a moment where
hopefully we can clean out just as much as some
of the what we'll call it illegal DEI some of
these cultural nuances that came along in the door with it.
So anyway, I'm not sure if I answer your question,
(34:31):
but I just want on a tangent on this idea
that I have had this frustration on DEI with this
idea where people feel DEI is about representation only, d
as about black people, d as about like that is
so not true. Diis again is about performance. And I
(34:53):
firmly believe whether you're black or you look differently, you
have the ability to be successful and enable you to
be that. And I think that's what this just should
be about.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Very good last one for you. And there are people
who are in school now who want to do work
that maybe they're passionate about it now because they haven't
been in the workforce yet, and they got to translate
that passion into you know, being able.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
To do some stuff. Can you talk about what they should.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Be learning, what should they be studying, what kind of
tools and technology tools and et cetera. Should they start
to get experienced with so that they can do this work.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
Well, yeah, no, it's a great question. I think personally,
the skill sets that really help us work do well
is communication background the ability to communicate both verbally non verbally.
I think that's huge part of the skill set. I
think anything to do with strategy, like business strategy, organizational design,
(35:48):
organization development, like those separate roles are really important roles
to the foundation of the work that you have to
do here. And I think lastly is anything have to
do with like learning the development being able to educate
people and teach people about how to build certain competenies
and skill sets. It's also an important background, right, So
any of these backgrounds it's helpful as a foundational level,
(36:09):
and then go get the experience, go to your ergs,
to employee resource groups or infinity groups, and help galvanize
a community, help lead events, help lead things, to help
you know up level a certain you know, skill set
or what have you. Like, Like the experience is probably
the most important piece that has to time with the
(36:30):
foundational piece. It's almost like, you know, trying to be
a doctor. Forgive me for this really extreme example. I
go to school for like macrobiology, that's my degree, but
I still have to go to med school and and
and yield the skill sets and practice. And I think
that's the work here. It's like, sure, you've gotten a
foundation of degree, that's great, but you have to get
and do the work, you know, lead an eerg group
(36:51):
you know, with it has to be reading corporation and
it's not. Again, I do want to make sure it's clear.
It's not social justice. Not because you lead a community
group in your church or in your home that you
feel like you can being that into the workplace. It's
extremely different. We know there's something called corporate bureaucracy and
corporate news and corporate speak, and these things are real,
they do exist. And so I do think that yes,
(37:13):
those you know, communications strategy, you know, uh learning and development,
that those are great backgrounds to have for foundational level
of education. But I think the great work starts where
you start doing things like you know, uplifting, complete resource groups,
infinity groups and all the small groups within the organizations
to help gobinize and big groups together toward a certain mission.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Afro Tech Conference is back when we return to as Town, Houston, Texas,
from October twenty seventh through thirty first, twenty twenty five
the George R.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Brown Convention Center.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
For years, afro Tech has been to go to experience
for black tech innovators, founders, engineers, creators and investors.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
In twenty twenty five is shaping.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Up to be the biggest year yet though, with fortyzery
attendees expected. This year's conference will feature five days of
dynamic programming across six curator stages, discovery to executive leadership.
