Watikqua Lange, Vice President; Diversity, Equity, Inclusion at T. Rowe Price joins us this week to talk about the importance of self-care for DEI leaders as well as why you need to meet people where they’re at on their DEI journey. She gives great insight on how she’s moved the needle in her organization, why systemic racial issues still loom heavy in healthcare, and how something like supplier diversity can help fix fractures in a DEI system.
📖 Find out more about Watikqua and all the great things she does
📖 Watikqua mentions a book called Invisible Women, find out more about that here.
📖 Fiona and Watikqua talk a bit about cultural competency, learn more about that here
Intro:
You’re listening to Inclusion Works from Hive Learning. As a peer learning platform, we believe that learning from each other helps us make progress faster. If you want to learn directly from industry leaders about the latest trends shaping the diversity, equity, and inclusion space, this podcast is for you.
Fiona Young:
Welcome back to Inclusion Works. I’m your host, Fiona Young. I run the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Practice at Hive Learning, the peer learning app that scales culture change fast. Our guest, today, is Watikqua Lange, Vice President of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion at T. Rowe Price, a Fortune 500 global investment management firm. In her first years at T. Rowe Price, Watikqua led the Diversity Recruitment Program before taking on corporate responsibility, where she set the strategy to align community, corporate, and business objectives. Now, as VP of DEI, Watikqua oversees initiatives for the Global Investments Division while supporting the overall firm’s DEI strategy. Watikqua has deep experience integrating DEI into both employee and community initiatives. Her almost 20 years in the finance industry has made her a champion for addressing the structural issues that produce inequitable outcomes. As she said before, “If you don’t address the structural and the systemic, that income gap, the chasm, is always going to widen.” Watikqua, thank you so much for joining us. It’s so great to have you on the show.
Watikqua Lange:
I am excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
Fiona Young:
First off. I want to ask you something that we ask all of our guests on Inclusion Works. Can you tell us what personal experiences made you aware of inclusion and diversity issues, and led to your work in this space?
Watikqua Lange:
Absolutely. When I think back to my childhood, my first awareness was actually in elementary school. I only attended my neighborhood school for a couple of years, and then I was bussed to a different program. When I got there, what immediately struck me was the different resources, the extracurricular activities, this amazing and updated computer lab that looked a lot different from the one that I had experienced at my neighborhood school. I also noticed that there were few Black, Hispanic, Caribbean, African, Asian descent faces. What I think was a really incredible and valuable experience, that I did gain from this school, was that access. At a very young age, we were taught sign language. Part of the curriculum included, I believe it was weekly sessions, where we actually volunteered in classes. It was with students and teacher’s aids, but the focus was on supporting students who had physical and mental challenges.
Fiona Young:
Wow. Yeah. Really, really long time ago, then, memories that made you first recognize issues with diversity and inclusion. Kind of bringing that up to today, I know that when we spoke before, you talked really passionately about the importance of healthcare benefits at work, and mental healthcare in particular. Why is this something that you are focused on, and focused on, right now, especially?
Watikqua Lange:
Healthcare benefits are important because they really need to address the whole person. They need to be comprehensive, not just medical and prescription, but also mental support, support around fertility, gender reassignment. It’s also important that healthcare is culturally competent. There’s been a long history of systemic bias in healthcare. That is really important because as you think about healthcare and mental illness, it was really exacerbated by the pandemic and the racial justice uprising. I know the last two years have felt a little bit like we were in some sort of vortex. When I think about the pandemic, and specifically the global focus on getting everyone vaccinated, Black people were actually hesitant. That’s because of previous medical atrocities, such as the Tuskegee Experiment and Henrietta Lacks.
Watikqua Lange:
The other thing, I think, about the pandemic is it disrupted your regular healthcare. Whether it was annual physicals or getting your teeth cleaned, there was a huge disruption. From a mental health perspective, it became even more pervasive. We were sitting home, watching the body count around those who lost their battle to COVID. We were watching videos from mobile phones and police cams of another person who lost their life. Then you also had many who were at home in isolation. I think, sometimes people thought that was just our senior community. I think there were a lot of young people who were also in isolation, not being in class with their students, whether that’s at the college and university level, or some of the youngers. It’s also personal to me because it’s very personal to me. Unfortunately, I’ve had the benefit of terrible medical support and great medical support. After having experienced terrible medical support, it became even more pronounced how terrible it was, and what a great experience it was to have good healthcare and mental support.
