Game Change

That insurance companies were involved in diversity programs was not a surprise. Hell, at this point in our evolving recognition of the importance of variegation I would not be surprised if diversity programs had diversity programs. I was even less surprised that companies would be willing to talk to the press in order to tout their diversity credentials. What did surprise me was the mosaic of people throughout the industry that were gathered for the conference.

In what has often been derided as an “old white man’s game” the industry seems to have organized some new players. Though the contingent of older white men was on the field as well as on the bench, they were in no way outnumbering the rest. Mind you, this was not some carefully calibrated event designed to show a member of the press how the game has changed. It was not a meeting of the National Association of Insurance Women or a conference for the National African-American Insurance Association or any other similar group for that matter. This was an authentic meeting of professionals to talk about leadership and the issues facing the industry. The conference attendees served as a tangible sample of who comprises the industry and a sharp barometer of how things have changed.

My eyes had already debunked the “white man’s game” section of the myth and it was fully extinguished with the overwhelming presence of an excited and eager youth. Leaders of Today and Tomorrow (LoTT), a GAMA coined demographic that pertains to people in their first five years of management or under the age of 40 were there in huge numbers. Youth was quite visible at the conference everywhere I looked. The amount of young men and women (a lot of them millennials) admittedly, caught me off guard. It could have been the group’s youthful enthusiasm or sheer volume, but they stood out more than any other group that I saw at the conference.

After my Color Blind article I was still skeptical as to whether or not this was the high tide that would usher the sea change into the industry. I was well aware that change was going to and had to take place but I was cynical as to whether enough energy was devoted to it with balance sheets diminishing and regulatory overhauls bobbing on the water. I could have met with dozens of other companies, I could have flipped through pages and pages of diversity outreach literature from communications departments industry wide; I am not sure that would have relieved my skepticism. What I witnessed first-hand at the LAMP conference was an organic and seemingly seamless change that has without question been helped by diversity programs but is no way due to them. The “old white man’s game” seems to be over.