Join us to hear from industry leaders at the forefront
of change, learn from top ten engineers and designers, and
connect with recruiters from nearly two hundred companies. This year,
we're digging deeper into what's next with tracks exploring AI
(38:13):
and machine learning, mad tech and health equity, cybersecurity, climate tech,
and much more. Whether you're launting your first startup, pivoting
into a new role, or scaling as an execu there's
something here for you. Take us and moving fast to
keep your spot now at Afrotech Conference dot Com. Black
Tech Green Money is a production to Blavity afro Tech
on the Black Effect podcast Networking Night Hire Media. It's
(38:35):
produced by Morgan Devaun and me Lucas, with the additional
production support by k McDonald, say Jama McGee. Special thank
you to Michael Davis and love each learn more about
my Guessing. Other Technish is an innovator's an Afrotech dot
Com video.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
First in this episode will.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Drop to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube. What tapping
enjoy your black tech free money shit us to somebody,
go get your money.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Needs some up
Afrotech Conference is back and return to Eights Town, Houston, Texas,
from October twenty seven through thirty first, twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Five at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
For years, Afrotech has been to go to experience for
black tech innovators, founders, engineers, creators and investors.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
In twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Is shaping up to be the biggest year yet, though
with fortyzery to tenees expected. This year's conference will feature
five days of dynamic programming across six curator stages, from
discovery to executive leadership. Join us to hear from industry
leaders at the forefront of change, learn from top ten
engineers and designers, and connect with recruiters from nearly two
hundred companies. This year, we're digging deeper into what's next
(00:39):
with tracks exploring AI and machine learning, mad tech and
health equity, cybersecurity, climate tech, and much more. Whether you're
launching your first startup, pivoting into a new role, or
scaling as an execut there's something here for you.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Tickets and moving fast to keep your spot nowt at
afrotech Conference dot Com.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
We'll luke you see a black tech green money with
another one you know, I have to bring you not
just like the people that you're going to see all
in the videos, you know what I mean, but the
people who are actually doing the work in some of
these companies and organizations, building these companies from the inside
and making sure that we have opportunities. So today I
(01:17):
want to introduce you to my guy, Yimmy Akasanya, who
is a purpose driven executive and nationally recognized leader in justice, equity,
diversity and inclusion.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Let's make that Jedi.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
It's the shortness of a Jedi with the bowl vision
for creating workplace cultures where everybody thrives. He's the vice
president of Jedi and People Experience at Axon, which developed
security technology products, where he leads global strategy to embed
high performance and belonging into the fabric of the company
across people, practices and products.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Welcome, Yimmy.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Well that was fantastic. Thank you. Absolutely, I'm digging the specs, man.
I normally come on anything I got the best spects on.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Hey, Hey, you know, I get a lot of compliments
on these and I'm I'm like, I'm never taking them off,
So you know, I appreciate it. And so we have
a lot of conversations, especially now, about diversity echoing inclusion,
and I want to talk about that, but I also
want to talk about just why it's important to have
black people in these spaces, and so I want to
(02:25):
talk I want to start here, is how do you
ensure in your role and how do you advocate for
black talent not just being recruited, but positioning roles that
actually influence strategy and innovation.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
It's a great question, and first of all, I do
want to it's the table by saying that I've done
this work in a number of organizations and a number
of very good organizations, and I think that when the
work is being done in organizations that truly see a
(03:00):
value of business case of representation, I think it makes
it work a little bit easier. And so I think
I want to caveat there to say that the work
Axon does. I think there's a recognition not only from
our leaders, you know, whether it's our president Josh e Isner,
whether it's our CEO Rick Smith, whether it's our board
(03:23):
members across Axon, I think they recognize the true necessity
they true need to have a diversity of thought and perspective,
and not only the products that we actually do create,
but in terms of the relationships rebuilt with our customers. Right,
So we are customer obsessed, you know, like people say it,
(03:45):
we mean it. And because of that, and because of
the fact that our customers and vast majory of our
costomers to roll over eighty five ninety percent as we
still grow our enterprise, eight percent of our customers are
you know, folks who are in public safe where there's
law enforcements, federal, you name it. That might be well,
(04:07):
the most diverse group of individuals in the world, right
because they support communities. Some of them look like the
community they serve. And so for us, it's not an option,
like we have to create products that serve the diverse communities,
not just in the US, but globally as well. And
so I think that as a baseline makes my work easy.
(04:29):
Now as I come into this role, I have to
be very very clear that the work we are doing,
and this is with all due respect to the important
work called social justice. That is an important work that well,
if we're being Kennedy and I, that work was so
important that without that work you and I wouldn't be here,
(04:51):
you know what I mean? And so that work is
so important and their arena for that work is in
our communities. Right, But when we talk about d specifically,
we talk about we're walking into a workplace, facility, or
an institution, whether it's academic or professional. That work has
to drive in some capacity performance. And so for me,
(05:14):
the conversation that I like to have well is about
performance is to say DEI is about performance, is about
unlucky performance. And we know that there are barriers in place.
We know that there are inequities due to the communities
we all come from into a workplace. So how do
we unlock those things so performance can be what drives
unless someone tells me. So when I talk about hiring,
(05:35):
I tell people I'm going to find the best talent
around the world. I gotta be intentional, right, I'm not
just going on LinkedIn that has eighty percent A or
twenty percent B. I'm going to go into the black community,
it's brown community, it's that community, this community and find
the best talent. And that's what we're trying to do.
