CVS Health’s Tanya Clark Robinson is shaping culture and driving change By Lydia T. Blanco In a society where, as management consultant Peter Drucker said, “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” Tanya Clark Robinson is invested in fostering equitable environments where people can thrive through intentional connections. Clark Robinson, CVS Health’s SVP of Human Resources, joined the company in 2021 after earning a reputation as a trusted advisor in the HR field who transformed organizations with her thoughtful approach. At CVS Health, she acts as the senior talent partner to C-suite leaders and ..read more

Stay Open to Unexpected Opportunities Cisco Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer Gloria Goins wanted to be a lawyer from the time she was six. She also aspired to become a judge. She’d achieved the first goal and was working toward the second when her father became terminally ill, so to stay nearby, she took a position in diversity, equity, and inclusion with Cingular Wireless. She went on to create the company’s first DEI program, and since then has held DEI leadership positions at such organizations as Amazon, Bon Secours health system, and The Home Depot. “If you were to have ..read more

As founder and CEO of luxury athletic-wear company Alala, Denise Lee has built a multi-million-dollar business By Pat Olsen Denise Lee funded her company at age 31 with help from friends and family. Finding success producing athleisure apparel that is at once stylish, comfortable, and high performance was a high bar for a new fashion brand, yet Lee accomplished that masterfully with a small, all-female staff. A few years after launching the company in 2014, she shifted the brand heavily to e-commerce during the pandemic, boosting its meteoric rise and its ability to attract celebrities an ..read more

Looking for a clear pathway to an inclusive and equitable culture? Cultivate and support the work of allies and advocates within your organization. By Carolyn M. Brown Allyship and advocacy are related but different—the former works on the individual level, the latter on the organizational—but both require action and accountability to be effective, says Amber Cabral, D&I consultant and author of Allies and Advocates (Wiley, 2020). Allies support individuals who encounter bias or discrimination because of their marginalized status in the organization. Advocates, on the other hand, look beyo ..read more

Amazon’s Candi Castleberry is on a mission to leverage machine learning to build inclusive products and experiences at Amazon—and beyond by Jackie Krentzman Imagine you are charged with packaging an Echo Frames device to ship to customers worldwide. How do you ensure that those who might be visually impaired have an accessible experience from the moment they open the package? This is a small example of the very large problem that Amazon’s Candi Castleberry is working to solve. Castleberry, the company’s vice president of Inclusive eXperiences and Technology (formerly G ..read more

Etc. Happiness at work is not only influenced by what you do but where you live. That’s according to a new study that compares how working women from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia view their professional lives. Human resources platform HiBob surveyed 3,000 professional women —1,000 each in the US, the UK, and Australia—to get their thoughts on the work environment and their ability to succeed. While most professional women in the US—86 percent—feel confident in their performance at work, they trail behind the 92 percent of women in the UK who feel confident in their perf ..read more

DW Hot List Whether you’re back in the office or have eased into a hybrid schedule, your work wardrobe could probably use a rethink. We scoured the runways to identify pieces to get you fashion ready for spring. Oversized suits and blazers A spin-off of the winter’s oversized coat trend, the latest suits and blazers aren’t exactly sleek and snug. Think big: oversized blazers can be paired with long skirts, capris, or wide-legged denim. Calming shades of blue The sky’s the limit this season: sky blue has been dominating fashion runways across the world, whether in casual wear, elegant attire, o ..read more

Anatomy of … Using ChatGPT for Business Correspondence No matter what you think about artificial intelligence, it’s here to stay. ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot, creates text that can be used to craft business communications and, in the process, save you time. While you shouldn’t look for it to give you Pulitzer-worthy prose, ChatGPT is helpful when it provides a first draft that you can then edit to fit your needs. Here are four ways you can use ChatGPT to automate day-to-day writing tasks. 1. Use it to craft an email. You provide the subject of the email and a couple of sentences with the gi ..read more

By Pam Pryor Grace Upon graduating from college with a BA degree in Psychology, I couldn’t get a job without a secondary degree, so I went off to business school to obtain my MBA. Joining the workforce in corporate America – but not being a member of the “good old boys club” – presented its own challenges in the world of manufacturing and textiles. Being the ONLY minority and often the ONLY female in meetings meant my words needed validation by a colleague of the other gender and most certainly the majority persuasion. And this was in the early 80s, well after the civil rights struggles of the ..read more

Dear DW, Is it too casual to use texting language in emails, Slack, or Teams, or are there times when it is appropriate? Signed, Inclined to Text  Dear Inclined, When people text, there is often a familiarity within the conversation that isn’t typically found in workplace emails. In a text, you’re more likely to use abbreviations, emojis, and even slang. So should you bring that level of familiarity over to your business communications? Well, it depends. Every organization is different, so when thinking about workplace communication norms, it’s important to have a sense of the company’s ..read more