You’ve seen the movie montages; civilians join up, go through bootcamp, and by the end of the movie they’re entirely different people. But did you know that leaving the military is also a transition? And, as Dr. Iesiah Harris discovered, it’s not easy. How does Booz Allen have a 95% retention rate for military veterans in that first year of transition and an 85% retention rate for the second year? Listen in to Jennie Brooks’ conversation with Dr. Iesiah Harris to find out! Editor's Note: An earlier draft of this copy miscited a retention statistic; we apologize for any confusion on our part!
Want to learn more about what Booz Allen is doing to help or hire transitioning military members (and their families)? Tune in to Jennie Brooks' conversation with Tom Downs, Principal/Director of Diversity Talent Acquisition at Booz Allen to find out!
INTRO:
Welcome to Booz Allen Hamilton's Unstoppable Together podcast, a series of stories that unite us and empower each of us to change the world. I'm Jennie Brooks with Booz Allen Hamilton, and I'm passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Please join me in conversation with a diverse group of thought leaders to explore what makes them and all of us unstoppable.
JENNIE BROOKS:
Hello everyone and welcome to the Unstoppable Together podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Brooks and today I'm excited to be joined by Dr. Iesiah Harris, also known as Esha, who is founder of Booz Allen's Transition Center of Excellence. Dr. Harris is a combat veteran with 26 years of military experience. She leads large-scale enterprise-level transformations, mentors senior healthcare executives, and provides organizational psychological safety. She has led and supported client efforts for NASA, the Department of Defense and the VA's Electronic Healthcare Modernization Initiative. And she's currently supporting the VA's Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. Dr. Harris, welcome to the podcast.
DR. HARRIS:
Thank you, Jennie. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here today.
JENNIE:
I am very excited to speak with you. Something that our listeners might not know about is that about 28% of Booz Allen's workforce currently are military and veterans. A higher percentage are military affiliated. And we want to bring that into a podcast on diversity because diversity, equity, and inclusion are all about how we navigate our differences. And while things like race and gender may be easily observed, there are other identities that might not be so transparent or easy to identify. And what really we're going to talk about with you today are the challenges that come with those identities and the challenges that might come with those experiences. Help us understand what you went through as you were transitioning into the civilian workforce as a military veteran and a woman at that.
DR. HARRIS:
Yes, I can tell you the challenge of transitioning presents a unique opportunity. Every year, it's about 20,000 service members that actually transition from the military. And based on my personal experience and observation, we mainly struggle with three things. It's the cultural assimilation, the mindset transformation, and then finding that supportive community that really understands what it's like to reintegrate into the civilian community in order for us to lead a fulfilling post-military life. Let's talk about my challenge with the cultural assimilation.
After 26 years, my brain is just structured into leading a certain way and engage in a certain manner. And I'm used to structured environments, clear guidelines and expectations. I think about the hospital as a good analogy where we know in the military medical treatment facility, we know exactly where to find our crash carts. We know how to communicate with our medical team to accomplish the mission. We're clear on each of their roles and their skillset. But joining corporate America, it became a little different for us to navigate “who's on first” and also to better understand the expectations. When I think about the mindset transformation, we are wired a certain way. So there are so many things that we have to unlearn when we become a civilian. And then when we talk about the community to build up that support that we're so used to being around, you're used to being around people that you are so closely connected with because you may have deployed together, you work together every day.
We dressed alike, we look alike, we talk alike. There's so many things that we have in common and then you leave that community. And separating from that community it's life-changing. And when you have those gaps in the transition process, it can be a little uncomfortable for so many people. There are some stories about people becoming homeless, underemployed and sadly, even sometimes it becomes that they have been attached with suicide unfortunately. And I just leave this conversation on a quote that came from one of the directors of one of the prominent organizations, and he mentioned that the transition experience should be part of a national security priority. And I'm personally in agreement with that just because my transition was a little different and I struggled with leaving the military space and I was filled with a lot of sadness and decreasing optimistic look on life. And I just needed a place, and I was so thankful for being able to stand up, something like the TCoE to help me through that transition.
JENNIE:
Okay. So I have questions for you right out the bat. Tell us a little bit about the Transition Center of Excellence and the goals and objectives there. And then can you pull the thread a little bit about your own transition, particularly from the experience of not just a woman but a Black woman transitioning from the military into the corporate environment?
DR. HARRIS:
Okay. In May of 2020, we had a team of about 16 of us that partnered to develop the program. This was born out of the fact that I had a hard time adjusting to the space, had lots of questions, felt by myself, felt unseen, just felt like this couldn't be a reality. And-
JENNIE:
Dr. Harris, I'm so sad right out the gate for you feeling like you were alone and not seen. Okay, go on. So this is where the innovation sparks, right? Okay.
