Former Global Head of Human Capital Management at Goldman Sachs on incentivizing change in corporate America

As protests for George Floyd continue throughout the world, more companies are making public statements in solidarity. Edith Cooper, co-founder of Medley and former Global Head of Human Capital Management at Goldman Sachs, joins The Final Round to discuss what corporations can do to affect change within their own companies.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: I want to bring in our next guest. We have Edith Cooper, co-founder of Medley and also a former executive at Goldman Sachs. And Edith, it's great to have you on the show. We have a lot to talk with you about today. But I first want to start with the civil unrest that we're seeing and the protests that we're seeing play out across the country. As one of the nation's leading black business executives, what do you think-- what should the business community do at a time like this, and what is the best way to address the inequality at a corporate level?

EDITH COOPER: Well first of all, I appreciate the opportunity to come and share my thoughts today with all of you and with those that are listening in. This is truly an extraordinary time, a time where I am pleased to see that leaders across industries around the world are speaking up and speaking out in a way, quite frankly, that is overdue. I'm thrilled at the messages that are going out within organizations and externally with respect to the significance of equality and a hate for and a dislike for racism and how it will not be tolerated. That's so, so important for leadership to do what they are charged with doing-- lean on the conversation.

But the conversations are a beginning-- a beginning. The Business Roundtable made a statement. They represent 15 million jobs. We have to move from conversation towards action. And the action must be very intentional. With action, with focus, with equal opportunity, I am confident that we will continue to progress forward.

- So what does that action look like? And I hate to be so cynical, but you hear these companies come out and say, this time is different. And yet I have to wonder, we've heard this before. How do you incentivize that change? How do you set those targets? And how do you get them to do it now?

EDITH COOPER: I've said it before, and I've been there before. And I have focused with my colleagues throughout my career on setting up practices to get very, very granular about the experience of people of color in the workplace but more broadly. We have to really understand what's happening. We have to really own a responsibility that the experience of a black person at work is not and might not be the same as someone who is part of the majority.

You look at the information. You dig under the hood, and you pay attention. It's so important for senior leaders to look up around the room and who they spend their time with. If, for example, that is a room of people that look just like you, we've got to get to the point where you ask yourself the question, what am I missing? What do I need to know? And I know that things are being missed.

I understand where cynicism comes from. But cyncicsm doesn't really lead to anything, doesn't help us move forward. What does, though, is accountability. What does, though, is transparency with respect to whether we are making progress or not. And I'm inspired by people who are coming into the workforce today who expect and have the expectation that there will be equal opportunity for all, that their work has a purpose, and that they will be in a position to make impact. And they are not going to tolerate a situation where there are barriers to their success in 2020 and going forward.

RICK NEWMAN: Hey, it's Rick Newman here. One of the causes of persistent racial economic inequality is the diversity in education system. This starts at the earliest levels of school. We need to improve schools, and yet it's so complicated and so difficult. So if you're a corporate executive, a Wall Street leader, it's very hard for you to do anything to reach all the way down into the education system, which is one of the reasons it seems like such an intractable problem. What can the corporate world do about problems in education?

EDITH COOPER: Yeah, no doubt that there is systematic limited access of opportunity across a number of different spectrums. You talked about education. We can talk about health care. We could spend time talking about the disproportionate impact that COVID has had on the black and brown community. And honestly, these are all things that are going to influence and impact people who are looking at going into the workforce, and they are experienced in the professional environment.

But honestly, leaders are not leaders because they look to the left and say, well, if you fix this, I'll take care of my own reality. There are specific things that we should be doing within organizations to ensure equal access to opportunities. If you look at the percentage of students at universities in America that are-- the students-- that are black and brown, why is it that we don't have an equal percentage at companies today? And equally as important, why is it that we have not been able to take those that are newly hired with a level of energy and enthusiasm and aggression and keep them and support them, as we do the entire population within companies so that when you get to the most senior ranks of organizations, the demographics are represented there as well.

MYLES UDLAND: And so Edith, I think looking at the future of the corporation, maybe, we're talking about a more distributed workforce. Everyone's very hot on the idea of work-from-home but I think a lot of these things that you're discussing actually require people to sit in rooms together and to have some of these conversations with their colleagues. Does this-- if we are to believe the pronouncements that everything in the corporate world has changed overnight, and I'm not really sure that's true--

EDITH COOPER: That's impossible.

MYLES UDLAND: I agree. And so--

EDITH COOPER: I think if we go into it with that lens, we'll be here several years from now having the same conversation.

MYLES UDLAND: Well and so it seems like this is-- making more diverse workforces needs to be a primary concern instead of just, oh, well everyone works from home now, so nothing we can do.

EDITH COOPER: Well what it's going to require, working remotely, is similar to what's required when you're working within an office. You've got to pay attention. And you have to be intentional about the time that you spend with people and with who you spend that time. It's particularly important as we're working remotely because there's not the casual drop-in, the walk by. And so therefore, we own the responsibility to make sure that when we are on virtual meetings and in virtual conversations, you look at who's involved in that conversation and who is not.

You look at who is speaking and who's not really being seen or heard. Is it very different than what happens with respect to diverse people, black people often in the corporate workplace? Some would say, not very different. I've heard over the course of the last days, weeks from leaders across industries and from people of color who are just beginning their careers and from people like Ken Frazier, who spoke out about his responsibility and his story of making a difference as a black CEO.

And so many of them who are black talk about being invisible, talk about not actually having an opportunity to engage and develop those relationships. And they're having those conversations now. And many of the CEOs that I've spoken with are astounded, and I would say, embarrassed because they just don't believe that they don't know the people that they work with every day. And so these are the kinds of conversations that have to happen but they have to be intentional, they have to be deliberate, and they have to be robust.

SEANA SMITH: So Edith, taking all that, I want to make sure that we touch on the fact that you have a new company. It's launching next month in July, called Medley. It's a community offering executive coaching, and you do that in a group setting. So how will Medley-- how does that present the opportunity to bring a broader audience together to make sure that this is a service that is available to all walks of life?

EDITH COOPER: Sure. So just to, for a moment, talk about my experiences professionally and personally, I have always benefited from being a part of communities. And the communities are vast and they're broad. And I would say it's part of what's a superpower, really understanding other people's perspectives and having empathy and general interest in others.

I always felt, though, that the opportunities to join these networks are narrowly defined. There are forums for young presidents. There are wonderful important organizations for women. And they're a growing community in the black community. In fact, there has always been.

But Medley is really founded on the premise that we all benefited from the perspectives of others. When we get together with other people that want to share and want to invest in their growth by contributing to other people's perspectives, that things important will happen. We're looking for Medley experiences to really change the way people connect with each other in meaningful ways. We're excited about the launch in a few weeks.

SEANA SMITH: All right. Well, Edith Cooper, we really appreciate you taking the time to come on the show. We wish you all the best in that launch. It's great talking to you today.

EDITH COOPER: Thank you very much for having me. I appreciate it.