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Advaincing Health Equity for Black Women Through Sponsorship – Download

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11:00:26 Hello everyone and welcome to today’s webinar. I’m Ben roof Program Manager here at the forum.
11:00:33 I am pleased to have you here today for advancing health equity for black women through sponsorship with faith, each one of you Chicago medicine. This is the second webinar of our 2022 fall forum on workplace inclusion webinar series.
11:00:47 We hope you enjoy this experience and find this information helpful in your future work and join us for future webinars. Today faith will be presenting for 45 minutes for questions.
11:01:06 will be closed so please use the q amp a for questions and comments closed captioning is available. Just select the live transcript option on your screen.
11:01:13 There’s also a link to this to the flags in the chat.
11:01:13 At the end of this webinar, you’ll be asked to fill out a brief survey on your experience, please take a moment to fill out this survey as your feedback helps us shape future webinars, and we truly appreciate your open and honest feedback.
11:01:28 Today’s webinar is Sherman HRCA eligible, the activity ideas will be private at the end of the webinar. There’s also being recorded and being broadcast live on Facebook, the recording will be posted to our website.
11:01:39 Visit forum, visit our website for more plus inclusion.org, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for more information. Registration for 31st annual 34th annual conference solving for x tackling inequities in a world of unknowns, is now open.
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11:03:16 Without further ado, I would like to hand things over to faith.
11:03:23 Thank you, Ben Hi everyone, I’m while I’m getting situated here. If you can just throw in the q amp a this, where you’re from. so I want to see who we have here.
11:03:37 Where are you from, and if you can put that in the q amp a and also what industry, are you in I’m interested in, or a shy town, I see you stand up for gun.
11:03:51 And I so I’m trying something new. I have my, my iPad here on my side here so that I can see the chat so hopefully this isn’t gonna work.
11:04:04 But, okay. Hi, Michigan, Minnesota.
11:04:10 I see some folks from healthcare,
11:04:14 Oregon, Toronto.
11:04:17 Alright, California.
11:04:20 Hey.
11:04:24 Hi Mikita.
11:04:28 Okay, so I see folks from healthcare I see some real estate. Okay.
11:04:34 That is a great Welcome everybody.
11:04:40 Lots of folks from healthcare.
11:04:43 But I see some of the game industry Vegas. Nice. Okay, welcome welcome everybody I’m so glad that you were able to join us today.
11:05:07 And
11:05:04 I want to say thank you. Thank you to the forum on workplace inclusion for this opportunity to share our story with you today and if you may if you know the theme for black history month this year is actually health and wellness.
11:05:18 So this conversation about advancing health equity for black women is extremely timely. So before I get started before we go into the slides, I didn’t really quickly want to introduce my colleague lasagna Macklin, and the Tanya Macklin is an amazing nurse
11:05:39 leader she’s here with me today. She is one of the chairs for our employee resource group that’s named noticed at the University of Chicago medicine, and I’ll tell you a little bit more about notice later in the presentation, but she was also instrumental
11:05:58 in the implementation, and the creation of our sponsorship program. So I have what time you here, and she’s going to be in the q amp a answer some of your questions in real time so hopefully we’ll be able to get to everybody’s questions today so the questions
11:06:15 that she can answer she’s going to be answering in real time. And then, as Ben said we’ll have 15 minutes at the end for some q&a as well. Okay. Yeah, so I still see people checking in.
11:06:27 So thank you all. Hey everybody. Glad glad to see you glad that you’re here.
11:06:34 So as we get started, I want to quickly tell you about myself.
11:06:39 I have over 10 years and change management and process improvement and healthcare experience and in my current role at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
11:06:49 I lead cultural transformation for the IT department. And so as a DI champion, my mantra mantra is, if you can’t say you can’t solve it.
11:06:59 So I use my skill for facilitating conversations across differences to really challenge people to push beyond politeness, and to speak hard truths.
11:07:10 And I believe that people are the most important part of any process.
11:07:15 And my work and change management and process improvement has taught me how systems work within an organization that’s not become really adept at identifying systemic barriers and using the right tools to break them down and create innovative solutions
11:07:31 that transport culture.
11:07:35 As I say I am an advocate I’m a huge advocate I’m very passionate my passion. Passion project is advocating for advancing black women in the workplace.
11:07:45 Yeah, my passion for advocacy was instilled in me early on by my family, who taught me to stand up for what I believe in and that everybody deserves to be heard and respected.
11:07:56 So not a flashback not surprisingly, the only fights that I got into as a kid.
11:08:07 were standing up to other people’s boats, and they were always bigger than me, but I always one.
11:08:22 So I’ll just to kind of summarize who I am. I leverage honest conversations, my process improvement expertise, and my lived experience to bring creative di solutions and business.
11:08:27 So, I’ve told you about who I am, career wise but as we go. Get ready to go into this, I want to share a story a personal story with you.
11:08:39 And before I go into this story I do want to give a trigger warning that this story involves pregnancy loss. So out of respect that I want to, I want to say that and if this is something that’s triggering for you please do put, put your lap audio on mute
11:08:58 or put this out on mute or turn the volume down, and then when I am done with the story, I’ll go to the next slide, you can turn the volume up.
11:09:09 And so, I was 10 weeks pregnant.
11:09:13 And I started to miscarry.
11:09:17 Thankfully I was able to quickly get an appointment at the OB GYN, or ultrasound and an appointment. However, my husband was at work that day.
11:09:26 And when I talked to him, there was no way for him to get back from work to get to them. Wait a minute. So on time so I showed him. He didn’t need to leave work.
11:09:36 And that I could, I would be okay going along.
