WEBVTT

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Have you heard of
the term Fasian?

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It's short for fake Asian.

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I'm not sure if
it's something that

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my friends and I came up with,

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but that's basically what I am.

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A Fasian. My name
is Hayley Yeates.

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I was born in South Korea and
adopted at five months old.

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I've grown up here and lived
in Sydney my whole life.

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My parents and my
extended family

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are all white Australians.

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For me, I've only ever identified
as a proud Australian.

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I don't feel like I'm different.

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I don't wake up in the
morning and consider

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how I can leave my
best minority life.

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I've gotten used to
the double-take.

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When someone meets me
for the first time and

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my face and my accent

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doesn't quite match the
picture in their head.

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I laugh about it
when people say,

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but where are you really from?

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I might be a spy with
a secret identity.

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Most of the time, it's easy

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to forget that people can make

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assumptions about me just
based on how I look.

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Not long ago when I
was at university,

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group assignments, met up a
large portion of your marks.

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Groups were often formed
in the first few weeks,

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usually based on
who you sit with.

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In that time, I noticed

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people scanning the
room as they walked in.

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Evaluating their options.

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They look in my direction,

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think it over, and then
they sit at another table.

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For a while, I just assumed it's

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probably because I'm
just not that smiley.

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But several subjects passed,

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it was still bothering me
until one of my friends said,

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Hayley, It's probably because
they think you're Asian.

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I decided each time I
studied a new subject,

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I would be that person that
had done all of the readings.

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I'd put up my hand and I would

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answer all of the questions.

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I felt like if I put in the
extra effort and I spoke up,

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my classmates would think I was

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somebody worth working with.

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After going above and beyond
in too many subjects,

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I realized I was making myself

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work harder than everybody
else, just to be saying.

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I found myself consciously
and subconsciously

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modifying my behavior to
manage these assumptions.

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I found myself not wanting
to buy certain items of

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clothing or wear my glasses to

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work in case I looked too Asian.

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For years, I didn't
have a picture on

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my LinkedIn profile
because I didn't want

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anyone to think that
I wouldn't make

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a good communications manager

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because English look like it
might be my second language.

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I was secretly grateful to
have a westernized name.

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One day I realized if this
is what it's like for me,

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a fake Asian, what's it like

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for someone who's genuinely
from another culture?

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It stands to reason
if you were raised in

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a culture different to

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the one that you
end up working in,

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you're probably going to
feel some pressure to adapt.

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An Australian study of people
with Asian backgrounds,

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including India,
Pakistan, and Sri Lanka,

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found that two-thirds of people

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surveyed felt that
they needed to

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conform to angler size ideas

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of teamwork and leadership
to be successful.

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The irony of this is
that cultural diversity,

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it's actually great
for business.

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McKinsey's study of over
300 multinational companies

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found that companies
which were in

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the top quartile for
ethnic diversity,

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they were 35 percent
more likely to

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have financial returns
above their competitors.

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When you start to look at it,

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there's extensive research that

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suggests just why this
might be the case.

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Culturally diverse
teams can produce

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more accurate work by

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tapping into a wider variety
of skills and experience.

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They're able to focus more
effects and remain objective.

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There are also more innovative.

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Studies have shown
culturally diverse teams

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are more likely to
develop new products.

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They're also better
able to solve

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problems and make decisions.

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I don't mean the decisions like,

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what are we going to
order at Yum Cha?

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I still get asked
this quite a lot.

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The decisions which
reflect the diversity of

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an organization's staff
and their customers.

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If it's beneficial for
businesses to help people

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feel that they can bring
their whole selves to work,

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are we making it easy for them?

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When the topic of
diversity comes up,

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it's often in relation
to gender diversity.

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We've looked deep
into the barriers

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to gender equality at work,

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the gender pay gap,

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female representation
in senior management

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and on boards, the
glass ceiling.

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We've become more
and more educated

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on how to tackle the problem.

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Support groups, quarters
versus targets.

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As women, we've been
told to get mentored,

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reach higher, lean
in, and speak up.

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But what about
cultural minorities?

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What if you're Asian and female?

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Do I need to lean
in twice as hard?

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Asian American leadership,
author Jane Hyun

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coined the term the
Bamboo Ceiling.

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Similar to what the glass
ceiling is for women,

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the Bamboo Ceiling refers to
barriers that people with

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Asian backgrounds face in

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workplaces with
Western cultures.

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When I first read about
the Bamboo Ceiling,

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I felt a bit guilty.

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Guilty how I had
handled myself in

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those university
classes and take

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it upon myself to manage
other people's expectations.

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I was somehow reinforcing
these multiple ceilings.

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Go to company numbers
on hiring, retention,

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promotion of tech companies in

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Silicon Valley over a
period of nine years.

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While Asians were the largest
minority in the industry,

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even outnumbering what
people at an entry-level,

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they were the least likely to

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be promoted into management.

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Black and Latino representation
had actually declined,

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and while white women

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seem to be climbing
the corporate ladder,

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minority women would just not.

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In fact, race had over
three-and-a-half times

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the negative impact on

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career progression
than gender did.

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Probably the most
upsetting conclusion in

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a sense report was that
the millennial generation,

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my generation is unlikely to
crack the cultural ceiling.

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Are we seriously looking at

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another decade of
people thinking twice

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about using a profile picture

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or their given names
on a job application.

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When I think about legacy,

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it's not just something to
be posthumously preserved.

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It's something that
should drive us

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forward into the future

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and make us want to work towards

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something better than
what we have now.

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Diversity and inclusion,

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there's much more
than a couple of

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mentions in an annual report

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or even workshops
on implicit bias.

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It's about shifting to a
more globalized mindset and

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expanding our definitions of

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what teamwork and
leadership can look like.

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It's time to go beyond the
demographics of this issue.

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The who and the what. We need to

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be looking at the
how and the why.

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Authentic, unrestrained
conversations to look deep

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into the barriers the
cultural minorities

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and their employers face.

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Because as far as I know,

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there isn't going to be a
data point that's going

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to tell you how
it feels to think

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your peers might be
avoiding working with you

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just based on how you look.

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Or how good it can
feel to look at

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your organization
and see diversity

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truly represented
at every level.

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To break the glass, Bamboo,

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and whatever other
ceilings there may be,

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let's create
environments where we

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can bring our whole
selves to work.

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Because the next generation

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deserves to feel
like they are in

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off and because there's

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real strength in our
differences. Thank you.