It's (past) time to appreciate cultural diversity | Hayley Yeates | TED Institute

With tart humor, Hayley Yeates makes the case that investing in cultural diversity is just as important as fostering gender diversity.

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Have you heard of
the term Fasian?

It's short for fake Asian.

I'm not sure if
it's something that

my friends and I came up with,

but that's basically what I am.

A Fasian. My name
is Hayley Yeates.

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

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

My parents and my
extended family

are all white Australians.

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

I don't feel like I'm different.

I don't wake up in the
morning and consider

how I can leave my
best minority life.

I've gotten used to
the double-take.

When someone meets me
for the first time and

my face and my accent

doesn't quite match the
picture in their head.

I laugh about it
when people say,

but where are you really from?

I might be a spy with
a secret identity.

Most of the time, it's easy

to forget that people can make

assumptions about me just
based on how I look.

Not long ago when I
was at university,

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

Groups were often formed
in the first few weeks,

usually based on
who you sit with.

In that time, I noticed

people scanning the
room as they walked in.

Evaluating their options.

They look in my direction,

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

For a while, I just assumed it's

probably because I'm
just not that smiley.

But several subjects passed,

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

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

I decided each time I
studied a new subject,

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

I'd put up my hand and I would

answer all of the questions.

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

my classmates would think I was

somebody worth working with.

After going above and beyond
in too many subjects,

I realized I was making myself

work harder than everybody
else, just to be saying.

I found myself consciously
and subconsciously

modifying my behavior to
manage these assumptions.

I found myself not wanting
to buy certain items of

clothing or wear my glasses to

work in case I looked too Asian.

For years, I didn't
have a picture on

my LinkedIn profile
because I didn't want

anyone to think that
I wouldn't make

a good communications manager

because English look like it
might be my second language.

I was secretly grateful to
have a westernized name.

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

a fake Asian, what's it like

for someone who's genuinely
from another culture?

It stands to reason
if you were raised in

a culture different to

the one that you
end up working in,

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

An Australian study of people
with Asian backgrounds,

including India,
Pakistan, and Sri Lanka,

found that two-thirds of people

surveyed felt that
they needed to

conform to angler size ideas

of teamwork and leadership
to be successful.

The irony of this is
that cultural diversity,

it's actually great
for business.

McKinsey's study of over
300 multinational companies

found that companies
which were in

the top quartile for
ethnic diversity,

they were 35 percent
more likely to

have financial returns
above their competitors.

When you start to look at it,

there's extensive research that

suggests just why this
might be the case.

Culturally diverse
teams can produce

more accurate work by

tapping into a wider variety
of skills and experience.

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

There are also more innovative.

Studies have shown
culturally diverse teams

are more likely to
develop new products.

They're also better
able to solve

problems and make decisions.

I don't mean the decisions like,

what are we going to
order at Yum Cha?

I still get asked
this quite a lot.

The decisions which
reflect the diversity of

an organization's staff
and their customers.

If it's beneficial for
businesses to help people

feel that they can bring
their whole selves to work,

are we making it easy for them?

When the topic of
diversity comes up,

it's often in relation
to gender diversity.

We've looked deep
into the barriers

to gender equality at work,

the gender pay gap,

female representation
in senior management

and on boards, the
glass ceiling.

We've become more
and more educated

on how to tackle the problem.

Support groups, quarters
versus targets.

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

reach higher, lean
in, and speak up.

But what about
cultural minorities?

What if you're Asian and female?

Do I need to lean
in twice as hard?

Asian American leadership,
author Jane Hyun

coined the term the
Bamboo Ceiling.

Similar to what the glass
ceiling is for women,

the Bamboo Ceiling refers to
barriers that people with

Asian backgrounds face in

workplaces with
Western cultures.

When I first read about
the Bamboo Ceiling,

I felt a bit guilty.

Guilty how I had
handled myself in

those university
classes and take

it upon myself to manage
other people's expectations.

I was somehow reinforcing
these multiple ceilings.

Go to company numbers
on hiring, retention,

promotion of tech companies in

Silicon Valley over a
period of nine years.

While Asians were the largest
minority in the industry,

even outnumbering what
people at an entry-level,

they were the least likely to

be promoted into management.

Black and Latino representation
had actually declined,

and while white women

seem to be climbing
the corporate ladder,

minority women would just not.

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

the negative impact on

career progression
than gender did.

Probably the most
upsetting conclusion in

a sense report was that
the millennial generation,

my generation is unlikely to
crack the cultural ceiling.

Are we seriously looking at

another decade of
people thinking twice

about using a profile picture

or their given names
on a job application.

When I think about legacy,

it's not just something to
be posthumously preserved.

It's something that
should drive us

forward into the future

and make us want to work towards

something better than
what we have now.

Diversity and inclusion,

there's much more
than a couple of

mentions in an annual report

or even workshops
on implicit bias.

It's about shifting to a
more globalized mindset and

expanding our definitions of

what teamwork and
leadership can look like.

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

The who and the what. We need to

be looking at the
how and the why.

Authentic, unrestrained
conversations to look deep

into the barriers the
cultural minorities

and their employers face.

Because as far as I know,

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

to tell you how
it feels to think

your peers might be
avoiding working with you

just based on how you look.

Or how good it can
feel to look at

your organization
and see diversity

truly represented
at every level.

To break the glass, Bamboo,

and whatever other
ceilings there may be,

let's create
environments where we

can bring our whole
selves to work.

Because the next generation

deserves to feel
like they are in

off and because there's

real strength in our
differences. Thank you.