11:09:40 So breathing deep.
11:09:42 I taught myself that I was strong, and there was no need to cry because I was capable of handling anything.
11:09:53 I was only half right. Once I was checked in at the doctor’s office, they immediately caught me back.
11:09:58 The first person in the exam room to greet me introduced herself as a doctor. So, she would be performed the model just now.
11:10:08 As I got situated and prepare for the exam, I thought to myself, that’s interesting, because in my experience, doctors didn’t usually performance, just now.
11:10:18 Still, I was in the process of having a miscarriage. So knowing that a doctor was there. It really brought me a sense of comfort.
11:10:28 Also inside the room was an ultrasound tech.
11:10:32 So she started out by asking me, the standard patient identification questions like my name, date of birth weight.
11:10:41 And then after that, neither the tech, nor the doctor would speak to me again.
11:10:48 The text spent the rest of the exam time talking to the doctor instructing them to move the one this way and look at that over there on the monitor.
11:10:59 And later, she would congratulate the doctor on a job well done. You’re doing great, she said.
11:11:07 The only thing that was missing would have been if they would have high five each other.
11:11:13 But nobody ever said anything to me.
11:11:16 And as far as I was concerned. This was not a time for celebration.
11:11:22 Neither of them ever asked me how I was doing. They never inquired as to whether I needed a minute to get my bearings or catch my breath.
11:11:32 Nothing was even explained to me.
11:11:34 It was like, I wasn’t there.
11:11:36 Like I had somehow turned invisible.
11:11:41 And it was at that moment. The something became painfully clear to me.
11:11:47 The doctors presence in the ultrasound room that day had nothing to do with me. And it had everything to do with her.
11:11:56 You see, the doctor, she was being trained on how to perform transmit and the ultrasound and me.
11:12:05 I was just the body for her to practice on.
11:12:10 Now when you understand the history of experimentation of black on black women’s bodies in the gynecological field specifically.
11:12:19 You might begin to understand how problematic. Their behavior was towards me.
11:12:26 But when I’m being honest. In that moment, It wasn’t even that deep for me.
11:12:32 I sat in that exam chair visibly shaken up.
11:12:37 I try hard to just wrap my mind around losing our baby.
11:12:41 Yet I didn’t even have the space to process those feelings because instead. I had to use the little energy I did have reconciling the fact that my pain, both physical and emotional, simply didn’t matter to the two people who are charged with my hair.
11:13:00 I had to reconcile that there would be no show of empathy, or compassion for me and the loss of my child.
11:13:08 That’s I said I’m a huge advocate for people and speaking up for people when they don’t have a voice and I remember in that moment wanting so badly to say something.
11:13:21 But I was vacillating between so many emotions, feelings of shock devastation, and just pure anger.
11:13:31 and I knew.
11:13:33 In that moment if I open my mouth to speak the words that would follow would have me painted as the stereotypical angry black woman.
11:13:46 So instead, I said nothing.
11:13:51 I got dressed.
11:13:53 I went back to sit in the waiting room for my next appointment.
11:13:57 And that’s when the tears began to flow.
11:14:03 I collaborate the vision of a family that would not come to pass.
11:14:17 But that day I also cried for other black women who had set where I said, and experience feeling invisible and disregarded by the healthcare system. The pain from that experience that day, took away my ability to speak up for myself.
11:14:25 But through therapy and sharing my story and settings like this, with people who are interested in changing black women’s experience in healthcare.
11:14:36 Again, he’ll accept gay healing.
11:14:38 So I know, like this is a very low know I don’t want to start off this presentation and this webinar on a low note, and I assure you that sharing this story with you it does bring the healing.
11:14:52 But I really want people to understand and I really want you to understand why this conversation about advancing health equity for black women is so important to me.
11:15:02 And why I’m so grateful for each of you for your willingness to listen, learn, and leave the journey towards you.
11:15:13 So, just as we get started, as we look at healthcare and equities, or black women.
11:15:20 What we see is that, unfortunately. My experience is not anecdotal.
11:15:25 The data is showing that black men are having a vastly are having vastly different experiences, and health in the healthcare system, and different outcomes.
11:15:37 the other women, especially white women.
11:15:40 So what you see on black women is a higher prevalence of many health conditions, including heart disease, stroke, cancers, diabetes, obesity, stress, we all have heard time and time again about maternal morbidity and that black women are three to four
11:15:59 times more likely to die from pregnancy related causes and white women, but then also looking at our life expectancy at birth. Our life expectancy at birth is three years shorter than that of white women, and the infant mortality rates for children, babies
11:16:18 born to black women is twice as high as those four children born to white women.
11:16:27 So there’s several factors that contribute to help disparities and a couple of those include decrease access to health care coverage and inferior quality of care.
11:16:39 But when we look at all of these things as a whole and and what my process improvement background has taught me is to search for root causes. And when we look for root causes of my black women are having an extremely different experience in the healthcare
11:16:57 system, their white men white women, as well as black men.
11:17:04 There are two things that come to play.
11:17:06 And it’s sexism and structural racism and how they intersect.
11:17:12 So if we’re going to address these disparities that black women are experiencing, we have to address the impact that sexism and structural racism have on their home.
11:17:27 So, you see here, a quote from Dr. Ray a little boy, and you can read that yourself.
11:17:45 But what she’s saying is that structural racism is simply something. Most white men do not inherently have the skill set, or comfort. Addressing or even talking about at times, and that’s even at the executive level, and the provider level.
11:17:55 And we know that in healthcare, white men are disproportionately represented in leadership.
