Ep 217: Ian Davis

This episode is part of season 2 - which we’ve sub-titled, “Leading In The Time Of Virus.”  Since the outbreak of COVID-19, this podcast has been focused on how leaders are adapting to a global health pandemic.  But the death of George Floyd has finally and fully exposed what millions of people already knew. Another virus has already infected our society.  Racism. It’s been here for centuries. It adapts and evolves, it is fueled by hate and fear and it leaves in its wake deep, wide and lasting damage. And pain.  Today, leadership requires that you meet the challenges of both the coronavirus and of racism.  Talking will not do it. Well written manifestos will not do it. Posting employment statistics will not do it. You have to make hard decisions, in some cases financially expensive decisions. Otherwise, you’re complicit.  This episode is a conversation with Ian Davis, Founder + Principal at Age Of The Creative. They describe themselves as a creative consulting firm that problem solves for companies and brands. They bridge the disparate worlds of business, strategy and artistry through deep relationships with their network of over 200 influential creative artists.  I invited Ian on the show after reading an open letter that he posted on LinkedIn in early June.  Ian is a black man and his letter was addressed to Jonathan Shipman, who was Head of Production at McCann, when Ian was a producer at the ad agency a little over ten years ago. In the letter, Ian describes two incidents in which he believed Jonathan and other members of McCann’s leadership perpetrated what he later came to understand were micro-aggressions. Micro-aggressions are another form of racism.  I’ve known Jonathan Shipman for a number of years and I believe him to be a caring, sensitive man. Reading Ian’s post, I was struck by three things. Ian’s courage in writing the letter. Jonathan’s honest and humble responses to the post. And to my own reaction, which was to wonder whether I might have been guilty of similar behavior without recognizing it in the past.  Racism is a virus.  If Black Lives Matter is to be a vaccine or at the very least a therapeutic, we need to shine a light on racism in all its forms. And many of us, many of us need to be much better educated about how racism shows up so that we can take real action to wipe it out.  This conversation is part of that work.