In 2022, Alida’s first book, Cultures of Belonging: Building Inclusive Organizations That Last, was published by HarperCollins Leadership. In May of 2024, they released her second book: The First-Time Manager: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Over the next few episodes, the Care Work podcast will be exploring two intriguing topics: how to transform what you do as a care worker into a book proposal and then an actual book you need to sell and promote, and what it takes to be a truly inclusive manager and leader. In this episode, Alida introduces this new arc, delving into how The First-Time Manager came to be.
The First-Time Manager: DEI origin story
The idea to write a book on inclusive management developed while Alida was working on Cultures of Belonging, which explored the R2P2 Structure: recruiting, retention, promotion, and protection. This theme kept drawing Alida back to the huge impact that our day-to-day interactions with managers have on the tone and experience of our work.
She wanted to extrapolate on how managers can uphold the durability, inclusivity, and equitability of the DEIB structures being developed in their organizations by ensuring these changes and opportunities are equitably and transparently distributed to the workers.
The backbone of this new book idea was quite literally erected around Alida’s infant son. During a particularly tough time, when he wasn’t feeding or sleeping, Alida focused on one thing she could control: she could work on her computer because her son was calm only when he was on top of her. In those rare moments of quiet, she began the book proposal for a text that would assist managers in facilitating dialogues around 12 underrepresented social identities.
The book the business world needed
At the time, DEI was receiving significant pushback in society and the media. Opponents claimed that it stood for “Didn’t Earn It,” and employees sued companies who were putting the structures in place. However, the research supported a different and more hopeful side: most employees were no less eager to see diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging practices implemented, but they had been silenced by the tedious labor market of the time.
Alida was adamant about the urgent need for her book, and HarperCollins Leadership agreed. They were immediately interested when Alida and her agent proposed a book for managers seeking to tangibly impact their employees’ day-to-day experiences in the workplace, particularly underrepresented team members, while navigating their secondary roles as mediators between leadership and direct reports. HarperCollins asked Alida to develop her concept as the next installment in their First-Time Manager series, which already contained editions by experts in sales, human resources, and crisis management.
