June Featured Author | Bernadette Smith
Welcome to our featured author series where we share different points of view on advancing social justice and DEI+B efforts through the ever evolving fields of multicultural organizational development, human resources, implementation science, equitable evaluation and applied research, improvement science, learning science, performance measurement, and team science.
Each month we highlight someone in this work we admire and have learned from in the past. Our hope is that you find new perspectives, ideas, and insights to inspire and challenge the way you live and work.
Bernadette Smith
CEO, Equality Speaker
Bernadette Smith is founder and CEO of Equality Institute and award-winning author of four books, including the bestseller Inclusive 360: Proven Solutions for an Equitable Organization.
Bernadette has presented to enthusiastic audiences of CEOs, associations, entrepreneurs, leadership teams, sales professionals, account executives, marketing executives, human resource managers and more. Her expertise has been sought after by the New York Times, Forbes, the Washington Post, and Fast Company, among many others, and she’s appeared on the Today Show, the BBC, National Public Radio, and CNN.
Bernadette has been named one of Chicago’s Notable LGBTQ Executives by Crain’s Chicago Business and hosts the weekly podcast 5 Things in 15 Minutes: Bringing Good Vibes to DEI.
Why do you do the work you do?
It’s my purpose, my life’s work. I believe I was put on this earth to make a difference, to create spaces where people can feel safe to express their authentic selves. I’ve been an entrepreneur since 2004 when I started my first business planning weddings for LGBTQ couples to help them navigate a very hetero-normative wedding industry. As time went on, I realized I could make a bigger impact by educating professionals in the wedding, hospitality, and travel industries on LGBTQ+ inclusion. I wrote three books on that topic and continued planning weddings for 14 years.
As time went on, I burnt out with that work and evolved my work away from the wedding industry, and away from LGBTQ+ topics exclusively. Although the Equity Institute now works with a wide variety of businesses on diversity, equity, and inclusion topics, our vision remains the same: to create spaces where people can feel safe to express their authentic selves.
What technique, method, tool, theory or practice would you like to highlight that is promising and/or proven for advancing social justice?
ARC Method
We’ve created some great things internally that I’m proud of. One is called the ARC Method. ARC stands for Ask, Respect, Connect, and is our tool to help people bridge differences and speak out against microaggressions. I believe that most of us want to connect with people who are different from us, but many of us are also afraid of saying the wrong thing and accidentally offending someone – so we say nothing and stay in our lane.
The ARC Method provides simple, but highly effective conversation starters to advance dialogue. You can download the ARC Method cheat sheet at this link: www.theEqualityInstitute.com/arc
Inclusive 360 Assessment Tool
Another thing I built from the ground up is our Inclusive 360 Assessment Tool. Inclusive 360 is also the name of my book. This is an organizational assessment (not an employee assessment) that examines 16 functional areas for opportunities for equity and inclusion, and even corporate social responsibility.
Once the assessment is submitted, the tool instantly generates a comprehensive, actionable DEI roadmap. What I love about this is that the roadmap is instantly useful and allows organizations to hit the ground running on DEI strategies. Anyone who wants to take a mini version (12 questions instead of 300!) can check it out at www.Inclusive360.com/quiz
What are some books you wish everyone would read?
I wish everyone would read The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, which tells the story of the friendship between the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu and a week they spent together in 2015.
I believe at the end of the day, my diversity, equity, and inclusion work is an extension of my spirituality and pure acceptance of our common humanity. This book is about finding joy through acts of compassion, generosity, humility and more. It’s a lovely, easy read.
What are a couple of practices, resources, and/or tools that help you live more to your values on a daily?
I’m a deep learner and have a weekly practice around learning and sharing what I learn.
I block time on Thursday for reading DEI newsletters and articles, searching for stories that I find to be uplifting and inspiring. Then on Friday, I write a newsletter called 5 Things: Bringing Good Vibes to DEI. This newsletter, which goes out on Saturday, shares 5 current news stories of things that I believe are going right in the world, stories that I believe can inspire others to take similar actions within their own organizations or community. Then on Mondays, I record a podcast and livestream with a guest talking about that week’s stories. The show is called 5 Things in 15 Minutes: Bringing Good Vibes to DEI, and your very own Veronica Smith joined me on this March podcast!
I receive incredibly positive feedback on the newsletter and show. I know that despite so much oppression, and so many things going wrong, there are a lot of things going right. My work is to inspire others to make positive change by showing them the way and helping them realize it’s easier than they may think.
Anyone can subscribe to 5 Things at www.5ThingsDEI.com.
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