It's all about, again, the best talent. So unless someone
wills to sit here and tell me that the best
(05:56):
talent does not exist in Brown and black communities or
in women communities or in that doc communities then and
then that's a different conversation on that happen a half.
But as far as we are concerned, we are completely
bullish on finding absolute best talent and I just feel
like we have to look under every rock to make.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Sure we do that.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, I want to come back to that, that global perspective.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
In a second. But you you sparked some thoughts and
I'll say this. You don't have to say it if
you want to. It's cool too. But like you know,
the companies that have made promises to our communities and
have you know, either pulled back on those promises, didn't
fulfill those promises, or denounce those promises. The math over
the next decade says that they need black people, just math.
(06:43):
They can't you know, innovate without them. They need them
as we need They need us as a customer. They
need us in the in the seats, in their in
their rooms, in their boardrooms too, but also on their floors.
So what do you say to the notion that for
those people that believe that they can do this without
(07:04):
black people, And how should we be rest knowing the
math doesn't work for them.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
And you know, I learned this in business school. One
of my favorite classes was a class that was about
It was called selling yourself and selling your ideas, and
it talked about it's very important for us to have
pointy point of views. I mean the point of view
that once you say the point of view, people are
to opt in to support your point of view or
(07:38):
they opt out of your point of view. And so
I want to lay my point of view kind of
similar to what you just laid out their will. I
firmly believe, especially in the United States, that any organization company,
whether it's service based or consumer based, that believes that
(08:03):
the black and African American population it's not a necessity
for success, will fail in the next ten to fifteen years. Fail.
And that's not a passionate statement.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
It's just mad.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
It's small mad. It's just what it is and the
reason why you will fail. To your point, and we
can go into the power of the black community from
a dollar standpoint, but I want to talk about a
talent standpoint. And I don't know if it's just me,
(08:40):
maybe my eyes are just getting open now, or maybe
because I'm one of my forties now I'm starting to
see things clearer. But the power and black talent, the acumen,
the intellectual capac their creativity, the soul, the excellence. Uh.
(09:06):
Once we once we take things seriously, and I think
part of it has to do with it, we gotta
we gotta, we gotta get serious sometimes, right, once we
take things seriously, it could be very scary with regards
to the power that lies behind the work that we do.
And so I feel that companies right now who are
(09:31):
not investing in black communities or investment in black talents
or what have you, or leaving room for other companies
like Axon and others who see the value and who
are pursuing it. Like I give an example because I
guess we can sit and talk about philosophy all all day, right,
(09:52):
but you know, afrottach is a is a great example.
You know, last year was the first time that Axon
made an afrotech and we were plan We're like, hey, listen,
we're not coming here to do a brand activation. And
then this is this is no shot at no one right.
Our goals to come here and find the best talent
and hire them. So we bought hiring managers. We bought
(10:14):
about fifty of our employees. We butt boots, interview boots
and pods, and we walked away with a ton of
talent until we're coming back again twenty twenty five this
year to do it all over again, this time being
more intentional. Right now, we're like, okay, we can get
up to twelve hires. Oh, let's see, can we get more?
And can we get managers and leaders? And so we're
(10:37):
talking a mid to senior level career folks this summer
around and again my point is like it's a wait
and see approach. Well, you know again, just just wash
the clock in five to fifteen years from now, Let's
see the companies who are top of the S and
P five hundred and let's see what they're doing differently
(10:57):
than those who are not on the top or those
who are falling out.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
The top day them.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
How do you measure going back to this global conversation
because you're not just you know, the domestic, you know, VP,
like this is your job across the world. When you
think about the maturity of the effort of DEI justice,
even j D e I Jedi, I'm gonna leaving it
in Jedi and not messed up the acronym here. How
(11:25):
especially with cultural definitions and practices are different than ours
here domestically, how do you balance those goals?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yeah, yeah, it's a great it's a great question. I'll
tell you why. You know, when I when I got
my first global job, I learned quickly that we must
be careful taking the America agenda across the world. And
so I was used to saying, Okay, great, we got ELGs.
