Connie Steele I Future of Work Expert

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Ep. 120 - The Future of Work, Life, & Inclusion - with Giselle Mota

Connie Steele
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Giselle Mota is a futurist and thought leader focused on enabling inclusion as it relates to product design, the future of work, and all things emerging tech, including web3 and the metaverse. Giselle is the Chief of Product Inclusion at ADP, a role that was created specifically so she could bring her background and perspective to impact the full range of ADP’s products.

As the Chief of Product Inclusion at ADP, she leads DE&I throughout the 200+ product portfolio, defining strategy and supporting product capabilities to ensure the organization designs with an inclusive mindset. This mission towards greater inclusivity comes from her own experiences and identity, and she channels this passion through projects outside of her role at ADP. 

Being Your Whole Self

When I talk about bringing your whole self to work, and really bringing your whole self to every aspect of your life, I’m talking about people like Giselle Mota.

She has worked in academia, management consulting, software, and services. She has developed expertise in artificial intelligence, automation, data analytics, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

And the key to her success in all of that has come from her desire and ability to integrate all of these facets of herself — her whole identity as well as her full range of skills, experiences, roles, and interests — to positively impact the world.

Her experience understanding the importance of inclusion dates back to her childhood. Giselle is the child of immigrants from the Dominican Republic. She suffers from dyslexia, an unseen disability that forced her to learn in different ways. As an Afro-Latina growing up in a lower socioeconomic neighborhood, Giselle was bused to a school that was predominantly white. This was one of her first experiences knowing what it feels like to be “othered” and seen as different. 

Throughout this journey, Giselle has developed an acute awareness and understanding of what it means to be both excluded and represented. That’s why she dedicates so much of her time and career to supporting change and inclusion, particularly figuring out how to solve for diversity, equity, and inclusion through the lens of technology and tools, not just policies, practices, and change management.

She wants all voices to be heard because there is richness in variety and diversity.

The Future of Inclusion

“When I looked at what was happening in the world, I took a very reflective and introspective pause and asked myself: How am I using my time? What am I putting out into the world? Using my skills, using my qualifications, using all this information that I have?” —Giselle Mota

In the future of work, we can provide a seat at the table for everyone, and that doesn’t have to be at the expense of anyone.

This needs to be a key part of an equitable future of work. And Giselle really walks the walk here, striving to be a voice for those who are underrepresented and regularly excluded in the workforce because she knows how transformative being given a seat at the table can be.

Giselle’s passion and drive to do this work led to ADP creating a new role specifically for her: Chief of Product Inclusion. Her charge is to make sure their products “help organizations be more inclusive, but that we're also being inclusive of all types of people that use our product.” The goal is to create technologies that allow organizations to meet people where they’re at.

And her passion and impact doesn’t stop there. She also started the NFTY Collective to ensure that people with disabilities are included and represented in Web3 and the metaverse. Again, trying to use technology to meet and include people where they already are. This is where she continues to build upon her own career mashup.

The Future of Work & Life

Diversity, equity, and inclusion have become buzz terms that people often associate with some kind of political stance. In Giselle’s view, however, DE&I is more about ensuring that we’re tapping into the diversity of our collective experiences than it is about just ensuring traditionally underrepresented voices are heard. 

As Giselle says, “People are nuanced. We have innate diversity…Even someone who finds themselves not very diverse is diverse because you can have a disability, you can be a caregiver, you can be over a certain age, you can be a veteran. There’s so many different things that make us who we are.” 

And The Future of Work is about people, so it’s critical we include ALL kinds of people at the table as we shape the future. One way to get there is to leverage technology, like the adaptive technologies that Giselle helps create, to support our efforts in meeting people where they are at so we can help them get to where they want to be. 

As Giselle shared in this episode, there has been a global societal reckoning and people have changed the way that they see life. You can be your full self and still do amazing work, and the two are not mutually exclusive. 

And it’s encouraging that the world is starting to understand, little by little, that there's such value and richness in diversity, at both an individual and organizational level.

But the next step is that leaders need to start realizing the gift of inclusion, what that brings, how it makes you better, how it makes your organization better — and ultimately, yes, how genuine inclusiveness helps the bottom line.

Definition of success

  • When Giselle started her career, success was a constant quest to climb some imaginary ladder, constantly comparing how high she climbed relative to others. 

  • Today, success looks a little different. The only standard she’s trying to live up to now is whether she did her best, felt her best, and created a positive impact. It’s about giving your best, but not to the point of exhaustion.

Best Career Advice

  • Remember to pause. 

  • You don’t have to do so much to impress others

Key Takeaways

  • No matter what you build for your end customer, it still comes down to the people who are driving the development. So be mindful of the people who are at the table. 

  • Leaders need to start realizing the gift of inclusion, what that brings, how it makes you and your organization better, and ultimately how it helps the bottom line. 

  • You can be your full self and still do amazing work. The two are not mutually exclusive.

  • When people can be their best self, you’ve created a workplace environment where employees will put out their best work and ultimately want to stay. That’s the culture change that many organizations need.

  • True inclusion is about thinking about everyone because there's so many different things that make us who we are. 

  • The power of adaptive learning enables us to understand and listen to where people are at and where they want to be.

    • The future of adaptive technology can bridge the gap in many ways to help people even operationalize the best course of action in career planning.

    • It’s helping individuals as well as leaders/managers spot the important trends that otherwise would be difficult to truly understand. 

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Resources

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