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“Embrace Diversity” Postcards
Kathy Baier, Doug Clement and Sue Kraus
Lockheed Martin MS2
Moorestown, New Jersey, U.S.
NEED/OPPORTUNITY / Lockheed Martin is facing a mammoth demographic problem: Many of the com-
pany’s 70,000 engineers are expected to retire within the next 15 years. To keep its edge, the company
needs to replenish a workforce that is traditionally heavily recruited from the military with young engineers, scientists and managers from all backgrounds who have the ability to think across traditional borders. For the past three years, Lockheed Martin President and CEO Bob Stevens has emphasized that the
solution to this workforce transition lies in breaking away from the traditional engineering workforce—
one that is heavily Caucasian and mostly male. Instead, Stevens has emphasized that Lockheed Martin
must deliberately create a workforce that is more diverse and inclusive of not only racial differences, but
also of differences in beliefs, backgrounds and experiences.
In 2007, the Lockheed Martin MS2 employee communications and design team felt they needed to move
beyond standard communication tools and messages, and find a way to help employees understand the
nuances of beliefs and backgrounds that contribute to an inclusive work environment. In other words, they
wanted to explore the thoughts and beliefs around individual differences, and in doing so move beyond
promoting diversity as a Black/White/Hispanic/other minority group issue. The team discussed several
options. The solution centered on an “Embrace Diversity” print postcard campaign—every MS2 employee would receive a series of three postcards over four months, each with specific, thought-provoking topics. The team chose this approach for several reasons:
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Because of the heavy use of e-mail and other electronic communication, employees receive very
little print material from MS2. The team believed a print piece would stand out from the electronic overload many employees experience.
Multiple postcards could be created, and a selection of postcards could be distributed each month.
This allowed the team to explore more than just a handful of issues, while remaining within the
project budget.
The postcards could be strategically sorted so employees received a different postcard from a peer
who was seated in an office/cubicle next to them. This was designed to encourage conversation
about the topics among employees.
INTENDED AUDIENCE / Lockheed Martin MS2 is comprised of 13,000 employees. While the majority
of employees are engineers and researchers, there is still a large number of employees who do not have technical backgrounds. Employees are located at 76 sites worldwide, ranging from groups of one to two
employees who work onsite at customer locations to large complexes housing more than 5,000 employees.
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MS2’s employee base tends to skew older, given the legacy of industry growth that occurred in the 1960s
and 1970s. Overall, approximately 20 percent of employees are age 55 or older, 35 percent are 45–54, 20
percent are 35–44, and 25 percent are 25–34. However, MS2 is hiring 500–750 new employees a year, and
the percentage of employees age 25–45 will continue to grow in the next several years. Along with this
diverse audience base comes a wealth of different beliefs, backgrounds and perspectives that could be
explored through the postcard series.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES / The overall communication objective was to create eye-catching, thought-
provoking work that would not only capture the attention of the employee audience, but also get them to
think about their own reactions and beliefs. The intent was to explore realistic scenarios—issues that can
arise at any time in the day-to-day work environment. With this understanding of the business situation,
the team established the following goals for their work in 2007:
Engage employees by providing vibrant, consistent and relevant diversity information to increase their
understanding and acceptance of inclusive behavior.
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Set the stage for greater employee involvement and engagement in both diversity communications
and the company’s efforts to create a diverse, inclusive work environment. (This acknowledges that
changing a culture takes time and continuous effort. It is not a “one year and be done” program.)
Two key objectives were established:
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Reach at least 75 percent of employees with a targeted diversity postcard series.
Establish a solid baseline of employee understanding of what constitutes a diverse environment.
The team had not measured this understanding previously, so their work would serve as a baseline
for future efforts.
KEY MESSAGES/THEMES / As a corporation, Lockheed Martin’s goal is to create an inclusive work environment in which all people are valued and their ideas encouraged and respected.
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A diverse and inclusive work environment is more than accepting attributes such as race, sex and
religious beliefs. It’s about accepting the variety of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives that
make each individual unique.
