Coming Out Stories: Connecting All Employees to the LGBTQ Experience - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Coming Out Stories: Connecting All Employees to the LGBTQ Experience

October 2019

ALTRIA GROUP

Our Family of Companies

Altria is a Fortune 200 company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia with nearly 8,000 employees across the country. Our companies – which have been the undisputed market leaders in the U.S. tobacco industry for decades – include some of the most enduring names in American business.

ALTRIA’S DIVERSITY & INCLUSION JOURNEY…

LEADER-LED ACCOUNTABILITY EMPLOYEE RESOURCE GROUPS D&I PLANS

Resistance.

IN THE BEGINNING…

LEAD WITH…

Data.

END WITH…

Empathy.

PERSONAL CONNECTIONS MATTER…

70%

Of LGBTQ individuals recognize that knowing someone who is LGBTQ helps a lot in making society more accepting of LGBTQ individual.

BUT NO ONE HAS ENOUGH LGBTQ EMPLOYEES TO GO AROUND…

15%

Of Americans identify as LGBTQ* and about half choose not to be

• ut at work**

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BUILD A HUMAN CONNECTION THROUGH STORY TELLING…

…stories are the one sure way I know to touch the heart and change the world

• Dorothy Allison, American author

“For many years I felt alone and feared judgement in my feelings of being gay in the workplace. I have been with the Company for 21 years and my story mirrors Mary’s story. My goal is to to be be more op

• pen ab

about mys yself to to ot

• thers wit

ithin th the Company and these stories assisted with this revelation.”

• New MOSAIC Member

AND IT WORKS…

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BUT…HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT MAKING A BOOK

• 1. Find the stories

2.Support your authors in telling them 3.Supplementing with supporting materials 4.Design and produce your book

• 5. And then…Distribute it

BEFORE YOU BEGIN KNOW YOUR ROLE MATTERS…

When people give you their stories it is an act

• f hope and trust.

Receive them with love.

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FINDING PHASE: YOUR TEAM

Anthropologists

FINDING PHASE: YOUR AUTHORS

Humans

who want to be seen…but don’t know yet the power of their story

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GREAT STORIES ARE EVERYWHERE…TALK…LISTEN…

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…AND ASK

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START NOW: WHAT STORIES DO YOU ALREADY KNOW?

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SUPPORTING PHASE: YOUR TEAM

Honored recipients of a great gift …and Coach, Cheerleader, gentle Editor Thank you! How can I help?

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SUPPORTING PHASE: YOUR AUTHORS

Nervous Humans

…who have probably never done this before

You want to hear from me? I am not a writer!

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STORY COLLECTION IS ALL ABOUT YOUR AUTHORS

Reinforce their story matters Let them know editing support is available if they want it Check in to see what they need Offer to talk it through with them if they seem stuck Authors own their

• wn story. They have

a right to publish it exactly as is or choose to receive more than just copy edits It is their voice – any edits should preserve their voice Guarantees Support

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START NOW: WHO DO YOU WANT ON YOUR TEAM?

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SUPPLEMENTING, DESIGNING AND ORGANIZING: YOUR TEAM Hercules

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SUPPLEMENTING, ORGANIZING AND DESIGNING: YOUR READERS

…and could be at any point along the Spectrum of Support

Curious Humans

…who want to learn more

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WHAT DOES YOUR READER NEED TO ROUND OUT THEIR

EXPERIENCE?

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START NOW: WHAT EXISTING MATERIAL YOU WISH MORE COULD SEE?

CONTENT ORGANIZATION CAN PROVIDE A ROAD MAP FOR READERS

COMING OUT STORIES VOL 3 ORGANIZATION EXAMPLES

Surprise Addition: Gender Expectations

Mother with Drag Queen Son story Editor perspective Transgender employee story The Basics of Drag additional information Intersectionality

• Definition
• Example
• Quote

Set the stage Set the stage Dig Deeper

2019 Theme: Intersectionality

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DESIGN TIPS FROM APRIL

• Grammar: Everyone needs a bit of grammar help. Make sure you copy edit the book for grammar,

punctuation and basic understanding. Too many errors make it hard to hear.

• Team: Do you have a graphic designer who wants to help? Do you know someone who uses Publisher or

InDesign who wants to help? Does it make sense to get an external resource if needed?

• Opening Message: Is there an opening message that can help a person at tolerance or acceptance begin

in a helpful frame of mind? - What if it were a senior leader?

• General Tip: The reverse side of the cover and the reverse side of the back is blank
• Simple and organized. If its too varied it makes it hard for people to read and remember it.
• Carefully consider your fonts. Legibility and readability are the most important things. Don’t be

seduced by curly cue fonts! (For example Comic Sans makes your content feel less weighty. It is good for kindergarten not adults.)

• The rainbow flag is a wonderful symbol….but filling the doc with rainbow colors is overload. Make

sure your font scheme is simple and clearly readable when printed (not yellow).

• Use plenty of pictures and call out boxes to break up text
• Leverage white space
• If there are reasonable groupings – group them
• Include a Table of Contents

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AND THEN DISTRIBUTE IT EVERYWHERE!

Podcasts Trainings

Events E-Book

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PODCASTING TIPS FROM KATE

Be Prepared!

• Read their story in advance
• Think about what direction you want the interview to go in
• Develop 5 questions

Help your reader get more comfortable

• Send them a past Podcast if you have some (let’s them get familiar with how they flow)
• Share the 5 questions in advance
• Let them know they can edit, rerecord and if they stumble you will edit that right out
• Start out by letting them read their story (it’s easy and gets them used to the mic, etc)
• Let them hear and approve the final version before publishing it

Keep it short! 10 minutes or under is best. Technical Advice: You may already have internal resources who creates video or audio and they may be willing to help you (check with Internal Communications). If not you can get apps for creating a podcast online. Distribution matters: we stored it on a corporate file sharing structure and shared the link through the Altria intranet, Mosaic newsletters, etc. Surprise Finding: It was usually the Allies who were the most nervous. They want to be respectful of LGBTQ individual they care about and their story often involves a time in their life when they were early in their journey of LGBTQ acceptance. They may be sad and embarrassed by that.

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START NOW: WHAT ARE YOUR DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS?

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THEN SIT BACK AND ENJOY THE RESPONSES

It was amazing! I received so many emails and texts (from [the CEO] and people I hadn’t heard from since I left manufacturing 20 years ago). People even apologized to me for not recognizing it sooner and telling me it was ok. I can honestly say it has been the best thing I’ve done since joining Altria. My only regret is that I waited so long.

• Employee in 2017

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AND DO IT AGAIN NEXT YEAR

I just came out 4 weeks ago and I can honestly say hearing all the stories from others gave me the courage to finally do it.

• Employee at VA Pride Sept 2019

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QUESTIONS?

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ACT NOW: FILL OUT THE SURVEY!

Coming Out Stories: Connecting All Employees to the LGBTQ Experience

THANK YOU