(11:57):
All right, we're going to hire and look for you know,
to uh, you know, look for organizations that have, you know,
a talent pipeline of the Black community, the Latin, the
Hispanic community, the Asian community. Right, So those were the
things I did in in the US, and then I
got abroad and I spent a year in London working
for a certain company at the time, and I was
looking around and asked a questions, Hey, listen, where can
(12:19):
I find these communities in that community in terms of
like talent pipelines. And some do exist, but predominantly there
were those that were women or or agenda specific you know,
talent pipelines. And I learned quickly like no, no, no, that's
don't bring don't bring America over here, man, we don't.
We don't do things like that. I remember there was
you know, even even from an ERG perspective, I was
(12:41):
looking for an executive sponsor who was, uh, you know,
based out of Italy, and I was like, hey, let's
we got some great year. He's like, no, no, no, no, yeah me,
thanks for we don't do that here. And so there
is a pushback to this idea of culturally, of of
of using affinity groups to the find anything. And then
(13:02):
there's the other piece of where there are true privacy
laws internationally specifically like in the places like France in
Europe that you know restricts you from collecting that data.
Like in the US. You know, the EEOC allows us
to collect actually not allows us, informs us collect diversity
data for protective characteristics and send reports of what that
(13:24):
looks like to them. And so we have to collect
the data and what people have options of you know,
self identifying and not self identifying, or internationally that doesn't
exist in most countries and so you don't even have
the data to use, and so you have to now
collected it within your organization or find ways to work
around those things. And so the bottom line truly becomes
(13:47):
the things that I gotten used to in terms of
like demographics driving my agenda. I was forced to reckon like, no,
let me stop doing that and let's listen for those
at the company to see what they truly need to
be performer like. And then so inclusion became top of
mind and that became the driver Bros. Strategy to say, okay, great,
(14:07):
like what are some of your challenges in your organization department?
Like the employee giving surveys, the inclusion surveys like that
became the true So I say medium for me to
identify opportunity eras to drive inclusion and not your typical
just simply looked to the lens of representation and use
that those markers as success, right, And so I think
(14:30):
that is a shift that we should adopt across DEI,
where it's like, sure, repetation is incredibly important, incredibly important,
but it's not the definition of success. Increasing the black
population by five percent is not success, like that needs
(14:51):
to be clear, or by ten or by fifteen percent,
that is not success in DEI. DEI is about the
experience of cl You can bring a thousand people to
the table will and we don't have voices to influence
decision making. Then how is that success Like success would
be determined by the performance that we have. Performance always
(15:13):
about action, that's what success is about, right, And so
for me, it's like, how do we change a narrative
to shift away from the idea that it's all of
our representation, it's all about like you know, X and os,
and it's less around performance likedi is performance for everyone
for everyone, and equity is recognizing that we're not all
(15:37):
on the same stage. And so that to me, that's
the word. So we think about international and domestic. I
think that the biggest challenges you see is there are
certain laws that prohibit us from collecting data internationally, and
then there's some other laws to help us. For example,
in London or in Europe, there's a law around if
you have over one hundred I think maybe two hundred
(15:59):
fifty the employees, you must report your pay equity, which
is your agenda pay reports publicly. Right, that's a positive
thing that creates transparency. Well in the US, some states
like California and some others are beginning to adapt things
like that, but it's not kind of widespread it across
all nations, right, so so again, I think we are
(16:21):
in the journey of this, of this uh of of
DEI or Jedi or ie D, depending on how you
want to call it. But but I do think there
is not a one size for all and we have
to be very very careful that we saw thinking about internationally.
We must think local first, you know, forget all you
think you know about d I, go local, learn from
(16:45):
the folks there are domestic there, and build from within.
