BIO: Dr. Danette Buie is a passionate, strategic, and impact-oriented leader with over 10 years of experience in education and people operations. She currently serves as a Diversity Business Partner at Coursera, an EdTech company committed to providing universal access to world-class learning. Danette has completed Harvard University’s Executive Institute for Women in Leadership Program and was most recently certified as an Associate Diversity Coach from Howard University’s Executive Diversity Coaching Program. In 2021, Danette was appointed to the new Board of Directors for Girls Dream Code, an organization dedicated to empowering young minority girls to pursue an interest in technology by providing free access to tech workshops, education, and resources. This opportunity provides her with yet another platform to live out her mission and serve the greater good, which is closing the opportunity gap for underrepresented groups, leveling the playing field, and striving to create equitable experiences for all. You can find Dr. Danni at: instagram.com/thrivelimitlesslyllc/

Transcript:

Andrea G. Tatum: Welcome to DEI Career Conversations. I'm your host and DEI Career Coach, Andrea G. Tatum. In this episode, I spoke with Dr. Danette Buie. Dr. Danni is a passionate, strategic, and impact-oriented leader with over 10 years of experience in education and people operations. She currently serves as a Diversity Business Partner at Coursera, which is an ed-tech company committed to providing universal access to world-class learning. Dr. Danni has completed Harvard University's Executive Institute For Women in Leadership Program and was most recently certified as an Associate Diversity Coach from Howard University's Executive Diversity Coaching Program.

In 2021, Dr. Danni was appointed to the new board of directors for Girls Dream Code, and this opportunity provides her with yet another platform to live out her mission and serve the greater good, which is closing the opportunity gap for underrepresented groups, leveling the playing field and striving to create equitable experiences for all. We talked about the role of a Diversity Business Partner in this episode and how to avoid what I call analysis paralysis through the use of OKRs. We even talked about DEI certifications, and when may be a good time to consider getting one, if you're going to consider it at all. I really enjoyed talking to Dr. Danni, and I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did, so don't forget to subscribe to this channel and hit like on the episode. We really do appreciate you being here. All right, so let's get into it. 

Andrea G. Tatum: Danette, Danni, I am so excited to have you here as a part of DEI Career Conversations. I want to just dive right in, and let's tell people a little bit about your amazing journey to where you are now at Coursera.

Dr. Danette Buie: Absolutely. So a little bit about me, I've been in tech now for probably about three years and some change. It's hard to say because we had no concept of time in the pandemic, but prior to transitioning into tech and working in talent and DEI, I spent about 10 years working in education across multiple age groups. And so I think, I've started my career working in zero through five age groups and working on educational policy for zero through five, and really being exposed within the community in Chicago, which is where I'm originally from, working with community-based organizations, and providing resources to underserved communities. And so that's really where I was exposed to some of the disparities in underrepresented communities, and from there I decided to get my Master's in Public Policy and I continued to go on and do doctoral research for first-generation underserved communities.

And so I've always been exposed and have been doing some type of work in equity, and so I think when I was in higher education and I had moved out to California, I just realized, "Am I tapping into my most full potential working in education?" I loved living in California. I loved the role that I had at the time which is at the University of California, Santa Cruz, working as a Director of Student Success. However, I felt like I had reached my threshold in education. There was only so much that I was able to do and so much that I had already accomplished, and at that time I was fortunate enough to be exposed to people who were young Black professionals who were working in tech at your Googles, your Apples, your Facebook, your Amazons, in Silicon Valley, and I started talking to them about their career journeys and what they were doing.

And I realized that even though I was in education, there weren't very many differences in some of the work, so I started to look at my accomplishments and my trajectory and realized that I was able to make the transition and landed in talent, doing a number of different things at Lyft. And then also, now, here at Coursera as a Diversity Business Partner, and so I've definitely been able to navigate, make a few transitions, but also taking strength in what my abilities are and owning my career journey and what that looks like for myself. And so I'm super excited to be here to talk about my journey, to talk about the work that I'm doing at Coursera, what I hope to do in the future, and I'm just excited to share my journey with everyone.

Andrea G. Tatum: I love that. I love that you just were like, "I'm going to be in my purpose. I'm going to find what's right for me." That's what I want so much for the listeners who are really interested in making their own transitions into diversity, equity, and inclusion or, into just finding how to live in their purpose, whatever that job title may be.

