What The Future Holds

In this season of the podcast we’re taking a look at a multi-year cultural competency partnership between The Opt-In and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, also known as CHOP. We’re taking you along the ride of our victories … and what we have learned along the way. 

This is our final episode of the season. So if you haven’t heard any episodes from this season, I encourage you to go back to our feed and start from the beginning of our story arc – Episode 37, Why DE&I. 

In the last episode, we heard from CHOP Foundation staffers about what this cultural competency journey has meant for them personally. Today we’re tackling what this journey has meant professionally and organizationally for CHOP.

We’re bringing you the stories of several managers within the CHOP Foundation. You’ll hear about what has changed for them since starting the partnership with The Opt-In, and what is in store for the future.

Plus we’ll bring back some voices from earlier episodes to hear about what they envision for the future.

So back to Peter. … Peter is the Director of Culture at the CHOP Foundation. Which means that they are quite adept at talking about identity. But being able to talk about identity, and actually working in an environment that is inclusive are two very different things.

Since The Opt-In Learning Program, Peter is bringing more of their expansive self to CHOP.

Peter Andrew Danzig: I’ve learned self-advocacy and standing up for what you believe in. I’ve learned to sit with that pit in my stomach where I used to say to myself, if only I could stop this person and say, you’re not hearing me as a queer Latinx person. You’re not hearing me. But now I do. It’s in my signature. It’s a part of who I am, and everybody who meets me knows it. I have gotten past that place of discomfort of making myself smaller and bite-sized so that other people can eat me up. I am a, I’m now too big a cookie. I don’t know how I ended up on the baking analogy, but it’s just, you know, it’s one of those extra large cookies. I’m super confident. I’ve got the icing, I’ve got the sprinkles. I am vibrant. I am I’m at that table and everybody’s like, wow, that’s a shiny big cookie. And I’m proud of that because I get to come to work as an integrated human. And then I go to work caring. I really love, I love my colleagues and I love this institution and I truly mean it when I say I love my staff and I don’t know how to define that love. Actually, I’m still working on what that definition would look like, but I know that I walk around the halls and I stop and I smile and I feel care for how that person goes home at the end of the day. And I hope that it’s a little bit better because of what we’re doing together. 

This connection that Peter feels towards their colleagues is mutual. They’re noticing a shift in the Foundation’s team members  as well.

Peter Andrew Danzig: People stop me in the hallways and say, I’ve never had this happen before. I’m allowed to say that I’m this, that, and the third, and I’m also struggling with mental health, and I was like, yes, you don’t have to share what you don’t want to, but if something’s important. That’s what I’ve learned is that it’s those moments that we stop each other in the hallway and we’re not talking about the weather anymore. Can I stop you for a second? I just had this whole concept on intersectionality and I just, really think you want to take 10 minutes. I’m like, you don’t want to talk about the weather? We’re not making small talk, we’re jumping in? Yes, yes. So that’s what I’ve learned and it’s a gift. I also heard our BIPOC population in saying that, you know, I’m watching you. I had a couple of people say, I’m happier here. I’m watching you. And I said, please continue to watch. And if I misstep, please do what you must do, whatever that might be, to feel that I am not operating in a silo. And so I think that what makes us. I’m careful with verbiage for me here in the word successful. So I’m going to change the word success as a key indicator, and I’m going to lean in that for us, it is consistent growth. And sometimes you need to replant the seeds because some of the garden dies and you have to replant the seed and you have to get some compost. You have to keep reinvesting. 

Peter’s right. Success doesn’t happen overnight. Plus it’s an ongoing process that needs support from our organizations and leaders to work. Which is exactly what CHOP has been up to since our first Learning Program series completed.