I think any other approach would be will be the
wrong way to go about this.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
You know, during COVID we had the whole work from
home or hybrid for some companies, but work from home
proliferated and then over the last six months a year
or so, we have, you know, kind of a return
to office approach many companies are embracing. And when we
did the work from a home, we had a lot
(17:14):
of black people who felt like they were free from
the microaggressions that you know, happened in the office, and
a lot of for a variety of reasons, a lot
of workers appreciated that work model. However, it came also
with it downside in that you know, sometimes proximity to
(17:34):
leadership is where you get elevation, and when you're not
seeing Tom.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
At the water cooler or Sarah at the water cooler.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
It may be difficult to recognize that talent that they're
bringing in order to provide opportunity for them.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
So I want you to kind of set a landscape
of what the next.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
You know, twelve, twenty four or thirty six months looked
like for black people trying to find elevation and some
of their companies are going back to the office, some.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Of them are remaining hybrid or work remotely.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Just what does it look like and how should we
position ourselves considering even AI is coming for a lot
of these jobs.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
Yeah, no, for sure, thank you for that. And let
me talk about the AI part. You know, I heard
somewhere that you know, AI is not going to steal
jobs from people. However, people who know already use AI
(18:34):
and use AI is going as two people's jobs, right,
And I thought that was a really interesting difference there.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
But I would say, I gotta pause you that because
I've heard that also.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
But I'm like, yeah, that I've there are certain roles
I have not hired four because I didn't I have
AI now, so it may not for by and large.
You may not lose it, but you may not have
got it also, no doubt about it.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
I think I think you're right. And here's how I
interpret that. Right, Let's just draw some fake numbers. Listen,
there's one hundred jobs before AI came into the picture.
One hundred jobs exists pre AI. I do believe, like
many people believe that out of those hundred jobs, about
maybe sixty percent are going to be are going to
(19:22):
be gone because AI is now being in the picture.
But I do believe another one hundred jobs will be
created by people who want to use AI. So now
you're going to see one hundred and forty jobs. However,
you lost sixty. Does that make sense for me? Is yes,
without a doubt. Like you know you're hearing companies or
(19:45):
you talk about, hey, listen, how can AI make a
job you know, more efficient? How can you eliminate certain roles?
How do you listen? We're not going to going to
be on a hiring freeze. If you if you have
a job to get done, I think you think about
how AI can be doing right. So, yes, these things
are happening, But without a doubt, I still think that
knowing how to utilize AI. It's going to make you
(20:06):
so valuable in this market. And I think, black folks,
we must, we must become experts. We must become the
users of it. We get creative with it, make music
with it, make movies with it. Like, let's bring it
into our culture where when I talk to you, well,
if I send you an email or a text message,
I run it through AI. Hey, we write this because
(20:26):
I want to talk to Lucas about this, Like, let's
make it our habits, because I think what that allows
us to do is develop the competencies right for this
new building industry, right that the market is begging for.
I mean, I'm sure you've seen the news around Meta
and all this. Other big companies pay millions of dollars
(20:47):
for telling right, why can't we be that? Because we
go get the skills, go get this if we're the
ones holding the skill sets. I mean, and before I
get like your other question, you know, I'm passionate this
because I remember and you remember this because we're old enough. Well,
like the dot com era when the Internet was just
becoming big. I remember AOL. You know you've got men
(21:08):
where someone calls your mom the in and of a
caught off. I used to be so mad on the phone,
like Mom, jet off, this phone calls so I can
gonna lie like like thousand days of dial up in X,
Y and Z, and I wish I would have invested
in building skills as a software developer or a design
because you think about the nineties to two thousands, that's
who made all the big money huge, right and thankfully
(21:32):
when you think about who came into the industry at
the time, think about India. India caught on quickly and
invested tremendously their high schools, their universities. Right, they built
software developers. Look around most tech coming today, who's leading them? Right?
We can do the same exact thing with our community,
Like we just need to make sure we position ourself
(21:53):
in a place early on, and it's not too late
to do that. So so my point about about AIS
and I love that Mortgage and Morgan and what Glavity
is doing with building the community around AI is exactly
what we need everyone to do. Like we all like
my daughter is eleven years old, listen with Jacks may person.
I don't know, I'm like that, tell me what it says,
(22:16):
Like we have to do this because I think that's
a way forward. Okay, Now what was the question, because
that was.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
The yeah, yeah, talking about like this, the whole work
from home model. You know that COVID spurred on and
then return to office and what that means dynamically for sure?
Speaker 4 (22:34):
For sure. Here here's here's the truth is this is
that we are seeing there a strong wave of RTO
in the next three to four years, maybe even five years.
The majority of conference will be back in the office.