Dr. Danette Buie: Exactly.

Andrea G. Tatum: And I really appreciate you pulling that out in your own journey. So tell me a little bit, so you said now you're at Coursera and you are a Diversity Business Partner. So for those who may not know, one, what is a Diversity Business Partner? What does that mean? What does your day-to-day look like?

Dr. Danette Buie: Yeah. So Diversity Business Partners are very similar to HR Business Partners. We work with executives and senior leadership to implement diversity, equity, and inclusion action plans within the organization. We work, not only across the different organizations, but we also work globally, so if there are international companies who have regions like APAC and EMEA and LATAM, we also work to bring a DEI lens in those areas as well. So my day-to-day looks very different each day because there's so much that we're looking to do as a company. I may be working with the HR Business Partner, looking at talent management practices and how we assess talent, and where does the equity lens comes in with some of our policies around performance assessment? I could also be talking with maybe our marketing team about how do we integrate our DEI journey better into some of our marketing materials in the way that we show up externally in our employer brand.

I could be just looking, working with an executive leader, looking at representation in their organization and where there may be some opportunities or where they have been doing a really great job when we think about who they're hiring into the organization and also who they're retaining in the organization. So my day looks very different. I think that's what I like about the role is that I come in as a subject matter expert in DEI, and I have the ability to work across business lines to influence the way that we think about DEI. And I think I was watching one of your previous interviews with Aubrey, I think from Culture Amp, and I think she was talking about how this role is an influencing and influencer role.

We don't necessarily, as a DEI team, have the power to come in and make decisions. What we come in is with a data-informed approach. We provide the landscape, help people understand what's going on, and then create the space for people to have conversations and make the best decision from a DEI lens. And so the Diversity Business Partners is definitely a growing role in the field, and as companies continue to grow, these SMEs are coming in to help the business understand areas of opportunity around equity and inclusion.

Andrea G. Tatum: Man, you just hit on so many different things. One, I want to just talk about the various skills that you really hit on because you're coming in as the subject matter expert, but working across various lines of business. One of the things that I always try to tell people who are looking to make the transition is, lean in to your previous experience, so for me who came from marketing, being able to go in and talk with my CMO, to talk with my field marketing teams about how to still integrate the world of DEI to have that lens, but I could also understand where they were coming from a business perspective. So it was really interesting to think about how I marry those skills that I've gained along the way and help to educate and influence. And I think, were my podcast a drinking game, I think that influence would be the thing that got everybody drunk because I really actually think that I haven't recorded a single episode in which that hasn't been the number one thing. 

So if you're thinking about how do I update my resume, how do I communicate to someone that, you know, I haven't had a DEI job before. Can you communicate to them how you've been able to influence in your various roles? That's what I would be looking for if I was hiring someone into a role similar to yours. The other thing I heard you talk about was data, using a data-informed approach. Can you tell me a little bit about the type of data that you’re looking at and the process that you go through in working with leaders to make decisions based off of that data?

Dr. Danette Buie: Yeah, absolutely. So I will answer the latter question first, and then I would definitely want to touch on the former with just looking at skills and resumes, so if I don't go back to it, hold me to it. So I would say data-informed approach... the data, and again, DEI, we've been a team at Coursera probably now for about a year and a half, so the DEI team is still very new at Coursera even though I joined before there was a DEI team and I was taking on some of the DEI responsibilities at Coursera. Now, we have a formal team, and so even our access to things, we're continuing to evolve and enable our team to be equipped with the data that's necessary to do the influencing, but I would say some of the data that we've been leveraging right now is looking at who we hire into the organization.

So looking at hiring rates, looking at pass-through rates, we've been also starting to talk about attrition now because after everything that happened in 2020, all these companies are exploding with DEI roles. They're like, “we want to be committed to this”. They're making all these different commitment statements, and so there was a lot of hiring of underrepresented groups during that time. And so now, there's been themes around looking at attrition of these same groups that companies spent so many resources to hire, and so we've been looking at who's leaving the organization? Because when you look at retention and when you look at the representation, right, across the lines of business, those are influenced by two things, who you hire and who you retain. You can't just focus on the hiring and not focus on the retention at the same time, so we've been diving into attrition themes.

