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(upbeat music)
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Happy International Women's Day.
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I'm Rich Lesser CEO of BCG.
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I'm joined by my colleague and friend Nan DasGupta,
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Nan is the managing director and senior partner
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in our Toronto office and she's the leader
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of our Women@BCG program in North America, welcome Nan.
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Hi, Rich thanks for having me
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and happy International Women's Day.
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I always look forward to celebrating this day
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and recognizing the incredible achievements of women
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inside and outside of BCG.
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And while there's obviously much to celebrate
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about the world's progress toward a more gender equal world,
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I can't help but reflect in this year today
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how this pandemic has caused so many women
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to leave the workforce at an alarming four times
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the rate of men.
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The burden of caregiving, teaching, running a household
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while also working a job during the pandemic
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has created a pressure cooker environment in many households
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and women are bearing the brunt of it
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and they're dropping out of the workforce by the millions.
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It's a real moment of truth for women
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and for the organizations that they're working for.
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Nan, do you see it that way?
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Yeah, absolutely Rich.
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I mean it's really staggering,
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the load that women are bearing right now
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particularly caregivers and it's been a full year.
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I mean, we conducted a study recently this year
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that found women have increased housekeeping
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and caregiving duties from 20 hours a week
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pre pandemic on average
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to over 40 hours a week since last April.
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That's the equivalent of carrying a second full-time job.
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You can imagine both the physical and the mental strain
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of sustaining that load for women, it's a real concern.
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And unfortunately it's not only devastating
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for the women themselves who are forced to drop out,
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but for the organizations that they're leaving behind.
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When we go back and look at the great recession of 2008/9,
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we saw that the S&P index declined by more than 35%,
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but in organizations who scored higher on inclusivity
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their stocks rose by 14%.
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And we see again and again, including within BCG
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that greater diversity fosters innovation
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and strengthens resilience
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and it's just critically important right now,
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organizations equipped with a range of voices
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and perspectives throughout the ranks
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are better able to innovate, to take risks,
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to solve problems creatively
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and to turn challenges into opportunities.
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I couldn't agree with you more Rich.
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I mean it's so critical right now
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that organizations act proactively
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to mitigate some of these potentially lasting impacts
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of the current headwinds.
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The good news is that if you take the U.S statistics
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62% of working U.S moms say,
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that their employer has offered some sort of support
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to help address the increase
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in home responsibilities with COVID-19.
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So we do see many organizations taking a positive step
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in a number of different ways.
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So what are we seeing?
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Some of the great examples here include offering flexibility
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for example, subsidized part time
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or new flex time or subsidized LOA options.
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Another way that companies are offering to help
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is by really looking at the ways we work
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and adopting that work.
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So reprioritizing projects, for example,
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or rebalancing work across teams,
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pushing deadlines where it's possible.
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I think one of the really critical things
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that companies have really started to take seriously
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is providing support for mental wellbeing.
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And this is everything from checking in one-on-one
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to creating access to mental health providers
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and introducing additional paid holidays
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for people to really rest and recharge.
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So all of those actions are having an impact and helping.
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Another action that we see as really critical
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to sustaining long-term inclusivity
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is for organizations to actively enable support
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and nurture allyship in their culture.
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I wanna talk more about your work on allyship.
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I thought it was terrific and I thought it was so positive
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and provided really tangible steps
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towards making our workplaces more inclusive.
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And as I think about the theme of IWD, choose to challenge
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it strikes me that allies can change the status quo
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in small ways and large ways.
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Can you just tell me more about it?
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Sure, I mean, in our study we were keen
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to better understand the depth and breadth of bias
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that employees and underrepresented groups feel.
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And to come up with some tangible actions
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to counteract that feeling.
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So we did this study in several developed markets
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around the world and the themes and findings
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were actually super consistent.
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Today I'll reference the Canadian study
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where the underrepresented groups we looked at,
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included women, LGBTQ, people of color
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and indigenous employees.
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Sadly, we found that over 50% of underrepresented employees
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see bias in their day-to-day work.
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43% are questioning whether middle management
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is really committed to DE&I.
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Less than 20% of women think they have personally benefited
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from the DE and I programs that their companies have
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and 50%, less than 50% say they have allies at work,
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for women in fact, that number is only 36%.
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So only 36% of women feel they have allies at work.
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So when we talk about an ally we're referring to someone
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who actively questions, rejects and combats exclusions
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and works against discrimination.
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Allies can support and advocate for people
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and for communities of which they're not a part of.
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And they use their own personal power, their own access,
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their own privilege to uplift others.
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So when we describe it in that way
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it seems like a very powerful and important role
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and the truth is it is a very important role.
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In the study we found that underrepresented employees
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who have allies at work are 1.6 times
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less likely to perceive obstacles
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in their day-to-day environment and twice as likely to say
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their workplaces free of bias.
