30 Years and Counting…

When I started The Winters Group 30 years ago, I certainly did not have a 30 year plan and could never have imagined the journey to date.

The Winters Group actually started as a market research firm, conducting qualitative and quantitative market surveys for large Fortune 500 companies (at the time) such as Eastman Kodak, Xerox and Bausch & Lomb in the Rochester, NY area.

I had worked in HR, including affirmative action, prior to obtaining an MBA and moving into market analysis roles.

When I started the company, I had a vision of focusing on research and data analysis.  About 5 years into business, clients started to ask for employee attitude surveys (the forerunner to employee engagement surveys).  There was then a growing demand for breaking the data down by race, gender and other demographic variables.

The burgeoning field of diversity was just taking root in the late 80’s and companies were starting to go beyond a compliance focus to thinking about how to integrate the new types of employees into “traditional” organizational cultures that were designed primarily by white men. Prior to that, the term diversity was not even a part of the lexicon.

The initial way that diversity was thought about was the mix of differences. We owe the late Roosevelt Thomas for his thought leadership on taking our perspective from a compliance oriented mindset to one that saw the value in diversity.

While I did not view myself as a diversity practitioner at that time (early 90’s), I knew that I was still drawn to the work because of my personally unrewarding experiences in corporate America. I could certainly relate to the difficulty that underrepresented groups faced in navigating different and sometimes hostile environments.

The tide turned for me in about 1994 when I some of the early thought leaders in the field invited me to a Symposium in Atlanta Georgia.  Individuals like Roosevelt Thomas, Jeff Howard, Price Cobbs, Kay Iwata, Julie O’Mara, Carol Copeland Thomas, Juan Lopez, Ella Bell Edmondson, Stella Nkomo and a number of others.  This early gathering led to the formation of The Diversity Collegium, a think tank of practitioners who meet three times a year to discuss trends in the field.

At several points along my journey, I wanted to give up the diversity and inclusion (D&I) work. I am a researcher I told myself that D&I work is just too hard and too predictable for someone who looks like me. It was much easier to get consulting work in D&I than market research. I think prospective clients could resonate with me as an African American women being associated with diversity work more so than they could with me as a market researcher.

I had my epiphany in 1999 walking down the streets of Harlem with a friend. I was complaining that diversity and inclusion work was just so hard and that I did not seem to be making a difference in the way organizations thought about historically underrepresented groups. I reiterated to my old friend that I was a market researcher. He said to me, “have you ever thought this was your calling?”

The work is indeed my calling. Perhaps the obstacles have been a blessing. I think The Winters Group has been able to use the combination of skills…research, data analysis, HR, marketing…to bring a holistic view to the work. We talk the traditional “bottom line” business language; The Winters Group is data driven while at the same time we excel in the “people” skills as well.

I am grateful and as Maya Angelou wrote: “Wouldn’t take Nothing for My Journey Now.”

Thank you for the support, thank you for your commitment and passion to diversity and inclusion.