![]() ![]() Looking back, Jonathan said he’s most proud of building relationships and trust between organizations and between people. He’s glad that today we see more inclusive workplaces where people understand the business case for diversity and now want to weave DE&I into the fabric of their companies, look at all functions through a DE&I lens and modify policies and procedures to fix problems. on your team.” Or he would show them the size of the LatinX market and demonstrate the opportunities that they were missing by not embracing DE&I initiatives. when you have no one from outside the U.S. Jonathan and his colleagues could point to data about building high-performance teams and how diversity can help them meet their business goals.įor example, because a high percentage of Microsoft customers were international, he would ask, “How do you build a product for people outside the U.S. In early days, to get buy-in it meant creating a business case for many managers who “didn’t get it” and thought that DE&I was all about risk management. More importantly, the index was used across multiple organizations to measure progress over time and get critical buy-in from executives inside and outside of the company. And the senior HR person at the time, her name was Andrea Gordon. He also helped develop an early way for the data-driven company to examine the success of diversity initiatives. Jonathan went on to work for the Natural Language Group (NLG) developing the speller and the grammar checker across five different languages, to the Trustworthy Computing group running the Geopolitical Intelligence team, where he managed multicultural issues around the world. “He recruited me and that really started my career in DE&I,” he said about his first role as a diversity strategist for the Sales and Support Group (SSG), overseeing diversity initiatives for all sales and support offices throughout the U.S. Jesse Jackson at Mount Zion Church and a newspaper writeup that featured a picture of the two shaking hands caught the eye of Randy Massengale, Microsoft’s first head of diversity. The model he created was replicated in other cities throughout the Pacific Northwest, and his work gained him some notoriety. “I basically facilitated that environment to create a culture of trust and sharing,” the Toronto native said. The individuals made connections during conversations before and after the “business” portion of the gathering. And those stereotypes started breaking down.” “So, they started spending time in each other’s homes, if you will. And the HR folks, they were struggling to find candidates,” Jonathan recalled. “We literally put the chairs in a circle and each person would go around and introduce themselves and talk about the mission of their particular organization and what they did and what they needed and their clients. ![]() Jonathan rotated the location for each meeting so that individuals would have to cross Lake Washington, which separated the communities, and visit each other’s organizations and the companies. The task force brought employers from the Eastside together with leaders of Seattle-based organizations who were trying to help people find jobs. To solve his clients’ problem, Jonathan started an Eastside Diversity Task Force to start fostering trust among disparate groups of people who needed each other. He stepped up to that challenge, and he’s been helping facilitate diversity and inclusion efforts ever since - first at Volt, then nearly 20 years at Microsoft, Zulily, Amazon, various task forces, and now with his own firm, Global Diversity Partners. “So, we’re looking at you to help drive that pipeline,” one client told Jonathan. ![]() They also harbored strong stereotypes that the Eastside was predominantly white, whereas Seattle was a more diverse melting pot.Īt the time, Jonathan Stutz was a sales rep for Volt Workforce Solutions, which powered companies with temporary staff who often became full-time employees. Jonathan’s Eastside clients talked to him about the challenge of finding workers - especially Black and LatinX employees. The Eastside communities - Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Issaquah - housed some of the region’s burgeoning companies, including Microsoft’s headquarters. In the early ‘90s, many companies in the Greater Seattle area’s “Eastside” were struggling to find a diverse talent pool. Here, Jonathan poses with former President Barack Obama. Now in “soft retirement,” he’s striving to make an even bigger difference at the community level. ![]() Microsoft alumnus Jonathan Stutz has spent his whole career building trust to create inclusive workplaces. Jonathan Stutz goes beyond the business case for diversity ![]()
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