Advancing Diversity Honors 2020: Tiffany R. Warren, Omnicom Group

In celebration of those accomplishments MediaVillage will host its annual Advancing Diversity Hall of Honors in January at CES The ceremony is an opportunity for the advertising and media community to join hands in solidarity and support for diversity and inclusionIn this installment of the podcast series MediaVillage39s EB Moss head of content strategy and Ginger Conlon editorinchief talk with ADCOLOR39s Tiffany R Warren Before founding ADCOLOR and joining Omnicom Warren led the multicultural and diversity programs at the 4As and then Arnold Worldwide Her many honors include the AAAF Pioneer in Diversity Award for Omnicom Group MAIPDigitas Multicultural Scholarship Award and Gladys Prior for Career Teaching Excellence She discusses the genesis and future of ADCOLOR how its mission and her work at Omnicom dovetail and the milestones both have achieved in advancing diversityThis article is a topline of the conversation Listen to the podcast to hear why Warren keeps awards quotin the basementquot and how she helps raise up new ADCOLOR participants as well as her advice on how to leverage data around diversity to inspire creatives but balance being driven by KPIs Warren even describes how she lost her quotimposter complexquot and found a new familyPlease subscribe to the Advancing Diversity Podcast on Apple Podcasts Stitcher or watch on YouTube or listen to the entire podcast here and share widely to help promote more awareness of diversity and inclusion issues and initiativesGinger Conlon The lucky 13th annual ADCOLOR recently wrapped give us some of the highlightsTiffany R Warren This year39s theme Take a Stand really hit home Right now in society we39re being called to take a stand and to be on the right side of things The constituency that supports ADCOLOR within their companies and agencies strongly believes that taking a stand is what we all have to do amp8212 not rely on leaders or government instead each of us personally can take a stand amp8230 at our companies and in our personal livesAlso we had 1300 attendees including 650 firsttime attendeesThe biggest group of attendees is African American and the second biggest group is Caucasian And that39s exciting because we know the group is full of allies and full of people who can make decisions to change culture including CMOs and CEOs We actually had a panel where we spoke to Facebook CMO Antonio Lucio and Verizon CMO and 2019 Hall of Honors inductee Diego Scotti as well as Carla Hassan global chief brand officer from CitiBut one of my favorite moments was the conversation with M Night Shyamalan the directoramp8230 It was unique to have him talk about his immigrant storyMoss How did you get inspired to even start ADCOLORWarren The idea came to me when I was in Boston before I got my huge break working for the 4As as their manager of diversity programs I was all of 23 when I approached my friends and said I wanted to start this thing called The Door Group amp8230 literally because I wanted us to open doors for other people And then engagements happened marriages happened and I moved to New York So The Door Group didn39t open for a little while amp8230 but I still had a mission in mind As I kept rising up I wanted to reach back That turned into the mission of ADCOLORMoss And what39s next for ADCOLORWarren The sky39s the limit It39s really scary It39s like containing a big thing of energy in a bottle that39s too small for itThe thing that I39m patient about though is organic growth and not scaling up too much where it feels like a convention versus what it feels like now which is a family reunionI think ADCOLOR was super successful this year because people wanted the biggest warm hug they could find and we gave it to themamp8230 It was just taking out the classic networking model and inserting a model about connections And I think anyone can take that amp8230 idea and apply it to their organizationsConlon You have a huge role running ADCOLOR and an equally huge role running diversity for all of Omnicom How do you balance thatWarren How I manage both is different every day and it39s never easy But it39s rewarding because my approach is always about building networks amp8230 in the sense that you39re empowering people to be a part of the process I learned that if you remove the champion sometimes initiatives fail because they39re focused on that one person to manage everything So everything I39ve done I39ve always done it as a committee amp8230 making sure everyone feels like they39re part of the process And we39ve had a lot of success with that at OmnicomA couple of years ago we launched the Omnicom People Engagement Networkamp8230 We had Omniwomen which was managed by Janet Riccio who recently passed And we launched OPEN Pride which we thought was a really good first step because it cuts across demographics and with chapters around the world everyone can