That's just the wave. Okay. And and to your point earlier,
the way you introduced a question, I appreciate it because
(22:55):
you're right. You know, many of us have found a
sense of being away from an environment that maybe produce
a ton of microaggressions or biases or what have you.
Like that is that is a very very fair statement
to make, without a doubt. I think what we have
(23:15):
to remember is that being isolated, being outside of proximity
does have unintended impacts on our careers. It really does,
and we have to be careful of that. Not because
we're black, or not because we're white or what have you,
just in general, it's just the way that it is,
like you know, proximity builds relationship and relationships is what
(23:40):
makes a difference in corporate America. Those who have strong
relationship with people, they're the ones that get the opportunities.
Think about you and your friends. You know, the best
friends get the best of you. Your best siblings get
the best of you. I know, you know, we shouldn't
be favoritism at the point, right, It's no, it's a
human nature thing. It's no different. And when it comes
to work, and so you know, I encourage and again,
(24:03):
for example, my role is fully remote, and so but
I do seek every opportunity to get in the office
because I do know no one's better for me selfishly.
I think it also is better for others to be
able to see me and for me to see people
and learn from people. And it's easy to talk to
me walking across the hallway than sending me a zoom
(24:24):
meeting to talk for thirty minutes. Right. And so these
are the things that I think we've we've lost some
of those things. And I think our community needs to,
you know, gabblize together and say, hey, listen, how can
we find a bridge where we're able to get back
into Forgive me for the sake of this example, into
this war zone where there's my progressions and biases happening, Like, sure,
(24:44):
those things are real, but how can we create carbon
space where we could be effective and slip out right
or if it's happened at a rate that is a
bit much, maybe consider that we're in the right organization
and can we start to look and find companies that
maybe will provide less of that kind of environment than
we'll we currently have. So I do think there's a
(25:06):
sense of like self bootstrapping that we must do. But
I also do think that we also have to be
very keenly aware of what is a trend, what's the
market shifting to its and allto Again, it's gonna be
something that and ALTM has started for a return to
to office. It's something that a lot of companies are
doing across the nation. And again the next five to
(25:28):
ten years, I think this will look like pre COVID days.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Yeah, you said something there.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I'm gonna attempt to eloquently formulate the question because you
just had something that sparked my interest, and that was,
you know, these thirty minute meetings, and I've heard and
this is kind of more like a you know, just
a way of working that is efficient, you know historically
at least in my experience, my days in corporate which
were not for me. But people schedule our long meetings
(25:56):
and and you just easily said the minute meetings. And
that made me think about the way I work now,
Like I do not accept meetings over forty five minutes.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
I'm just not.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
I'm gonna ask you to resend the calendar invite because
I'm not doing that. And it just made me think
about the relationship between your office and HR and how
you work with people and the I don't know if
it's an integration between the two or collaboration between the
two departments, but how does it work with your office
(26:29):
and with people operations?
Speaker 4 (26:32):
Yeah, and so it's so DI comes in many different forms, right.
There is the I that does community facing. Uh, there's
the I mean customer and community facing. There is d
I that is people, I mean employee facing, and so
(26:52):
at Axon I Jedi is is all of the above.
But the largest part of what we find the most
opportunity in our company is through our talent acquisition. We
want to hire the best talent in all communities. We
also want to make sure that once that talent comes
(27:13):
to act on they have a culture is able to
harness their diversity of thought and perspective and produce betterformance.
And the last piece is to make sure that we
have colleagues and managers and leaders who have the capacity
and intellectual understanding on how to lead diverse individuals globally.
(27:38):
And this is not just about color or gender. This
is like folks who work from a different tree who
have different communications hos high context, low context right. And
so for us that work is done within people operations,
Like my role is the vice president of Jedi and
People Experience, and so I have to be under the
people operations and under our Elizabeth who leads people operations. Here.