11:18:05 And the good thing is that the field of healthcare is starting to recognize that more diversity at the leadership level will bring better outcomes for all patients.
11:18:14 So you have organizations like Harvard Medical School and American College of healthcare executives that are quoting studies that suggest that diversity in health care leadership can enhance quality of care quality of life in the workplace.
11:18:32 Community Relations and the ability to affect community health status. But what if we drill down like, what about black women specifically.
11:18:43 So one study that sought to gain insight from black women from three different regions in the US on some of the reasons why the health inequities that I mentioned earlier exist.
11:18:56 Some of the common themes they found on black woman’s experience in the healthcare system was related to cultural taboo. So, just having different understanding of what you could or could not say to a doctor or to our provider which you could ask for
11:19:12 from a provider, financial concerns, and then also just the overall distressed of the medical system, due to negative experiences.
11:19:22 And the solution they proposed was increased black healthcare professionals who would then have an increase, increase report with empathy for understanding of the concerns of black women.
11:19:37 Now, what about black women, any data or clinical outcomes or black women in healthcare leadership that show that black women and health care leadership, have a positive impact on health outcomes for black women.
11:19:53 I started to search for this data, but I couldn’t find it. And even amongst positions that I reached out to health equity experts that I reached out to the, the response that I got was universally the same that anecdotally yes that makes sense, it makes
11:20:11 sense that if we have more black women and healthcare leadership that it would impact, and advance health equity for black women, but they couldn’t find any clinical outcomes any data or research that had been done in that space.
11:20:25 So if anybody here knows of any research that’s been done in that space or has access to that data, I would love Please do reach out, because there’s definitely opportunity.
11:20:36 But what the data that we do have in the clinical outcomes that we have in the drop in droves. as we have clinical outcomes.
11:20:46 We know what the result of not having black women in healthcare leadership, and those with those clinical outcomes. Right. And that’s some of the things that I talked about today.
11:20:59 So that’s why I believe in order to address the complexities of the health care disparities experienced by black women and improve health outcomes for black, black women, black women must be represented at the highest levels of leadership of healthcare
11:21:17 policy practice and research.
11:21:22 And why are black women leaders uniquely equipped to help solve this problem.
11:21:29 I have three reasons, and this list is not comprehensive, or exhausted, but three reasons that I can give you.
11:21:39 This one is advocacy.
11:21:41 So we know that advocacy is something that black women historically have been passionate about. We’ve been passionate about advocating for justice, and our communities.
11:21:51 Right, so when we look at American history and we’re going to just throw out some black history tidbits here. I’m looking back at American history at women like Harriet Tubman Sojourner Truth, right when we look at the women’s suffrage movement Ida B.
11:22:10 Wells. Mary McLeod Bethune.
11:22:14 A man today, Stacy Abrams right or look at healthcare.
11:22:19 Dr. Rebecca leak Crumpler, who was the first black woman to receive a medical degree back in 1864, and she was a pioneer in health advocacy for black people after the Civil War.
11:22:31 And that’s a me here today, leading this conversation, finding advancing health care
11:22:44 advocacy is just something that black women do. And we’re good at it. And we do it in the workplace, too.
11:22:47 So according to the lean in women in the workplace report black women are more likely than any other group of employees, and that includes men of color.
11:23:00 Women of other races and ethnicities, to spend a substantial amount of time on Zi work.
11:23:07 Even when it falls outside of their formal job responsibilities.
11:23:11 Black women are more likely to speak out against bias and discrimination at work.
11:23:17 And they’re more likely than any other group of employees to mentor and sponsor women of color.
11:23:25 So what this suggests to me is that black women in healthcare leadership, would be inclined to advocate for black women who are experiencing health into equities.
11:23:38 And also, that they would be the ones to hire and promote more people of color, including black women, black women physicians and providers that we so badly need in our healthcare systems, but also.
11:23:55 The next thing is empathy.
11:23:57 Black women need someone at the table, who can be a voice for them.
11:24:02 Who can help them to become visible that impacts policy and practice to protect them.
11:24:08 Holding organizations to task for hiring black women physicians, and like I said they could do that themselves. Keeping quality improvement metrics for black women on the table and identifying innovative solutions to address those issues that they need
11:24:25 somebody who have had the lived experience of being a victim of both sexism and racism and who understands how it plays out in the healthcare system because they their mothers, their sisters, their daughters have experienced it to, like they know not
11:24:40 only have walked in their shoes they have lived in their shoes.
11:24:46 And, and we understand that many of the inequities black women experience in the healthcare system. They’re not respecters of education class or profession.
11:24:59 And, Reagan McDonald Mosley the CMO for Planned Parenthood said you can’t educate your way out of this problem. You can’t healthcare access your way out of this problem.
11:25:09 There is something that’s inherently wrong with the system. That’s not valuing the lives of black women equally to white women.
11:25:19 So if we’re gonna advance health care equity for black women.
11:25:24 We need to be seen as fully human black women at healthcare leadership can use their voices and position and power to validate that black woman’s humanity that their lives are worthy of saving, and that black women deserve the same access to health care
11:25:45 and health outcomes as everyone else.
11:25:52 So, why are we not leveraging the unique capabilities of black women leaders in healthcare to solve this pervasive problem.
11:26:04 Simply put, black women that all the experience feeling unseen in the healthcare system as patients, but it’s their experience at the highest levels of leadership of our healthcare institutions as well as on black women are highly represented in healthcare
11:26:24 in entry level positions like CNA call center reps. Food Services. Environmental Services.
11:26:33 Black women make up 25% of LPN.
11:26:37 They make up almost a third of nursing assistants.