be a part of it We were the Platinum sponsor for New York City PrideWhere I39ve seen the necessary communication for these programs work really well is when the senior leadership can talk about their strugglesamp8230 If you create a safe space where even the leadership can be vulnerable it allows the employees to be vulnerable as well And then you have this masterclass in speaking to each other from your heart versus just from your mind and from your mouthConlon What other milestones have you hit since joining OmnicomWarren The biggest one is the growth of the discipline and the practice of DampampI not just at the Omnicom level but down through the networks When I started it was just me the chief diversity officer to move this mountain and figure out how to do it for 75000 people globally there are different rules here and nobody is participating over thereOne key understanding for me was that I39m not in the networks every day so I don39t know the pain points of the individual agencies Creating roles like the chief diversity officer for TBWA and head of diversity for Omnicom Media Group now allows the work that we do at the Omnicom level to be transferred in a way that is appropriate but still gives each network a space to individualize what they needThat was 10 years ago Now the networks are mature enough where they39re on their second round of hiring DampampI professionals Some of our professionals have gone out and are now in the industry doing great work So the biggest milestones may be KPIs amp8212 percentage growth of seniorlevel people of color at the manager and higher level amp8212 but I always say that KPI for me stands for quotKeep People Interestedquot Because when you throw KPI and ROI and metrics in the same bowl when you39re talking about human beings it39s a little messy for me It makes the human beings feel like they39re part of a group versus a contributor to the success of the companyI39m proud of the diversity on our board our director is African American the gender mix is more women than men We really walk the walk and I think partly from creating the role of chief diversity officerAnother milestone is being a leader externally supporting organizations such as Advancing Diversity Honors or AAF or the 4As We put our money into organizations that literally train the next generation of diversity and inclusion professionals amp8230 like MAIP They are doing the hard work of finding these young people training them putting them in our industries Many amazing alumni who are changing the way our industry operates came from these programsamp8230 So top priority is to support those initiativesMoss How do you see advocacy versus activismI think there39s something to be said for a certain kind of advocacy from people who have voices but don39t have the microphone People often say I39m the voice for the voiceless but there39s nobody who39s voiceless They just don39t have the microphone Anytime I have the microphone anytime I have a platform I will speak for those who may not have the chance to be in the position amp8230 to get the word out So advocacy is still very important and still very much neededActivism is also important but it39s activism for certain groups We need allies to be more activeamp8230 When you require the people who are part of the system that may be keeping them down to actually fix the system it39s kind of a crazy concept right But it39s better to have those who are part of the system and have some sort of seniority to be the ones who actually make the changeThe activism of quotwhoquot is the next question because I think people who are part of those groups that feel quototheredquot have been activating for a long time Now it39s time for allies and people who may not be part of those groups to stand up and say quotI39m going to pull everyone along with me and beside me and I39m going to be the one to speak up for them nowquotWe39ve been doing that for a long time so when I see an ally who is kicking butt and standing in front of moving trains for people that don39t look like them I cry because I know what it takes to do thatThe 2020 Advancing Diversity Hall of Honors inductees include Jill Baskin chief marketing officer The Hershey Companyampgt J Michael Haynie PhD vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation Institute for Veteran and Military Families Tim Jones chief executive officer Publicis Media Americas Tim McNeal talent development Walt Disney Television Sue Obeidi director Muslim Public Affairs Council The Hollywood Bureau Tony Rogers chief member officer Sam39s Club Tiffany R Warren founder and president ADCOLOR and senior vice president chief diversity officer Omnicom Group and Shelley Zalis chief executive officer The Female QuotientClick the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Advancing Diversity Honors 2020: Tiffany R. Warren, Omnicom Group

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