Hillary Clinton's now viral exchange with Black Lives Matter activist Julius Jones is taking the conversation about how best to level the playing field for African-Americans, women and anyone who isn't a white man in an interesting new direction. Is it more important to challenge hearts with greater awareness of their deep-seated bias? Or to hold minds accountable with an action-based, systemic approach?
In the video exchange that now has more than 600,000 views, Jones asks Clinton what she will do to change hearts and lead the country toward a deeper reckoning of white on black violence. Clinton says: "I don't believe you change hearts ... I believe you change laws [and] the way systems operate."
While the two committed civil rights leaders agree that social change involves both hearts and minds, Clinton makes clear that she believes consciousness rising without action won't change the equation.
This exchange parallels conversations here in Silicon Valley about unconscious bias training and its effectiveness in making workplaces more diverse. Most trainings begin with a strong assertion that everyone is biased and then go on to provide tools and strategies employees can use to overcome that bias.
The trainings lean into a hope that with a deeper sense of awareness (hearts), the decision-making (minds) of employees will change a company culture to be more inviting to African-Americans, women and others who are not part of the majority.
What we know now is that trainings alone do not work. Indeed, some research shows that making employees aware of their bias can sometimes make it more pronounced.
Like Clinton's description of the American people when challenged by present day ramifications of slavery ("What do you want me to do about it?"), employees who have a deeper awareness of unconscious bias, but still operate in a system where they are part of the majority, do not reliably make decisions to change the culture.
Companies who are claiming an interest in diversity must do more than attempt to change hearts. Instead they must invest in a systems approach to combatting bias in hiring decisions, including real-time disruption, decision-making support through easy to use software, and better reporting and tracking to hold companies accountable to their diversity goals.
No one understands systems change better than Silicon Valley. If we want action aligned with the dynamic passion of the movement to increase diversity in Silicon Valley, then we need to embrace a systems change approach directed at changing more than hearts.