Peter Andrew Danzig: We saw institutional change. As a result of this work, we changed our framework from cultural competency … What we have also seen is a ripple effect. We’ve created summits that now twice a year engage deep thought as a result of that work. The institution has put our efforts on public knowledge so we share our successes and our stumbles with other departments. … We are working with a distinct scope of work that I’m so proud of. You often hear the number one complaint is leadership does not take the time. We heard that and we have a whole program where our leadership has one-on-one development time meeting them where they are at for whatever topic, as long as it is relevant to the work that we are making the efforts towards. As long as that work is…there for them, but whatever it might be, they have confidential time. That time with The Opt-In is precious and is important. And so they can come as their most humble selves, they can come as their most defensive selves, they can come as their most open and fearful selves, or they can come not knowing and saying, I just have a question. And we are also holding individual time for one staff member here or there who says, I need to talk to somebody not in HR or ODI, somebody neutral. So we’re using our consultant to be an echoing voice of safety who holds our values, who knows what our values as an institution are, but embarks on us giving individualized care. It’s a continuity of care model.

And we know from experience working in corporate America that any approach to tackling transformation involves some risk. It’s no different when it comes to cultural competency. Sometimes you won’t have a clean cut solution.

Irena Politzer: We, as an organization, have started openly acknowledging more just how many things we have to accept lack of closure on and become comfortable with uncertainty and have a willingness to try without any guarantee of success. In fact, with almost perfect guarantee that we will not complete and succeed, but rather that the value is in the trying and in the struggle, you know, and that we’re gonna grapple with some really big questions and problems and that they’re worth grappling with even though we may not see kind of an easy ultimate conclusion to them. 

That’s Irena Politzer, who we’ve heard from before on the podcast. She’s the Vice President of Development Administration at the CHOP Foundation. 

Irena Politzer: And I think that translates so much to what CHOP does as an institution, right? In terms of healthcare, in terms of research, certainly research, obviously. If you’re gonna be successful, you cannot go in with a mindset of like, I’m gonna work on this for X amount of time and then I’m gonna end up with a solution and it’s gonna be nice and tidy and then I’ll move on to the next thing. It’s very much a circular, iterative, keep struggling, go down some wrong paths kind of a process. And so I think getting some of the language from The Opt-In partners and then really starting to incorporate that into our own daily lexicon is a really important benefit.

For Irena, this organizational shift has also changed her as a leader. Before the Learning Program, she felt like if there was a problem, she had to fix it.

Irena Politzer: I would have not put as much value on, well, why would I bring up something if I can’t fix it? Right? It’s just going to make things worse to acknowledge it if we can’t fix it. And now having much, I think a much more nuanced understanding of like, people will give you a lot of grace and you can give yourself, you know, it helps yourself as well, just to name the item and acknowledge like, I see the tension here. I appreciate what you’re going through – I’m sorry. And of course you have to be authentic  …  and never try towards solutions, but, but that we don’t have to necessarily come at everything with the fully baked solution. And in fact, that’s often not the way to come at it because, you know, my notion of what a fully baked solution is really needs the input from all parties involved before we can say that it actually is the solution.

Aurora Archer: Yes, we call them DE&I skills, we call them cultural competency skills, we call them racial literacy skills, but they’re really the evolution of skills required for today and tomorrow’s leader. You just touched on the ability to have awareness of self and others in moments of high stress and ambiguity. What I hear is also that’s what innovation looks like. When we don’t know what the answer is and we have to collaborate with people who have different ideas and different thoughts, and there may be conflict in there. But all of that is the recipe for the ability to have difficult conversations with regards to race and culture that allows us the ability to have difficult conversations about other aspects of our business, our working relationships, and our business goals. It’s not, I’m learning DE&I skills over here, and then there’s a job I do over here. It’s the connecting of those as a learning leader, an organization that uplifts what you’re doing as an organization, an individual as a whole.

Irena Politzer: I think that’s absolutely right. One of the things that our enterprise leadership at CHOP talks about a lot is particularly needing our leaders to grow in our comfort with ambiguity. In our ability to move ahead without having all of the data, all of the facts, and needing to make decisions, move forward, seek common ground, even in areas where we don’t have closure. … This program and this work has given us a vocabulary that extends beyond the DEIAB world to how we do business.

THIS right here. DE&I is not separate from the business. It is the business.

