Rewirement in a DisruptED World of Corporate Social Responsibility with Kelem Butts, Vice President of CSR Strategy, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas

Okay, folks. Listeners and viewers, Ron Stefanski from Disrupted, and this is lit. Look at this studio. They've done quite a renovation of the market scale studio, and I'm down here in Dallas to tape disrupted, live in the studio. So that's gonna be a super huge amount of fun. We're gonna be talking about the disruption that's going on in the world of corporate social responsibility and social impact and impact giving and philanthropy. And I've got a friend down here in Dallas that I've invited to come over here because he is an expert in all this. He's been a thought leader and a huge influence on the landscape of corporate social responsibility over the last twenty five years. Kellum Butts is now the chief of, corporate social responsibility strategy at United Way Dallas, but I knew him, during his twenty one years, in with the same title at, AT and T, one of the largest corporations in that corporate giving space. And so so much in that world has become disrupted. And I want Kellum to talk about that, but also to talk about our long history in the upskilling space because he contributed mightily to many of our efforts to lift people up with skills and education. So I'm gonna go walk the studio and find him. Oh, I think he's coming here this way. Oh, there he is. Tell him. Hello. Hey there. Hey. Welcome. Great to have you in the studio today. Great to be here. Here. Let me shake your hand. You're gonna miss this on the camera, but I gotta shake your hand. Alright. Alright. Come on in the studio with me, and, we'll get these guys to queue us up and get started. I have so many things I wanna ask you about. It's been a while since we've seen each other. I I I think we realized we hadn't seen each other since COVID. Right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Since then. Yes. So and you have completely transformed your life. And in one significant way, I cautioned you not to say you had retired, but you had rewired because there's no way I can legitimately accept the fact that you're retired if you're doing the kind of words you're doing out of the scale and the intensity that you are loaned for. That that gives you a platform only for United Way. But it also says how you know, it's like I always tell people, someone's interested in market scale, and they're not a good storyteller. We'll have them talk to market scale, but I don't want them on the show because I want the show to be compelling. Right. Right. Everyone tell me when you're ready. And tell me at the twenty minute mark, do I pin, do I have associate on the ramp? Hello, listeners and viewers. This is Ron Stefanski, and I am on a little bit of a high because we are taking Disrupted to Dallas. So it's Disrupted in Dallas. I am at the home of Market Scale in this incredible studio, and I occasionally get brought down here to do my show here. And it's always exciting because they have an amazing and creative crew. I gotta plug the Market Scale staff. Tim Maitland and his team are just wonderful hosts when I come down here, and so it's always fun. But today, I'm especially happy because I have fulfilled my mission for twenty twenty four. I said to our disrupted community, what this year was gonna be about is everything next level. And who you're about to hear from, you're gonna hear about next level stuff. Okay? I'm joined by Kellum Butts, who is currently the vice president of corporate social responsibility at United Way Dallas. Welcome to the show, Kellum. As you recall, those of you who listen to Disrupt Ed know the drill. We talk to those seemingly ordinary humans who are actually making an extraordinary impact, and I can't think of anyone that's had a greater impact over a longer period of time than Kelm. So welcome to Disrupt Ed, Kelm. It's great to have you here. Thanks so much, Ron. I'm happy to be here. So we were talking offline, in the outside the studio about the last time we saw each other in person. I mean, we trafficked in the upskilling arena for twenty years, so we were constantly, sitting down and talking about the Steelers and the Lions or, you know, any number of different things and a lot about corporate social responsibility. So it's great to see you in person after all these years I know. Being down here. It's been a while. It's it's great to see you, and thank you for thanks for having me. And this the view here is unbelievable. Isn't it crazy? It's really super nice. I I always feel uplifted when I'm here because because I just feel like we're on literally on the top of the world at least in Dallas. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. To our listening and viewing audience, Kelm, I think it would benefit to hear a little bit about your very interesting origin story because you spent a lot of time in the corporate world at AT and T. And then, and then the second half of your chapter there was in corporate social responsibility. So I think I think our listening and viewing audience would benefit from hearing a little bit about what motivated you in this space, and also the interesting side detour you took from working in the space you and I were invested in, which is upskilling education, and learning to, the digital divide, which was a big divide between what you were doing and what you're being asked to do. So I think there's a little bit of a story there. So Yeah. So I, I started with, AT and T in January of twenty, two thousand one. So I was there for twenty two years, before I I went through rewirement. And, you know, I was there. I was in a a a marketing role. I had done that for for some time. But throughout my career, I had constantly been looking for, for more meaning, of what I wanted to do that would bring more fulfillment, to to me personally and and in my career. And, fortunately, after I'd been there for for about nine years or so, AT and T started up, its, CSR, organization, corporate social responsibility organization. At the time, we called it CNS, citizenship and sustainability, which is a little bit of a mouthful, admittedly. But, so I was able to get into that organization because I I I learned about it, and and I realized that that was the place for me. I I interviewed. I got in. I believe I was the fourth hire by the chief sustainability officer, in into that group, which was just Being number four is a big deal because how many people were there when you left? When I left, we were, as an organization, in the sixty to seventy range. So it was a, it became a very big organization and went from very focused in, you know, locally and, you know, mostly in Dallas serving nationally. But, over over time, we expanded to international, and there's still some, some