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The Promise of Diversity in Management

“Diversity is being invited to the party and inclusion is being invited to dance.” Fiona Kirkpatrick-Parsons, National Advisor / kānīkānīt, Deloitte Indigenous

“When we talk about diversity and inclusion, I like to sum it up by saying actions speak louder than words.” Rodney Small, Executive Director, One North End

On January 28, 2021, Michelle Hunter, sat down at her desk with a cup of tea and logged into the Promise of Diversity in Management session hosted by the Faculty of Management Dean, Kim Brooks.  Michelle shares her thoughts on the importance of this panel discussion.

“How many diverse individuals do you have working for you, if it is below 50% than there should be a shift.” Angie Gillis, Associate Executive Director, The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq

Michelle Hunter

I quickly discovered that The Promise of Diversity in Management panel discussion was not a session that you could simply have on in the background while picking away at other tasks.  The conversation spoke to a deep desire and commitment to create inclusive communities where all voices participated.

Dean Kim Brooks was joined by leading members of our business community in an interactive online conversation about the vital issues of diversity, equality, and inclusiveness in business and beyond. Panelists included:

Fiona Kirkpatrick Parsons, National Advisor kā-nīkānīt, Deloitte Indigenous

Matthew Martel (BMgmt’14), Chief Operating Officer, Black Business Initiative

Rodney Small (BMgmt’15), Acting Director, One North End Community Economic Development Society

Angeline Gillis (BA’05, LLB’09), Associate Executive Director, The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq and Dalhousie Board of Governors.

The conversations, reflections, and advice challenges viewers to explore new ways of connecting and collaborating.  There is strength in diversity that allows us to seek solutions that benefit all members of an organization.

The panelists generously shared their life experiences.  Their stories were heartening and demonstrated that progress is being made and that we are taking a critical step towards inclusivity.  The rapport amongst the panelists invited viewers to engage and be a part of the conversation.   I want to thank Dean Brooks and the stellar panelists for a profound and thought-provoking discussion.

“Often times we see organizations start either where it’s easy or most manageable but really, I think a promise for diversity in management has to be at the board level, has to be at the front lines, has to be mid managers.” Matthew Martell, CDO, Black Business Initiative

We encourage you to watch the full panel of leading members in our business community converse about the vital issues of diversity, equality, and inclusiveness in business and beyond, moderated by Faculty of Management Dean Kim Brooks on Dalhousie Faculty of Management YouTube Channel.  Special thanks to Lori Bauld, Alumni Officer, Dalhousie Faculty of Management, who supplied the quotes and a brief description.

Ayşe Dai-Gammon: MBA 2020 Graduate Opportunity in Online Connection

Ayşe Dai-Gammon MBA(L) Class of 2020
Photo Credit: Danny Abriel

Erin Elaine Casey – October 15, 2020

Republished from Dal News October 15, 2020

This article is part of a series focusing on the fall grads of the Dalhousie Class of 2020. Visit our Class of 2020 virtual space to share in the excitement with our newest graduates.

For Ayşe Dai-Gammon, finishing her last three MBA courses entirely online during the pandemic lockdown offered an opportunity to build special connections. “COVID-19 made students and instructors more aware of each other’s life challenges,” she says. “Doing an MBA is a brave undertaking for working professionals at the best of times. COVID-19 took it to another level.”

“Many of my classmates had to support their kids’ homeschooling while trying to balance their work and MBA courses. I have deep respect and appreciation for my classmates and instructors for their resilience, adaptability and resourcefulness.”

It also highlighted what Dai-Gammon calls “bringing those sweet moments of life to our online coursework and video calls: newborn babies, family members, pets. It’s a very intimate experience and you establish deep relationships with classmates.”

Dai-Gammon graduates in October; in 2015 she was one of the first students to enroll in Dalhousie’s blended in-person/online MBA program with leadership specialization offered through the Centre for Executive & Graduate Education (CEGE).

“This program leverages the co-creative learning model, combining theory, award-winning professors’ expertise, and the diverse professional backgrounds of the students—all accomplished mid-career professionals. It really enriches and maximizes the learning experience.”

Helping employers and students connect

Since 2011, Dai-Gammon has been the employer development manager with Management Career Services in Dal’s Faculty of Management. She supports employers’ campus recruitment strategies and recent grad and co-op student recruitment needs. She is also the force behind the Dalhousie MBA Network on LinkedIn, created recently to help current students and alumni connect with and support each other. The private group already has more than 60 participants.

Dai-Gammon was born and raised in Turkey, graduated from Istanbul University School of Law, and had established a career as a corporate lawyer specializing in foreign investments before immigrating to Canada. She leverages her corporate experience to help businesses and organizations connect with Dalhousie’s impressive pool of talent.