And the proof is in the pudding. Like we talked about in our second episode of this season, our post-Learning Program surveys show that we saw a growth of 25-30% across the board in our metrics. And if you’re an executive thinking about the bottom line, Irena thinks about it like this:

Irena Politzer: If we want to get very quantitative and sort of logic-based, so to speak there’s reams of data showing that, first and foremost, you want to retain the good employees that you have. Retaining a good employee is far more cost effective than if they leave and you have to go through the trouble of looking for and hiring and bringing on a new person. Huge expense, huge loss of productivity during that time. We want to retain the good employees that we have. In the Gallup poll that I looked at most recently, the top three factors that influenced whether employees wanted to stay at their organization, had to do with their feeling of inclusion, had to deal with how they were treated by their managers, and were really kind of more on this, what we might call, like the soft skill side, you know, the soft side of the fence. And salary, you know, was certainly on there and is a consideration, but was not the top. … So, you know, from that lens, from a very calculating lens, it makes business sense that we would do what increases our employees’ satisfaction and their feelings of inclusion are a big part of that. We had a couple of different ways to measure that quantitatively as well, both with the survey that the TOI conducted at the beginning and end of the engagement, but then also we as an organization do employee satisfaction surveys each year. And the foundation routinely scores very high. Over the course of the past year, our score went up even more on that engagement survey and has led to tremendously solid retention values.

And just how solid were those retention values?

Katie: I will just jump in and say that we’ve had 90% staff retention in our department the past two or three years since we started this work. I don’t think it’s only because of this work, but because of the deliberate focus on culture. We’ve been able to see 90% retention in our staff at a time when the rest of the world was seeing the great resignation happen around them. We are seeing it pay off in terms of our staff and in terms of our finances. Again, that’s not the motivator, but if you need the business case, there it is.

That’s Katie Muller. You’ve heard her voice before on the podcast.  She’s the Executive Director of Business Operations at the CHOP Foundation.

And if you’re someone who is managing a team, you know that 90% retention is huge. Employees who are satisfied at their jobs, who have room to grow, to learn, to be their authentic selves and who feel included… those employees stay at their organizations.

And for Katie, leaders need to be at the cutting edge of this cultural competency work, and need to be open to hearing perspectives and ideas different from their own. Because in our rapidly changing work environments, we continuously need prioritize learning and un-learning  … or risk falling behind.

Katie: I mean DEI work can’t get off the ground if we can’t listen to one another and consider other people’s perspectives. And likewise, you can’t be a leader if you can’t do that. You can’t be a leader and build a team of people, can’t be a good leader and build a team of people who are bringing the same perspectives as you or be unwilling to listen to the perspectives and experiences of other people on your team. That’s not the day that we live in anymore. You can’t do that. I think the cross-cultural communication skills that have solidly lived in that DEI space, really transcend it, and as our workforce continues to get more and more diverse … we have to be able to have productive, meaningful conversations with folks who don’t think like us, who don’t come from where we come from, who don’t look like us. 

But Katie … and the whole CHOP Foundation team knows that the work doesn’t stop here. They have a slew of ideas and programs coming up as the Foundation continues its long term commitment to its DEI strategy. 

They’re hosting a series of internal conversations to dig deeper into what they’ve learned through The Opt-In Learning Programs. They’ve also activated a “DEI Champions Group” with cultural competency leaders.  The DE&I Champions are evaluating best practices and policies around philanthropy, bringing concrete recommendations to create a more inclusive environment.

And the Foundation is also collaborating with the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at CHOP to build deeper networks of support across the entire enterprise.

Katie: And so when I sit back and think about all of those things collectively, it fills me with hope and joy and excitement for what’s ahead. I feel like this work has been a highlight and so getting to continue it and getting to take it to a deeper place of impact and more specific opportunities for folks who I get to work with every day is just really meaningful to me. And so that’s what I see when I think about what’s coming next for us.