We've also been looking at employee engagement scores, so most companies do annual employee post surveys whether it's through Culture Amp or any other tool that they're using. So we're looking at the spread and doing deep dives across demographics, so we're looking at gender, we're looking at race and ethnicity, we're looking at tenure, we're looking at generation, we're looking at regions. So we're looking at how employee sentiments differ from North America across EMEA and APAC because that's also a part of inclusion. Any other data… I think those are probably the top pieces that we've been looking at, so representation, hiring rates. We've been looking at the attrition and we've been looking at the employee post-surveys. We're also starting to look at promotion rates, so we're looking at what are the processes to assessing talent, and then also looking at who is eligible for promotion versus who's actually being promoted and being developed, and so we're starting to dive into those themes now.

Andrea G. Tatum: I love it. Let me just ask you this because one thing that, I love data. I mean, I really came into this world, and if you've heard me talk before, I've talked about, I was not actually a big math person. I hated numbers until I actually started really working at Tableau, and it changed my life in terms of realizing that my inquisitive nature could be fueled by having data. But one of the challenges that I've seen, I'd love to hear from you if this is a challenge for you or how you all handle this is, how do you keep from getting analysis paralysis? Because there is so much data that you can be looking at. How do you make sure that you're taking the data and keeping moving forward with it?

Dr. Danette Buie: I would say it depends on what's happening, so at Coursera, we establish OKRs. We have our annual OKRs as a company and then we also have team OKRs by quarter, and so I think we do a really good job at planning. Right? Planning out our roadmap for the year and what are the particular objectives or key results that we're going to be driving at any given point throughout the year, and based on what our objective is for that quarter whether it's influencing the way that we assess talent, and being in the room for manager calibrations is influenced by what part of the year we're in. And so I think the way that we go about it is just planning. I think it's based on timing, and I think it's also just to me, it's important to have a clear roadmap because I think it's very easy to be overwhelmed by all of the data.

So you have to understand what outcome are you seeking to gain as a result of looking at this data and go from there, and I think that's really going to guide how you dissect the data and take it on incrementally because the data is overwhelming. For example, if we're looking to influence the way that we do inclusive hiring because we've been developing workshops for hiring managers and interviewers, we might want to take a look at the hiring rates within a specific line of business or within a specific organization, and so I think for us, it's deciding what outcome are we hoping to drive, and then what types of data do we need to help influence the conversation. So I do think that it's important to make sure that you start with the end result that you're seeking to drive and making sure that's clear for all stakeholders because sometimes stakeholders will be like, "What are we doing here? What are we trying to do with this data? So a lot of data is concerning data or it's great, but what are we seeking to do with this?" And so I always try to start with the outcome first and then work my way backwards, leveraging the data and only hitting on key top points that will enable us to have the conversation that we need and influence the outcome.

Andrea G. Tatum: And that's so critical because what you're doing is you're using that data to figure out what your organization needs. There is no one-size-fits-all to this work.

Dr. Danette Buie: Exactly.

Andrea G. Tatum: And so that's why the data, and being able to influence based on that data is so critical because I'll have someone say like, "Hey, just tell us what to do." Based on what information do you want me to tell you what to do? And with the lack of data, it's really, really hard to create goals, to create strategy and that's everything that I just heard you say. You all are an OKR-based organization, and I love that because then that helps you to really say, "What path are we going on? What are we trying to do, and are we meeting that? And what do we need to change if we're not?" So I'm a huge advocate of using data in that kind of way. Oftentimes, people hear like, "Oh, you set a goal. That means you have to hire so many Black people and this and that," and that's not always what it's about.

Dr. Danette Buie: Totally, 100%. And I think it's important to your point, is to meet people and organizations where they need to be met, so there are some organizations that maybe are further along in their journey, and there are others that are just starting off and getting off the ground. And so we don't need to boil the ocean every time we meet, but we want to focus incrementally on the things that maybe it's low hanging fruit or maybe it's something more that's, more of a longer-term strategy, and we're just keeping it top of mind and continuing to hammer away at what the long-term goal is. But I do think it's important in this role as a Diversity Business Partner that you have to determine where the organization is in respect to their DEI journey, and some may be further along than others, and you have to be able to pivot because like you said, it's not a one-size-fit-all.