Although she had always wanted to pursue a master’s degree, “I was really waiting for this degree, especially the leadership stream,” explains Dai-Gammon. “It goes beyond the traditional MBA course curriculum, challenging people’s paradigms and introducing complexity theory into strategic management. The program provides a solid foundation for personal and organizational boundary spanning, value creation and growth.”

“The program also challenges conventional ideas of leadership that glorify heroic and charismatic leaders. We had a lot of heated discussions because there are as many leadership styles as personalities! I believe there’s a leader in each of us, and you can evoke and motivate that leader that lives in every employee and citizen to make a difference.”

Flexible learning a plus

Although being a Dal employee was an important consideration in choosing the program, it wasn’t the only reason Dai-Gammon chose Dalhousie. The high academic standards, as well as the flexible learning model, were key. “Who has the luxury of taking two years off if you’re a mid-career professional with family responsibilities? The program is designed for busy working professionals so you can ‘earn as you learn and pay as you go.’ One of the advantages is not having a big tuition payment up front. You pay for the courses you’re taking and don’t need to quit your job to get an MBA.”

Wrapping up her degree as COVID-19 hit also gave Dai-Gammon a deep appreciation for Dal’s two decades of established expertise in online and blended learning. “The program was well positioned to make the necessary adjustments quickly without sacrificing educational quality. It didn’t have to happen overnight because the pieces were already in place.”

Dai-Gammon credits her MBA experience with giving her a new appreciation for quiet leadership. “We all have the opportunity to make a difference as who we are, where we are, right now. We don’t need to fit into a popularized leadership mould. In our quiet ways, we can initiate ripples for incremental change and progress that can lead to significant waves of transformation. This is a refreshing and powerful approach to leadership that energizes people to become progress-makers for organizational and social transformation.”

Maria Artuso: Managing Through Change

“Change management in the workplace is the leading factor in supporting people through adoption and engagement while change occurs and is undertaken. Change management is a set of steps that are followed on a particular project or initiative. It really is a three-pronged approach:  people need to understand the change, buy into the change, and then have the change reinforced to actually change behaviour.”

Maria Artuso MBA(FS) 2015, Community Manager at RBC Royal Bank

 

Maria Artuso MBA(FS) Class of 2015

Managing through change has become the new norm. As a leader, it is important to understand a number of parameters, including why change is occurring at such an extreme pace, how individuals feel about the change and how they cope with the change. Change at this point is inevitable.  Gone are the days where we reminisce about how things were done years ago. Some individuals thrive in an agile environment, where change can be viewed as exhilarating and super exciting, and personally challenging. Others struggle with the reality that the constant is change, not being able to stay put, and always needing to reinvent themselves and learn new things.

I have been working in the financial services industry for the past 21 years, and have had the privilege of working with leaders who have been phenomenal in terms of working through change, and being respectful of how people will adapt, endure, and overcome the constant of change. When I first started in the industry, I was in my late teens and found it very interesting how some colleagues would say “this is the way we do it here”; “we’ve done it like this for years”; “if it’s not broke don’t fix it”. I remember being taken aback at how it felt to be working within an inflexible and policy-stricken working environment.

In school and at home, my generation was encouraged to “shoot for the stars”; “you can be whatever you put your mind to”; “don’t ever settle for second best”. What I was learning in school and experiencing at work was quite different. What I did not realize or really endorse at the time was that while change management is not an easy philosophy, it is a critical component of organizational transformation. How employees respond to change, let alone, how they overcome this new norm, is vitally important to the viability and sustainability of an organization’s success.  Both the leader and employee play extremely important roles.

As I continued to work in the banking industry, and furthered my education, it became clearer to me that how people felt within the working world was very different than in the educational system. I began to think about how great the workplace could be and would be if we continued to push the envelope, consider everyone’s thoughts and opinions vs. just those of the loudest contributors.  We could  never rest on our laurels.

Change management in the workplace is the leading factor in supporting people through adoption and engagement while change occurs and is undertaken. Change management is a set of steps that are followed on a particular project or initiative. It really is a three-pronged approach:  people need to understand the change, buy into the change, and then have the change reinforced to change behaviour. Change management matters. It needs to occur one person at a time. Change can be very costly if managed improperly.  The good news is that effective management of change increases success overall.

As a new leader, I learned about ADKAR, a model used to understand how people process change: Awareness of the need for change, Desire to participate in and support the change, Knowledge on how to change, Ability to implement required skills and behaviours, and Reinforcement to sustain the change. The truth is, leading employees through organizational change, whether big or small, requires empathy, trust, care, and a growth mindset in order to move forward. Organizations cannot change their culture unless individual employees change their behavior—and changing behavior is not easy; it is actually hard.