The diversity of the workforce provides the competitive edge needed for MS2 to succeed in the
global marketplace. A diverse and inclusive workforce allows the company to benefit from the different backgrounds and perspectives of colleagues, and fosters more creative and innovative thinking throughout the organization.
Respecting others’ perspectives and backgrounds is more than a business imperative—it’s also the
right thing to do.
Other Graphic Design
CREATIVE RATIONALE / Twelve different postcards were designed, exploring themes such as generational
differences, cultural and religious traditions, teamwork, military experience, and sports colloquialisms. The
intent was to explore realistic scenarios—issues that can arise any time in the day-to-day work environment. The team wanted to avoid using stock photography or illustrations that included people because
they wanted employees to focus on the issues and language, not whether it was a gender or race issue. The
final design focused on “conversation bubbles”—similar to those that appear in comic strips—as a way to
present thoughts and reactions in a neutral way. The dialogue was written to be a bit more edgy than traditional company communications about diversity, in order to attract the attention of employees in a more
thought-provoking way. Given the positive reaction to the first set of postcards, the team quickly created
an employee contest to generate future postcard ideas and presented those concepts in electronic format
during the corporation’s Diversity Awareness Week in September 2007.
BUDGET/STAFF REQUIREMENTS
By using existing communications, design and Web staff across the organization, the project management
and development costs were absorbed by standard department payroll. The team only needed to pay for
the printing of the postcards and shipping to the various MS2 sites, for a total cost of approximately
US$6,800.00—or just US$0.12 per employee for the campaign. The campaign was developed in April and
May, and distribution began in June 2007 as scheduled.
CHALLENGES / Ironically, the one challenge the team expected to encounter—getting senior executive
buy-in on the postcard topics and language—did not occur. Rather, senior leadership felt the postcards
were well thought-out, provocative and dealt with pertinent issues. The most difficult challenge was developing an accurate distribution list for employees to receive a printed postcard. With the wide use of electronic communications, keeping an up-to-date list of employee office locations within each facility has not
been a business priority. The team addressed this with a secondary campaign to encourage employees to
update their office locations and personal information in the company database, and by working closely
with mailroom staff at each location. While the team did not achieve 100 percent distribution, each series
of postcards achieved a higher distribution rate than the previous one.
MEASUREMENT/EVALUATION /
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Objective: Reach at least 75 percent of employees with targeted diversity communication. Based
on returned cards and a nonscientific poll of employees, communication leads and mailroom staff
across locations, an estimated 70 percent of employees received the first batch of postcards. That
number reached up to 90 percent of employees for the final set of postcards.
Objective: Establish a solid baseline of employee understanding of what constitutes a diverse environment. Following each of the postcard distributions, the team conducted an online survey and
received nearly 1,000 responses (just under 10 percent of the workforce, and thus considered sta-
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tistically valid). With each of the postcard distributions, 62–65.5 percent of employees recalled
receiving the postcard; 43 percent felt the diversity message was new, different and made them
think; and up to 50 percent believed the message was effective. Again, because the team had not
measured the effectiveness of diversity messaging in the past, this gave them a solid baseline to
work against in future years.
In late September 2007, the HR organization surveyed employees’ perspectives on diversity and Lockheed
Martin’s communication of diversity as a business imperative. It revealed the following strong metrics:
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A total of 85.2 percent of employees indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed that MS2 is serious about its commitment to having a diverse, inclusive work environment.
A total of 84.5 percent of employees indicated that the benefits of a diverse, inclusive work environment had been clearly communicated to them.
In addition to the quantitative feedback, the team received a number of notable e-mails from employees:
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“I like them! I thought the concept was a little ‘hokey’ until I actually read them. And you managed to touch on one of my pet peeves. I’m ex-Navy with no traditional degree and the last postcard addressed the concern I have that some folks think one has to have a sheepskin on the office
wall to be effective. That’s not true. Thanks for sharing that message!”
“May I say I am not a fan of what I consider corporate group-hug efforts—strange for an old guy
who would benefit from diversity-think—but I must compliment you on your campaign …especially the bubble-conversation post cards I have seen. Brilliant marketing.”