Jennifer Brown > Quotes

“The purpose-oriented among us are the first to jump ship.”
― Jennifer Brown, Inclusion: Diversity, The New Workplace & The Will To Change

“When we engage in difficult human conversations, we can shift people’s views in a positive way—and this translates directly into politics through the candidates they support and the policies they demand.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“No human is free from bias. What we all must try to do is recognize and overcome our biases and to see others as having equal potential.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“Leaders can start by trying to practice more cultural humility by stepping out of their own experiences to identify their knowledge gaps about other cultures.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“Addressing past injustices can be uncomfortable but necessary: it sends the important message that underrepresented groups will no longer be ignored or marginalized by their government. This is not about creating victims or assigning blame for past actions to modern generations. Rather it is a chance to build a shared understanding of what happened and, most importantly, it represents a shared consensus that we must never let it happen again.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“Maybe you didn’t intend to build or support an unfair reality, but you can change it, now that you are learning how. This is every leader’s most sacred responsibility, particularly if their road to leadership has been smoother because of their identity.”
― Jennifer Brown, How to Be an Inclusive Leader: Your Role in Creating Cultures of Belonging Where Everyone Can Thrive

“Another way to understand the difference between equality and equity is to realize that addressing equity issues strikes at the source of the problem rather than dealing with the symptoms, one by one. Our attachment to the myth of meritocracy—which is the notion that companies are structured to reward only the most talented and determined individuals15—is increasingly being viewed as out of touch because it doesn’t acknowledge our very real differences, and how much harder the journey up the ladder, or even onto the ladder, is for some. An insightful article by author Amy Sun makes this clear: Treating everyone exactly the same actually is not fair. What equal treatment does do is erase our differences and promote privilege. Equity is giving everyone what they need to be successful. Equality is treating everyone the same.16 Surrounding Yourself with a Trusted Few If you’ve recognized some of yourself in this chapter, you’re likely feeling motivated to take a closer look at your potential to be a more inclusive leader. Similarly, if you want to support your colleagues in their journey out of Unawareness, this chapter has likely provided many points of entry to transformational conversations. It’s important to note that this stage of your journey might be somewhat private. If you realize you haven’t given certain people a fair chance, you might not want to broadcast that to your colleagues. (Not only would this be damaging to your reputation, it could also make other people feel bad.) But as you become aware of your biases, you’ll start to understand how you can do things differently to better support others. It is a learning process, and it helps to have support from people you trust. When you’re ready, seek out conversations with a trusted few who can help you find your balance, your vocabulary, and begin to identify new skills.”
― Jennifer Brown, How to Be an Inclusive Leader: Your Role in Creating Cultures of Belonging Where Everyone Can Thrive

“Our culture is not only based on the language we speak or the region we live in or the food we eat or the way we describe our identity. It is not only the place we work or the faith we choose or the stories we believe. Culture is all these things together, and an inclusive world is one where all of us are free to belong to the cultures we choose without being judged for our choices.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“We live in a time of target audiences, where every story seems told for a predetermined audience. When stories are dismissed as only for some people, they fail to realize their true potential. Instead of accepting these artificial barriers, we all must make a choice to actively seek out stories told from perspectives other than our own.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“Leaders must recognize that great diversity exists within marginalized groups.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“The stories we choose to consume—and believe—shift our worldviews. Our support can have a material impact on which stories get told in the future and which storytellers get funded to share their gifts.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“If we want people to bring their whole selves into work, we must make it acceptable for anyone and everyone to talk about and share their family experience—and we must also ensure that people don’t feel judged or excluded if they are neither a caregiver nor a parent.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“The “glass ceiling” cannot be replaced with the “glass cliff.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“In an inclusive world, each of us should feel empowered to declare and explore our identities openly without fear of being ostracized for it.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“To build a more inclusive world, we must move toward building more accommodations into our modern workplaces for all types of families, and more acceptance into our social fabric for neighbors and colleagues who live in family structures different than our own.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“Vulnerability among leaders creates a safe space for everyone else to feel that they can be vulnerable too.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“Labels can easily become shorthand for how we describe people. Each of us must resist the tendency to categorize people in this limiting way. It harms their potential and creates an environment where others may feel forced to live inside a single, outside perception of who they are.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“We are each many identities at once, and each one can influence our actions. At the same time, we all carry some degree of privilege. In moments when that privilege is laid bare, we can choose to silently benefit and remain a bystander, or we can stand up and try to fix something that is clearly wrong.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“You don’t need to have a fancy job title or even actually be in the workforce to help encourage and advocate for more diversity in leadership. We all have a role to play in creating a world with more inclusive leaders.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“While the idea of having an older professional mentor is widely understood and supported, the idea of a reverse mentor remains somewhat niche. Both have great value once we realize that we all have the capacity to learn from those who are both older and younger than ourselves.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“Culture is neither good nor bad, but it can be used as a tool to exclude people, or to bring people together.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“Adopting a more diverse and inclusive point of view is key to developing a brilliant and innovative concept or to making your existing concept stand out from the crowd and appeal to a wider consumer base.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“Diversity must be reframed as a competitive advantage rather than a barrier to overcome.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity

“Governments must identify and correct policies that unfairly discriminate against entire communities and prioritize profit over people.”
― Jennifer Brown, Beyond Diversity