Q&A with Damien Hooper-Campbell, Chief Diversity Officer at Zoom

Damien Hooper-Campbell is the Chief Diversity Officer at Zoom, a leader in modern enterprise video communications. Damien worked at Goldman Sachs from 2011 to 2014 in the firm's HCM Division in New York.

Your experiences in finance, non-profit, hospitality, education, influential companies such as the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, Goldman Sachs, Harvard Business School, Google, Uber, eBay and now Zoom have shaped the way you view Diversity and Inclusion (D&I). What is a common thread that you have noticed regarding this topic throughout your career thus far?
Damien: There are a few common threads. For starters, this is difficult, nuanced work. Many have a misconception that this is “warm and fuzzy” work, and while you might feel amazing when you can realize impact in D&I, this work is extremely complex, at times ambiguous and often misunderstood. All of that said, when executed thoughtfully and within an organization that is truly committed to going beyond the surface level aspects of D&I, I’ve found this work to be some of the most rewarding out there – from both the people and business value standpoints.

I’ve also found a common thread of a need for D&I to be approached via the head and the heart. Especially in data-driven organizations, there is a heavy focus on quantitative articulations of D&I as a primary motivator of behavioral change (that’s the “head” part). Though this works for some people, others are more motivated by things that are emotive and more qualitative in nature like storytelling and immersive, experiential opportunities to get closer to what it might feel like to walk in someone else’s shoes (that’s the “heart” part). I’ve found that there is always a need to leverage both of those approaches to not only solve for the diversity in how we are motivated, but also to help ensure that the commitment to change is long-lasting.

Finally, the definition of D&I and what it means to be a Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) is always evolving. Just when you think you’ve mastered a concept, a new element is added. Just when you think you understand the scope of the role, your job description expands. It is actually one of the many upsides of this work. You’re constantly being challenged and always learning.

Focusing on D&I in the tech world has been your most recent career focus. Can you tell us some of the challenges the tech industry faces with D&I and some of the victories made in this space?
Damien: One of the major challenges in the tech world is just how fast it moves... and rightfully so. Competition is fierce and the race to innovate is real. However, D&I is human-centered. At its core it is an aspiration to help all of us unpack all that we’ve learned (the good, bad and ugly) and to figure out what is reality and what is perception. Being able to close the delta between those two states is what helps us to get out of our own way in tackling the conscious and unconscious biases we’ve developed over time. This takes time. So there is an inherent struggle between an industry that moves at light speed and a field of work that just can’t afford to move that fast. The unpacking of who we are doesn’t happen overnight.

A few wins stand out for me. A major win is that we are finally addressing race head on. For some time, a lot of organizations were afraid to deal with this conversation. In the wake of the senseless murders of so many in the Black and Latinx community, it’s refreshing to see companies finally “going there.” Another win is that more CEOs and influencers within companies are beginning to understand that the CDO role is much more than hiring. When given a voice and a real seat at the table, this role can help with innovations in hiring, culture development, product design, and community citizenship, to name a few. Finally, the proliferation of technology-driven solutions to tackle D&I challenges in the technology industry is a major win that will continue to evolve. Companies like Textio, Praxis Labs, tEQuitable and Eskalera (shout out to fellow GS alum, Dane Holmes) are not only tech-driven inclusion solutions, but they are also minority and/or women-led/founded organizations.

How do you create a space for employees to discuss these issues openly and feel supported at work? Sometimes companies make an effort to be inclusive in these conversations and wind up excluding others in the process. How can companies avoid this oversight?
Damien: Let me be clear and honest, it’s not easy. I’m still tinkering with perfecting this. A good part of a company’s ability to have these conversations openly is rooted in their existing culture. If a company is already averse to having transparent conversations about topics having nothing to do with D&I, well, they’ve got their work cut out for them. Independent of this aspect, there are a few ingredients that I’ve found to be key for success.

First, when designing a format for these conversations, include people from all communities. Far too often, the ask is put on underrepresented groups to figure out how to do this. Not only is that an unnecessary “diversity tax,” but it also leaves out pertinent opportunities to design an initiative that takes different perspectives into play. At a previous employer, when we went on a journey to have these conversations, we included majority and minority groups to ensure that any skepticism, fear and needs for what would make the conversations “safe” were taken into account from the start.

The second recommendation would be to have those same people who you engage with early on serve as champions within their communities to help encourage their peers to join the conversation.

Third, prefacing conversations by asking people to give each other a bit of grace to make mistakes goes a long way. Sometimes, we just need to say “I don’t know all of the right words or phrases and I might get it wrong, but I’m here to help progress the situation so please know that my intent is benevolent.”

Finally, when you do have a successful conversation, ask the people who were involved to go and tell others about it. This way, you advance from promising a safe space for tough conversations to confirming that you actually created one. The next time you do it, even more people (who may have been on the fence about joining due to fear) are likely to participate. Even after all of this is done, you’ll need to iterate and give yourself some grace to get it wrong and try again.

Can you explain the concept of “humanizing” D&I?
Damien: Humanizing D&I is about pushing beyond defining it as how many women, Black and Latinx employees do I have to a deeper, more human definition that meets people where they are. Don’t get me wrong, a major part of this work requires metrics and measurement of aspects like representation, hiring, promotion, compensation and retention. No doubt. But as I mentioned earlier, that is just the quantitative side.