11:26:41 But then as you move up in these organizations, black women become less and less visible.
11:26:49 According to McKinsey women in in healthcare report, black women make up only 2% of medical faculty in the US and sit on only 3% of healthcare board.
11:27:04 So what this shows is that many black women in healthcare, are victims of sticky floors and glass ceilings. So we’re stuck on the bottom. At the bottom of the organization, and therefore we’re not visible to senior leaders in the organization who could
11:27:21 help us. Or, if we are able to advance to us, we hit a start. We’re only able to advance to a certain level, before we hit a glass ceiling that denies us access to those upper leadership roles.
11:27:35 So how do we solve this.
11:27:38 As Jamie Tynan, who is the advocate for sponsorship for women of color and healthcare says it’s not a pipeline problem. This was sponsorship problem.
11:27:48 And I agree with that.
11:27:50 As you can see it’s not that black women are not represented in healthcare, and I will contend that it’s not about a lack of ability, but more so, a lack of visibility access and psychological safety and sponsorship is one way that we can address this.
11:28:12 Sponsorship has been called the great career accelerator.
11:28:16 And when you talk to many executives about their career path, they might not call this sponsorship, but they usually can quickly identify one or several people who at some point in their career, notice something in them that took a chance and bounced
11:28:32 on them, or vouch for them to move into a more challenging leadership role or opportunity, which in turn, set them firmly on the path to executive leadership.
11:28:43 And that’s what many black women in healthcare leadership need. We need leaders at the executive level, who are personally invested in our success and willing to go to bat for us behind closed doors and spaces, we don’t have access to.
11:28:59 And that’s what sponsorship does. And so some key sponsorship behaviors that can help to unstick floors and break glass ceilings, our sponsors amplify their proteges what I like to call proteges, they amplify their proteges accomplishments in the organization,
11:29:17 they share their successes they share their capabilities and meetings with their peers, which increases their visibility and reputation in organization.
11:29:26 They also provide access to opportunities. They provide access to people and their internal and external network. And they also provide access to insider information on the industry as well as the organization that helps their proteges to to be better
11:29:44 leaders, they advocate.
11:29:58 As I mentioned, they put their proteges name forward for promotions and stretch opportunity. And I think one of the most important aspects of sponsorship, is that sponsors provide air cover for their proteges to fail forward.
11:30:07 So they provide a safe space for them to go into a stretch opportunity when maybe other people are saying, oh you know i don’t think I don’t think thanks ready for that.
11:30:17 that sponsor can step in and say yes yes she is ready, and she has my support. So if something goes wrong, I get it. I have her, you come to me and it’ll be taken care of.
11:30:29 And that’s what I’ve heard so many executive leaders say that they’ve had that a lot of black women don’t have access to this the ability to fail forward, because some oftentimes black women feel that when we if we make one mistake, then that is it for
11:30:46 us. And so we don’t take the risk necessary to develop us into great leaders.
11:30:53 But when you have a sponsorship relationship that sponsor provides that air cover for you to be able to fail forward, and to learn and grow and reach your full leadership potential.
11:31:06 So right here I want to note for white men white men executives who desire to show up as allies for black women sponsorship is a great way to do that.
11:31:19 And of course, I challenge leaders of any race, ethnicity, gender identity the sponsor black women. Right.
11:31:26 But I do I want to do a quick exercise, once you do a quick exercise with me.
11:31:33 I want you to imagine yourself as a 10 year senior executive and if you are that you don’t obviously don’t have to imagine that but imagine yourself as a 10 year senior executive, and you’re looking for a protege you’re looking for somebody that you can
11:31:49 put work for opportunities that you can invest in and develop what leadership qualities, would you look for, and you can put that in the chat what leadership qualities, would you look for in a protege.
11:32:04 Would you look for someone that has a good work ethic, would you look for someone with good emotional intelligence, what are the qualities that you will look for so write that down if you want to you can put it in the chat or in the q amp a I’m sorry,
11:32:18 right okay so I see learning agility. All right, any other qualities what qualities, three to five qualities that you would look for integrity, integrity empathy proactive entrepreneurship.
11:32:30 Okay, so I see some good qualities. Okay, so think about those qualities.
11:32:36 And now, after you have those qualities.
11:32:40 I want you to just close your eyes for a second and visualize and you don’t need to put this in the chat, but just visualize that person.
11:32:52 What does that person look like, what is your protege, the person who you invest in.
11:32:59 What do they look like
11:33:03 okay and you can open your eyes, and I want to ask you a question. Did they look like you just five to 10 years younger.
11:33:11 Right, so my protege always looks like a little thing.
11:33:15 That is a very natural thing we want to invest in people that remind ourselves, the qualities that you listed are those strengths that you have, as well.
11:33:29 Oftentimes when we’re looking for proteges, we just naturally look for people who remind us of ourselves who are good at the things that we value the very good at the things that we’re good at.
11:33:40 So, white men are disproportionately represented in healthcare leadership, and they’re least likely to see themselves in black women.
11:33:51 So can you see why. That’s a problem.
11:33:55 If change is going to come, white male executives have to begin to ask how can I use my power and privilege in service of the healthcare system.
11:34:04 And they have to be intentional about sponsoring across difference.
11:34:09 So there’s data out there that supports that black women benefit more from having sponsors who are white male, but also sponsoring black women building relationships and understanding their lived experience.
11:34:23 It helps white men to become better allies and more inclusive leaders right so we go back to what Dr Ray a boy was talking about that they just don’t understand structural racism.
11:34:49 relationships across difference can help them to get a better understanding and lead from a different lens.
11:34:50 So, really quickly.
