How to move your organisation from diversity & inclusion interest to impact
Conversations around Diversity and Inclusion have been happening for a while now. Organisations are starting to pay attention to the topic and they are starting to react. According to recent research from The Boston Consulting Group, 97% of large companies (above 1,000 employees) have some sort of D&I programme. And according to LinkedIn, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer roles equated to 84% of c-suite hires in 2021. Yet despite all this effort Matt Krentz wrote in a Harvard Business Review article, that only 25% of employees in underrepresented groups — women, racial and ethnic minorities, and LGBTQ employees — feel they’ve personally benefited from their companies’ diversity and inclusion programs.
In short what we are currently doing is not working!
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better”
I see so many passionate and well intentioned individuals working as D&I leads, doing so many different things, often on top of their 'day job'. They help form Employment Resource Groups, and they organise a calendar of events and speakers, they may try to influence recruitment policies and they may facilitate an unconscious bias workshop....in short, they are doing all of the things, but are any of these things facilitating change?
Most people I speak to, literally hit the ground running and don't take a moment to catch their breath or take a moment to consider what it is they are running to. When I ask them what they achieved by arranging these particular events with these particular speakers, most will say it raised awareness.
Awareness is a great start but it has nothing to do with impact. Awareness itself doesn't change behaviour. Awareness is a low hanging fruit! It's 2022, if we're still at the point of letting people know about D&I we're in trouble! We need to focus on what we want people to do with this new found awareness? What's our call to action.
In short how do we go from interest to impact?
Well the answer my friend is actually really simple. We need to get intentional and we need to follow these three steps…
1. Get super clear on WHY you’re engaging with D&I in the first place
Superficial words and platitudes are insufficient, which is why 75% of employees surveyed by the Boston Consulting Group, said they see diversity programs in place but feel no effect. This is why you need to get super clear on your WHY for D&I.
Think of your WHY for D&I as your true north, your compass. Not only does it form the basis of your business case, it also helps keep you on track.
Your WHY for D&I should link to your business why, your values and your mission. Your WHY for D&I will connect everyone and everything in your organisation. This is key to establishing buy in and building momentum. It also helps you move through the second and third step.
2. Establish SMARTER goals
The data coming in is telling us that we’re not getting it right. We’re not creating the impact where we want to. So we need to double down our efforts - and that does not mean we need to do more - in fact it’s often the opposite.
We need to be more strategic in the choices we are making. What exactly are we trying to achieve and WHY? When we lay out our intentions as SMARTER goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timed, Emotionally aligned and Ready) we are already becoming more focused. Plus we have a framework against which to measure our impact and progress.
3. Choose the right initiative
Once you know WHY you’re doing this and what it is you want to achieve, then and only then are you able to choose the right initiative / programme / intervention to help you achieve your SMARTER goals.
Any initiative must be tailored to each company, using its specific culture and starting point to determine the best course of action. Remember you can’t do all of the things all at the same time.
For example if your goal is to support members of the LGBTQI community, hanging a flag once a year is not going to do anything! You need to make tangible and structural changes, which require strategic plans and cultural and physical changes. It may take all of your time and resources to achieve this over the next 12 months - so invest in this goals specifically and achieve this goal before moving on to the next.
In the survey run by the Boston Consulting Group, they found that approximately half of LGBTQI+ employees are still closeted at work. Therefore making efforts to create an inclusive day-to-day (not only during PRIDE month) experience for this group is critical. They ranked it 5th in terms of efficacy, on average, vs a rank of 15th by heterosexual men. LGBTQI+ employees also placed greater importance on structural interventions to accommodate a broader gender orientation than simply male and female (such as gender-neutral bathrooms, or non-binary gender choices in surveys and HR data), ranking this 7th vs heterosexual men’s ranking of 24th.
Focus on one goal and employ both top-down approaches (for example, corporate-level training, programs to track promotion and pay across diversity cohorts) and bottom-up approaches (for example, measures to help managers think about who is invited to and runs important meetings) to achieve the best outcomes. And remember to involve affected employees – minority and majority, frontline employees and managers – in the design and assessment of the initiatives to ensure they will work and take hold.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you would like more support on how to work through these three steps, I include everything you need to know in my course “How to create impact with your D&I initiatives”. This self paced online course is packed full of valuable practical resources, so you can take your organisation from interest to impact today. The course is only available for enrolment twice a year. To find out more about the course and the next enrolment date, please drop me an email at drdonnadehaan@gmail.com or click on the Academy link on my website.
