The Pencil Is in Your Hands

"The pencil to help write our future is in your hands" was the empowering theme of a major "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" culture change at a social services NGO. This is their story of courage and dedication.

AbilityPath, a nonprofit social enterprise located on the San Francisco Peninsula, is entering its second century of operation. As stated on its website, AbilityPath has “one of the most comprehensive service portfolios spanning all ages from early intervention for infants to community access and job training for adults and seniors. All programs are designed to prepare children and adults to actively participate in their schools, communities, workplaces, and at home.”[i] AbilityPath promotes acceptance, respect, and inclusion for those with disabilities.

Bryan Neider, the CEO, is a former top executive from Electronic Arts. He is using his extensive leadership skills at AbilityPath because he believes that everyone should have a place in the community. Bryan believed that a focus on your people was as important as, if not more important than, a focus on activities.

Erin Montgomery, the chief operating officer at AbilityPath, spent many of her younger years working in high tech, the engine of Silicon Valley. She has now spent over a decade at AbilityPath developing people and building an organization that assists those with disabilities to find greater independence.

An Email Starts the Process

It all began with an email from us to Bryan. We had finalized a new leadership curriculum called “You as a Leader.” It was a three-day seminar plus six months of coaching that explored the leader within and how, when that authentic leader was brought to the office, a new level of teamwork could be created. Would Bryan and AbilityPath (then called Gatepath) be the pilot?

Synchronicity played a part at this juncture. Bryan and Erin had been considering leadership training for the coming year. Bryan had already engaged the organization in a vision process. A huge mural of their vision filled their main conference room. Over the years, Bryan had come to trust me (Linda) and my abilities in the leadership realm as an executive professor at the Leavey School of Business. He bravely asked all his senior managers to join him at the seminar.

They explored the way they listen to each other, the questions they ask, what they each care most deeply about, and how they wanted to relate to each other and their employees. A highlight was their depiction, in a series of skits, of the stories that most represented their culture. All charities are scarce in resources, but when Bryan and several other executives showed up mouthing a recording of Linda Ronstadt’s “Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me,” they not only brought down the house, but broke the back of that corporate paradigm.

The improvements in communication and results convinced Bryan and Erin to invite all their managers to similar sessions. Bryan and Erin were true role models, one of them kicking off each session. A common language and common team-building actions spread.

Scaling the Initiative

How could this be spread cost-effectively across the whole organization, including their youthful volunteers? “Everyone a Leader” was a co-creation between Erin and us. The managers who had attended three days became coaches for the one-day program graduates.

Bryan, Erin, and all the employees ushered in a new, more inclusive culture that fostered individual and team innovation. That attitude of innovation led to two organizations, Gatepath and Abilities United, being merged into AbilityPath. The entire senior management team from both organizations was involved in another leadership workshop to foster teamwork and to plan the future of the new entity. Senior management asked their board of directors to help them be better, to help them evolve.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Explored

Fast-forward a few years to when the George Floyd case swept the nation. Bryan and Erin did not just see this as a newspaper headline, a tragic event that happened far away. They felt it was a call to action for themselves and their organization. It called for them to reexamine the meaning of inclusion. They decided to look beyond the dictionary definition into what inclusion really meant for them. That quest for clarity turned into a fascinating (and continuing) journey.

For some time, AbilityPath had been about creating a place where people with developmental disabilities could belong—where everyone has a place. This meant parents inviting kids with special needs to birthday parties with their other children at a location called Grins & Giggles. It meant building skills in young adults so that they could work in the community at supermarkets, drugstores, and restaurants.

Yet, as Erin and Brian dug deeper into diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), they found that, for them, it was about how they defined and practiced inclusion as one of their core organizational values. They were viewing inclusion too narrowly, for themselves, AbilityPath’s employees, and those they served. They had tough conversations that uncovered their own hidden biases and created space for employees and people served to share their experiences. They found new self-respect and, in turn, respect for others.

They recognized the intersectionality experienced by employees and people with developmental disabilities. There were many different identities represented at AbilityPath: race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, age, and religion. The exploration challenged them both personally and professionally. It was a catalyst for a cultural shift at the organization. They knew that they had to model what they were discovering and make their actions congruent with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

They needed to engage with their community to expand inclusion beyond those who came to AbilityPath because a loved one has a development disability. They wanted to share the power and impact of inclusion. They wanted to invite others to be a part of it. They discovered that people genuinely wanted to learn about inclusion. Students, volunteers, and partners were attracted to work with an organization that understood this dimension and shared the same values. An inclusive attitude, and the resulting culture, welcomed not only people but also their ideas and life experiences. They embarked on a journey to foster learning. They offered to share what they were learning with a broad spectrum of organizations—for free. AbilityPath recognized that they were at the beginning of their learning journey. They made a commitment to continue this work and to engage others as a core practice. Bryan, Erin, and the entire organization realize that their journey is only beginning.

The Soft Skills Are the Hard Skills

For Bryan and Erin, the hardest work was at an emotional level as they practiced introspection and examined their own privilege and views of the world. They expressed gratitude that their teams joined the learning journey. The teams held space for actively listening and learning. The deeply embedded theme of “everyone a leader” was a key to the buy-in and engagement. Now they called on everyone throughout organization.

They treated their employees with new respect as the global pandemic caused everyone’s daily routines to be uprooted. COVID-19 brought stress and hardship. Communication, including continuously asking for input and feedback, made people feel like the organization cared about them and their ideas beyond the year’s goals.

Bryan began to speak about the fact that “the pencil to help write our future is in your hands.” He engaged people in preparing scenarios for various ways to cope with the curve balls that the pandemic was throwing at them. What ways could they improve people’s health and well-being? How could they migrate many of their highly personal services to online? How could they name their services in a way which represented the people served? How could they bring an equity lens to every program? How could they take what worked during the pandemic and bring it forward into a new future?

A level of trust and a willingness to take risk came forth in AbilityPath because there were no penalties for mistakes. One new manager was wide-eyed when she was asked to design a complete recreational therapy program for adults. The message was: “You are welcome at the table, and we want you to take on being the leader you are.”

The focus on diversity and inclusion is creating a harmonized unity where everyone participates.

It Takes Leadership

Taking on challenges such as diversity, equity, and inclusion is the job of leaders. Such challenges are not theoretical. They are self-reflection exercises that require taking on personal as well as organizational commitments. Shaping culture takes a “not-knowing” mindset, time, and patience. It also takes daring—getting out of your own comfort zone on behalf of a better life for your employees, clients, volunteers, board members, and all those who touch your organization.

[i] “AbilityPath: Inspiring Inclusion,” AbilityPath.org, accessed September 11, 2021, https://abilitypath.org/.