Transcript

>> I mean the reality is that people hire folks that look like them that their comfortable with and so you need to make folks aware of those types of things, so I'm a huge proponent of unconscious bias training, because often it's the case that folks don't even realize that they may be bias toward folks that are like them. I'm a New Yorker so I think all New Yorkers are super cool and I align to those folks who have gone to schools that I've gone to or like the Miami Heat for example, you know what I mean? Like you're just going to be biased toward people that like you and you're comfortable with. So diversity inclusion is not always about this perceived power or racial undertones or negative things, it might just be what you're naturally inclined to do, and a diversity program or one that we're building here is about awakening that and making people more aware of it so that they can create more inclusion of folks that aren't like them, and that would often obviously create more innovation, more creativity and more opportunities to meet those diverse customers that are also not like us. Hi, I'm Latoya Ingram and I'm the Director of Talent Management and Diversity. So I think what's so great about Jet Blue is that diversity is actually not the EEOC stuff here. We've had those compliant processes in place ever since we were a public company, so in creating this diversity platform it was about our internal customer being our crew members, as well as the diverse customers that we are currently serving and that we hope to serve in the future, to kind of create a more holistic strategy if you will to meet their needs.

>> Not everybody wants to get involved in a lot of stuff at work. They kind of want to go to work and leave and from a leadership perspective and a company perspective it really behooves us to keep our crew members engaged and give them different ways to engage in the company and plug in because they stay connected. I've been here for ten years and one of the reasons I'm here is because I can bring my whole self to work and there's a lot of things that keep me interested and engaged in Jet Blue. Hi, I'm Eddie. I work at Jet Blue's system operations center and I'm a member of Jet Pride; Jet Blue's crew member resource group for our GLBT crew members and their allies. Creating resources groups as places for our crew members who identify as GLBT or even their allies to come together is really important to Jet Blue because it takes it at the population that's largely invisible and brings them together and puts a face on them. I sometimes want to talk about my boyfriend or I want to talk about my husband the same way people want to talk about their spouses. I sometimes want to have a picture of that person sitting at my desk. Every corny ice breaker that ever happens in the corporate world says something like, who would you want to be on a desert island with, and all the guys say some hot girl and all the girls are supposed to say some hot guy. Well, I want to say Adam Levine. I want to be able to say that and be comfortable and know that I don't have to butch it up when I come to work, especially in the landscape of the U.S. over the last ten years where marriage equality has come to be for same sex couples. It's really changed the way benefits are administered, the way we bring our whole selves to work, the pictures we choose to display in our cubicles here in our office, everything has changed for GLBT crew members so it's really a natural time to help Jet Blue support our leadership and also support our crew members through all of this change in our country right now.

>> When I got out it was frustrating because you have people they have their own set ideas about what you've done or assumption of what you've done, so when you come out and you're trying to explain things it's such a disconnect between family, between friends, and then trying to go back into the workforce and then find doors being closed on you left and right. I mean, I did everything even the point of going onto the subway and handing out my resumes. Hi, my name is Andrew Williams. I currently work at JFK on the aircraft repositioning team here at Jet Blue. I am a Gulf War vet, loving life, loving the company and loving the culture. A lot of vets feel that you know nobody understands really what I'm going through or they feel that there may be a stigma attached because they've been in combat and they just want to show that yes, I have these skills, I am not quote unquote damaged and I can contribute. We have a program called Vet Connect. What they do is they take new hires, aka what we call baby blues, and pair them up with senior veteran crew members that are vets. And basically the mentorship is for one year and you have somebody you can talk to that can show you the career paths depending on what you want to do and where you want to go in the company, and also help you through all the bumps and the rockiness that may happen along the way, because it is hard to make a transition from a military lifestyle to now civilian lifestyle. The other thing we have is our veteran's resource group that's in Blue. We're actually opening up a USO terminal in T5, so we're a big part of that. We also have a color guard that we've started, which I'm a part of which we decided that this was not something that the company wanted, but something that we decided you know we should have, so for those national holidays or for the bodies of the fallen soldiers that we have a group that will honor them. And it's a wonderful thing because when you see the people's reaction to that and they appreciate it, other veterans, other active duty soldiers and that they can see that yes, Jet Blue has people here for us, it means a great deal.

>> I absolutely would say that Jet Blue has a strong commitment to diversity. We're a young company and so we're getting our footing learning what exactly that's going to mean and when you think of diversity sometimes people just think of diversity from what you see, but diversity is really having different thoughts and views that allows us to bring to the table people who have so many different backgrounds and really make a case for ideas and thoughts that you might not have ever thought of because you're not from that background or you don't experience that culture or you've never been involved in this type of situation. Hi, my name is Icema Gibbs and I'm the Director of Corporate Social Responsibility for Jet Blue. So at Jet Blue dealing with people that have disabilities we could really hide behind regulations but we've decided to come up with something that's a little bit unique and a little bit different. We're looking at a program that we've rolled out this year called Blue Horizons that really goes out to the community, the autism community, and creates a travel experience for them. We bring children who have autism, even adults who have autism, to the airport with their parents or their guardian and we actually simulate the flight experience. We check them in, we work with the TSA, they go through security, they actually get on board an aircraft. It gives our crew members the opportunity to learn about a different population and how to help them when they travel and how to make sure that we are meeting their needs and exceeding their expectations. I think that you can always sit back and hide behind regulation but this gives us an opportunity to really interface with people and take it a little bit further in a way that is really special and meaningful not only to our crew members but to our customers.

>> I hope that we as a company will continue to evolve and to look at all types of diversity and so exploring that with folks and having these honest dialogs I think will help make us better and not shy away from it because it's the uncomfortable elephant that's standing right behind me, so I think it is authentic in that respect.

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1. In beginning of the Jet Blue video, Latoya Ingram says: Im a huge proponent of unconscious bias training, because often its the case that folk dont even realize that they may be biased toward folks that are like them. In the Pipeline video, what additional tools does Pipeline offer organizations to try to identify and cope with unconscious bias in gender discrimination?
2. What evidence do you see in the article that at Jet Blue diversity is seen as a source of competitive advantage? (p 213, Section 8-5b)
3. Are Jet Pride and Vet Connect examples of Individual Strategies or Organizational Strategies at Jet Blue? Explain. (p 214, Section 8-5b (should be 8-5c)
4. It is said that empathy is the engine of innovation. How is this reflected in Jet Blues approach to dealing with people that have disabilities?

7. In discussions of diversity, the concepts of equity (fairness) and inclusion are considered essential elements. Is this consistent with how Jet Blue views its diversity goals?

According to Scott COO of Barcelona Restaurant Group,

were always hiring and were always firing.

the minute you stop looking [to hire] you are falling behind.

Were always culling out the bottom 20%. Theres always somebody better out there than our worst servers.

You hire your way out of your problems

8. How important is management awareness of the supply and demand for labor at the restaurant? (pp200-201, Section 8-2a)
9. What factors (according to Scott) influence the restaurants demand for labor?
10. How does Scott view the external supply of qualified applicants for positions at Barcelona? How important is this to the business model?
11. If the restaurant managers use simple ranking of employees in order to determine the bottom 20%, what concerns would you have with this method? (see p.206-207 Section 8-3b and p.209 end of Section 8-3c)
12. What is your opinion of this process in general?