I'm the president of a brokerage company and an openly gay Black woman. Here are 5 practical ways companies can make real, lasting changes around racial equality.

• Lule Demmissie is president of Ally Invest, the brokerage and wealth management arm of Ally Financial.
• She says that this moment feels different — and businesses that want to commit to change need to stay engaged and not let momentum disappear.
• Change doesn't just come from the top, and employees at every level need to be empowered to make real change.
• Work on expanding your own network — if your friends, family, and neighbors all look the same, that impacts your world view.

Something about this moment seems different. Just a year or two ago, we never would have expected to see companies across every sector say the words "Black Lives Matter" or take such a public stand against racial injustice. Some of the oldest, most traditional businesses are pledging to listen, learn, and take action to foster real change — and that's powerful stuff. The caution is that momentum can evaporate if we don't all stay engaged and diligent.

Now that the business world has declared that it's listening, ready to act and drive change, what does that look like on the inside, within your teams and across your organizations? As a business executive in financial services responsible for leading hundreds of team members — and as an openly gay, Black woman — I can tell you what it looks like to me and how I try to help my teammates navigate and maximize the opportunities afforded by this particular moment in time.

Don't underestimate the power of "the middle."

While the corporate statements might come from the top, it is the employee base that is enacting and facilitating change every day. We must empower team members at every level to take difficult and important steps toward a shared goal of racial equality — whether that's engaging in courageous dialogues or imagining different means of attracting and creating a more diverse team.

Assume positive intent.

When we understand that everyone around the table has the same end goal, it's easier to listen to one another without offense or judgment. That context has to be established at the start and reinforced by all of us as topics of race and bias are raised. The insidious nature of bias is that because so many of our teammates experience it in their daily lives, it can be easy to misread its signals. But with an assumption of positive intent and a willingness to listen when we offend, openly addressing bias can serve as a solid starting point for transforming corporate culture and normalizing inclusion in everyday business settings — not just at diversity forums.

It's less of a pipeline problem, and more of a network problem.

Many people are unaware of how their decisions can continue to drive inequity. Inclusion is a practiced art. If our close friends, neighbors, family and colleagues all look the same, is it any wonder that we lack diversity across our business organizations? We may not be able to easily change zip codes, but we can begin to combat systemic bias by examining how diverse our network is. Do we take coffee and lunch with colleagues who look different from us? Do we form deep and meaningful relationships with a wide array of people and identities? Are our LinkedIn and Twitter accounts mostly filled with folks who look like us? Leaning in to expand your immediate circles will have a powerful impact on your world view — and on your available "pipeline" for talent. The kicker is that communities and companies that have made headway on this front see incalculable benefits.

Create opportunities for safe, open, and courageous discussions within your organization.

Safe means an environment where we all feel comfortable enough to speak respectfully and honestly. Open is the ability to truly listen and seek further understanding from each other, creating a social contract to elegantly push our own boundaries. Courageous means being able to respectfully question and challenge the status quo when it comes to inclusion and opportunity in corporate culture. Without this open, honest dialogue, we cannot collectively make progress. We run the risk of this recent awakening turning into nothing more than lip service.

Open forums give people a common starting point for respectful and authentic conversations about race. We've hosted several roundtable discussions that allow our team members to share their feelings and gain a deeper understanding of the impact of systemic racism.

Discussions can also focus on a book, documentary or news article. Exploring concepts like the difference between "non-racist" and "anti-racist" — which are addressed in books like Ibram X. Kendi's "How to Be an Antiracist" — can help frame these conversations in constructive and action-oriented ways.

Apply the lens of racial equality to everything you do.

Inclusion is the most important instrument of change. At Ally, we're listening to and working with community leaders to find ways to promote racial justice and equity through donations and community conversations. We are taking a long-term view of these issues and creating a strategy to address them using feedback from our community partners and our employees. When we welcome different voices and perspectives in every aspect of business, we can change our products and services to make them work for more people. It's additive, not subtractive.

Right now, we all have a powerful opportunity to honor those who preceded us in the struggle for racial equality. We owe it to them to commit to togetherness, to address our issues head-on, and in doing so, help provide those who come after us with better, more secure lives. We owe it to ourselves and each other to keep moving forward. We won't remain silent. We won't remain still.

Lule Demmissie is president of Ally Invest, the brokerage and wealth management arm of Ally Financial. An advocate for empowering everyone to take control of their financial futures, Lule has held senior management and financial advisor positions at TD Ameritrade, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, and Merrill Lynch. She holds a B.A. in Economics from Smith College, an M.B.A from Columbia Business School, a CIMA designation from the Investments & Wealth Institute (formerly IMCA) and the 7, 66 and 24 securities licenses.