international So I wanna hit you up about some of the highlights of your work in upskilling because we spoke so many times whether it was about the Clinton Global Initiative, whether or not it was about workforce, whether or not it was about an upscaling conference. And every time, you always have great stories about what AT and T was bringing to the table, and I have a pretty strong suspicion you were a large force behind the scenes in making that happen. So I I want you to unpack that for us a little bit. Yeah. Well, I I mean, first and foremost, it's it's important to understand, from a CSR perspective why companies get involved in the work they do, the the philanthropic work, the CSR work they do. Because companies that do it well do it because it ties in nicely to their own corporate goals. So we, at the time now I'm talking AT and T. So I'm talking we about AT and T, but our it was very important for us to focus on, work that was aligned to AT and T. So we focused on education, and and career readiness, upskilling. And the reason we did is because, you know, at the time, AT and T was probably two hundred twenty five, two hundred and fifty thousand people. So we were hiring people Massive organization. You were hiring people nonstop. Nonstop in in ranging from, you know, people working in warehouses to, you know, corporate attorneys and and CFOs and, you know, all sorts of different positions. So we understood that we needed to focus on work that was aligned to our own corporate needs. And there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, a a well run a well run CSR organization is going to do that. I I always show I had a a VIN diagram that I showed you before. I've left it, on the other table, but that was that was our focus. So, you know, to be able to really, do the work and focus on providing upskill upskilling and providing skill sets to people who may not have a traditional pathway into a corporate, corporate role was, great on a whole bunch of different levels. Well, so from a talent perspective, you really shaped a lot of the talent strategy for AT and T when you think about it. Because, you know, as I recall with these two hundred and fifty thousand people, you had a lot of frontline workers because that's where we had our focus decisions. Oh, yeah. And then you have a whole series of professional people that are in legal or financial or HR roles, totally different, and and in tech roles as well. You know, it seemed to me that during that time that we were together doing that stuff, there was a fairly profound ground shifting going on, and it was around what I would describe as education as a benefit. So at the beginning of that era, in the in the knots, shall we say, the focus for most corporations in saying, okay. We're gonna invest in education, was really focused on the top of the pyramid. Right? It was really focused on who are the they even called them high pots, high potential employees. What are we doing for them? Do we have an MBA or an executive MBA? Do we have professional education, for them? And I think with the emergence of, first Starbucks and then McDonald's and then AT and T and a whole bunch of people almost, you know, somewhat in in rapid succession started rethinking how they were gonna invest in employees. And the and and and, frankly, it was really, kind of exciting from the standpoint that a lot of people who weren't given a lot of thought suddenly had a lot of attention on them. And that's all these frontline workers that, you know, executives behind the scenes were basically saying by their actions, you know, they're not gonna be around long enough. I don't know why we'd invest in that because they're gonna leave anyway. And suddenly, everyone's saying, wait a minute. These are people that are moving among us, and we all need an upgrade in the skills. And so maybe you can speak a little bit to to that shift, at AT and T when you stop looking at just the top of the pyramid and sort of expanded it out. Yeah. So I'll I'll I'll take a a a wee step backwards. From an education perspective, the work that we did, there was at the the lower level, younger level, secondary level, we tended to focus a lot of people focus more on those, like you talked about, high potential. So those those, young students who who might be going on to, an Ivy League school and, you know, a lot of people tried to to focus on them and and try to bring them bring them about. We really wanted to focus on those students who were were potentially being left behind. The the the the the c level students, not the ones who were not going to go necessarily to an Ivy Ivy League school. So that's really where we started is, supporting, you know, secondary students at that level. And then when you get into upskilling, start, you know, a little bit older, younger younger adults, we really took very much the same sort of mentality and same sort of approach, to to to those types of of of students, so our young young adults. So we really were looking at, at ways to bring people in, you know, for some frontline jobs, but we also started thinking that, you know, some of these tech jobs, don't necessarily need a four year degree. Or bachelor's degree. Right. I mean and and, you know, because at the time, there was that that was the mantra. Let's get everybody a four year degree. You know, I will I will argue with anybody that a four year degree is an absolutely fantastic thing, but not for everybody. And you don't necessarily need one to get into the workforce. So But that had to be a cataclysmic change for AT and T Oh, yes. In terms of looking at anyone that they thought is, we've got a good hire here. We wanna put them on a track. Yes. We weren't necessarily thinking about people without a degree for that particular pathway. Oh, yeah. That that was, believe me, that that that took some selling, a lot of selling to to really, help people get to the point where they had understood that that, you know, we can do this. And if I'll give you one I'll give you an example. So there's an organization called Year Up. They have Right. With Gerald Shurtabian. Very good. Exactly. So they had they have a new name. I should know it, and and I don't. But at the time, it was year up. We understood what it was they were trying to do, and we really bought into their, their approach. We helped bring them to to Dallas with with funding, and then we really started to to focus on how, we could make a commitment, to to help bring some of those young adults into into AT and T. And and, really, it was, it was very much of a mind, a mind shift at, change at at AT and T, talking to people about, you know, you don't need you know, there are some entry level, management roles that that people with the proper training, with some community college courses, with the training from year up will