An inclusive organization is an intelligent organization. We present a simplified model to follow for diversity and inclusion change work in your organization. Follow these three steps to ignite or revise your action plan to accomplish a more inclusive workplace.
1. Set the narrative
Agree on why diversity and inclusion are important to your business? Articulate carefully how an inclusive culture sustains your business objectives. Clarify to all organizational members the logic that links an inclusive workplace culture with business performance. Be colorful, illustrative and specific in the narratives you use to endorse the importance of diversity and inclusion to reach the organization’s full potential. Use metrical targets by all means to set expectations for your diversity and inclusion journey, but do not forget to bring meaningfulness to the cut and dry statistics by adding colleagues’ accounts and customer cases to bring about specificity and reliability, trustworthiness and likeability.
The narrative is key to motivate single members of the organization and to align the diversity and inclusion targets and objectives with business objectives and strategies.
2. Infuse knowledge and hold space for training
Map out the blind spots in the organization; who needs what awareness and knowledge to be able to contribute to the communicated diversity and inclusion targets? Decide on what the learning journey needs to be like for new-comers, business managers, teams, HR professionals, executives. Not everybody plays the same role in your organization, so everybody does not need the same diversity and inclusion training.
Translate target group relevant diversity and inclusion theory into practice by supporting your colleagues in carrying out their duties and responsibilities in line with diversity and inclusion targets. New attitudes and practices need to evolve to ensure that new valuable perspectives on work relations emerge.
These abilities develop gradually through focused and systematic training. And again, everybody does not need the same training. Make sure that you identify your micro and macro change agents, that you train them on the narrative and that change agents release the agency of all members of the organization to achieve your business goals through elevated awareness, knowledge and ability of inclusive practices.
3. Activate new behaviors and measure progress
Learning new skills takes time and practice. Keep your eyes on the process of learning new behaviors. Support individual members of the organization by specifying what behaviors are expected and desired in what arenas from whom. The structural support in terms of clearly defined targets needs to materialize into practices. Do not stop at metrical targets. Sustain change work by being specific on what behaviors you want members of the organization to perform in what arenas to, eventually, achieve inclusion. The more specific you can be, the easier it will be to pinpoint measurement parameters.
At Influence People, knowledge and awareness of Diversity and Inclusion is part of People Transformation and all of our services – Future of HR, Sustainable Culture and Intelligent Organization. If you want to discuss Diversity and Inclusion as an area of development in your organization, we have the expertise and experience to do so.
