Ogilvy Introduces Cross-Industry Diversity Lab to Tackle Issues Beyond Advertising

Issues around systemic racism in business and society are too big to solve without help from a variety of perspectives, so one of advertising's most iconic creative agencies is calling for input from outside the industry. Ogilvy has created a cross-industry diversity lab called The Force, which brings together leaders from various industries to develop solutions that put DEI efforts at the center of business strategies. The Force innovation lab includes representatives from Airbnb, Blumhouse Productions, Calm, The City of Santa Monica, Gallagher and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, among others. "We are confident the ad industry can make strides. We're happy to lead the way and collaborate with others," James Kinney, who joined Ogilvy as global chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer and North America chief people officer at the start of the year, told Adweek. Across the course of three sessions, The Force will focus on utilizing behavioral science and design thinking to tackle pipeline, funding and staff challenges across industries, featuring prominent presenters and providing opportunities for cross-industry collaborations, as well as issuing challenges for the group to work together and use the strength of their platforms to shape and support more inclusive public policies at the federal, state and local level. "Our industry has tremendous convening power that can be used to bring about change for the better, and The Force is a great example of that," Ogilvy global CEO Andy Main said in a statement. "I'm looking forward to seeing how the power of collaboration combined with our creativity, insight and scale can make a difference." Exclusive: Ogilvy Poaches McCann’s Devika Bulchandani as North America CEO The Force awakens The group was the brainchild of Kinney, who explained he had the idea for The Force before he started at the agency, arriving with enthusiasm about the possibilities provided by Ogilvy's global platform and the benefits of gathering perspectives from outside the ad industry. "When you look at advertising, tech or any of the big industries throughout the globe, people tend to talk to people they know," Kinney explained. "The essence of diversity itself is the more diversity of input you have, the better the output." "In advertising, we celebrate ourselves a lot," he added. "It's about humbling ourselves and asking what we can learn from [companies like] Airbnb, Calm and Blumhouse," he added, "to cross-pollinate to understand challenges they're facing, the key insights we can take and learn from each other." Today, The Force is hosting the first in a series of three cohort meetings this year, with Dr. Sonya Slone as the first speaker, discussing the disproportionality and lack of equity in health care. In this first meeting, Kinney will also present the group with three large societal issues to solve for with the goal of driving meaningful change: federal pay equity, equitable spending on education against prison costs (meaning a dollar spent on education for every dollar spent on prison costs) and extending the Hate Crimes Prevention Act to online speech. Imagining the change After Kinney's initial presentation to the cohort, the group is breaking up into three groups to discuss potential solutions for all three challenges, with the group then voting on which one to take on throughout the remainder of the year. "Ultimately, we're using our creativity and collective economic influence to impact private and public policies to drive progress," Kinney said. "Now is the time for us to attempt this. If The Force can influence even 50 CEOs to believe in pay equity, imagine the change." When The Force reconvenes this summer, it will ensure its plans to solve for the chosen issue are secured, with the aim of driving legislative changes. Kinney explained that the goal was to have a presentation to give to a federal or state legal body by the end of the year, while also exploring remedies in the private sector. Whether or not The Force succeeds in driving legislative changes, Kinney views the effort to take on such monumental challenges itself as a major step. "It's a tall task. I wrote these big challenges on purpose because the world has big problems," Kinney said. "It's about taking the shot. You may not succeed, but then other people see that it's possible."