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** Business Book Awards 2023 Finalist **
‘Amazing book: Clever, insightful, relevant, and actionable.’ Dave Ulrich
If you find discussions of inequality painful, aggravating, exhausting, or even scary, it’s time to explore the elephant.
Growing the Elephant is the story of Advantage - Earned and Unearned. Earned Advantage is the part of the Elephant we know. Work hard – get rewarded; form relationships – get opportunities. But while anyone can earn Advantage, some have more opportunity than others. That’s the story of Unearned Advantage.
Unearned Advantage is the part of the Elephant we avoid. It is so hard to talk or even think about that those with it ignore or deny it while those without it are exhausted or incensed by it.
Growing the Elephant is for anyone working to increase innovation, performance, and inclusion by building practices and mindset to meet and stay with what's difficult. It is for leaders and contributors at any level and those who help them build and sustain diversity, equity and inclusion.
A seasoned human resources executive, CHRIS ALTIZER, MBA, MA consults and coaches executives and lectures on business, management. and inclusive leadership. He has led teams and worked with senior leaders across industries around the globe. His research and work have been published in journals and covered by Forbes Magazine. Chris practices and teaches mindfulness, yoga, and martial arts.
GLORIA JOHNSON-CUSACK, MPA, is a servant leader and changemaker who consults to leadership teams and boards of public and private foundations committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in education, financial security, and health. She lectures at Columbia University and serves as Board Chair of the Firelight Foundation supporting communities in Africa. She holds degrees from American University and Columbia University.
The advantages of leveraging diversity through inclusion have been widely recognized, if not often successfully reaped, for decades. Why is it that now we are all so focus on this topic. Amazingly there are still a lot of people who choose to ignore this, while there are ways to ensure you are not seen as disrespectful. Chris Altizer and Gloria Johnson-Cusack not only provide explanation to recognize diversity but also use it through true life examples
A seasoned human resources executive, CHRIS ALTIZER, MBA, MA consults and coaches executives and lectures on business, management. and inclusive leadership. He has led teams and worked with senior leaders across industries around the globe. His research and work have been published in journals and covered by Forbes Magazine. Chris practices and teaches mindfulness, yoga, and martial arts.
GLORIA JOHNSON-CUSACK, MPA, is a servant leader and changemaker who consults to leadership teams and boards of public and private foundations committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in education, financial security, and health. She lectures at Columbia University and serves as Board Chair of the Firelight Foundation supporting communities in Africa. She holds degrees from American University and Columbia University.
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Foreword
- Prologue
- A word from the authors
- A word to leaders
- Introduction: Introducing the elephant
- Growing the Elephant – our approach and intent
- Some terms and the team
- Chapter 1: Recognizing advantage
- Through the eyes of…
- Recognizing advantage – what am I looking at?
- The unearned opportunities for earned advantage – unearned advantage
- STOP – begin to see the elephant
- Recognizing the entire elephant
- The discomfort of recognizing unearned advantage
- Chapter summary
- Chapter 2: Working with advantage – the mindset
- The team explores Advantage Mindset – fixed or growth?
- Alvin explores intentions
- The GAM of where you’re from
- Yvonne’s intention – self-compassion (and Robert’s, too)
- Chapter summary
- Chapter 3: Growing earned advantage
- Unconscious biases – seriously uncomfortable…
- A little big thing – earning the benefit of the doubt
- Claiming more baggage – unpacking gender personal pronouns
- Literally harder to carry – disability
- Grow the good – feel the real
- Watering the seeds of earned advantage – RAIN
- Increasing awareness – three kinds
- Self-on-other awareness – a cycle
- GAM leadership – and followership
- Chapter summary
- Chapter 4: Tusks, trumpets, legs, and other tails
- Time to apply the practice
- Chapter 5: What next?
- Growing earned advantage – the fertilizer of courage
- Final thoughts
- Epilogue
- Resources
- Audio recordings
- How to eat an elephant? A plan for one bite at a time…
- Dynamics of advantage
- Unconscious biases – the Implicit Association Test
- Dimensions of power
- Additional reading
- Glossary
- Concepts
- Practices
- About the authors
- Acknowledgements
- Index