11:34:53 I want to do a poll.
11:34:56 So we’ve talked about sponsorship.
11:35:00 And so we’ve talked about how sponsorship can help to accelerate and advance your career.
11:35:08 Okay, thank you. So the question is have you experienced the benefits of a sponsorship relationships.
11:35:16 Okay and so I’m seeing the majority right now the majority of folks are saying yes.
11:35:23 We got about 65% Yes, 35. No, so we’ll just wait a few more seconds to get those responses in there. Yeah, so.
11:35:38 So yeah, so, um, I’ve seen about 60% have benefited 63% have benefited, and then 37% answered, No.
11:35:49 that’s all that’s good so then my next question would be, to those who have have been sponsor.
11:35:59 Are you sponsoring at our disposal sponsoring black women.
11:36:12 So, now that leaves us as we talked about sponsorship, I’d like to share UTM story on how we’re intentionally working to create sponsorship relationships for black women to increase the number of black women at the senior leadership level.
11:36:32 That’s our story begins with our employee resource group notice. And as I mentioned, my colleague was hanging Macklin.
11:36:41 I see somebody said they were sponsored by someone that did not look like you. That’s awesome.
11:36:48 Um, and I think that that speaks to something that oftentimes we do expect that our sponsor has to look like us, you know you need to be strategic and so making their sponsor but they don’t have to.
11:37:00 You can’t sponsor across different. And when we look at the number, specifically speaking about black women black women in healthcare leadership, there’s just not enough opportunity there.
11:37:10 if we’re just looking at Black women for sponsorship.
11:37:13 But back to our story so I begins with our employee resource group notice, and Jessica have a little background on our employee resource group, as I said Medallia Macklin who is here answering questions here with me.
11:37:28 She is one of the CO chairs for our employee resource group is one of, it is the oldest employee resource group where the University of Chicago health system.
11:37:39 And one of the largest with over 300 members, and the name notice comes from black women, the fact that black women want to be noticed for their talents and skill sets and black women want to be noticed in the organization for growth and development.
11:37:57 And so notice exists to advance equity for the University of Chicago enterprise by creating access visibility and safe workplace culture for black women.
11:38:21 the number of women that can advance into leadership positions. And in June of 2021.
11:38:23 Notice launched its first cohort, or formal sponsorship program to increase the representation of black women at the senior leadership level and you see him.
11:38:34 That’s all sponsorship programs are designed to foster meaningful one on one relationships among executive leaders and junior level leaders were proteges so because sponsors are personally invested in their produce a success, they leverage their own influence
11:38:48 to advocate for their proteges promotion and ensure they’re visible to key decision makers.
11:38:57 And our program, focus on creating last talked about access visibility and psychological safety for black women, as I mentioned, these are three things that can be barriers for black women in obtaining leadership positions senior leadership roles.
11:39:15 So we designed the program to create access by asking for multi year commitment to sponsorship from these executives visibility, so our recognition of notice as a pipeline for leadership opportunities and psychological safety for black women to lead in
11:39:35 a way that is authentic to their lived experience, because we thought it was very important that black women and we really don’t think that will reap the benefits of having black women in leadership and executive leadership positions, unless they feel
11:39:51 safe to leave in a way that is authentic to their lived experience so that that live experience is so valuable. And that is what leads to what I talked about that advocacy that empathy that validity.
11:40:04 And so it was very important that we didn’t want proteges to just mirror what their sponsors did but we wanted to make sure that we were getting all of the advantages from having black women in leadership and allowing them to lead in a way that’s authentic
11:40:22 to them.
11:40:24 And so we also wanted to be sure that we built in accountability by aligning with organizational goals, and making sure that we’re consistently tracking and discussing the outcomes.
11:40:35 But this program has taken an innovative approach to sponsorship because it not only focuses on bridging that visibility and access gap to fostering these one on one relationships.
11:40:46 But I want to take it a step further and begin to address some of the systemic barriers that cause some of these visibility and access gets.
11:40:53 So just to go in a little bit deeper on our framework and how we created it.
11:40:59 So in order to create our framework we looked at where we saw sponsorship currently being modeled within the organization.
11:41:08 We also looked at external resources and best practices, and that’s when we were researching we saw a lot of sponsorship programs that focused on women of color, but didn’t find anything that focused on black women specifically.
11:41:23 And so I just want to call out a few things about the program here since it was our first time doing this and we wanted to start with a very small cohort.
11:41:32 So we started with six proteges six sponsors and our proteges are from multiple disciplines, so we have it clinical patient experience marketing, and then the executives that we targeted were white male executives.
11:41:52 So, we had our CEO, Chief Medical Officer Chief Technology Officer, Vice President of supply chain, Vice President of operational excellence and our chief nursing officer who are participants in our first cohort, and the black women that we were selected
11:42:13 were at the mid level manager role so they weren’t either managers or directors and members of notice, so that was the criteria.
11:42:24 So it was very important that the sponsorship program address some of the historical and systemic issues that hinder black women from it being seen.
11:42:32 And also build capability for inclusive leadership and provide opportunity to build relationships across differences between black women and white men.
11:42:44 That’s also do this the sponsors and proteges participate in a series of four facilitated conversations, which centered black women’s experience in the organization, as it was not only the time to share stories, but also to hear from our sponsors, how
11:43:11 want to show up as allies for black women and identify how we can partner together to create the organization, we desire to have our patients in our community. Beginning in October, the cohort also participated in six months of group coaching.
11:43:17 And so there were two separate coaching circles, one for the sponsors, which was focused on ally ship and helping the sponsors to think about how they can use their power and privilege and surface of the organization.
