A prominent question that crosses the minds of many in these unprecedented times is, “How are my daily lived experiences and personal principles honored and reflected in the work that I do?”

In a fireside chat at at From Day One’s Atlanta conference, Laurie George Billingsley, global chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer at The Coca-Cola Company, reflected on the responsibility of businesses leading the charge to achieve justice and equity. In many ways, employers and employees have had to shift direction. The workplace is no longer physical, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) has become an imperative, and most of all, businesses are setting the standard of prioritizing and openly outlining their values.

In a conversation with From Day One co-founder Steve Koepp, Billingsley shared strategies to elevate the DEI function of Coca-Cola locally, regionally, nationally, and globally using the company’s social-justice framework. The company has four pillars that serve as support structures for global markets to address social justice and inclusion issues: Listen, lead, invest, and advocate.

The Four Pillars

Listen, lead, invest, and advocate isn’t some sort of mantra or slogan; it is a company norm that has transformed into a methodological scoring system to evaluate how to respond to DEI concerns. Employees answer questions based on the scoring tool, and subsequently are directed to action-based solutions predicated on the four pillars.

The scoring tool was just the beginning of addressing DEI priorities at Coca-Cola. Employees brainstormed a plethora of ideas to facilitate change at the century-old food-and-beverage company and chose three principal ideas as main focal points. The first was an allyship guide, created by employees for employees, that became a standard of engagement for having conversations that centered on social justice. The second priority was increasing the number of employees who identified as people of color and women in leadership positions. The final principal was committing to supplier diversity. By 2025, Coca-Cola will commit half a billion dollars annually to contract with Black-owned businesses.

Community Beginnings

Billingsley, a proud alumna of Howard University, reflected on her experiences as a child surrounded by community members who were intent on creating solutions around social justice, remembering, “I grew up seeing, you know, church leaders, nonprofit leaders, government officials, politicians, neighbors coming in our house to talk about the issues of the day, if it was education reform, civil rights, integrating neighborhoods, a whole host of issues. And I just saw how bringing those people together really helped to provide a platform for action. And so that stayed with me growing up, seeing that in real action in real life.” Those values instilled in her as a child and young adult were the inspiration for the advocate and leader she is today.

Working Alongside Strategic Goals

DEI is only as effective as your programmatic strategy, she said. Billingsley emphasized the importance of creating symmetric objective inputs and outputs. “Develop the commitments that are relevant to your business. So don’t come out of left field with something that doesn’t align at all with your business.” The commitments are indeed commitments: along with a robust strategy, she uplifted the importance of accountability.

Inclusion: a Conversation for Every Employee

Data is crucial in DEI and should be transparent to everyone invested in the effectiveness of DEI programming, including managers, supervisors, members of employee-resource groups and other stakeholders. Billingsley advocated finally for a comprehensive and well-thought-out approach to stave off any atrophy to progress earned, recommending, “Let’s develop a plan. Let’s talk about how we’re going to take action and move the needle forward from a DEI perspective. And again, how can you get the visibility at the C-suite level, as well as at the board-of-director level, and just make sure that you’re having touch points with those people so that it doesn’t become sort of out-of-sight, out-of-mind?”

Editor’s note: Since the From Day One conference, Billingsley retired from Coca-Cola after a 20-year career at the company.

Nzingha Hall is a journalist, public speaker, and DEI facilitator in Atlanta, Ga.