0:00:04.114,0:00:09.866
Whenever you bring up diversity,[br]people's hearts tend to sink a little bit.

0:00:09.866,0:00:13.034
They're like, "Oh my God,[br]I'm going to have a lecture.

0:00:13.034,0:00:16.097
I'm going to have to sit[br]through slides like this,

0:00:16.097,0:00:19.598
with multicultural hands in the air,

0:00:19.962,0:00:25.737
people of different races holding hands,[br]giving each other high fives,

0:00:25.737,0:00:27.633
holding each other,

0:00:27.633,0:00:31.727
maybe holding the world,[br]holding the globe up -

0:00:33.035,0:00:35.583
When we talk about diversity,

0:00:35.583,0:00:37.423
we tend to do so

0:00:37.423,0:00:43.851
in a really unimaginative,[br]stock-standard kind of way.

0:00:44.803,0:00:48.904
And that's because people[br]don't really want to talk about diversity.

0:00:48.904,0:00:52.614
They don't want to talk[br]about diversity in the workplace.

0:00:52.614,0:00:55.594
It's just a problem[br]that needs to be solved

0:00:55.594,0:00:57.964
so that you can get on to other things.

0:00:58.744,0:01:03.004
And that's an attitude[br]that I've kind of come across a lot

0:01:03.004,0:01:04.378
during my working life

0:01:04.378,0:01:07.960
because, I mean, I don't want[br]to boast or anything,

0:01:07.960,0:01:11.690
but in technical terms, I'm a three-fer:

0:01:11.690,0:01:15.118
I'm brown, I'm gay, I'm female.

0:01:15.118,0:01:17.908
I'm three minorities for the price of one.

0:01:17.908,0:01:19.029
(Laughter)

0:01:19.029,0:01:22.072
So, you know, I'm the triple threat,

0:01:22.072,0:01:26.412
but I'm also the triple opportunity

0:01:26.890,0:01:31.741
because when companies hire me,[br]they get to tick three diversity boxes.

0:01:31.741,0:01:32.941
(Laughter)

0:01:32.941,0:01:35.049
They get three times the value,

0:01:35.049,0:01:39.740
and they get someone to wheel out,[br]to show that they're not sexist,

0:01:39.740,0:01:43.160
they're not homophobic,[br]they're not racist.

0:01:43.162,0:01:45.610
Because everybody's worried[br]about that, obviously.

0:01:45.610,0:01:51.140
The flip side of diversity[br]is discrimination,

0:01:51.140,0:01:56.409
and diversity and discrimination[br]are huge issues at the moment,

0:01:56.409,0:02:00.816
as our cities change,[br]as the demographics of our cities change,

0:02:00.816,0:02:04.382
particularly now with the refugee crisis.

0:02:04.796,0:02:10.227
But things are changing,[br]the face of our cities is changing,

0:02:10.227,0:02:14.347
but what's not changing[br]is the face of power:

0:02:15.007,0:02:17.576
the people on our TVs,

0:02:17.576,0:02:21.958
the people in the big board rooms,[br]upper management.

0:02:21.958,0:02:25.141
That's still exactly the same.

0:02:26.086,0:02:30.549
We still have institutionalized sexism.

0:02:31.196,0:02:34.238
Did you know that, in the US,

0:02:34.238,0:02:39.085
there are more guys called John[br]that lead major companies

0:02:39.085,0:02:41.747
than women leading major companies?

0:02:41.747,0:02:43.940
(Laughter)

0:02:44.527,0:02:46.916
(Applause)

0:02:50.546,0:02:54.327
There are actually 17,[br]compared to 7 women.

0:02:55.816,0:02:59.996
We also face institutionalized racism.

0:02:59.996,0:03:03.858
I mean, it's well documented that[br]if you've got a foreign-sounding name,

0:03:03.858,0:03:06.477
you have a harder time getting a job.

0:03:06.477,0:03:08.321
There was a study done in Germany

0:03:08.321,0:03:11.907
that found that if you have a name[br]that sounds German,

0:03:11.907,0:03:16.387
you're 14% more likely[br]to be called for an interview

0:03:16.387,0:03:18.828
than if you have a name[br]that sounds Turkish.