11:43:33 And then the other coaching circle was an executive coaching circle for the proteges which focused on helping black women to think about how they can be empowered to lead in a way that’s authentic to them and leverage their lived experience and surface
11:43:50 of the organization.
11:43:57 So right now we’re at about month, eight of the program so we’re still very early in, but I did want to talk about just some, some of the outcomes that we’ve seen.
11:44:11 So what are we seeing is the increase in access is so sponsors, get access to insights and unique challenges that black women face they work, and proteges get access to senior executives so they were in meetings with senior executives every month.
11:44:35 We saw heightened visibility. So proteges heightened their reputation and visibility so as a part of the program is six months, many of the proteges increase their number of visibility opportunities by 100 hundred and 50% so in six months.
11:44:53 So for example, we identify several different things as visibility opportunities, whether it was being in meetings with senior level executives, whether it was stretch opportunities, whether it was presenting on behalf of your sponsor, so we had about
11:45:10 a list of six or seven visibility opportunities. And so for example for myself. I, when I looked at my visibility for the visibility opportunities for the year before the sponsorship program.
11:45:25 I had six. And when I looked at my visibility opportunities from the past six months. So far I’ve had 13, actually this one counts as a visibility opportunity that’s been able to do this webinar that speaks to you today as a visibility opportunity so
11:45:52 have 14 so far. So, a huge increase of this visibility opportunities that’s come for the protege due to the sponsorship program. And then we saw increased psychological safety.
11:45:56 So there was an increased awareness on both parts of the protege, and sponsors, increased comfort navigating difficult conversations about race and gender.
11:46:06 So I think one of the things that we were a little nervous about when we started this program was that you know that it would be more performative if people would just show up and you know do it because it was the right thing to do.
11:46:18 But in our sessions, both sponsors and proteges. We really built trust with one another and we’re really able to become very vulnerable in those sessions and I believe that we have built trust and build relationships that are built on empathy and trust
11:46:37 and so we definitely saw an increase in in psychological safety and that’s just in the, in the past, as I said, eight months.
11:46:46 So what’s next for us. And so this program, the first cohort is going to continue until January, 2023. So we’re going to continue to track progress and will measure our success.
11:46:57 So we’re looking at promotion rates and retention rate proteges at the 1218 and 24 month mark.
11:47:05 And then we’re hoping to start a second cohort and expand to other hospitals within the system.
11:47:12 That’s our question we often get asked is how we got buy in, how do we get buy in to start this program.
11:47:20 And so, you know, from my perspective.
11:47:24 Many C suite executives are looking for solutions. So they understand that this is a problem in healthcare, that there is a lack of black women, and in healthcare leadership and I’ve heard this that they can even see the connection from having more black
11:47:42 women in leadership to advancing healthcare equity for them. So they want to do something to solve these problems of equity but they don’t know what to do.
11:47:53 So my process improvement background tells me usually that the people who are closest to the problem are the best at coming up with the solutions. So oftentimes it’s not that these leaders don’t care, it’s just they don’t know what to do.
11:48:08 So what we did is really, we found a problem and we came up with the solution. And we handed it to them in a very pretty box everything was pretty much done but what I would say is, we had to get by and so we had to get the support of several C suite
11:48:26 executives to act as champions for us. And so, we’re fortunate to have a organization and leaders that are part and participate in the equity code in the equity collaborative, which is a program by the hero image Foundation, and it’s an active self driven
11:48:44 driven learning community of large leading healthcare organizations, committed to fully inclusive gender equity within their own organizations and across the health industry.
11:48:53 And so because of that it was very easy for us to identify C suite executives who could be a champion for this and so we reached out to our COO, who has known to be a huge advocate for sponsorship and has a reputation for sponsoring black women.
11:49:12 And our chief diversity officer who herself is a black woman and a huge advocate for health equity and also known for mentoring and sponsoring black women in the organization, and also our Chief Information Officer at that time she was a carol image.
11:49:29 Fellow, and she also had a reputation in the organization as being an advocate for increasing the number of women in leadership in the organization. So, we reached out to them and ask them to act as champions on our behalf and they were able to get us
11:49:47 in front of our president.
11:49:50 And when we went in front of the president to present.
11:49:53 We went just like we represent any other improvement initiative.
11:49:59 We lead with ry right at the center of our why is that is important to our community and our patients. We were able to align with the organizational goals and strategies so our organization have equity strategy for 2025 and has goals for increasing by
11:50:15 part representation at the senior leadership level.
11:50:19 And we were able to align ourselves with that.
11:50:22 And then you have to know the culture of your organization so we work at academic medical center so data is extremely important. So, we backed it back, everything up with stories and data, and again that fortunately for us in our organization the data
11:50:39 was available to us we were able to see some of the leadership parody data and use that to support what we were doing.
11:50:49 And so that was how we got buy in. And so, you know, my suggestion to organizations, other folks who are thinking about doing something like this, is to, again, just follow the strategy that you would normally follow for maybe solution that you’re trying
11:51:03 to implement. As you’re thinking about like creating a program like this. Really think about your culture and who your audiences.
11:51:12 So this two key investments that we have was, it was very important to us that the program create a safe space for sponsors and proteges to come together to share and grow.
11:51:25 So we had, we invested in an unbiased facilitator, who’s a black woman and a former executive, former executive now equity strategies, and then that funding went towards engaging her.
11:51:37 And then the other big engagement was time. It was a time investment of two hours a month for each participant, which maybe doesn’t sound like a lot, but it really is an academic medical center.
11:51:48 And we have very engaged participation from both proteges, and sponsors.