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Most of us have good intentions and probably think,
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Oh, of course, I'm an ally, everybody knows that,
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but how do we ensure the good intentions
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are truly having impact?
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That's so true, that's so true.
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We named the article, Small Actions, Big Impact:
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How to Be an Ally at Work and Why It Matters",
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because it's really true that small behavior changes,
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small acts can make a big difference.
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And I think you're right, most people deep down
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do want to be an ally, they feel they're an ally
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but they may not be really outwardly projecting that.
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So we came up with a set of questions
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to help people approach their allyship
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with a bit more intention.
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So I'll give you a couple of questions that we pose
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and suggest that you ask yourself
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if you're trying to be a better ally.
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So number one, ask yourself,
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what obstacles exist in my workplace
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for underrepresented colleagues, how can I help remove them?
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We know that underrepresented groups often face overt
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and subtle biases and obstacles.
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So allies can look out for those barriers
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and intervene in positive ways.
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So an example of this might be,
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when you see exclusionary behavior
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like people talking over a woman colleague in a meeting,
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try to get in there and speak up and try to create space
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for your colleague to get back in the conversation.
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That's just one small example.
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Another example of a question we pose, you can ask yourself,
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how can I educate myself to become a better ally?
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It's not up to all of our underrepresented colleagues
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to educate their colleagues
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on equity or inclusion challenges they face.
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We all have to recognize that we have knowledge gaps
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and we have to find ways to learn more
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and really embrace learning more.
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So the suggestion here is make time
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for one-on-one conversations,
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for group dialogues with your team
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on really important topics like anti-racism
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or gender bias in the workplace
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and do this regularly on an ongoing basis,
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not just when something comes up with the news
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or it's very topical.
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I'll leave you with one third question Rich which is,
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ask yourself, what behaviors can I demonstrate publicly
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to foster an ally culture?
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By demonstrating publicly allyship culture
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we contribute to making inclusive behaviors,
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the norm in the workplace.
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And I think this is especially crucial for leaders
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who have an opportunity to be role models
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and through their behaviors which are watched
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very, very closely, they can really demonstrate
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what allyship looks like.
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So these can be small things like,
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add pronouns to your email signature, for example
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or celebrate the accomplishments of the female employee
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who may not be getting as much recognition
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as some of her male peers. - It's interesting, if I think personally,
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I started leading BCG's New York office back in 2000
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and thought we were doing a good job on retaining women
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and that was certainly the reputation New York had
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around the world.
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In 2006, 2007, our CEO at the time asked to use York
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as a case study thinking that when we did the work,
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it was going to show what New York was doing really well
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on retaining women.
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But when we actually did the work
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we found that we had had so many good women
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who hadn't stayed.
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Yes, we had retained some and that was true
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and at the time relative, BCG has come a long way since then
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but at the time it looked quite good, but a lot had left.
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And when we went into it, it was for me
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that was long before the word allyship was coined,
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was just a really clear demonstration
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of the difference between
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trying to be non-discriminatory,
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trying to be positive and empathetic
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and really being an ally
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particularly in a profession like ours
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that can be intense and really helping people
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understand that we will work together
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to find a way to make it work,
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talking to them before they're in moments of truth,
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before they've had a child or expecting like,
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long before about what do we do to help.
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And I think that spirit of allyship
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was forever sort of embraced in my mind when I realized
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that I wasn't doing it, like I thought I was and I wasn't
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and it really changed the way I've thought about it
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for that job doing New York but of course,
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for the roles that I've had since then
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where I've had a chance to try to help make that happen
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at an even bigger scale.
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Do you recall a time when you felt excluded,
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like how does it maybe speaking personally?
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Yeah, I mean, honestly I remember a few times
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but one that really stands out to me
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is very very early in my career when I was still an engineer
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and working in a very male dominated team
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actually in a new city in another country.
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And I remember feeling distinctly every day
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that my teammates didn't really feel I deserve to be there
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or that I could do the job.
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And honestly as I reflect back,
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nobody went even an inch out of their way
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to show me the ropes or welcome me to the team or help me.
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And I remember feeling very, very isolated
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and I believe actually that,
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that took a lot of the joy of the job away from me
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and honestly when I think back on it
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I found it quite difficult to be at my best
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in that type of environment.
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So it really did have an impact
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to feel excluded in that way.
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You know it's funny.
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I also started as an engineer
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and I was in the world of guys that were much older than me
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and it was tough cause you felt like,
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really they called me the kid, that was what they call me.
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They call me the kid
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and they gave me a lot of grief all the time.
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But it's also true that still at the end of the day,
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my class in the firm I joined, I won't name it
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and they've dramatically changed since then,
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but there were some women engineers
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that joined at that exact same time
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and it was clear that as much grief as I felt I was getting,
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for being the young guy in the room,
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that they were, it was even harder for them
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and it's hard to watch that
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and that was also a learning experience
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but I think there's times that everybody feels excluded,
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but sometimes we need to recognize
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however hard it feels for us,
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you gotta put yourself in someone else's shoes too
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and it can feel even harder.
