The 3 L’s

> LISTEN: Seek out conversations about race, history and the experiences of people of color.

> LEARN: Commit to learning about the history of institutional and systemic bias with the community and understand their solutions.

> LOVE: Take loving, informed action centering repair and equity.

“That’s all a result of no diversity in planning the products,” White continued. “Nobody in the meeting understood the community and people walked out dissatisfied.”

Building More Inclusivity

What’s the best way to learn about different cultures? Start with the people working in your own office. It’s possible there may not be many ethnic minorities, women, or LGBTQ+ colleagues, but if there are, befriend them, ask questions, and honestly try to get to know them. This is why inclusivity matters. If you need to go out of your way to meet people from different cultural backgrounds, then you’re living and working in a bubble and that’s dangerous for someone in the mortgage industry.

Listen to your colleagues, employees, friends, or neighbors who are currently living in that world. If companies understand the value of listening, then they can understand the value of inclusion.

culture that may or may not be inclusive. Ensure that your culture, whatever it may be, is inclusive to everyone. Don’t let talented players walk out your door because they feel like they don’t fit in.

As Thomspons says, office and work culture is a major determining factor on whether diverse talents choose to stay in a company or not. Even Thompson himself, a personable and extroverted man, had trouble fitting in at some of the companies he worked for because he’s Black, which is why NAMMBA was founded.

“At the end of the day, NAMMBA was started because I didn’t feel included,” Thompson said. “The initial genesis of the founding of NAMMBA was just to provide an environment where people could come in and connect and engage and build relationships. And, and we’ve held true to the essence of that spirit, which really makes us different.”

Lazu is the woman CEOs call to fix their

In an all-male company that just recruited females into the workplace, the men begin to resent the fact their jokes have to change. They need to be more sensitive to the female workers. They have to do after-work activities that wouldn’t exclude the women. Even though company culture may not change that much, the resentment is still there.

If your employees or colleagues don’t have a positive attitude about being inclusive, then it becomes the boss’s job to make it work.

“Inclusivity, if it’s not fun, you’re not doing it right,” Lazu said. “That means making friends, right? That means being curious about the new people that are coming in. That means learning about new cultures and having fun things to do.”

Lazu says to leave behind those people dragging their feet, and build an inclusive culture without them. Forcing them to come along will only frustrate and stall progress for the rest of the group that wants to learn.

“I think the way you make it fun is, you know, you have games and actual in-person experiences,” Lazu said. “I think training is counterintuitive to building inclusion. Who wants to be trained on how to be nice to someone, right? So, I think you want to move from training to more of an educational experience, peer-to-peer learning.”

Anyone can implement Lazu’s advice and methodology into their workplace to promote more inclusivity. One methodology in particular is to keep the three L’s in mind: Listen, Learn and Love.