And you might have six different organizations who are in six different places, and so the way that you influence them with data will be very different. Some, you might not even need any data. Some want to see the data first, and they want to understand what the outcome is. And like you said, they want to be told what to do, so you're going to have some organizations who come with all the ideas in the world, they're telling you what they want to do. And then you're going to have other organizations who are asking for help and want to be told what to do, so it's being able to be flexible and nimble depending on what the needs of the organization are and understanding where they need to be met.

Andrea G. Tatum: Thank you for sharing that. That's so many good insights that I think our listeners will really be able to take something of value away from that. And so thinking a little bit about the audience, a lot of the people who are listening to this are thinking about making a pivot into the field of DEI, and one of the questions that I get asked most often is, "What education do you think that I need? Do I need this certificate? Do I need that certification? Do I need to go do this course?" And I get a variety of answers.

Now, I will say most often my answer is, “Do you have to have a certification? No. Is there value in getting them? Yes.” But I'd love to hear your opinion. I mean, they're used to hearing mine at this point. I've got all kinds of things, but as someone who has actually gone through some leadership development programs, and I want to make sure I get this right, you're now an associate diversity coach as well, and you just went through a program. Tell me about the two programs you've gone through, what did you like about them, maybe what didn't you like, tell us all about it.

Dr. Danette Buie: Yeah. So the most recent program that I went through was the Executive Coaching Program through Howard University and CDI, which is the Coaching Diversity Institute, and so it was maybe a six to ten-month program. It was virtual, so we did a week long of classwork virtually, and then from there you needed to get coaching hours. And I think the benefit of that program for me is that stepping into a Diversity Business Partner role and knowing that I was going to be in a room with executive leaders, senior leaders, and I needed to be in the... Sometimes I need to be in the coaching seat where I'm asking them critical and important questions about their organization and really seeking to get as much information as possible, but sometimes also serving as that trusted advisor, and so I wanted to be able to come into those conversations with the coaching mindset, but then also a framework to guide the conversation and be able to understand what types of questions I needed to ask, what was relevant to the conversation.

What I probably shouldn't ask or how I should even ask it in a way that's more opening as opposed to someone feeling like the question may be coming off as more defensive or an attack. So I thought that was really important and that's why I wanted to get more experience within coaching, and I think that program was best for me knowing that I was stepping into a Diversity Business Partner role. I don’t think… I think the benefit of these programs because I consider myself a lifelong learner, my career started off in education. I got my Master's, my Doctorate, I have done all these different leadership programs. I don't think that they're necessary to get into the field. I think for me, because I'm a lifelong learner and because I think it's important for me to always be sharpening my toolkit, it was important for me to get it because I want to be able to come into these roles, be able to share knowledge, be able to feel like I'm a subject matter expert, and so that was really important.

I do not think it's necessary to get into the field, and to your point, I think it's really important to sit with your skills, understand what you have done. And nine times out of 10, when I talk to people who are coming from higher education or coming from government or coming from non-profit and coming from some of these non-technical industries and wanting to transition into tech, it's mostly about the language that they're using on their resume. Sometimes they're unsure about the industry language, so they might need to work with someone who is familiar and help them to be able to translate their experience. Other times it's how do you assess the job description of a diversity, of a DEI program manager or a specialist or a Diversity Business Partner, and then how do you apply that to the experience that you have?

And oftentimes, once you sit with those job descriptions and you go down your resume, you ask yourself, "Hey, I've done some of these things. I've program managed before. I've influenced, I've presented data before. I've analyzed this," and you realize, "Hey, I've been doing these things all along, so how do I leverage the job description?" Because to me, the job description is the blueprint for how you're going to articulate your value and what you're bringing into the job, and so I always talk to people who reach out to me all the time, "Hey, this is a process and you need to be able to sit with your skills and understand exactly what your accomplishments are, what you've done and be able to look at your job description to understand what the recruiter or hiring manager are asking for of a candidate. And then you need to be able to marry that together and be able to position yourself as someone who could bring value into this role and help upscale and take this role to the next level."