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Well, Rich your story of your journey, if you will,
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of allyship really resonates to me,
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because I think that's one of the key things that we found,
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allyship is really a journey.
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You need to continue learning,
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you need to be open to learning and you up your game,
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you up your awareness, you up your moves, if you will,
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to be a better ally.
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So and I think we should all
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make sure that we're open to that journey
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and ready to take it.
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I couldn't agree more and by the way,
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I will just say someone's now 30 years into my BCG career.
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This journey doesn't stop.
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Like every year I think I find things
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that I think I could have done better or situations,
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you try to handle it well
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but you wonder if you could do a better job.
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So the moment we think we've got it all figured out
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we're falling behind and that's on many topics
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but it is really true on this topic.
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And I'm really proud of the allyship work
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that you've been spearheading and our team's been doing.
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It's true to our purpose and values.
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We're on our own journey to foster a culture
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of inclusivity and allyship across our women,
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LGBTQ, plus Black and Latinx communities.
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But we've recently been amplifying those efforts
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by focusing on enabling all 20,000 colleagues
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around the world to be allies
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and to think about how we can make a difference
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in the world and we just keep learning
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that when we show commitment to allyship culture
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from the top, more employees step up in that.
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I totally agree Rich and honestly, I mean,
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I've been at BCG a long time too
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and it's been really great to see our progress
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and our own journey.
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We've been focused on DE and I for close to 20 years
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and over that time we've moved from,
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really initial early thinking about
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women mobilizing to support other women
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to a point today where all leaders at BCG male and female
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view being inclusive as a leader
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as part of their responsibility,
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to be enabling and championing women
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and creating an inclusive environment
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for all our colleagues at BCG
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and it's been great to see that progress in that journey.
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And I'm sure it's gonna progress
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and I'm sure we're gonna learn more
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and I'm sure there are still opportunities
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for us to continue to up our game.
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I think even just in the last 12 months
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which we've taken that to a little bit of a next level,
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creating more formal ways for all employees to learn more
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and become active allies themselves.
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We've created ally networks for our women,
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our Black and Latinx colleagues and our pride networks
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and we've tried to put really great educational content
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and engagement opportunities
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for all our staff to learn more.
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You know language really matters
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and I think even the way we've been able to take
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that word allyship and bring it to life and provide examples
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and talk about what it means and show role models
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at all levels in the firm,
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from very young colleagues to very, very senior ones
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who play that, I think it brings it home.
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It gives people some inspiration of what they can do
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to make a difference.
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I just wanna close our conversation
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with just a personal question.
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So we're celebrating International Women's Day,
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the theme this year is choose to challenge.
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BCG is both celebrating colleagues who are raising the bar
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in dismantling barriers for women
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and now many are making pledges
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to challenge the status quo in various ways.
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So what do you hope our community listening to this
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will take away from this theme
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and is there anything that you've personally committed to?
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It's a great theme, isn't it?
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I really like it.
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What it means is, we can all of us,
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every single one of us choose to challenge
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and call out gender bias and inequality
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and we can find those moments to actually make a difference.
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So I hope that our community will be inspired
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to do just that and make that choice
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to really challenge and call out gender bias.
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Me personally, my commitment to choose to challenge
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is to continue to play a very, very active role
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in the intense work we are doing right now
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to systematically review all of our people processes,
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from recruitment to integrating new team members
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to developing those team members, the whole review
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and promotion process and ask the hard questions
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of where might those processes have some bias?
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How can we strip those out?
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And I think we have to have the guts and the resolve
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to really redesign those processes.
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So that's my personal commitment, Rich, how about yours?
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I think mine is to continually reinforce our team
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that we're on a journey and you can take a lot of pride
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on the one hand about how far we've come,
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celebrate women leaders,
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celebrate the the hiring percentages that have gone up
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and really feel good about that
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and at the same time acknowledge
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what we can do to get better.
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And that happens in many ways,
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some very small and some bigger.
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I think this concept of allyship
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and how we really promote that so that every BCGer
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feels like they can make a positive difference
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in the lives of someone else
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and by building a more diverse community
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we build a better and stronger community.
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I think obviously I have this privileged platform
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to be able to stress that and do it in multiple ways
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and to keep trying to use that platform
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as ambitiously as I can as what I take away
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and I agree this year's theme is a particularly good one
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to reinforce that.
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So that's all the time we have Nan.
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Thank you so much, well, for joining me
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and for the leadership you've shown over many, many years
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and in the work that we've talked about today.
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I really encourage everyone watching to pause today,
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consider how you can make meaningful choices
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to support and celebrate the achievements of women today
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and always, thanks everyone.
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Thank you.
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(upbeat music)