DR. HARRIS:
Yes, because the one thing about me, I just feel like there's always a way to make things better, and I don't believe that anyone should ever suffer. And if I do find someone in a bad space, I'm always there to uplift. So it took us about 14 months of planning and coordinating, and we ended up with our first cohort kickoff for the Transition Center of Excellence in July of 2021. And the Transition Center of Excellence is one of the armed services communities. It's one of our many beautiful examples of how veterans supporting veterans can make magic happen. The way the transitions... It was so exciting to see it evolve because we started in 2021, and actually the 23rd of April we'll have cohort number 12 kick off. And we will be celebrating our third year anniversary on July 11th, which is so amazing. And the beauty of this structure is we have four pillars.
We have sponsorship, which every single person leaving from installation to installation they always have a sponsor. And that's very important to us. So we always have a sponsor. We have a sponsor pillar, and education is the other pillar. We have our TCoE University, which is a self-paced opportunity to review some materials that will help you get acquainted to our Booz Allen culture. The third thing we have is mentorship. Mentorship allows us to just have the conversations about growth potential, our personal and professional development opportunities, and we have those conversations with our mentors and then we network. The network is important to establish our connections. We have roughly transitioned about 297 veterans to date. We've hosted several fireside chats, office hours, and other communication venues. And the best thing that we've done, we've been able to have a 95% retention rate for the first year and we are at 85% for the second year. And this statistic is important because when you look at literature, it suggests that about 50% of veteran new hires will leave their job within the first year.
JENNIE:
Is that right?
DR. HARRIS:
Yes.
JENNIE:
50%.
DR. HARRIS:
50%. And that part really stems from the feeling of being unseen. You feel underemployed. There is the idea of us not being able to really express our skills well.
JENNIE:
I see. Okay, so a translation of military experiences into now the corporate environment and sort of aligning that to use your superpowers in the right ways.
DR. HARRIS:
Yes, I love how you say that. Being a black woman, it's interesting that you pose a question because the one thing for me is my parents did not raise me to look at my skin color. They really stood on the values of Dr. King when he said, you should not be judged by the color of your skin but by the content of your character. And really taught me to be kind, caring, respectful and be a dreamer. So the color of my skin never really came up as part of my upbringing.
JENNIE:
It wasn't a lens that you saw your life through in any way because that was how they approached it.
DR. HARRIS:
Yes. And the interesting part too to add to that is I grew up in an inner city, Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York. And we were all Black and Brown children growing up in a community, but it never registered that you are the Black girl in the community maybe because we all looked alike. And there was a lot of other things that were going on in New York City for my parents to worry about than to add the complexity of the color of my skin to the conversation. And so because my parents didn't raise me to be the Black girl, if you will, but the strong woman that dreams and make things happen, that's all that I knew. As a child I've always wanted to be a nurse. That was my childhood dream. I remember when I was 12 years old, my teacher, I'm running my mouth of course, she's like, "What is it that you want to do with your life?" And I just fixed my face and proudly said, "I want to help people. I want to be a nurse."
And that's all I've ever wanted to do with my life. And being able to become a nurse was so important to me. And I think that was another challenge with me coming into the civilian sector. I primarily led in hospitals, so I could always sneak away to a patient and say hi to them and get a hug if I needed to. But then you come into a corporate space where you have to strategize your consulting, you're collaborating, you're doing all of those things. And caring is really not something that most people are doing. So I couldn't be the kind gentle person that I am, even as a military woman I still wanted to embrace that gentle side of myself.
JENNIE:
You and I spoke before we started recording about, it wasn't a thing growing up for you, as you just shared with your parents, it wasn't really a thing in the military. But coming into a corporate environment now you're sort of like, oh, you see it a little differently. There's sort of a thing here. How have you navigated that?
DR. HARRIS:
I think I just kept it with my optimism. My very foundational nature is to be positive, optimistic, upbeat. And being able to dream and hope is all that we had in New York City and Brownsville, Brooklyn. Then I come with my military experience of being mission-oriented. I have to make this happen. So I'm the dreamer, I'm the optimist, and I have to focus on the mission. All of these extraneous noisemakers could not hold me too long. After a while though, Jennie, in all honesty, it does become overwhelming. And even all of my optimism, all of my mission focus, it took a little bit of a toll at one point because it's just too much of something that you can't seem to navigate. And it makes you a little uncomfortable and your normal resources, you're pulling from that wall of hope, you're pulling from that wall of optimism. And things just don't seem to be working as they normally would.