Fiona Young:
Yeah. You mentioned there’re kind of a couple of intersections between healthcare and Black community. Right? Black Lives Matter and how the pandemic, as well, has inproportionately affected certain communities. I know as well, when you’ve spoken with me before, we talked about how you have this added challenge in DEI work, that this work often falls in your own community. How has being a Black DEI leader impacted how you think about your own wellness?
Watikqua Lange:
It can honestly be very taxing and heavy, which is why you have to think about your own wellness. I remember some conversations with colleagues in the summer of 2020, and two are global organizations. What was interesting for us was, late 2019, early 2020, we were actually tackling some challenges around some of the political things that were happening in the Asia Pacific region. We’re also looking at wildfires in Australia, and then come March, 2020, the pandemic is now a pandemic officially and formally. Fast forward to May. There’s George Floyd. Shortly thereafter, Breonna Taylor. You start to see more and more videos. What we talked about was just how heavy that can be, doing work that you’re really passionate about. It also affects you personally, as a member of that community. In some ways almost feeling like you’ve got to bifurcate yourself, or compartmentalize, so that you can do the work with excellence, but also retreat a little bit to take care of yourself so that you can continue to do that really powerful and meaningful work.
Watikqua Lange:
Personally, it was tough on me just on a completely different level. In the midst of the pandemic, racial uprisings, I experienced a lot of loss in my family, which was all the more challenging because because most were in Texas, and I reside on the East Coast, here, in the United States. One of the things I can remember, I was in the midst of planning my grandmother’s funeral, and I began to suffer heart palpitations. It was, really, my primary doctor who watched as I stubbornly refused to go to the hospital. He really pushed me on my healthcare, and mentally, to seek out a therapist. For me, my personal journey did include a leave of absence, seeking out a therapist, which I will be honest was exhausting. It’s why DE&I in healthcare, that intersection, is all the more important. Two things that I would’ve never done. When I look back and realize, in retrospect, it was the best decision ever, to take some time away from work and to get that therapist.
Watikqua Lange:
This year, to answer your question about going specific, in terms of how I’m thinking about wellness, this year, as I was formulating sort of my professional goals, I began to really take a hard look at myself. I formulated wellness goals. It’s financial wellness, emotional wellness, physical wellness, and mental wellness. A big part of that is really holding myself accountable so that I wasn’t just drafting generic goals. That I wasn’t one of the people that rushed into the gym in January, and then in February was tired and fatigued. Not wanted to be one of those statistics. I leveraged my time with my therapist to ensure that I’m on track with my goals. I give myself permission to revise and recalibrate those goals. I just think it’s so important that I really hold my feet to the fire.
Watikqua Lange:
If I can share, one of my goals is really around my doctor’s appointments. I don’t know that I was always as diligent about my health. Something might nag me a little while, and I’m, “Oh, it’ll be fine. Let it just sort of play itself out.” Or, I might look at my calendar and go, “Work is really crazy. Now’s probably not the best time. I’ll take an antacid. I’ll take some aspirin. I’m young and vibrant. I’m generally healthy.” One of my goals is to really prioritize those annual checkups, and if I’m not feeling well in-between.
Fiona Young:
First off. I just want to say, thanks for sharing that, and having the courage to share. Also, I’m really, really sorry for your loss because it sounds like you’ve been through a whole hell of a lot in the past couple years. I know, as well, by sharing it, that there’s going to be someone listening in who is inspired by your story and thinks, “I need to look after myself better. I need to reach out to that therapist. I need to think about taking time out.” Thank you for having the courage to share it, here. I know you touched on this a little bit, the challenge of finding a mental health professional who could really help. There is still a stigma around getting help for your mental health. Right? I know that it’s not easy. I’m curious to know, what are some of the challenges that folks with marginalized identities face, in particular, when they’re seeking help for their mental health?
