Jamel Toppin for Forbes
After Forbes published a ranking of America’s Most Innovative Leaders that included only one woman out of 100 CEOs and founders, a firestorm of (deserved) outrage and controversy ignited online and across all our stakeholders. We made a serious mistake. We are humbled by it, have internalized and learned from it, and are committed to doing better.
To ensure that, I was asked to chair a newsroom task force to come up with strategies to improve and rethink how we develop, report and package our lists by the end of September. Three weeks, five meetings and seven people with diverse professional and life experiences: We ranged from top editors with deep institutional knowledge to new hires with fresh ideas and voices. Some are experts in gender and diversity and inclusion coverage, others in list-making, investigative journalism and fact-checking.
The task force was ready and eager to ask and answer hard questions and confront difficult truths. With a shared sense of purpose, we came up with three specific recommendations that must be built into the DNA of all our journalism. All three will be immediately become Forbes editorial policy.
Recommendation 1: An audit to eliminate implicit, unintentional or institutional bias
The first task is an intensive bias audit of all our lists. We need to weed out a business-as-usual mentality and challenge mediocre or flawed methodologies, distinguishing quantitative from qualitative designs, questioning data sources, revisiting formulas and reviewing partners. From there, we can decide which lists should be revised, replaced or abandoned – and where we can experiment.
A dedicated and diverse editorial vetting panel will lead these deep-dive audits along with each list’s specific editor. This auditing effort will revitalize our most respected content and send a powerful signal that there are no B-lists when our reputation and integrity is on the line. In addition, the insights from this initiative will give us a true sense of our rankings’ value to our journalism, audiences and brand.
Recommendation 2: Clear reporting chain that encourages and values all newsroom stakeholders’ suggestions
Our newsroom must be built on trust, clear communication and collaboration. It’s critical that all the eyes and hands that touch our lists be personally invested. That means team leaders and top management must clearly and routinely remind their staff that their opinions, concerns and suggestions are encouraged and valued.
Most importantly, when there are concerns about bias and inclusion and diversity issues, the staff is emphatically empowered to report them directly to their supervisor(s), who in turn are mandated to alert the chief content officer and director of editorial operations in real time.
It is important to note that leaders must make hard choices – sometimes, feedback will be rejected. The key message is that a “no” should not stop anyone from future conversations with their boss or senior staff, nor damage their reputation or future opportunities.
Recommendation 3: Map out opportunities to spotlight or report inequities; experiment with new lists
When it comes to our quantitative (generally money and wealth) lists, the difficulties we face in gender, racial, identity and background parity are part of larger cultural, social and economic issues. Specifically, the lack of women and people of color is deeply intertwined with their poor representation in positions of leadership and earnings, funding and other opportunity gaps. When this is the case, we must call it out and look for paths to move the conversation forward, including new definitions of success. Specifically:
1. Don’t ignore or hide it. Looking at inequities, disparities and exclusion must be a part of our editorial process. We can distinguish ourselves by exploring these issues prominently in our journalism.
2. Experiment. This is the right time to revise existing lists or create new ones that counterbalance or shine a light on overlooked people and groups.
3. Incorporate new voices and storytelling techniques.