(28:02):
That's on because my day to day partners are Head
of Transition, our head of culture, our head of internal Communications,
ahead of talent management, ahead of L and D. These
should be my partners on a day to day basis,
where our conversations I'm able to influence your thinking vice
versa and build something that is integrated in all that
(28:22):
we do. And it not be like I'm this independent
third party like the CIA that has to work with
the state police. Some people do that in my work
for them, but for us, we find that unity and
collaboration in terms of being colleagues allows us to kind
of have a single strategy that has embedded work, and
(28:46):
for me, that seems to work a lot. Right. For example,
in my former company, I reported into the chief marketing
officer right now. It was great because I was really
really customer focused and community focused, all about like, how
do we get small business doing better? How do you
make sure that black businesses are getting highlighted just as
much as any other businesses. How do we make sure
that women owned businesses are gained opportunities that other business
(29:08):
a happening? Right, So it was very and I still
also have the employee piece, but the biggest piece of
my budget was spent around community and our partners. Whereas
here it's a bit different, right, Our customers are law
enforcements and so for that they're focused more on how
to recreate a sense of safety in our communities. And
(29:30):
so that's type of conversation that I think. It depends
on the organization, the product and sertas you provide or
solutions you provide, and with that information begin to align
where you can make the most impact. And for us
here as people operations.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
What strategies that you've been doing this a while. You
used to do things in the beginning that work then
no longer work. What are some of those things that
you find no longer work, But some of your counterparts
and other companies these they are still set up that
way and you like to update.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
That's a great question. One of the things I used
to talk off about what de I was to say
there are three reasons why people were doing DEI. One
was a compliance reason. So the e the EOC has
you know, made some demands to say, to be a
federal contractor, you must have X, Y and Z representation
(30:26):
of A B and c uh. Two.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
That's gone to that's gone, isn't it. Yeah, that's gone.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, that's gone in a unique way. Right,
that's gone because they have redefined what that means. So
now there is a thing called like illegal d I
and what legal DI looks like from the EOC that
helps describe those two things. And so it's gone in
the way that we used to know it. It still
exists in a way that you know, obviously we're protected
(30:53):
against discrimination and harassment and things like that, right, so,
but it looks very very different. So in the past,
a person could sue because you know, maybe I applied
for a job I didn't get in and I think
it's because of A, B and C. And they could
soon create a case in EOC and they will go
after the company and figure out things and you know
who knows come up in the settlement maybe what have you?
In today's day and age, with the current administration, that
(31:14):
looks a lot different, okay, And so that compliance piece
looks different. And I think that we must look at
our corporation and look at our JEDI strategy and what
we're doing to make sure that we're not still going
with the idea of like compliance being what compliance used
to look like. That has changed. And so I think
that's one thing that some companies to probably leaning on
(31:35):
that they must kind of come to terms with what
it is today. Two is UH, you know d I.
The re emergence of d I came after twenty twenty
the unfortunate death of you know, George Tiller, you know
UH and many others, Jory Floyd, Bana Taylor and many others,
and and the civil unrest and the power of social
(32:01):
justice gave an energy to d I like we've never
seen before. If you remember, in twenty twenty one, LinkedIn
reported that the most number of jobs on LinkedIn leadership
jobs over director level were DEI jobs. By far right.
We saw our hiring increase. Everyone was a d person
(32:23):
and for most people who got hired with people who
came from not a background that was focused on this
step of work. Well, I being one of them, right,
I was leading, you know, this was pre I got
I came to the position some ten years ago, so
right before not so long before George Floyd. But during
(32:43):
that period I did see a lot of folks who
got the job because of their passion, their leadership competencies,
their communications skills and so on and so forth. Like rightfully,
so nothing against them, but I think at this point
that we are now, passion is not enough. We need
We need people who have the competency to lead, who
(33:05):
have the ability to to seek out and understand compliance.
And the landmark has shifted. People talk about the attack
and d I. I like to talk about the scrutinity
of d I. We are under a microscope. Everything we
do must make sense, and it doesn't make sense. There's
a red flag. And for some people they're happy about
(33:25):
it because like, oh yes, thank God about time, because
I never like d s up anyway, it's pretty much much,
you know, too much, you know, reversing so much of
the things we've done in the past. And but for me,
I think it's a moment where we need to kind
of I appreciate the scrutiny because I feel struggling that
if after this moment we're able to survive, and which
(33:49):
we will, the scrutinity and and forgive me the attack
on d I, like many people say, I think what
would happen is a rebirth of what DI looks like
that is now competent, legal and clear. So this idea
that when someone does a mistake in their job and
they happen to be from a minority group, oh, it's
(34:09):
a DEI higher that has to go, this idea of
tokenism to say, oh my god, well you just got
hired to this role. Oh because he's black. That's why
that's gotta go. Right, So we're in a moment where
hopefully we can clean out just as much as some
of the what we'll call it illegal DEI some of
these cultural nuances that came along in the door with it.