Watikqua Lange:
One of the biggest challenges is it’s not a topic that we often discuss in marginalized communities. It’s a, I wouldn’t, maybe, go so far as to say that it’s a taboo topic, but I would say it’s a topic that has a negative stigma. I think in these communities, there’s this stigma that mental health, if you’re seeking that support, that there’s this perceived weakness. Many of these communities have had to overcome so much throughout history that, I think of myself and Black women, we often wear sort of this cape, and we persevere. I think that stigma is around, “Whoa. I’m not persevering.” I actually think it couldn’t be further from the truth. In addition to that stigma, I would also say, a little bit has to do with the faith community because so many of these communities, their faith has been the cornerstone. It has kept them grounded through so many challenges throughout history. Traditionally, that’s where they’ve gathered and convened to sort of uplift each other through rough times. Many continued to choose their house of worship as the place to ground, and kind of push through.
Watiqua Lange:
One of the things that I often say is, I grew up, and it was a little bit of a pray and push through mentality. “Pray about it, and push through.” I think sometimes you hear the words, “Have a little grit,” and things of that nature.
Watiqua Lange:
Then the other challenge I would point out would be access. There are so many tentacles from an access perspective. When you think about the healthcare, again, there’s stories like Tuskegee, but there’s also other stories that people may not have heard about, where enslaved Black women were used to advance gynecology. There was sterilization happening in the early 1900s. Black corpses were used in experiments in terms of healthcare. There’s a little bit of mistrust for the healthcare system.
Watikqua Lange:
Then, I also think there’s still a gap in terms of who actually has healthcare. If you are among those who are privileged to have healthcare, the challenge that I experienced was medical provider access. Who’s in network and who’s out of network. I had a spreadsheet where I was looking at what was available through my insurance company, cross-referencing it with some things I saw on the internet about who had specialty and cultural competency. Trying to do this cross-check, what sort of started to rise for me was I noticed there were a lot of those providers who looked like me and could relate to my cultural experiences. They were out of network. I had to make the tough decision about floating my office visits on my credit card until the insurance company could reimburse me.
Fiona Young:
Yeah. There’s a whole web of issues that you’ve just raised, there. I certainly think, one that really has stuck with me from the learning I’ve done in this space, is the systemic racism that you see in healthcare and the distrust coming out of that. I’m really glad that you mentioned that. I’m curious to know, from your perspective as a DEI lead at T. Rowe Price, what should companies do? What kinds of changes have you seen companies make that provide better support and assistance to their people, especially over the last two years of the pandemic and with social uprisings?
Watikqua Lange:
When I look at healthcare providers, something that I think companies should do is really lean in where there might be structural bias, and really ask tough questions. The challenge I saw in trying to access a mental health professional, where I’m pulling this list and cross-referencing, it was exhausting. I honestly thought to myself, “Gosh. I’m lucky that I’m seeking support for having lost many family members, and I’m not at a critical juncture where I might be suicidal.” The red tape, there, it was mind blowing and beyond frustrating.
Watikqua Lange:
Again, I started to ask why were so many therapists, who were culturally competent, why were they not part of the network? I think the challenge for companies is to think about this a little bit through the lens of supplier diversity. I would chart us to think about the practice and the systems that are in place, that make it challenging to participate, that leaves many of these minority providers out. I think it’s really unfortunate. For me, I can remember saying, “You know, Watikqua? You’re going to have to go out of the network because you’re at a place where you really do need help.” I didn’t feel like I could afford spending my first three to six sessions helping to upskill somebody, and give them on-the-job training around just different cultural nuances. Where I was, I didn’t have that time or that space. I think companies have to really start to think about the suppliers that they’re engaging with, and how they could use their voice with those suppliers to start to make some change and difference.
Fiona Young:
Absolutely. I know at T. Rowe you’ve also done a lot of work to build an inclusive environment, too. The employee experience within the office, outside of benefits, is extremely important, as well. I’m wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about the diversity dialogues, about the restorative circles, that you have put in place at T. Rowe. Just walk us through those initiatives, and what the result was.
