CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion - Q&A with PwC's Shannon Schuyler
June 08, 2021
The fourth anniversary of CEO Action is June 12. As part of the MSCPA’s DEI Month, we sat down with Shannon Schuyler, U.S. Chief Purpose & Inclusion Officer at PwC LLP, to talk about its beginnings, and how in four years CEO Action has grown to become the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion within the workplace.
How did CEO Action start, and did you predict it would grow as rapidly as it has?
CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion (CEO Action) was conceptualized by PwC’s US Chairman and Senior Partner Tim Ryan in 2016. Shortly after he took on this role, there was a series of racially driven killings across the country that prompted him to hold a firmwide conversation on race. Inspired by feedback from partners and staff, he brought these issues up with other CEOs and found that while it was top of mind for many, there was uncertainty around how to drive real, sustainable change.
What emerged was the idea of bringing CEOs together to advance D&I in the business community and society with the recognition that as a collective, we could have greater impact. When CEO Action launched in 2017 with 150 signatory CEOs, it was with a shared belief that D&I is a societal issue, not a competitive one, and that collaboration and bold action from the business community - especially CEOs - is vital to driving change at scale.
CEO Action has grown significantly in the past four years, and today is a coalition of nearly 2,000 CEOs of America's leading businesses, universities and nonprofits representing 85 industries across all 50 states. We doubled the size of the coalition in 2021, and while we could not have predicted this level of rapid growth, our pledge commitments are compelling, and our mission is vitally relevant to tackling the issues of today.
What do you attribute its growth to?
For years, CEO Action has provided a powerful platform for companies at all stages in their D&I journeys to rally together, democratize resources, collaborate, gather in times of crisis, share leading practices and turn learnings into bold actions, so we’ve seen steady growth from its inception.
Recently, however, there’s been a series of events that accelerated this growth. In the past year, George Floyd’s murder, a pandemic, civil unrest, and economic upheaval impacted communities nationwide, prompting leaders to turn to CEO Action to navigate these societal issues at a critical time.The business community also emerged as the most trusted institution in America, meaning CEOs
have the opportunity - and responsibility - to play a significant role in accelerating progress on some of today’s most pressing issues.
CEO Action provides business leaders the innovative tools, resources, relevant training, peer-to-peer learning, events and thought-leadership opportunities to step into this critical moment, take action and advance D&I across our workplaces and communities.
How has COVID-19 and the resulting remote workforce changed DEI?
CEO Action specializes in bringing leaders together to discuss timely challenges like this one in an effort to share key learnings. What we know from those discussions is that transitioning to a remote environment is new territory for most, and there’s no playbook.
That raises many questions, particularly around D&I and how to foster a culture of belonging. D&I and HR leaders will increasingly be challenged with questions like: What are the right tools for creativity and collaboration? How can you maintain or improve your culture in a remote environment? And perhaps most importantly: How can you make sure it’s inclusive?
Communicating your organization’s values becomes more critical with a distributed workforce, but there are some clear takeaways. Business leaders I’ve spoken with are focused on creating shared experiences and connectivity through virtual town halls, team-building and candid conversations to maintain a sense of connectivity in a virtual environment. Pulse check surveys to see whether shared values are coming across to employees, intentional communications about important programs and initiatives, establishing working norms, building trust, and
incorporating social elements into virtual work relationships are also recommended.
These challenges are new for all of us, but it’s clear that only those businesses that create a shared experience for their entire workforce and build an inclusive culture will truly be able to realize the benefits of these new ways of working -- making our D&I leaders’ roles, and CEO Action’s mission to help navigate these issues, more critical than ever.
What’s the focus for CEO Action right now? How does that impact PwC?When it comes to how CEO Action’s focus impacts PwC, I tend to think of it as the other way around! PwC’s focus as a purpose-led and values-driven organization that uses its talent and resources to be a voice for change in society and within the business community is what led to the creation and impact of CEO Action. We will continue to be bold, intentional, and unwavering in our commitment to transparency and accountability, both as a firm and as a founding signatory of the coalition.
From the CEO Action side, we are entering an exciting time. This month, we’re commemorating the coalition’s year four anniversary by kicking off the most ambitious offerings we’ve ever undertaken. This includes new programs and resources (ranging from structured mentoring, to monthly conversations, to doubling the educational resource library) in an ongoing effort to be the center point for collaboration and bold action on D&I issues for the business community.
Here are some exciting key initiatives and overall priorities CEO Action is focused on:
- Our third annual Day of Understanding in April, which is a collective moment for our coalition to host candid conversations around D&I issues throughout the year, saw record-breaking engagement this year. More than 400 organizations participated, helping to shape dialogue and changing experiences for the 13+ million people in our collective organizations.
- From now until October, we are hosting a thought-provoking virtual workshop series, to allow CHROs and CDOs to explore important topics such as D&I data and transparency, allyship vs activism, responding to social issues, board insights and the intersection of storytelling and stakeholder management to help drive deeper conversations between peers and practical knowledge to advance D&I strategies.
- This series will culminate in our annual CEO Closed-Door Session and CHRO & CDO Summit in November.
- Through our Signatory-Led Communities, our signatories are learning from and challenging one another to create industry-level impact.
- We are also sharing our Actions Database of nearly 2,000 actionable insights and our Strategy Driver tools and resources with one another to drive change at scale.
- Finally, we are taking action to address societal racism through our Fellowship program, CEO Action for Racial Equity. In May, the Fellowship announced an expanded issue agenda that will address widening disparities across economic empowerment, education, healthcare and public safety, in addition to its commitment to closing the digital divide and expanding access to telehealth.
What’s the first step for accounting firms and companies who want to create a more inclusive culture?
The fundamental first step happens to be related to the first of CEO Action’s four pledge commitments: to make our workplaces trusting places to have complex, and sometimes difficult, conversations about diversity and inclusion.
This means creating and maintaining environments, platforms, and forums where people feel comfortable reaching out to their colleagues to gain greater awareness of each other's experiences and perspectives. It is through ongoing candid dialogue that we build trust, encourage compassion, and reinforce our commitment to a more inclusive culture.
Where do you see CEO Action in 5 more years?
It is incredibly hard to predict where CEO Action will be in 5 years as so much depends on the systemic change and sustainable action that is made within the business community, but also in society more broadly.
What I can say is that we’ll continue to push the envelope, remain focused on action through collaboration and always remain focused on what’s ahead to meet the demands of today and the needs of tomorrow. Our goal is to provide a relevant platform that convenes, educates and inspires our leaders across the business community to live up to their commitments to advance diversity, equity and inclusion at scale.
Whether it was back in 2017 when the coalition was formed, or five years from now, our tactics may change but our mission remains the same -- to continue to move the needle toward a more just and equitable world.