The past is no path forward for the future

A common question I have heard over the years is that it is best to remain silent when you do not have your house in order. Your reputation could be irreparably harmed if you say that you are in favor of providing women with more seats on boards and then you are found to have no women on your own board. Or you say that you are in favor of Black equality in business and your executive team is all white. Or you say that you are against sexual harassment and guess what, you have a thick folder in your HR archives on a leader who was accused of sexual misconduct and you did nothing about it. Most companies choose to say little when they know they have skeletons in their closet. While reading a feature on Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, Chris Miller, the brand’s head of activism strategy, had a unique answer to this question of remaining silent unless 100% pure.

"I’ve talked with some of my peers, who sit in companies around the country. There’s been a lot of talk back and forth around who’s doing what and how it’s been received. And I think there has been some hesitancy that some companies feel, like, ‘Well, we don’t have a pedigree on this. We don’t have a background on these issues. We haven’t built the network.’”

I think that companies that do not have all the answers and crossed all the t’s should be transparent and make it clear that they have not reached their end goal and intend to start work on improvement when it comes to the issue at hand. I think that makes them more credible and earnest and meaningful.