Sometimes a leader’s admission of vulnerability helps others recognize and address their ability to process change. You cannot force people to change – you can only help them want to. It is so important for people to understand the why behind the change, the impact it will have on them, and what’s important them. It is vital to acknowledge that there are opportunities for individuals to provide input and feedback.  This will empower individuals to buy-in and feel good about their contribution to the change. In so doing, leaders generate a winning culture by engaging and exciting the people responsible for delivering change. It is important to celebrate successes and quick wins and generously and publicly acknowledge those who demonstrate the leadership behaviours that make a strategy succeed.  Asking team members to share their experiences will encourage the growth mindset required to ensure that change continues to take place at a pace that is commendable in our organizations.

I truly believe that the behaviours of change of management will allow us to never be stuck in old ways. Instead, it will create a flexible and agile collaborative team capable of pivoting in a timely manner, generating the environment where great things will happen because we allowed ourselves to try something new.

Maria Artuso MBA(FS) 2015, Community Manager at RBC Royal Bank, was recently named one of Ottawa’s Top 40 under 40 business professionals. A successful, highly motivated business leader with a track record of success in the fields of operational effectiveness, retail banking, commercial banking, and leadership, Maria is dedicated to giving back to her community, believing that her volunteerism enhances her job performance and life experiences. Maria has graciously agreed to be a repeat contributor on CEGE Connection.

 

From the CEGE Connection Archives first Published May 5, 2020

Dr. Teresa Cyrus: Understanding the Forces that Bring People Together

Dr. Teresa Cyrus, Instructor of Business Economics
Associate Professor, Department of Economics

“We have found that students learn more and perform better when they know more of their fellow students. COVID-19 is making it more challenging to meet each other, so anything we can do to help students develop connections is so worthwhile.”

Dr. Teresa Cyrus

 

Dr. Teresa (Tess) Cyrus is an associate professor in the Department of Economics.  She studies international trade and bilateral trade flows with an emphasis on how culture plays a role in these processes. Her research focuses on understanding the forces that bring people together.  As a professor, she is dedicated to improving introductory economics classes by using active-learning teaching and sharing her passion for how economics influences our choices and way of life.

In a recent virtual interview with CEGE Connection, Dr. Cyrus spoke about her commitment to cultivating a creative environment that fosters engagement and applied learning.

Dr. Teresa Cyrus:

I tell students that economics always becomes a more popular field of study during recessions. I am not trying to make light of the challenges that firms and individuals face during tough times, just acknowledging that these days, it is even more important than usual to understand the forces that influence our jobs and our lives, and to have a framework for understanding what kinds of government intervention in the economy are justified.

I enjoy teaching MBA students because they are on the front lines of the economy. As a tenured professor, I am insulated from market forces, but my students understand the market in a visceral way, as their jobs and livelihoods are literally on the line when the economy goes downhill. I get so much out of seeing how our students interpret the course material and apply it to their own lives. I really learn from their experience.

My research on international trade focuses on the push and pull factors that influence bilateral trade flows. A recent theme has been the cultural links that provide a framework for interactions; the more we know about others, the more we can learn from them and experience the gains from trade.

In a project with one of my colleagues in the Economics Department, we have surveyed our first-year students to try to determine what helps them succeed, and we have found that students learn more and perform better when they know more of their fellow students. COVID-19 is making it more challenging to meet each other, so anything we can do to help students develop connections (like the CEGE Connection blog!) is so worthwhile.

Dr. Teresa Cyrus, Instructor of Business Economics
Associate Professor, Department of Economics

Faculty of Science Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2019.
Dalhousie University Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award, 2015.
Dalhousie University Economics Department Teaching Award, 2004
 

We invite you to listen to Dr. Cyrus’s informative interview on Soundcloud by Sciographies, a radio show and podcast about the people who make science happen, presented by The Faculty of Science and campus-community radio station CKDU.

Carrie Morrison: March 26th is International Epilepsy Awareness Day – join me in wearing purple to support those with epilepsy

Carrie Morrison MBA(FS) Class of 2018

My name is Carrie Morrison, I graduated from Dalhousie University with my MBA(FS) in 2018.  I am passionate about raising awareness and funds to find a cure for epilepsy. In 2019 I joined the Board of Directors for Epilepsy Canada in order to amplify my efforts for the cause.  It has been a very soul-fulfilling experience and I encourage everyone to advocate for something your passionate about.

For many, March 26th is a day comes and goes without taking more than a second thought.  For me, this is not the case.  For me, I am reminded of loved ones I have supported, and sadly, lost to epileptic disorders.

