In for 13
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Learning & Development

Pledge and Get a Six Step Approach to Solve Systemic Racism in the Advertising Industry.

 

learning & development

Milestone In Progress

Originally when we launched IN FOR 13 in June 2020, Step #3 (Learning and Development) was dedicated to anti-racism training. This step has now evolved into a different phase. Lots of agencies are in the midst of their anti-racism training. So we wanted to instead focus on areas that are more top of mind for our IN FOR 13 agencies.

  • Onboarding - if hiring outside of the industry for senior leaders, how can new talent be set up for success?

  • Retention of Black talent - easy to find entry-level talent, hard to retain talent at the Senior Manager level and above - no Directors / VPs.

  • How to transfer equity to Black talent - what does this look like beyond pay?

  • How to understand and operationalize belonging

  • Black talent pool – once an agency starts to develop, how to foster

 

How We Will Proceed In Step #3

Let’s kickoff step #3 in the language we know best. Assemble the IN agencies into pitch teams.
Imagine IN FOR 13 was an agency and Black America was our client that gave us this brief.
In the brief, Black America is asking us how we would manage / approach and try to fix the five areas listed
above. How can we use the business thinking we’re all experts at to dig deeper and make a sustainable plan?

 

What happens in a pitch?

Agency CEOs / Presidents are very familiar with the pitch process, but our DE&I professionals and talent leaders aren’t. This is an amazing exercise for the agencies to blend our client business solving expertise with our internal business challenges.

In the pitch process, clients give agencies a business challenge, goal, or opportunity that they need help with. Agencies will have no immediate clue on how to fix for a potential client. BUT that’s the pitch magic. In the pitch, an agency will dig deep into a category / industry to make sound business / creative solutions and suggestions. The client typically hires an agency based on the chemistry they have with the agency. AND the creative thinking / effort an agency demonstrates in the pitch process.

The process typically goes into these phases:

  1. Understanding at a macro level (Chemistry Meeting)

  2. Now that we understand at a macro level, what insights / findings can we use? (Working Session)

  3. With our insights / findings, what creative / planning / programming can we develop? (Final Meeting)

  4. How can we grow, operationalize, and sustain? (Final Meeting)

So let's use the pitch thinking we already have on auto-pilot in agency culture and tackle our DE&I efforts as a team.

 

Final outcome

After the five workshop sessions, each IN agency will have a better understanding of the identified topics. The understanding will be from all 20+ agencies, so it won’t be in a vacuum from one agency's POV. Hopefully the agencies will feel more connected to each other after – for advice, resources, and support. Also each agency will have a benchmark for a plan of attack to get started with all five areas within their agency.

IN FOR 13 will take the findings from each workshop and develop a playbook, for all IN agencies to have.

 
 
 

PREVIOUS: MILESTONE 2

Research & Development

What Comes Next: Milestone 4

Development of Plan