So anyway, I'm not sure if I answer your question,
(34:31):
but I just want on a tangent on this idea
that I have had this frustration on DEI with this
idea where people feel DEI is about representation only, d
as about black people, d as about like that is
so not true. Diis again is about performance. And I
(34:53):
firmly believe whether you're black or you look differently, you
have the ability to be successful and enable you to
be that. And I think that's what this just should
be about.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Very good last one for you. And there are people
who are in school now who want to do work
that maybe they're passionate about it now because they haven't
been in the workforce yet, and they got to translate
that passion into you know, being able.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
To do some stuff. Can you talk about what they should.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Be learning, what should they be studying, what kind of
tools and technology tools and et cetera. Should they start
to get experienced with so that they can do this work.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
Well, yeah, no, it's a great question. I think personally,
the skill sets that really help us work do well
is communication background the ability to communicate both verbally non verbally.
I think that's huge part of the skill set. I
think anything to do with strategy, like business strategy, organizational design,
(35:48):
organization development, like those separate roles are really important roles
to the foundation of the work that you have to
do here. And I think lastly is anything have to
do with like learning the development being able to educate
people and teach people about how to build certain competenies
and skill sets. It's also an important background, right, So
any of these backgrounds it's helpful as a foundational level,
(36:09):
and then go get the experience, go to your ergs,
to employee resource groups or infinity groups, and help galvanize
a community, help lead events, help lead things, to help
you know up level a certain you know, skill set
or what have you. Like, Like the experience is probably
the most important piece that has to time with the
(36:30):
foundational piece. It's almost like, you know, trying to be
a doctor. Forgive me for this really extreme example. I
go to school for like macrobiology, that's my degree, but
I still have to go to med school and and
and yield the skill sets and practice. And I think
that's the work here. It's like, sure, you've gotten a
foundation of degree, that's great, but you have to get
and do the work, you know, lead an eerg group
(36:51):
you know, with it has to be reading corporation and
it's not. Again, I do want to make sure it's clear.
It's not social justice. Not because you lead a community
group in your church or in your home that you
feel like you can being that into the workplace. It's
extremely different. We know there's something called corporate bureaucracy and
corporate news and corporate speak, and these things are real,
they do exist. And so I do think that yes,
(37:13):
those you know, communications strategy, you know, uh learning and development,
that those are great backgrounds to have for foundational level
of education. But I think the great work starts where
you start doing things like you know, uplifting, complete resource groups,
infinity groups and all the small groups within the organizations
to help gobinize and big groups together toward a certain mission.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Afro Tech Conference is back when we return to as Town, Houston, Texas,
from October twenty seventh through thirty first, twenty twenty five
the George R.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Brown Convention Center.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
For years, afro Tech has been to go to experience
for black tech innovators, founders, engineers, creators and investors.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
In twenty twenty five is shaping.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Up to be the biggest year yet though, with fortyzery
attendees expected. This year's conference will feature five days of
dynamic programming across six curator stages, discovery to executive leadership.
Join us to hear from industry leaders at the forefront
of change, learn from top ten engineers and designers, and
connect with recruiters from nearly two hundred companies. This year,
we're digging deeper into what's next with tracks exploring AI
(38:13):
and machine learning, mad tech and health equity, cybersecurity, climate tech,
and much more. Whether you're launting your first startup, pivoting
into a new role, or scaling as an execu there's
something here for you. Take us and moving fast to
keep your spot now at Afrotech Conference dot Com. Black
Tech Green Money is a production to Blavity afro Tech
on the Black Effect podcast Networking Night Hire Media. It's
(38:35):
produced by Morgan Devaun and me Lucas, with the additional
production support by k McDonald, say Jama McGee. Special thank
you to Michael Davis and love each learn more about
my Guessing. Other Technish is an innovator's an Afrotech dot
Com video.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
First in this episode will.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Drop to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube. What tapping
enjoy your black tech free money shit us to somebody,
go get your money.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Needs some up
Host
Will Lucas
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