11:51:55 So as I wrap it up, I just want to give you something that you can do as an organization, as we’re thinking about advancing health equity for black women and helping black women to have access to health care leadership positions prioritize and reward
11:52:12 sponsoring black women.
11:52:14 So if creating a sponsorship program is not is not something that you think that you can do right now, you should still prioritize and we were sponsorship for black women, create a culture of sponsorship for black women.
11:52:30 So when you are sponsoring black women that you do prioritize and we word it, it definitely should not be something when we talk about this program, it’s not something that can should be clandestine right it should be something that’s talked about throughout
11:52:43 the organization, so that people understand that is just what we do here.
11:52:49 And then you can reach out to the equity collaborative so they have a really amazing and comprehensive guide to creating sponsorship for, for women and healthcare leadership.
11:53:00 Now we it wasn’t ready at the time that we were creating our sponsorship program, but I mean everything that we learned kind of failing forward in that guy that’s a really really good and comprehensive guy so for those who are in healthcare, I would suggest,
11:53:24 reaching out to them to learn more about the equity collaborative and how to get involved. And then for individuals, right. So, even if you’re just you know one person and you don’t have, or you don’t feel like you have influence in the organization to
11:53:34 create a whole sponsorship program for black women.
11:53:38 If you’re a leader.
11:53:40 You can sponsor black one, and be intentional about looking for black women, and where they are and your organization and go on to black women, and just try to build relationships and understand where it is that they’re trying to get into organization,
11:53:55 but just be mindful of that natural inclination that we have to look for people who remind us of ourselves and remind yourself of the value of sponsoring across different.
11:54:09 And even if perhaps you.
11:54:12 There are no black women in your organization or no black women in your community. And this is a problem but if that’s your current situation.
11:54:21 You know there’s a best world out there, via LinkedIn, Twitter, there’s so many black women that you can build relationships with and kind of follow and see what it is that they’re trying to do that you may be able to even sponsor in that way
11:54:38 for black women.
11:54:40 You can ask for sponsorship, so sponsorship is something that you can create for yourself in your organization. So just like I talked about this sponsorship program, it really was a grassroots effort that was created by black women in our employee resource
11:54:55 group that’s what it was. So, as black women, and as individuals, this is something that you can create for yourself.
11:55:08 We can leverage sponsorship or black women to create access visibility and psychological safety, not only for black women in healthcare leadership, but in doing so, in advancing black women to executive leadership positions in healthcare, we create the
11:55:25 access that give black women patients, access to quality care, increase their visibility of their unique needs to their providers and healthcare policy and research, and we give them psychological safety to advocate with their providers to ask the right
11:55:43 questions and restore their trust in the medical system.
11:55:47 In our first group sponsorship session Tyra say something that really stuck with me.
11:55:54 She said when we heal the deepest wounds, we heal the body.
11:55:58 So when we address the needs of those who are having the worst experience in the workplace. And the worst healthcare outcomes, which is oftentimes black women, we can make our workplaces healthcare policy practice and research better for all.
11:56:18 So with that, I just want to thank you all again for joining us today and joining me here today. I have my contact information here, please do follow me on LinkedIn or connect with me on LinkedIn.
11:56:33 If you have questions or if there’s other information that you would need, please I love talking about this I love talking about sponsorship. So please do feel free to reach out to me via email or as I said it on LinkedIn.
11:56:48 So with that I think I’m going to go ahead and open it up for questions.
11:57:01 deal of time give them all.
11:57:13 the time you can you come off mute.
11:57:22 So we’re excited. Great presentation, have most of you, was able to respond to most of the questions. Thanks so much. Great questions.
11:57:31 Lots of engagement, and we have a few follow up will set up the presentation. And there’s some metrics that were that were asked and we’ll talk about those.
11:57:40 Some people on the deeper dive of our specifically the metrics that we were looking at. Okay.
11:57:45 Yeah, we can definitely give you a list of those metrics that that we had. I don’t know them all off the top of my head I know, say their visibility opportunity, it was visibility opportunities retention promotion.
11:58:02 I think stretch opportunities.
11:58:04 But, and then also there were some that were related to black women’s experience, and how safe they feel in the organization. And we also measured from the sponsors perspective, we were looking at their comfort in having conversations across race and
11:58:25 gender, and their understanding of black women’s experience in the organization, those are some that know off the top of my head but definitely we can send that information out to you shortly.
11:58:37 I see a question that just came up and we may have time to answer what Barry’s pushback have you encountered while implementing this program.
11:58:45 So I think that one barrier would be.
11:58:49 So why kind of why are we doing this for black women think that we would be why like why are you focusing only on black women.
11:58:59 And so in our case like what we used to overcome that and it didn’t come from leadership.
11:59:04 Right, so it came from other people who might see what we’re doing and say, Well, why are you doing that for them. And so we’re able to use data to support like why we’re doing what we’re doing.
11:59:16 And of course, anybody in the organization has access and opportunity to gain sponsorship so it’s not something that we are like trying to keep other people from having, but the reason why we have a specific program focused on black women is based on
11:59:33 the data and the needs of the organization.
11:59:44 All right.
11:59:38 And we have this one minute left. I’m going to get one more question that just came up.
11:59:45 who moderated the sessions, was an equity strategist.
11:59:49 Yeah so yeah so Tara j Frank. She’s amazing.
11:59:54 So she moderated she facilitated the sessions, and she really was amazing and I say that because like I said as we.