0:03:18.828,0:03:21.067
And I mean, probably[br]a lot of you are thinking,

0:03:21.067,0:03:25.049
"Fourteen percent? I thought it would be[br]a bit more than that, actually."

0:03:26.897,0:03:30.228
This all really needs to change,

0:03:30.228,0:03:33.576
and not just because[br]it's the right thing to do,

0:03:33.576,0:03:36.837
but because it's[br]the profitable thing to do.

0:03:37.107,0:03:40.217
There are so many studies that show

0:03:40.217,0:03:46.617
that increasing diversity in a company[br]makes for a more successful company.

0:03:46.617,0:03:53.365
For example, racially diverse teams[br]outperform non-diverse ones by 35%,

0:03:53.365,0:03:54.978
according to Mackenzie,

0:03:55.239,0:04:01.046
and teams where men and women are equal[br]earn 41% more revenue.

0:04:02.979,0:04:05.807
So, here's the situation,[br]this is where we are:

0:04:05.807,0:04:10.036
we know that the corporate[br]world needs to change,

0:04:10.036,0:04:13.732
we know that there's[br]a business case for changing,

0:04:14.117,0:04:17.185
and yet nothing is changing.

0:04:18.175,0:04:23.882
How do we go from talking about diversity[br]to actually making it happen?

0:04:25.077,0:04:27.730
This is something I've been[br]thinking about for a while,

0:04:27.730,0:04:31.966
and earlier this year,[br]I had a kind of light-bulb moment,

0:04:31.966,0:04:35.645
and I came up with a brilliant solution.

0:04:35.645,0:04:37.957
So, I got a team together,

0:04:37.957,0:04:41.896
and we started working[br]on building this new service,

0:04:42.706,0:04:46.107
a service that would really[br]just change the diversity debate

0:04:46.107,0:04:49.760
and really solve the diversity[br]problem once and for all.

0:04:50.188,0:04:53.644
So, what is this[br]revolutionary new service?

0:04:54.026,0:04:57.156
Well, it's called Rent-A-Minority.

0:04:58.306,0:05:02.077
I like to think of it[br]as an Uber for diversity.

0:05:02.077,0:05:03.895
(Laughter)

0:05:04.637,0:05:06.019
Because the thing is -

0:05:06.019,0:05:09.267
[Get ethics with our ethics.[br]We have a minority for every occasion.]

0:05:09.267,0:05:10.755
(Laughter)

0:05:10.755,0:05:12.686
(Applause)

0:05:18.919,0:05:21.499
Diversity is difficult.

0:05:21.499,0:05:24.469
It takes time, it takes resources,

0:05:24.469,0:05:26.209
it takes energy.

0:05:26.209,0:05:27.719
Companies don't have that time,

0:05:27.719,0:05:30.567
they need to be getting on[br]with what's really important.

0:05:31.107,0:05:34.336
So, what we need is something[br]that's quick and easy:

0:05:34.336,0:05:36.577
diversity on demand.

0:05:36.577,0:05:38.054
So how does this work?

0:05:38.054,0:05:42.747
Well, if you are a minority,[br]you can sign up on our website.

0:05:42.747,0:05:45.086
We have a strict vetting procedure

0:05:45.086,0:05:48.664
so that we ensure[br]we only get the best minorities.

0:05:48.664,0:05:50.407
(Laughter)

0:05:50.407,0:05:53.958
You can see some[br]of our minorities featured here.

0:05:54.546,0:05:55.826
So -

0:05:55.826,0:05:57.837
(Laughter)

0:06:00.847,0:06:03.267
(Applause)

0:06:07.736,0:06:12.126
A very popular category[br]is the ethnically ambiguous category

0:06:12.126,0:06:13.837
because it's very, very versatile,

0:06:13.837,0:06:16.629
it can be whatever[br]you want them to be, really.

0:06:16.629,0:06:18.437
We've got a smiling Muslim women:

0:06:19.057,0:06:21.717
"Doesn't support ISIS[br]or your money back";

0:06:21.717,0:06:23.487
intellectual black guy -

0:06:23.487,0:06:27.059
Really, we've got a minority[br]for every occasion.

0:06:27.985,0:06:32.177
We work with clients to find[br]the right minority for your needs.

0:06:32.177,0:06:33.965
And our clients are very, very happy.