Watikqua Lange:
There has been a lot happening at T. Rowe. I think what’s been interesting, if I think about some of those initiatives, if I think about mental health in particular, there’s been a shift, there. We’re a global organization, but I can say prior to the pandemic, I felt like mental health was more of a topic from our UK office. I noticed that shifted during the pandemic. In terms of the benefits, there are some things that we have that I think many employers have, such as the EAP, the Employee’s Assistance Program. What I like, that we’ve added in terms of tools and resources, is we have various workshops and sessions. Last week, there was a guided Mindfulness Practice Workshop. Our employees also have access to eMindful and Headspace. It’s at your fingertips. Your mobile device. Your iPad. It’s everywhere and available to you. I’ve seen us really think about the whole person.
Watikqua Lange:
Recently, I got a wellness newsletter that was about stress management and overcoming and dealing with burnout. While I’ve appreciated many of these things, one of the additions that I thought was particularly meaningful was, we added wellness days. I think that takes the stigma away from needing to call in sick, or things of that nature. I think that’s one of the things. When you mentioned the restorative listening circles, what I thought was really great about that was we saw a lot of our Black and African American colleagues lining up to be a part of these circles as a result of George Floyd and some of those things happening. It actually turned out to be a great platform for our AAPI colleagues. As the anti-Asian racism and sentiment began to just overflow and boil in this country, they also needed a space to be able to process what they were dealing with, the fear, and things of that nature.
Watikqua Lange:
Then, last but not least, I would also just point to our BRGs. I think some firms call them ERGs, but ours are Business Resource Groups. They have been leaning into mental health and wellness programming. Our veterans, for example, they’re focusing on mental health and a few other things, but they do a walk/march. Those who participate are not required to load gear, but they do encourage you to get out and get active. Hopefully, in addition to raising your heart rate and your health, this walk/march raises funds that support mental health work, including suicide prevention of veterans. While there’s a lot going on, what I think has been really powerful has been our leaders. When you think about your organization, and changing the culture, leaders role modeling is really important.
Watikqua Lange:
During the pandemic, we developed an internal platform. This is not about work. This is about the human side. In the early days of the pandemic, there were even things such as, “Here are links to go to virtual museums and different things,” as folks struggled to deal with being in this sort of complete lockdown. There were tools to help mitigate children’s learning laws. I began to see our leaders, our management committee members, they were blogging on our internal site about mental health, what they were doing to take care of themselves, sharing really authentic, personal experiences. I can remember one where the leader was navigating parenting a neuro diverse child in this environment. That looks a lot different for other parents or families. I just felt incredibly happy to see folks sharing their story, and normalizing some of these experiences. I think so many people were, “Me, too, and I thought I was alone.” That’s a big part of inclusion, knowing that you’re not alone, that there are others out there with that experience.
Watikqua Lange:
Those are a couple of the things. You mentioned the diversity dialogue. I think they’ve been phenomenal as we’ve had conversations around, “What is allyship? What exactly does it mean?” Having uncomfortable conversations, or as I think I heard someone once say, “Let’s get comfortable being uncomfortable.” Quite the journey.
Fiona Young:
Amazing. Are those open forums?
Watikqua Lange:
What’s been great is that some are department led. Some departments are saying, “We’re hearing this feedback around X topic, and so we’re going to lean into this space.” We also have some book clubs, and the BRGs have been teaming up together. I am going blank on the name of this book. Earlier this month, our women in our ethnically diverse group teamed up around a book that highlighted data, and how often many of the different studies, such as the crash test dummies for cars and vehicle safety, are often done with men and not women. The need to recalibrate around data.
Fiona Young:
I think it’s called Invisible Women.
Watikqua Lange:
I think that might be the name of it.
Fiona Young:
Yeah. I have it. I’ve read part of it. I need to finish it, though. Will definitely link it in the show notes for anyone listening in who’s curious to learn more.
Watikqua Lange:
Yeah. It’s been great where we look across the organization to see what are timely topics that we need to dive into as an enterprise. Then, what do we need to address more specifically within the business units. Sometimes you’re peer-to-peer learning. I know, right now, I’m actually facilitating an inclusion workshop that is dedicated to our portfolio managers, analysts, and traders. We really do kind of respond to what’s happening broadly, and then more specifically in pocket.