We’re coming to the end of this chapter of our story with the CHOP Foundation. And I want to close out where we began this whole journey … with the CHOP Foundation’s fearless leader, Monica Taylor Lotty. She was the leader who had the initiative to make real cultural shifts at CHOP. She understood that change is not only good … but it is necessary. It’s necessary for businesses … and our humanity.

Aurora Archer: So with that, what do you feel was one of the biggest observations that you witness now, looking back over the last two years and the arc of our learning journey, which continues, as you say, for each of us as individuals. But what are you most proud of?

Monica Taylor Lotty: I think back to just how afraid some of our team members were about this process and what it was going to mean and what did it mean to be in a safe place? How can you really be in a safe place and be vulnerable at the same time? It just didn’t really match. It didn’t mesh. And I look back on it now and I recognize that the team members who truly stepped into the work and participated in the one-on-one coaching sessions, who participated in the small group sessions, whether it was the BIPOC sessions or for people who identified as being white, that everyone learned. We came out of our individual sessions and we were able to come together with shared language, with renewed values, with a better understanding and a deeper understanding and a willingness to recognize that we’re really all in this together. We’re here to support each other. We’re here to learn and to grow. …  

And I’m so proud of the fact that as we recruit new people to the CHOP Foundation, people time and time again have said that from day one, they have felt a part of the team, that they have felt that they were appreciated and valued  and accepted that they were seen and heard. And that to me is just like the biggest achievement of them all. I feel like the team right now, we have raised more money than ever in the history of this organization. And I do believe that having diverse teams just makes the department has made us more productive, has made us more successful. So we’ve just hired brilliant people who come from very diverse backgrounds, but who know that they’re gonna be valued and respected. They can do their very best work at a place that is going to appreciate them for who they are. And I’m really proud about that. I didn’t think about that in terms of, you know, when I thought about what is this success gonna look like with this program and being open to it, but oh my goodness, it’s just amazing to me now. And I think back on where we’ve come from and the successes that we’ve achieved year over year since are just remarkable. I’m very, very proud.

There’s a practice that we like doing here at The Opt-In. We like to ask our collaborators … our friends, our family, what they are opting- in to.

And Monica has a call to action that I just can’t get out of my head.

Monica Taylor Lotty: I would say opt in and be true to yourself, be committed to the work, be committed to your team, right? It’s more than just you as the leader. You’re making an impact on the team of people that you’ve surrounded yourself with, that you’ve chosen to surround yourself with, and are making an opportunity for your entire team to be more productive. to be more successful, to be a more engaged team, and that you will see great success from this work overall.

This work invites each of us to call forth our leadership, our humanity, and our imagination of what is possible.

Now the mic is on YOU. What are YOU going to opt-in to?

You’ve been listening to The Opt-In. I’m Aurora Archer.

This was the final episode of our fourth season of the podcast. And we have a lot of people to thank:

• Monica Taylor Lotty for igniting this change
• Katie Muller for making sure it got activated
• Peter Danzig + Nicollette Ep-if-ani for shepherding the work 
• And special shout to Peter Danzig, without whom this season would not have become a reality
• Gilbert Davis and Amthul Sufi for their continuous support
• Scott Sipling for being our on-site tech partner and support

• All the amazing CHOP friends who shared their time, energy, and vulnerability to tell us their stories + perspectives
• Our committed team of leaders + change makers that you heard from here at The Opt-In – Samantha, Colleen, Andrew, Kevin.

Whole heartedly, I would like to thank the Entire CHOP Foundation team for being incredible humans committed to deeper self awareness, evolution, and creating a workplace and world where all of us feel seen + valued.

And of course we have to thank YOU, for listening, and being here with an open heart. 

If you’re interested in seeing how The Opt-In could help you and your business, we would love to hear from you, find us at https://theopt-in.com.

As always, music from this episode is by Philly’s own Jordan McCree

The Opt-In is produced by the amazing Rachel Ishikawa and our mix-master Colin Lacey. 

And if you’re feeling inspired by this season of the podcast, go ahead and make a donation to the CHOP Foundation go to https://chop.edu/giving. 

Thank you so much for listening.