0:06:33.965,0:06:38.687
We've got a long testimonial section[br]you can check out on the website.

0:06:38.687,0:06:41.696
[The best thing to happen to Indians[br]since British colonialism.]

0:06:41.696,0:06:43.987
(Laughter)

0:06:44.757,0:06:47.601
I'm glad to see that some people[br]got the joke here.

0:06:47.601,0:06:49.810
(Laughter)

0:06:52.977,0:06:55.447
Because it has been so successful,

0:06:55.447,0:07:00.905
we are launching an ad campaign[br]a bit later this year in New York.

0:07:01.307,0:07:05.127
So, there may be some of you here[br]who are still thinking,

0:07:05.127,0:07:07.157
"Okay, what is going on?

0:07:07.157,0:07:13.296
Why did TEDx invite[br]this crazy person to our conference?

0:07:13.296,0:07:15.223
Is this a joke?"

0:07:15.737,0:07:17.657
And I've had that question a lot.

0:07:17.657,0:07:20.065
A lot, a lot of people[br]have asked me that question.

0:07:20.065,0:07:25.204
So I even made a FAQ page[br]and put up the answer.

0:07:26.595,0:07:29.616
And the answer is yes!

0:07:29.616,0:07:30.716
(Laughter)

0:07:30.716,0:07:32.553
It is a joke.

0:07:33.866,0:07:37.976
But a lot of people[br]didn't realize it was a joke.

0:07:37.976,0:07:42.146
You know, I had a thousand people[br]sign up to be minorities.

0:07:42.146,0:07:43.887
(Laughter)

0:07:44.865,0:07:51.583
I even received genuine business inquiries[br]from big companies, that I won't name,

0:07:52.413,0:07:54.581
asking about the service.

0:07:55.915,0:07:59.136
In fact, I think I could have made[br]a lot of money out of the company

0:07:59.136,0:08:00.725
if I'd monetized it.

0:08:00.725,0:08:02.529
It might be a missed opportunity.

0:08:02.894,0:08:07.626
So, the reason some people[br]didn't realize it was a joke

0:08:07.626,0:08:12.576
is because Rent-A-Minority[br]is very close, scarily close,

0:08:12.576,0:08:17.985
to the way that a lot of companies[br]deal with the diversity question,

0:08:17.985,0:08:21.790
a very superficial approach to diversity,

0:08:21.790,0:08:24.816
that actually makes the whole issue worse,

0:08:24.816,0:08:27.476
because there are[br]so many studies that show

0:08:27.476,0:08:34.204
that people find diversity training,[br]enforced diversity training, awful.

0:08:34.204,0:08:37.856
It makes a lot of white men[br]feel very resentful.

0:08:37.856,0:08:40.713
It actually increases prejudice

0:08:40.713,0:08:43.473
because a lot of people[br]suddenly think, you know,

0:08:43.473,0:08:44.975
that if you're someone like me,

0:08:44.975,0:08:47.287
you've suddenly got[br]an escalator to the top,

0:08:47.287,0:08:49.699
everything's stacked up for you.

0:08:50.033,0:08:51.477
The thing is it's really not

0:08:51.477,0:08:53.217
because what we're not doing

0:08:53.217,0:08:56.125
is we are not getting rid[br]of institutional inequality,

0:08:56.125,0:08:58.657
we're not getting rid of the barriers

0:08:58.659,0:09:02.667
that stop companies[br]from becoming more equal.

0:09:02.667,0:09:06.825
All we're doing is[br]this very surface-level tokenism.

0:09:06.825,0:09:09.466
That means that if you[br]are someone like me,

0:09:09.466,0:09:11.604
every time you do have a success,

0:09:11.604,0:09:18.077
people are very quick to attribute it[br]to tokenism or to diversity schemes,

0:09:18.077,0:09:20.566
or, "You only got that[br]because you are a woman,"

0:09:20.566,0:09:22.636
or, "Because you're brown."

0:09:23.376,0:09:25.805
And I actually got[br]a lot of people writing in to me

0:09:25.805,0:09:30.644
and saying how they've felt[br]that reflected their own experience.

0:09:30.644,0:09:35.263
There's a section of the website now[br]with people's stories and anecdotes in it.

