Speaker: Randy Irving, Nutrien
What have you enjoyed most about your membership in the DEI Board?
Randy Irving: First, I just would like to thank you for the opportunity to share my testimonial about my time being involved with the DEI Board. I have really enjoyed being able to be a part of this fellowship and community with other strategic inclusion professionals. It really has given us an opportunity to be a sounding board for one another, to be a support group to one another. To be able to benchmark, brainstorm, and share ideas as we navigate through all of these different strategies, and priorities, and situations, and issues that we all find ourselves leading organizations through. It's really great to be able to have other ED&I professionals that are going through the same challenges and struggles that you're going through in large organizations. So just to be a part of this community and be able to share in a very candid and safe environment has been invaluable, and I really enjoyed the conversations. They've really been enriching. I've taken a lot of the learnings and taken them back to our organization. To be able to get some of those some of that feedback and some of that sharing in real time as things are going on has been just great. So I'm really excited about the work that we've done and excited about the work that we'll do going forward as a Board.
Could you describe a time when the community helped you?
Randy Irving: There's a very recent time when the Board as a community has really been able to help me as an ED&I professional with the Dobbs decision overturning Roe versus Wade a few weeks ago. In real time, they held the emergency session at two o'clock. I believe it was on that Friday evening, and I was able to take the information that we talked through and share with my Chief HR Officer around what some other organizations were doing. And from that, I was able to pull together our crisis communications team, and be able to lead and give some insight into what other organizations are doing, and help us be able to craft our internal direction very quickly. And to be able to do so confidently after hearing what other organizations were doing. So that's a real live, real-time opportunity or a situation where this community was invaluable in being able to pull us together so quickly, and for everybody to share what they were doing, what they weren't doing, and why, was just very helpful and really instrumental in me being able to move quickly and lead our organization in that effort.
What sets the DEI Board apart?
Randy Irving: I think one of the things that -- there are several things that sets the DEI Board apart. One, I think the level of membership and the level of people from different organizations is one of the things that sets it apart. I think, secondly, the leadership and the organization of the forum sets it apart. I think Jordana and the team, they do a really great job of putting together meaningful sessions very quickly, depending on the climate and depending on what's going on. And then also, I think most importantly, is the discretion of it. I think everyone feels like it is a safe place to be able to share what is and what isn't working. To be able to share their concerns and hopes in these efforts and really feeling like they have a community of people that they can trust and share things with. I think those are some of the key things that sets the DEI Board apart, and some of the reasons why I find it so instrumental.