It is in their honour that I share with you some facts about epilepsy which may surprise you, and help you understand what to do should you encounter someone having a seizure.  Unfortunately, public perception and treatment of individuals afflicted with epilepsy can often be larger problems than the seizures themselves.  Seeing someone have an uncontrollable seizure can be scary to witness.  People with epilepsy often suffer from depression and anxiety, have strained relationships, have their license to drive taken away, and have trouble learning and so much more.  The more we know about epilepsy, the more we are able to acknowledge its prevalence and the stress it inflicts upon individuals, their loved ones and caregivers, and our society as a whole.  Ultimately, the more empathetic we can become, the more successful we will be in finding a cure.

Research is very expensive and these are some reasons why we need your help,  did you know:

  • Epilepsy is one of the most common brain conditions characterized by momentary glitches in the brain’s electrical activity, which are called seizures.
  • Epilepsy can be a condition in and of itself or it can compound preexisting conditions, for example autism, down syndrome, tumors, stroke, or head injury.
  • Over 65 million people globally and over 350,000 Canadians live with epilepsy – personally affecting more people than Multiple Sclerosis + Cerebral Palsy + Muscular Dystrophy + Cystic Fibrosis, combined.
  • Epilepsy indirectly affects more than 1 million Canadians, including parents and 1 sibling – however, indirect impact can reach up to 30% of the population if you include employers, teachers, friends, extended family members, etc.
  • Doctor’s do not know what causes epilepsy and there is no cure.
  • 1 in 26 people will develop epilepsy over the course of their lifetime.
  • Epilepsy causes more deaths than breast cancer, drunk driving, or prescription drugs.
  • There are about a dozen different types of epilepsy and three major groups of seizures which are named based on the part of the brain where they occur: Focal onset, Generalized onset and Unknown onset seizures.
  • Seizures can present themselves in many ways:
    • Some people stare off into space,
    • Some make jerky movements,
    • Others lose consciousness all together.
  • 33% of people living with epilepsy have intractable epilepsy which means their seizures cannot be controlled by medication – That’s equates to ~120,000 Canadians which live a life of complete disorder.
  • Women with epilepsy may have more seizures around the time of their menstrual cycles, due to hormonal shifts/levels.
  • Photosensitive epilepsy is triggered by small visual stimuli – in this virtual word, be mindful that flashing lights, bold and regular patterns, or repeating/regular moving patters can trigger seizures.
  • Frontal lobe seizures may cause an individual to smell burnt toast, the hallucination can last a few minutes.
  • Approximately 2.5% of people living with epilepsy will die from SUDEP (Sudden Unexplained Death from Epilepsy) – which means sadly, 9,000 Canadians will learn a new acronym this year.
  • People with epilepsy may use service dogs – Seizure dogs have been specially trained to respond to someone who has epilepsy.
    • They can be trained to encourage the affected individual to get into a safe position before seizure onset,
    • They can keep the affected safe when experiencing a seizure (laying under the head of an individual while experiencing their seizure,
    • They can also be a great comfort for an individual recovering from a seizure.

 

Now that you know a little about epilepsy, what can you do to help people who are affected by seizures?

  • Stay with the person and time the seizure – remain calm,
  • Keep the person safe while they have the seizure by removing harmful objects,
  • If the person is unconscious, turn them onto their side,
  • DO NOT put anything in their mouths – DO put something small and soft under their heads and loosen tight clothes around the neck,
  • Do NOT restrain – DO allow them space and freedom to have their seizure,
  • Stay with them until they are awake and alert – most seizures end in a few minutes.

If a seizure lasts longer than 5 minutes, the individual appears to have difficulty breathing, the person gets injured, is pregnant or sick, and if the person does not return to their usual state – call 911.

I hope you found some of this information useful, interesting, and I hope it encourages you to get involved.

You can help to find a cure, by donating to Epilepsy Canada www.epilepsy.ca/donate

Source: Epilepsy Canada – www.epilepsy.ca

“Epilepsy Canada is a registered Canadian charity dedicated to positively affecting the lives of those living with epilepsy. It’s sole mandate is to raise monies for epilepsy research with an objective of finding a cure. It demonstrates the need for research by highlighting key issues related to those whose seizures cannot be controlled through existing medication and treatments and the tragic cases of SUDEP (Sudden Unexplained Death from Epilepsy). Through its active financial support of epilepsy research, it strives to help the Canadian neurology community find a cure for epilepsy.

Epilepsy Canada is governed by a nationally representative Board of Directors, comprised of leading professionals from the neurology and business communities. Founded in 1966, the organization depends on donor and volunteer support for the continued development and delivery of its research grant programs.”

 

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