What about when an employee tells you that because of how your company is investing in D&I and “walking the talk,” it’s the first company where they’ve ever felt comfortable to be open about being gay? What about when you get into the act of “perspective brokering” and you help people who are at opposite ends of the political spectrum to “hear” each other for the first time? What about when someone who isn’t at headquarters finally feels visible on the Zoom screen because, for the first time, they aren’t the only one joining virtually? These are sentiments and outcomes of D&I work that are hard to quantify, but are just as important bellwethers of progress and impact. At its core, humanizing D&I is about giving each of us, no matter who we are, an entry point into this conversation that meets us where we are individually – as human beings, not numbers. Here is a link to a session I led at First Round Capital’s CEO Summit a few years ago. It was the first time I used the phrase “Humanizing D&I” and may add some texture to what it means to me.

Can you define “diversity” and “inclusion” separately and what they each mean to you? Why do these ideas need to work cohesively?
Damien: I usually leave it to others to define these terms. That is one of the tragic flaws often made in the space. With all good intent, people look to leaders to define what diversity and inclusion mean. Instead, I like to encourage people to tell me what it means to them. This way, we can typically yield a more global, cross-functional and multi-dimensional definition of the words. That said, my opinion is simple, I think of diversity as the variance in people. Variance accounts for all aspects, the ones we can see and the ones we have no idea about until we spend the time getting to know each other. I think of inclusion as the ongoing and intentional work we are all responsible for in order to acknowledge, respect and harness the variances between us. Having one without the other doesn’t really make sense. If you have a diversity of people in your workforce (this means the diversity that everyone brings to your workforce), but then your workplace is only welcoming to a certain group of the workforce, or promotion, compensation and project opportunities are only available to the “cool kids,” well, you lose. You may not see it immediately, especially when things are going well. Over time, as word gets out that your workplace isn’t welcoming to all types of diversity and your competitors continue to do a better job at welcoming and harnessing that diversity, your customers will start to jump ship to adopt your competitors’ more innovative solutions. With that said, my question to all companies is, why wait until then?

How do you measure the business impact of D&I? Can you share some recent examples of success due to your efforts?
Damien: This is an interesting question. There are tons of reports out there to help make connections between the diversity of a company’s Board of Directors and the performance of its share price. I support those reports and their findings. However, I still hear people saying “well, you can’t directly attribute the inputs with the outputs,” which is also a fair sentiment. Let me provide a couple of examples that are more direct. At a previous employer, one of our teams started with the data to assess which customer segment we were missing on our platform. Turns out, there was significant consumer demand for plus size women’s retail, but we didn’t have the supplier base to meet that demand. Therefore, we were intentional in curating a group of sellers who specialized in this segment. We launched an entire sub-category dedicated to this market and it grew several times faster than a number of other categories immediately. That was business impact. There are many other examples. Take a look at what Uber did to diversify its revenue streams by designing its product to engage with drivers who are hearing impaired. Look at what Jay-Z, Rihanna and many others have done for their own revenues and for the brands they’ve been a part of. If you really want some clear examples, take a look at the inventors of the three-light traffic light, the ultraviolet camera, the first golf tee and the Super Soaker water gun. The business impact is all there.

What questions can we ask ourselves regarding D&I and what are some tools to have conversations with family members and co-workers on the topic of racial inequity in our lives and at the office?
Damien: I’m glad this question was posed. Though companies are beginning to discuss racial inequity more and more, we are just scratching the surface. To start, we can ask ourselves whether or not we’ve done our own research first. We live in an age of unparalleled access to information. We must educate ourselves first. I recommend Ava Duvernay’s movie, 13th, and Orlando Patterson’s, Rituals of Blood, as key pieces of education if you really want to understand this topic. Second, we need to take a good look in the mirror and address our own unconscious biases. We all have them and they will get in the way of progress. Finally, we need to understand that everyone is at a different stage of their journey. We can encourage family members and co-workers, but we can’t force them. That often makes the conversation feel punitive. At Zoom, we just launched a nine-part series with TIME called “Race in the Workplace.” We delivered these live to all of our employees and some of our clients and are hoping that it will be helpful to others who are on this common journey of figuring out how to effectively talk about this at work.

What are some lessons you learned while working on the Pine Street team at Goldman Sachs that have impacted your personal and professional life?
Damien: The first thing I learned was that human resources is to be respected. I’ll admit, I had some preconceived notions about what it meant to be a part of human resources before I joined HCM and Pine Street at Goldman. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Not only did I work with some of the smartest people out there (who helped me to step my game up), but I was challenged, stretched and developed throughout my career. My bias was just that – a bias. Additionally, the importance of data is something that stands out to me. There was never a time when we weren’t thinking about data in HCM. On the Pine Street side, I was blown away. To many of my former colleagues who are leading the ship now – I salute you. That work is tough. I learned quite a bit about how adults learn and how to design for engagement. What I learned in business school regarding how we learn best from each other’s experiences was concretized during my time within Pine Street. Leaders teaching leaders is what stands out there. Finally, my Pine Street experiences drove home the reality that no matter how different we may be in certain aspects of our lives, we all share the common experience of being human. It is our ability to engage in a way that meets each person where they are as human beings that is important. These lessons have been critical to my maturation as a diversity and inclusion leader and as a friend, family member and citizen of this world.