0:09:35.263,0:09:39.185
And the thing is, you know, sometimes[br]people do get jobs because of tokenism.

0:09:39.185,0:09:41.175
That doesn't help anyone.

0:09:41.175,0:09:43.994
There was this one woman[br]who wrote in to me,

0:09:43.994,0:09:48.745
and she said that she had recently taken[br]a role at a business consulting firm.

0:09:48.745,0:09:51.974
It was previosuly occupied[br]by a smiley Asian woman,

0:09:51.974,0:09:55.113
a very sort of ambiguously Asian woman.

0:09:55.113,0:09:57.434
She left, they hired her.

0:09:57.434,0:09:59.823
She was the only person[br]of color in the company,

0:09:59.823,0:10:04.589
and it was clear that she'd just taken[br]that one slot of "ethnically ambiguous."

0:10:05.334,0:10:10.381
Again, it doesn't help anyone.[br]It makes the situation so much worse.

0:10:11.793,0:10:18.463
So, Rent-A-Minority was[br]a fake solution to a very real problem.

0:10:19.223,0:10:21.355
What's the real solution?

0:10:21.895,0:10:24.808
Well, I've got bad news[br]and I've got good news.

0:10:25.338,0:10:28.563
The bad news is that[br]there is no quick solution,

0:10:28.563,0:10:30.155
there's no silver bullet.

0:10:30.155,0:10:32.566
It takes time; it takes effort.

0:10:33.076,0:10:38.085
However, the good news is[br]that diversity is a serious issue,

0:10:38.085,0:10:41.722
but we don't need to take it so seriously.

0:10:41.722,0:10:45.363
One of the reasons I set up[br]Rent-A-Minority was because I think

0:10:45.363,0:10:49.244
that one of the things holding us back[br]is that nobody talks about it

0:10:49.244,0:10:52.445
because they don't want[br]to be seen as racist or sexist,

0:10:52.445,0:10:54.394
they don't want to step on people's toes,

0:10:54.394,0:10:57.452
that this sort of inability[br]to talk about it properly

0:10:57.452,0:10:59.913
actually contributes to the problem.

0:10:59.913,0:11:04.516
So, I think we shouldn't be afraid[br]to find humor in the situation,

0:11:04.516,0:11:06.355
because as Mark Twain said,

0:11:06.355,0:11:09.704
the human race has only one[br]really effective weapon,

0:11:09.704,0:11:11.513
and that's laughter.

0:11:11.864,0:11:16.534
The other good news is that all of us[br]can be doing small things

0:11:16.534,0:11:19.284
that louder up to big changes.

0:11:19.284,0:11:22.064
And by "all of us," I do mean all of us.

0:11:22.464,0:11:24.984
Diversity isn't something that HR fixes.

0:11:24.984,0:11:27.262
It's something that everyone[br]is responsible for

0:11:27.262,0:11:30.994
and everybody should[br]be doing something about.

0:11:31.583,0:11:33.723
So, what can you do?

0:11:33.723,0:11:38.274
Well, if you're in HR[br]or you're responsible for recruiting,

0:11:38.274,0:11:42.956
you might want to think about ways[br]that you can reduce your unconscious bias.

0:11:44.954,0:11:46.814
In the 1970s,

0:11:47.284,0:11:49.994
symphony orchestras were all white men,

0:11:49.994,0:11:52.364
and they thought,[br]"Let's do something about this."

0:11:52.364,0:11:54.374
So, they set up blind auditions

0:11:54.374,0:11:58.554
where musicians actually[br]auditioned behind a screen,

0:11:58.554,0:12:01.635
so you couldn't see if it was a woman[br]or the color of their skin.

0:12:01.635,0:12:02.645
They found

0:12:02.645,0:12:07.375
that it actually brought the number of[br]women getting accepted into orchestras up

0:12:07.375,0:12:10.375
from between 25% to 46%,

0:12:10.375,0:12:12.181
depending on the study.

0:12:13.042,0:12:14.834
A company called GapJumpers

0:12:14.834,0:12:18.408
has now started to take[br]this idea of blind auditions

0:12:18.408,0:12:21.343
and apply it to the corporate world.

0:12:21.343,0:12:24.685
So instead of looking through[br]people's CVs to find candidates,

0:12:24.685,0:12:27.802
you can assign them[br]challenges anonymously.