But eventually you just realize that, I always say this, God don't make no jump. And you have to tie back to those things and understand that you were born to be strong. If God let you make it out of Afghanistan under the IEDs and all of those, the wars that you've been exposed to and being in Brownsville, Brooklyn, if He lets you make it out of that there is nothing that corporate America could bring to me.
JENNIE:
Okay. I love it. And so with that as our shining star, when you think about the challenges that we now know exist for military members who are transitioning into industry, what would you offer in terms of supports to help navigate the transition?
DR. HARRIS:
The first thing I would have to say to that is taking the time to really know who you are, but understanding who you are and what you bring to the fight. You are an amazing, strong, unbelievably impressive individual. And just holding onto that and believing that it is so, so important. But what I encourage people to do is just pause for just a second and really take the time to get to know who you are as an individual. How do you anticipate living a fulfilling post-military life? Dream and think about how that looks, and then let everything else fill in. That should be your focus, that's your big rock. What post-military life do you envision for yourself?
And how does that look for you? Because right now, you are the only important person that matters in this moment because you have given so much of yourself. And there's going to be a day when you feel like you just can't give anymore. And if that day comes, you just remember how amazing you are and all that you've done to serve your great nation. So holding on to the true you, and I think that also requires a lot of self-reflection. And with that, Jennie, the one thing I didn't mention is we do a strength finder assessment for all of our transitioning military veterans that enter the TCoE. And the importance of the strength finders for me is not only to get us to analyze what our strengths are, but when you have that moment where you feel uncomfortable, you still have to question your existence and your being and whether or not you're supposed to be here, you hold them to your top five.
You have your top five strengths that will keep you going in those moments when you're questioning, am I supposed to be here? Absolutely, you are. Those strengths that have been identified, keep on holding to those. So I-
JENNIE:
Oh, I love that.
DR. HARRIS:
Thank you.
JENNIE:
Hold on to the top five strengths. I love that. Okay
DR. HARRIS:
Yes, that's important. And the other thing is when I talk about your community, being able to find those people who get it. Being able to take pride, and it's hard for us and I know that. But be vulnerable in those moments and let people know this transition is hard. It is not what I anticipated. Be okay with having that conversation. I'm really interested... In fact, we're growing the TCoE and we're looking at the whole person, your emotional and mental wellbeing because these are things that we don't often talk about. It's easy for a military person to say, "I did these things. And oh, I'm going to get another degree. And oh, by the way, I have a new certification." These are things that we easily do, but it's very difficult for us to ask for help. It's very difficult for us to say, "I'm having a hard time." Because we are trained differently. So I do encourage people to find your community, find your village.
And if you're here at Booz Allen, you find the TCoE or you find our Armed Services Community and reach out for a friend because we're here. And the last thing I'll say about transitioning military members, we talk about that mindset transformation, that it is okay to not be okay. It's hard to always go the extra mile. Sometimes your love tank, your tank to give, your tank to care, your tank to serve, sometimes it overruns. And if you are not 100% of who you are, it's going to be so difficult to take care of everyone else. So I just say that mindset transformation of always giving and always serving, pause and serve yourself. And take of yourself so that you can be the strong person that we need you to be.
JENNIE:
Awesome. Can I ask you, obviously everyone's different and the journey may be distinct, but from a woman's perspective in your journey of transitioning, are there specific things that you found along the way that you'd want to share?
DR. HARRIS:
The one thing that I really want people to know is being comfortable walking in your own shoes. If your shoes are flats, if they're high heels, whatever your style is, be comfortable in that and don't be afraid to care.
JENNIE:
Thank you. Our listeners may be aware there's a process for transitioning into a military role, but what you've clearly helped us better understand today is there's maybe not necessarily a formal process for transitioning out of the military role. Help us understand how your own personal transition from the military led to creating a recruiting tool for veterans.
DR. HARRIS:
Thank you for that question. Now, we actually have the Transition Assistance Program, which is a Department of Labor effort. And as I'm learning, it is different for each branch of service. When people transition out, they do recommend that you go to this program at least two years before you actually transition. And it has evolved. I retired in 2018, so that process has evolved. The challenge that a lot of people have with it is the mission focus. So for me, when I transitioned out, I could not envision the challenges that I would face. They talked to you about your job opportunities, they talked to you about not really so much what to anticipate. And that's the big thing for me, that cultural assimilation, the mindset transformation. That's what our TAP program does not give us. And that's what was important for me to incorporate in the Transition Center of Excellence, to be able to make sure that when we look at now the whole person we understand that it's going to require a few things. And that's the community that we can build with the Armed Services Community and the TCoE.
