"I've learned that businesses that invest in ethical, equitable operations are the ones that are best positioned to weather whatever storm comes their way."
Aubrey Blanche is The Mathpath (Math Nerd + Empath), Senior Director of Equitable Design, Product & People at Culture Amp, and a startup investor and advisor. Through all her work, she seeks to question, reimagine, and redesign the systems and practices that surround us to ensure that all people can access equitable opportunities and build a better world. Her work is undergirded by her training in social scientific methods and grounded in the fundamental dignity and value of every person.
Her professional expertise covers a broad range of equitable enterprise operations, from talent lifecycle programs and accessible product development to event design and communications & media. She is the inventor of the balanced teams approach to building proportional representation and a culture of belonging in the workplace, as well as the Balanced Teams Diversity Assessment in the Atlassian Team Playbook. She works to open source these methods for all practitioners and business leaders, and releases thought leadership and tools to create positive change at aubreyblanche.com.
She is an advisor to a variety of groups seeking to build a more just world, including Joonko, Seed & Spark, and On Ramp. She sits on the Board of Directors of PAUSE and Circle of Blue. Her work has been featured in Wired, the Wall Street Journal, the Australian Financial Review, USA Today, Re/Code, First Round Review, and more. She also has previous academic affiliations with Stanford and Northwestern, and an appointment at the Equity by Design Lab at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Despite the accolades listed here, she asks that you engage with her work to judge her competence: traditional proxies of merit and/or capability help reinforce the systems that keep incredible people from the opportunities they deserve.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Aubrey Blanche: My journey has been in some ways unique, but also set me up really well to run The Mathpath. Before becoming a technology executive, I tried my hand at a huge number of things: journalism, academic political science, business development, and human resources. While each of those things don’t seem like they make up a “career”, each of those experiences gave me a skill that I’m now using as an entrepreneur. Now, my company focused on really one thing: equity. We work with organizations to think critically about how equitable their cultures, business operations, and product outcomes are, and help them build better. We design strategies and provide coaching for leaders that want to equip themselves with the skills they need to be successful in a diversifying world that’s increasingly concerned with the human side of work.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Aubrey Blanche: I’ve learned that businesses that invest in ethical, equitable operations are the ones that are best positioned to weather whatever storm comes their way. In SHRM’s latest State of the Workplace Study, it showed that companies with greater diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) investments companies made, the lower their attrition and higher their employee loyalty, among other positive outcomes. And Culture Amp’s–my full-time employer–2022 Workplace DEI Report showed that when companies make material investments in DEI, they see returns in terms of representation, equitable impact of their processes, and the inclusiveness of their culture. It showed that the “secret” was having DEI-supportive policies, having a strategic plan, and gather and using data to drive decisions. Basically: just like. you would treat any other business priority, if you resource it and make a plan, you can drive change.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Aubrey Blanche: I think that companies should be focused more on supporting caregivers in the workplace, which happens to be an issue that disproportionately affects female caregivers. Culture Amp’s research showed that women were significantly more likely than men to report a decrease in their ability to “balance work and personal life” from 2020 and 2021, and caregiving is a key driver of that trend. Despite this need, many companies aren’t even collecting data on the caregiving status of their workforce, or considering caregivers outside the parent-child binary. That’s a huge step forward companies can take to ensure they’re designing their organization for equity.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Aubrey Blanche: Well, the pandemic showed that remote and/or distanced work is without question a “reasonable accommodation”. As the pandemic forced both of my companies to be “remote first”, we’ve found that we’re able to adapt. I bring up the idea of a reasonable accommodation here because of the potential access opportunities this shift creates. It means that we have the potential to bring more disabled, caregiving, etc. folks into companies. That’s increased potential for cross-pollination of ideas and economic opportunity. I’m excited to see this line of thinking begin to permeate companies: that remote-first (or at least remote-friendly) can, if treated intentionally, create new areas of talent opportunity.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Aubrey Blanche: “This is going to take a really, really long time.” I think that a lot of leaders were thinking about this as a 1-year challenge (the pandemic), and we need to be more realistic that this is likely to be the status quo for years to come. We should be planning for long-term increases in employee needs (driven by the impact of increased caregiving, stressful political events, etc.) and building workplaces that are seeking to support full, whole humans at work. Sometimes, that will mean greater flexibility in how a company operates.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Aubrey Blanche: Far too many! I try to get outdoors at least once per day as a self care priority, but I’m probably in front of a screen 10 hours per day? Between my day job and side business, I’m often online communicating with someone about something equity-related. I also rely on my phone to stay connected to my community who live a long way away from me! I do practice some screen-management / life management basics like *not* getting most notifications (almost ever!) to tracking my screen time.
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Aubrey Blanche: I think stories, or n=1 data, is so incredibly important. I find that I often use them when I’m working to get alignment with someone (someone with power), when I’m asking for them to deploy it on behalf of a marginalized person or community. I often describe the broad impact of the change I’m seeking, but also talk about how it impacts *one* person. That’s how you build empathy and connection and motivation to create sustainable change.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Aubrey Blanche: I think one of the biggest challenges that I see for organizations is keeping focus–in a choppy market–on the cultural commitments and investments they’ve made. Research shows us that DEI investments are some of the most cost effective ways to drive employee retention and cost savings for the business. With the side benefits that it’s also the right thing to do. Companies that invest in a specific DEI strategic plan, with measurable goals, anyone can make progress that supports the evolution and growth of the business.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Aubrey Blanche: Right now, I’m learning a ton about sales! I’ve been doing more and more work with the go-to-market functions at Culture Amp as they make big investments in their DEI support for customers, and it’s been a big learning experience for me to be much, much closer to the sales process than I’ve been in in years. I feel like I’m getting a crash course in the structure and practice of sales, which has been very, very cool.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Aubrey Blanche: I definitely do think that there’s some denial happening, and that it stands in the way *a lot*. One of the ways that shows up is that people in power simply aren’t imagining things that are outside of their own experience. Culture Amp’s 2022 Workplace DEI Report showed, for example, that White employees were the least likely to believe that existing processes within their organization were inequitable…and because that’s the group most likely to hold power, it often means that change doesn’t happen. And since we know the connection between DEI investment and retention (thank you SHRM!), we know that DEI investments are fundamentally insurance for the Great Resignation.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Aubrey Blanche: Oh my gosh, I wish I were more process oriented. I think of myself as a bit of a designer and math person, so building and measuring impact are my sweet spots. Building a process? I’d love to partner, but it’s not my skill set. Perhaps that’s something I need to assign myself for some growth!
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Aubrey Blanche: Success for me this year is about really honing my ability to connect what I’m envisioning with the actions I’m taking to get there. We’re in a really special moment for the business community where the opportunity to do things differently, to do things in a more intentional and human way, and I want to make sure I’m best positioned to support with that wave of change.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Aubrey Blanche for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Aubrey Blanche or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