0:12:28.495,0:12:29.733
And what they found

0:12:29.733,0:12:34.983
is that they've got 60% more minority[br]applicants selected for interviews

0:12:34.983,0:12:37.218
as compared to CV screenings,

0:12:37.654,0:12:43.086
and they've got 125% more women selected[br]compared to CV screenings.

0:12:43.086,0:12:45.114
So suddenly, that question of,

0:12:45.114,0:12:48.693
"Oh, we couldn't find the best candidate,[br]it's all about the best candidate,

0:12:48.693,0:12:50.226
we just can't find them,"

0:12:50.226,0:12:53.286
it's started to sound a bit false[br]because they are all out there.

0:12:53.286,0:12:57.119
That is, unconscious bias[br]is getting in the way.

0:12:58.654,0:13:02.104
Another thing everyone can do[br]is just say something.

0:13:02.104,0:13:05.124
If nobody says anything, nothing changes.

0:13:05.124,0:13:07.993
So, if you are in a room,[br]in a meeting, in a company,

0:13:07.993,0:13:12.584
and it's all just the same sort of persons[br]sitting around the table,

0:13:12.584,0:13:14.584
go and talk to your manager, you know.

0:13:14.584,0:13:16.034
Talk about it, make a comment.

0:13:16.034,0:13:19.032
You don't want to be[br]in a company that's like that.

0:13:20.115,0:13:24.793
Another thing we can all be doing is just[br]finding ways to prove again and again

0:13:24.793,0:13:28.974
that diversity is beneficial,[br]that is does have a positive effect,

0:13:28.974,0:13:31.913
it's not just political correctness.

0:13:31.913,0:13:34.794
That, by the way, isn't[br]the mathematical proof for diversity.

0:13:34.794,0:13:36.547
I'm not sure there is one.

0:13:36.547,0:13:42.155
But we can all be doing these experiments[br]and finding ways to prove it.

0:13:42.155,0:13:45.275
For example, in London,[br]in the advertising industry,

0:13:45.275,0:13:48.035
a group of five creative[br]directors got together

0:13:48.035,0:13:53.027
and they initiated this thing called[br]The Great British Diversity Experiment.

0:13:53.027,0:13:56.404
And what they did was they got 120 people[br]from different backgrounds,

0:13:56.404,0:14:00.113
they put them in teams,[br]they got them to solve a live brief

0:14:00.113,0:14:03.625
and they had researchers[br]ethnographically studying them

0:14:03.625,0:14:08.348
to see how they interacted compared[br]to if it was a homogeneous group.

0:14:08.348,0:14:11.816
And they found that, yes,[br]being in a diverse group -

0:14:11.816,0:14:13.334
and this is common sense -

0:14:13.334,0:14:14.944
it makes you more creative.

0:14:14.944,0:14:18.214
Because you get so many more[br]different perspectives,

0:14:18.214,0:14:20.654
you connect the dots in different ways.

0:14:21.293,0:14:23.405
And they issued a report[br]at the end of this

0:14:23.405,0:14:28.034
and they said, you know,[br]diversity is the new Darwinism.

0:14:28.455,0:14:30.971
And this is absolutely right.

0:14:31.286,0:14:35.515
The world is changing[br]whether you like it or not,

0:14:35.515,0:14:39.516
and companies have[br]to evolve or go extinct.

0:14:40.106,0:14:44.185
And tokenism is not evolving.

0:14:47.715,0:14:50.485
Finally, what I'd really urge

0:14:50.485,0:14:55.215
is that we just get rid[br]of the word "diversity" altogether

0:14:55.728,0:14:57.865
because the thing about diversity

0:14:57.865,0:15:01.675
is that it assumes[br]that there is a nucleus of normal:

0:15:01.675,0:15:04.240
it's pro straight, white men called John.

0:15:04.896,0:15:07.457
Everyone else is "diverse."

0:15:07.786,0:15:09.927
That's so patently wrong.

0:15:09.927,0:15:13.492
The world has changed so much[br]and will continue to,

0:15:13.492,0:15:17.723
and diversity now is the new normal.

0:15:18.794,0:15:19.833
Thank you.

0:15:19.833,0:15:21.885
(Applause)