Fiona Young:
Yeah. That’s so cool. I mean, of course at Hive Learning, we’re all about peer learning. We believe that getting people together, discussing these topics, is the way to learn together, right, and sharing stories. Forums like that are just brilliant, and also just a great way to listen and to understand, “What are folks’ challenges?” Right? To try to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, if you can even try to do that. It’s cool, as well, just to hear the breadth of different things that you’re doing, as well, to create that supportive environment, and to try to reduce the stigma around mental health. Thank you so much for giving us a little look into the world of T. Rowe’s. All those initiatives, that was really cool to hear. I think it’ll be inspiring for listeners, too. Before we close off today, sorry, did you want to add one more thing?
Watikqua Lange:
I did want to add one more thing.
Fiona Young:
Go for it.
Watikqua Lange:
Your comment around peer learning. It’s interesting because when I am in some sessions, I remind people that they might be further in their journey. We learn so much from the peer journey. I often task them, and say, “If you are further along, help bring someone else along.” I know, sometimes, people, “This feels repetitive for me.” It could be completely new because we’re all at different stages of the journey. I do task them, “Hey, if you’re further along, help bring somebody along.”
Fiona Young:
Totally agree. I also think that all of us are more likely to listen to and learn from our peers than from anyone else. Right? Than from some expert, or whatever’s the person, you’ve never met. I completely agree in that power of the peer learning. Before we wrap up today, I want to ask you a final question, that again, we ask everyone who comes on to the Inclusion Works Podcast, which is, what is one simple thing that anyone listening in today could do this week to build inclusion in their workplace?
Watikqua Lange:
That’s a really great question. I think one thing that someone could do this week, I’ll give you one scenario, sort of multi tentacles. Many of us are sitting in meetings all the time. My one thing, that you can do this week, is really based around meetings. As it relates to meetings, I would say, “Look at who is invited.” When I get emails, I often look at the topic, and who is invited to the meeting. There are instances where I may reach out to the organizer, and say, “Hey, I’m really excited about this topic. I think it might be worth inviting Michelle to this meeting. She has some really great experience. You may not be aware, but she worked on these two or three projects. I think we could benefit from hearing her voice.” That’s number one.
Watikqua Lange:
Number two, when we are diving into certain meetings, ask yourself, “Do you have the SME involved?” Though I am in DE&I, there are times where conversations are happening, and we’re not at the table. We could be so much more valuable and add insight at that early onset. It may not necessarily be DE&I, but whatever the topic is, “Did you invite and/or involve the SME?” The third thing I will say, as we’re returning to this sort of hybrid workplace model, create space, create space for those, whether they’re on Zoom, WebEx, Teams, whatever the platform is, create this space for them to participate. In some instances, I’ll ask them to go first, or at different points, I will pause, and say, “Did we miss anybody on the phone?” Or, one of my team meetings, we literally go around the squares and make sure we hear everyone’s voice. Then, kind of my final piece, I would say, is, I will often say, you know, to myself, “What perspective am I missing?”
Watikqua Lange:
As you’re in these meetings, ask yourself what perspectives are you missing? “Are you making decisions that might have a ripple impact, but you haven’t consulted those about how it might impact their workplace, work flow? Whose voice are you missing?” One of the things I think about, from an agenda perspective, is, “Can we get better about sending agendas out ahead of time so that the introverts, and others, can have a time to really process so that they can sort of show up as them best selves.” That’s sort of my one tip. I’m, “Everybody’s in some sort of meeting. Here are a couple of different things that you can do around a meeting.”
Fiona Young:
I love those. Super powerful stuff. Thank you for sharing all of those insights with us, Watikqua. It was awesome having you on the show. I’m just curious, if there’s anyone listening in who wants to stay connected with you, what’s the best way for them to do that?
Watikqua Lange:
I would say the best way to connect with me is via LinkedIn. I’m on there as Watikqua Lang.
Fiona Young:
Amazing. We’ll include the link to your LinkedIn in today’s show notes. Thank you so much again, Watikqua. It’s been such a pleasure.
Watikqua Lange:
Thank you.
Outro:
You’ve been listening to Inclusion Works. So that you never miss an episode, subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast player. Thanks so much for listening. Today’s episode was hosted by Fiona Young, and produced by Grace Willard. If you found this episode useful, and you want to help more people understand how to build an inclusive culture, please do rate our podcast. It helps more people find us.
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