Can you walk us through the established history of TBM And Associates?

TBM was never a dream or a goal; however, but when I look back to the origins of our work, it seemed destined to be formed. I was the Vice President for a D&I Consulting firm whose mission was to eliminate oppression through inclusive leadership and supporting C Suite leaders trusting not only what we were doing but what we stood for.

Meanwhile, our own company’s founders behind the scenes were in complete incongruence with our mission. It was an excellent laboratory on the psychology of power, oppression, complicity and was the catalyst to TBM being born.

This is an incredible story of a team’s courage that will be shared when it can be given the credit it deserves. Until then, the short answer is that in 2013, TBM was bom on a single principle: this work necessitates personal accountability to practice what we preach.

TBM has four team members integral to its founding and each remarkable in their 20 year careers leading DEI: Christopher Wilson, Dr. Jorge Melendez, Gail Herring, and Glenn Sanders and any combination of this group together is awesome to be part of and fun.

We work with high-profile clients and executives in publicly traded and privately held global corporations across the entire spectrum of DEI, leadership development and organizational change.

Following ten years of no marketing, referral only business, and nondisclosure of clients, TBM is defying the odds and rules through the substance of our work.

What is the vision and mission statement of the company? How do the company’s offerings align with its values and goals?

Our research discovered the root cause of DEI’s failure introducing 5 biases causing the DEI Death Zone™ that draws analogy to climbers peril or survival through Mt. Everest’s most dangerous passage to reach its summit. We also discovered 5 advocacy attributes as the bias blockers and prerequisites for DEI’s ascent. The failure or success of DEI’s future is predicated upon these 5×5 root causes. More can be read in the DEI Leadership Imperative Report on our website.

Therefore, our mission is to shine light on the path that will empower every organization to ascend its aspirational peak of diversity, equity, and inclusion by removing the inclement conditions of inequity, oppression, and bias.

Our vision is that every individual will experience an environment that embraces and inspires their highest and truest spirit of inclusive leadership.

Any leadership team who are in sincere pursuit of achieving its DEI summit and claim they don’t have the budget, we remove that barrier in a reasonable way because DEI’s progress is far more important than to stand back and let ineffective practices continue. This places the leadership’s commitment to the true test.

There are a lot of D&I Consulting firms, how does a company like yours compete in the marketplace?

87% or 1.24 billion employees across 142 countries are disengaged, costing the global economy $7.8 trillion even though the global spend for Leadership Development is $360B annually. We have a leadership problem and a leadership imperative. DEI is not failing. What is failing are the decisions leaders are making to prevent DEI from advancing that allows bias, inequity, and oppression to prevail. That is a really important distinction in reframing the problem.

So we spent an enormous of time to analyze every linear and circular path that a DEI effort follows to determine precisely where and how it adds value and where it stops.

We examined these paths to our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Framework Success Model and combined with our research and practitioner observations, it became really clear how much education is needed across DEI.

There is an expansive gap between understanding of what DEI practices are intended to do comparative to the knowledge necessary to really ensure that each D, E, and I are being addressed in the way that makes substantiated difference.

We believe every 21st Century leader needs to build their DEI Intelligence™ and iLQ™ which is akin to Emotional Intelligence and EQ, equating to the same necessity for every leader to excel.

We develop their DEI Intelligence™ and iLQ™ through our 5C model which is expanding Comfort, elevating Confidence, strengthening Competence, improving Congruence, and cultivating Credibility across Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion amongst the 4 Sentiments of DEI who feel Faulted, Inspired, Subdued, or Failed by DEI. This is a major differentiation in our training.

Our 4 DEI SENTIMENTS model assesses belonging very different from the market. There are approximately 10-20% at most of a workforce engaged in DEI. This tool identifies how to improve this and what I have seen become the most helpful and important educational tool for DEI.

What are your most popular offerings that are having the greatest impact?

Our Executive DEI Masterclass is a 1- day blended learning and strategy session that Executive Teams and D&I Committees attend to unpack the concepts I’ve mentioned so they can strategize what this means for their DEI Strategy moving forward. This class which has been described as the most cerebral, thought provoking learning experience in this 1-day course than any other training they attended. We talk about real things that were always off limits in the past on both sides.

The Masterclass is actually part of our 5×5 DEI Plan having major impact. It’s 5 very simple steps that any company of any size, at any stage of their DEI initiative can and should initiate. We assess the 5 biases with the 5 advocacy attributes which can be done before, during, or after the Masterclass so there is tremendous flexibility. Teams seem to be most comfortable discussing the 5×5 during the class and completing the assessment afterwards.

Following this, their 5C Scorecard learning plan and their DEI ascension strategy is agreed upon. That completes the 5×5 DEI Plan and we are set.

This sounds complex but we made the implementation super easy where the complex work gets done inside those five steps. It’s the most substantive work I’ve seen done in DEI in my entire career. They grow as a person, as a team, and the entire organization is impacted. Pretty powerful.

What would be the top three goals for TBM And Associates in the coming years?

We have 3 really big goals we want to achieve in 5 years for DEI.

To change how corporations are being awarded as the Top Companies for DEI. This has to change to incentivize companies to do the right work. We need publications like Diversity Inc. and similar ones to be open to meeting and really talking with us.

To bring DEI Intelligence™ and iLQ™ to every executive team leading DEI where they commit to increasing their comfort, confidence, competence, congruence, and credibility with DEI. We want to raise this to the same recognition of Emotional Intelligence and EQ.

And lastly, we want to partner with 25 executive teams interested in adopting the DEI SUMMIT Strategy™ which are 7 new initiatives for diversity, equity, and inclusion to be a reality. They will become DEI’s new best practices and contribute to new research. There is a caveat though. The 5×5 DEI Plan is the mandatory prerequisite though, otherwise the 5 biases will paralyze their ascent. So, that summit strategy is our next big goal but that comes later. There is plenty of work to do on all the things we just talked about (laughing).

Being a market leader in this industry, what would you like to advise aspirants in DE&I seeking to make a mark and emerge as thought leaders in the future?

Ask the questions that aren’t being asked and in the least obvious places. These are where breakthroughs happen and new thought leadership emerges.

You have to remain insatiably dissatisfied with the status quo and be relentless in your pursuit for a better future but, possess unwavering patience with people because ‘complexity’ is inextricably intertwined with the pace of change which means receptivity to your concepts takes way more time. But, never give up on your vision and faith that creates a better future for all because eventually the early adopters come on board and the ripple effect has begun…

Website : www.drtiffanybrandreth.com

Email : [email protected]