Mosaic Celebrates Difference and Makes Space for Honest, Difficult Conversations
It’s one thing to create a group around shared characteristics; it’s another to create a community where all backgrounds, experiences, and cultures are not only talked about but celebrated. That’s what Mosaic, the new MarketSource BIPOC ERG, hopes to achieve.
Drawing inspiration from the concept of combining diverse elements to form a coherent whole, Mosaic leaders David Smith and Alejandro Sanchez want the group to be as inclusive as possible. While designated as a community for black, indigenous, and people of color—anyone from any race, gender, ethnicity, or background is welcome to join.
The group will hold monthly meetings, commemorative panel discussions, celebrations, and other events. The content will focus on helping members perform better in their roles and deepen their understanding of how they can participate in and contribute more to the business—all through a lens of diversity.
Says David, who is of African and Guyanese descent, “Mosaic is important for MarketSource. It will be an intentional gathering of diverse perspectives, which we hope will become a valuable vehicle for promoting members’ growth. It will also be a safe space for us to have conversations about our nuanced and overt differences—cultural and otherwise. These interactions will make us individually and collectively stronger and help us show up better for our teammates, customers, families, friends, and ourselves.”
Alejandro, a Venezuelan immigrant pursuing US citizenship, added, “Mosaic gives us an outlet to discuss how cultural events impact us and channel that energy in constructive, healing ways that are true to ourselves. It’s a place for us to celebrate both where we’ve come from and where we are right now so we can chart a course forward together. It’s essential to offer the space and tools for authentic cultural conversations, which, if we avoid, might hinder our growth.”
He plans to apply to Mosaic the rules of engagement he relies on when he leads continuous improvement workshops, which MarketSource uses to assess, iterate, and inject improvement into client programs. “This is a blame-free zone,” he says. “We’re here to solve a problem, and judgment is counterproductive. It inhibits the voices and honest ideas and feedback that are essential to progress.”
David’s message to Mosaic members? “Get accustomed to being an important part of the conversation.” He envisions the growth people will experience from participating in Mosaic translating to their work, “…of people getting out of their comfort zone, of showing up in meetings differently.”
Other MarketSource ERGs include the Women’s ERG, which strives to empower women by developing and maintaining a vibrant, inclusive community, tools that foster growth, and a safe space for productive discussions around issues women at MarketSource face.
About MarketSource
MarketSource, an Allegis Group company, is a sales acceleration company focused on delivering better outcomes for many of the world’s most iconic brands. We design and operationalize managed sales and customer experience solutions in B2B and retail environments. Our solutions are purpose-built and tech-enabled to deliver measurable improvements in business outcomes.