our commitment to equity

Equity is not just a value, it is a way of working.

Our team recognizes that equity, diversity, and inclusion are important and distinct concepts that apply not only to the values we hold but also to how we do our work.  Search firms play an important role in diversifying the leadership of organizations effecting social change.  Our experience tells us that when organizations find the right talent, it results in the kind of impact that we all want to see in the world.  We do not believe in treating people like commodities, but rather as partners in a collective effort. This means we must be able to articulate not only what diversity means to our clients, but also why it is directly relevant to the fulfillment of their missions.  

Diversity is a group characteristic, not an individual one.  We engage with our clients from the beginning of each search about what kind of diversity - of background, perspective, lived experience, and otherwise - is meaningful to their teams and to the communities they serve.  From that starting point, we can build a search strategy together that is both intentional about diversifying perspectives and tied directly to desired impact.  

Inclusion is about a lot more than simply ensuring all applications are considered.  As we build our outreach strategy our seasoned team of researchers actively ensures that we tap not only the "usual suspects" among the recognized leadership of a field, but also the emerging leaders, community influencers, and those with valuable skills and perspectives that may be transferable across function or content area.  This broadens our reach for candidates and nominations to include top flight talent that might not otherwise get the call.  

Equity comes into play particularly during our interview process.  We ensure that deep biographical interviews set our candidates' professional skills and career transitions into context, and also help our clients prepare to ask questions that are sensitive to a candidate's career journey while soliciting clear and fair information relevant to the job at hand.   When our clients say "I'll know it when I see it" it can suggest they've seen it before, which can be an unconscious barrier for candidates who would be a "first" for an organization.  We help clients consider both the important evidence of a skill set and the important intangibles of fit while maintaining a commitment to equity throughout the decisionmaking process.