Andrea G. Tatum: Y’all, I promise I did not pay Danni to say all of those things, but she hit the nail on the head, and this is exactly why I created DEIcareer.com. That is a part of what I offer in my coaching, is helping people be able to understand “What are those words that I should be looking for? How do I talk about those transferable skills that I bring from a variety of other backgrounds, and how do I translate them into my resume?” And I have my mock interviews, so I even help people prepare to verbally talk about them when they're in a Q&A session. And so that's really the value of getting to work together with me as a DEI career coach. And I love, kind of bringing it back to what you talked about in terms of being a lifelong learner, that's one of the things that I've been really, on my journey of learning, around being a coach and those are skill sets versus when I think about certifications. Yes, I want you to learn those fundamentals.

Yes, you've got to know all those things about DEI, but once you do that assessment with yourself to say, what is it that I actually bring to the table? What do I want to do in this field? That's going to actually help you understand even better what type of additional learning might be right for you. And having people like me be able to help guide you into that journey is really great, and then those are the kinds of things that I wish I had when I was going on my own journey into this field. I was like, what don't I actually know? And then how do I talk about it? And so you really just laid it out so well for people that, looking at the job description, being clear about what it is you want to do. Because Danni's role as a Diversity Business Partner is so different than other roles, and I mean, how large is your team at Coursera?

Dr. Danette Buie: The DEI team is about five people.

Andrea G. Tatum: Yeah, and everyone's not doing the same exact job-

Dr. Danette Buie: Exactly.

Andrea G. Tatum: ... I assume.

Dr. Danette Buie: I'm technically the only Diversity Business Partner on our team in addition to our director of DEI, so she helps take on some of the roles for me and fill in when I'm not there, but, yeah, our team is pretty small.

Andrea G. Tatum: Yeah. So you just gave some great advice to people who are thinking about really moving into this industry. I love talking about being a lifelong learner. I call myself a gatherer of skills and that's really what I encourage people to do, constantly be thinking about what it is that you can add to your tool belt. So for me, the last question that I have, because you've just given so many good insights, and thank you for the time that you've shared with us. I always like to end on a high note, and I want to ask you if there was a biopic or a musical about your life, who would play you, and what would it be called?

Dr. Danette Buie: Who would play me and what would it be called? It would probably be called, “The Great Advocator” because something that I've always embraced in my life, being raised in Chicago, being raised by a single mom, is the ability to advocate for myself. And so it creeps into every aspect of my life, my relationship with my partner, my relationship at work, and the way that I show up in the world by advocating for myself, when I'm in the store. So I think for me, if there was a biopic about me, it would definitely be called “The Great Advocator” because I think that's just an important skill set in this world, and I think if we don't speak up, if we don't advocate for ourselves... I'm a big advocate of closed mouths don't get fed.

Andrea G. Tatum: Ooh, speak on it.

Dr. Danette Buie: And so if you know that you want to make the transition, if you know you want to step into a new world, if you know you want that promotion or that pay increase, what are you doing to advocate for yourself? And so if I had to say the biopic, it would be “The Great Advocator” because my partner tells me all the time, that's something I do really well and I should probably teach a course on this or something like that. And who would play me? Wow. Well, one, I love me some Angela Bassett. She is like my shero, and she played in one of my favorite movies of all time, What's Love Got to Do With It? I'm a huge fan of Tina Turner, I love her music, and so when I think about my biopic or a musical, it will totally have Tina Turner music and vibes. And I just absolutely love me some Tina Turner, and I love Angela Bassett.

Andrea G. Tatum: The Great Advocate featuring Angela Bassett.

Dr. Danette Buie: Yes.

Andrea G. Tatum: Yeah. I'm here for all of this. Danni, thank you so much for all the great insights that you've shared. I'll be sharing your bio and the links to where people can find you. You'll be able to find those below, but thank you again so much.

Dr. Danette Buie: Of course, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it, and I'm just excited to be here and share my journey with everyone.

Andrea G. Tatum: I hope you all enjoyed this episode of DEI Career Conversations. My goal is to help create more transparency about what it really means to work in diversity, equity, and inclusion while helping experienced professionals gain clarity about how their passion, skills and experience can make a real impact. To learn more, visit DEIcareer.com. Don't forget, subscribe to this channel, like the video, and share it with your friends. We'll see you next time.