be able to to fulfill. And, what turn turns out that frequently, you grab somebody, from from a background where they didn't know they could they could do that type of job. They're very smart, very tough, very talented people, just didn't have somebody at home telling them, hey. You need to go to a four year college. They just didn't maybe didn't have the the resources, didn't have somebody at home to to to encourage them to do that. Well, it also seems like they also didn't have access in a different way. So they might not have had access to education. But No. It's also they didn't have access to the corporate world in the sense that many of them, and particularly black and brown and underserved, urban, young people were were not understood. And I remember you and I were at an upskilling event with Europe, where Gerald was talking about his own experience with a little brother. Yes. Yeah. And remember the story? So he goes to a parent teacher conference because his little brother's mom can't do it. She's on a second shift at work. And he goes and he talks to his middle school teacher about this young man, And, the teacher looks at Gerald and says, which which guy are you talking about? And it was just crushed it was soul crushing to think that here's this really bright kid that he's been working with and mentoring and spending time with, and this kid was completely invisible to his own teacher, his own homeroom teacher. That's that's a problem of a different sort. Yeah. You know? And so I think you know, talk a little bit about the secret sauce there because it really was about assimilating people with durable skills, and that's really the advent of a lot of a lot of time being spent on what we used to call soft skills and then durable skills or power skills. But in effect, the skills you need to read the room and to insinuate yourself into a different work environment. Yeah. I mean, that that's a, a lot of the work that a lot of, very well run organizations like a Europe will will do is they really, they focus on the technical skills, but they spend a lot of time with those young adults to make sure that they know, how to work with people, how to how to, what what's it that people call it now? The the executive skills, I think, or the exec you know, the to be able to manage themselves, to be able to to read the room, to be able to ask the ask the right the right questions and to to feel confident in, the positions where they are because they're frequently, you know, people young young adults who had no idea what happens in these in these tall buildings. I mean, we're sitting here on fifty third floor, Bank of America Tower. I'm looking, you know, I'm looking at Southern Dallas, and and I can't tell you how many how many young kids from Southern Dallas that we've gone and done events with and that that have you know, we brought them to downtown here, and they said, you know, I I've seen those buildings for years, and I had no idea what people did in them. And they're, you know crazy? I mean, that's just crazy. Three, four, five miles away, and they just didn't have the exposure to people who worked here. You know? And and it's just so important to be able to have that, that sort of experience and that exposure to people, who who are in these corporate types of of jobs. Well, I'm glad you brought up the Europe experience because that's where I really realized the kind of impact you were truly trying to make. It wasn't just throwing money at things. Things. It wasn't it was more about changing the way people looked at other people in a work context Oh, yeah. And how to make that work differently. So where do you think it went from, you know, from those initial stages of investing in Europe? You know, how did that impact the culture, the talent management, and, hiring and training and onboarding of people at AT and T? Yeah. Well, I mean, you you because you we pivoted from a situation where we in the court in the philanthropy space, we provided funding for Europe to come to Dallas. After that, it was the the full cost and investment was on the burden, not a burden, but on the business units because they we had to convince them to invest in those students. So it was the business units that then that paid the, for those, those year up students to then go through the the process and then go work at at AT and T. And it it changes people because when you once you you you do that work and you've had this, you know, you've never been ex you as an employee have never been exposed to people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, and then you are all of a sudden are that person's mentor at work, and you see how talented, some of these some of the people that that come from these different backgrounds can be and how dedicated and just different exposure, different experiences that that they have and the the value that they're able to bring to, a company like AT and T. And and it's I I I've I've seen I've seen the change from from the from the employees, but I've also seen it, of of course, from the the the the participants. Gerald, and and and Europe had a leadership meeting, pre COVID where they brought in a bunch of funders, and and just to talk about, you know, here's what's happening. Here's where we are. One of the things they did is they they made sure throughout this this two day conference to bring in, past, recipients or past beneficiaries of the the program, alums of of Year Up. And I and I can't tell you, each and every one of them would get up, and they would talk about their experiences. And they to a person, they would put up a picture of a home. And these are thirty, thirty five year old, you know, so they've already gone through the program. But the point was they were able to to to point to that picture and, you know, in that in that slide and say, I now live in this house with my with my spouse, and my children are able to live in this house because of what Year Up was able to do for me. And it and it just you know, I I I I get I get chills thinking about this. That's right. I mean, yes. Absolutely. It's such a moving experience, and when you see the impact then intergenerationally. So to our listening and viewing audience, it's been Ron Stefanski with Disrupt Ed, and I am joined by, Kellum Butts, currently at United Way. We've been talking about our work together over the last fifteen years in the corporate social responsibility and social impact space. When we come back, we're gonna pivot, and we're gonna talk about the disrupted nature of social impact giving, from the perch of the United Way. So stay tuned. Come back for episode two. And by all means, get disrupted with us. Give column a round of applause on, LinkedIn. Comment, share, post on our episode here. Let us know what you're thinking, and we'll be right back for episode two.