And then looking at the mindset transformation, having those conversations because it's different. And then the assimilation to our Booz Allen culture, it is very challenging for us. So that's kind of how my transition experience helped me look at some of the gaps, if you will. That's our consulting language, looking at the gaps and what exists and being able to make it a lot smoother for those that are reintegrating into our space.
JENNIE:
Awesome. You've talked a lot about not being to care. You've talked about your service, that north star and serving as a nurse. How has that played into your own transition to a corporate environment?
DR. HARRIS:
The one thing I will say is being a nurse you never stop caring. I'm able to still care from a 50,000 square foot view and make an impact. And you think about the TCoE, setting up that as an opportunity to be known as a transition expert and helping our community still being able to care. And show how we serve and the ability to care it just never goes away. And I think that's the most beautiful part about being a nurse, being a strategist, being a visionary, being able to come into a place, identify a gap and collaborate with smart people to make things happen it's an amazing thing to do. And that's what we do in healthcare, we create care plans for our patients. And I feel like the TCoE is a care plan for Booz Allen.
JENNIE:
I love that. And we also talked about at the top with your bio, this very specific term, psychological safety. So talk to us about psychological safety and how that plays a role in the transition from the military.
DR. HARRIS:
So when we think about psychological safety, it really is a sense of being able to show who you are without fear or negative consequences to your self-image. And I feel like what we've done with the Transition Center of Excellence and the psychological safety piece is allowing our servicemen and women come to Booz Allen, and as Booz Allen would want us to be our authentic selves.
JENNIE:
Yes.
DR. HARRIS:
Being able to allow them to have conversations with their military colleagues and understand it. So that piece of giving them the permission to be vulnerable, being able to share their challenges, being able to share any of their concerns, shaping this space to just let them be themselves is so important. And I'll throw in this concept, high reliability science that's associated with safety and it's in the aviation spaces. In the Air Force we used to say, high reliability allows every airman to be a problem solver. And I feel like when you can speak up, be the problem solver in your organization and be able to be the change agent that the organization needs, that in itself provides you with psychological safety. And the Armed Services Community allows us to lead, we know how to lead. It allows us to, again, talk the way we know how to talk. And it's just fun to be in that space, the community that we built. It is exciting for us to be able to innovate and be trailblazers in Booz Allen.
Like setting up something like TCoE and trailblazing in that space, it's a phenomenal opportunity. So the Armed Services Network allows us to do that. It provides us with the psychological safety that we need to be ourselves and continue leading like the military allows us to lead.
JENNIE:
Very cool. At the end of every podcast, we allow our guests some free space to share their final thoughts on anything they want with those listening. What would you like to leave us with today?
DR. HARRIS:
The one thing I didn't get a chance to talk about was how I was able to emcee the 75th anniversary event when Truman desegregated the armed services. And what was beautiful about that event, the pride that it helped to instill in me as a Black woman entering the military and standing on the shoulders of giants and being able to lead and then come into Booz Allen and make a difference. It was huge for me. And I feel like there's a reminder for me and others to understand that Booz Allen is that organization that challenges the status quo. And they take the opportunity to do the right thing and make people feel like they belong. So I want our transitioning military members to know that as you transition out into these different spaces, that leaving the military is a wonderful opportunity for you to reinvent yourself.
That is so important for you to understand. And I'll also highlight that I think about the opportunities that I've had at Booz Allen, and appreciating the bold strategy which allows me at my level to make a difference for our military medical community. Actually not the medical community, but just our military community at large. And the last note I'll say is for the leaders in the firm and those that are engaging with our Veteran Community, I want you to remember, it's one of my favorite quotes by Dr Maya Angelou and she says, "People may forget what you say, they forget what you do but they never forget how you make them feel." And if you do nothing else today, I just ask that you please reach out to our military members and help them feel like they belong. They do belong here, and they're a part of this amazing Booz Allen family.
Hearing and being able to be present for people, those things they take zero talent. Kindness is free, respect is free, smiles are free and you don't need talent to do that. So just being able to support our military members in any way that you know how, we certainly appreciate it because we did serve our country and we just want to feel like we're in a new place where we do belong.
JENNIE:
Thank you, Dr. Harris. And thank you for your service.
DR. HARRIS:
Thank you so much. It was my honor. I appreciate you.
JENNIE:
Appreciate you as well. Thanks for listening. Visit Careers.BoozAllen.com to learn how you can be unstoppable with Booz Allen. Be the future, walk with us. The world can't wait.