Hi new followers!

A short thread on sharks, helicopters, and retention. This is a simple tip that can help your organization have more Black folk in senior leadership positions.

The easiest, most equitable, and most sustainable way to get more Black folk in senior leadership... Is to retain the Black folk at junior and mid levels.

They already know your company and culture. They're already motivated.

But at most places, retention is a big problem.

There are many reasons for low retention. This tip concerns just one of them: harmful actors.

If you could identify the harmful actors, you'd totally act on them! But you don't even hear any complaints... until it all blows up and you hear how terrible it was all at once.

How can you possibly be expected to know what's going on if the impacted people won't even tell you?!

Similarly, how can you be expected to know if your website is down if customers don't call your support line? Oh wait... we have monitoring for that.

On some beaches, the coast guard is asked to do shark patrol, to keep swimmers and sharks in different places.

They don't wait until someone is bitten. They proactively monitor the ocean from helicopters.

But it's really difficult to see a shark from the sky from miles away...

But... It's really easy to see a school of fish! Sometimes, schools of fish have a big hole in them.

Look in the middle of that hole... You'll probably find a shark. Fish want to be where the shark isn't.

Retention in your company or organization is not even. Find the holes.

Whisper networks can help, but they can also hurt. If you're not in that whisper network, you don't get the memo about which teams and individuals to avoid.

This is what it feels like to be that one fish in that position.

Not all sharks are sharks!

Some sharks are cute little seals that like belly rubs! They're basically golden retrievers that can swim underwater. They're "nice to you!" They don't mean harm.

They still bite fish in half.

And not all holes in schools of fish, mean that there's a shark or a seal there. Sometimes a hole is just a hole.

Similarly, sometimes pagers go off for no reason. Your site isn't down. It's just some sports ball event.

Sometimes, a few folk just leave. Low N-counts and all.