12:00:03 If you talk to any of the participants in the program you will hear them saying like the program exceeded their expectations when we went into it. We didn’t really know what to expect, but we didn’t expect in that short amount of time to have the level
12:00:19 of vulnerability that we had in that in the sessions, and to build that level of trust and empathy, between the sponsors and protege so quickly and she’s, she was just simply amazing how much did you want to add to that.
12:00:35 What was really unique with Tara was. She. She was very comfortable with, meaning and coaching executive leaders, right. So, she was really able to lean and to have that executive leadership language right that business language but really bring back
12:00:52 what was important to us. So I think Tara had a disagreement perspective and how she delivered and had expectations of coaching, and that the sessions was not to teach them to see us was was also to teach in to acknowledge empathy that having empathy,
12:01:10 meaning that there isn’t an ownership, that black woman has been overlooked. And those sponsors were white males really had to own that.
12:01:23 The culture of black women being invisible really light on their shoulders. And that was really impactful and powerful, then they begin to own to see their impact and perpetuating right the system that we live in, or owning that they will be change agents
12:01:38 to make those different in the future.
12:01:44 Thank you for that. Um, we do still have a couple of minutes I mean we did promise them. The 15 minutes of q amp a so we can give a couple more minutes for continue to answer some questions because there are a couple more that have come in.
12:01:59 So I’m gonna go to, I’m also curious about the content that you included in the for conversations between sponsors and proteges leading into the sponsor program.
12:02:26 So, again, that so that was there and facilitated by Tara so she has her own system that she uses but I will say the first session, we talked about race in the workplace and we used ml case letter from Birmingham Jail.
12:02:28 And we all read it and we all talked about just different aspects of what stood out to us and how it applied to race in the workplace and the things that we were experiencing.
12:02:40 And then the second session was about building into be in that second session was an opportunity for the proteges to share their experience and what was very powerful.
12:02:50 Tara did a survey before the session, and she basically you know it highlighted some of the things that we experienced differently as black women experience so like what in the organization.
12:03:02 So one of the questions was, I’ve had somebody try to touch my hair in the workplace or I’ve been confused for another black woman employee in my department or organization.
12:03:17 And I think the one that really stood out to the sponsors was about I feel like I have to wear a mask to work every day. And that was one that really stood out to them and they were just like, you know, we do not want you to have we want you to have a
12:03:32 seat at the table but we don’t want you to have a seat at the table if you feel like you cannot be yourself. Like we want you to be able to use your voice and just something that they weren’t necessarily aware of because of where they sit.
12:03:45 And so that was the second session. And then the third session was looking at different systems in the organization and getting together in groups and kind of identifying where opportunity is for black women.
12:04:12 And then lastly, it was just a commitment coming together to talk about how we work together as sponsors and protege to create the organization that we want to see,
12:04:14 I’m to the question is Kate x, I would say you your your response, really answered both of them Kate you also x. The two are for compensation guys for the sponsor relationships, and so would you just discuss we have the facilitator which was Tara, the
12:04:30 executive coach, and she had guidelines in different themes and we’re going to talk about.
12:04:38 The next question is, this is, this was wonderful. Thank you. Can you speak to why you use the term, this is good sponsorship versus mentorship.
12:04:48 Yeah, yeah. So, um, so it really depends on who you talk to, but you know from our perspective. When we look at mentorship mentorship is really about, about advising right so mentors can be at any level and a mentor is someone who you’re looking at that,
12:05:08 you know, maybe it’s doing what you want to do, and they’re willing to advise you, and take time and they kind of listen to problems and help you on different levels so they are providing advisement, but sponsorship and I believe mentors can be sponsors
12:05:25 sponsors can be mentors, but we wanted to be really intentional about the wording that we use and that sponsorship is a more intentional behavior and it’s more about advocating and being very intentional about using the power influence that you have in
12:05:45 the organization to advance to help someone else, advance, and get it giving them access to rooms, they don’t have access to. So, sponsorship behaviors are very intentional, but also their transactional so when you think about a mentoring relationship
12:06:00 a mentoring relationship is more of the mentor it’s giving their advice and guidance to their mentee, but a sponsorship relationship has a more transactional nature and that the sponsor is putting themselves out there and advocating for these opportunities
12:06:19 and pushing this person to where these opportunities, and then that protege, they have to deliver right so it’s a very trust built relationship and a mutual transactional
12:06:34 basis just to add on what you meant to what you just share and for that question. The, we got a lot of many people access questions What was the difference between sponsorship and mentorship and what faith.
12:06:49 Faith explain the biggest thing that I took away from that was sponsorship is the sponsors are putting their social capital on the line. They are saying this individual I’m going to speak on their behalf.
12:06:58 And I know they’re going to be productive and they’re going to produce, where they need to at this level mentor ships are guiding people who guy, they’re your cheerleaders, they support you, but they’re not putting their social capital on the line.
12:07:12 So thanks for your response and thanks for that question.
12:07:15 There’s another question about the equity collaborative website.
12:07:20 I think that was probably a one of the presentations and we can send that they will not have access that.
12:07:27 Yeah, so just send me an email I can send it.
12:07:32 We can post any resources that you want to share, along with the recording of this webinar next week onto the website. So, just send them to me and we can make sure that those are shared.
12:07:49 Okay, go.
12:07:49 Well, great. It looks like we are out of questions. Thank you so much faith, and the Tanya for this wonderful webinar.
12:08:00 It’s absolutely perfect way to perfect for Black History Month and on a personal note as the son of a black woman who happens to work in health care. I can’t stress how important this content is a very special thank you to you faith are being so open
12:08:17 and candid and sharing such a personal story, and to all our attendance who joined us here today. as promised the hrs the activity is by 87492, and the Sherm ID is two to dash you six cpW.