Kristina Kohl Joins Phenom Talent Experience Live to Discuss Divesity, Equity, & Inclusion

 Walk the Walk: Driving Systemic Change with a DE&I Expert, Kristina Kohl

Phenom's Talent Experience Live is a weekly show where practitioners and experts discuss what’s happening right now in recruiting, talent acquisition, talent management, and HR tech.Working in the field of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Kristina Kohl, MBA, PMP, Managing Principal at HRComputes, is all too familiar with organizations that take a check-the-box approach to this complex issue.

And it’s easy to see why. Driving organizational systemic change on this hot-button issue requires significant time and resources. Join Kristina on our next episode of Talent Experience Live to better understand DE&I as a continuum that can mature over time — and be enhanced by HR technology that supports ERGs, internal mobility, data-driven decision making, and showcasing a more inclusive work environment.

Moving Beyond the Diversity Conversation to Drive Systemic Change

We have all read or heard the corporate statements in support of Black Lives Matter. We have participated and/or seen the protests. As a nation, we have been here before. How can we deliver a different outcome this time?

Working in the field of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, I am all too familiar with organizations taking a check the box approach to DEI. Many companies provide annual sexual harassment and diversity training. Check! Moving on.

Driving organizational systemic change requires a much deeper dive and takes significant time and resources. I recommend the following approach:

1. Assess you current culture, policies, processes, and outcomes.
2. Leverage your human capital management systems to dive deep into to your data to really understand how your organization hires, retains, and promotes diverse talent.
3. Make a Board and C-suite commitment to change and provide tools, resources, and time to achieve these goals. 
4. Engage experts to facilitate developing and implementing a DEI project plan.

A recent WSJ highlights the need to conduct a comprehensive audit of your operations, recruitment, investments, and suppliers. This assessment begins the process of shining a spotlight on how your organization is impacting BIPOC through its daily activities.

The talent pipeline is another area for significant improvement. Using our human capital system expertise, we help organizations better understand their recruitment strategy and how that impacts the diversity of the talent pool. Drilling into your HCM data provides details on talent at each level of your organization by level, function, and senior management. 

Leadership development and competencies are another area to peel back the layers. How are candidates selected for leadership development? Is it meritocracy? What does meritocracy mean if certain people are given the big projects and high profile clients and others are not? Are you practicing allyship and sponsorship or are you still using a mentorship model?

While Chief Diversity Officer roles have been on the rise, turnover in these positions remains high as many positions are more figurehead than change agent. If you want to drive meaningful change, it requires significant commitment to changing the staus quo including engaging  a DEI consultant to help support and guide your internal team.

In my next article, I will share some of our techniques to design for diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

We have been able to have impact and success working with clients remotely. If we can be of help, please reach out to Kristina Kohl at Kris@HRComputes.com

Until then, stay safe and well. 

Diversity of Thought Drives Innovation

I recently was a guest speaker at the Ultimate Women in Business Summit in NYC speaking on Building a Socially Responsible Organization. While attending, I had the opportunity to hear Cara Pelletier, Director of Diversity, Equality & Belonging, Ultimate Software speak on Building a Culture of Belonging. Her presentation focused on creating a culture of belonging rather than one of inclusion. As Cara says, “You don’t need an invitation, you already belong” It is about bringing your authentic self to work and feeling like you really belong there. In order to have a diverse workforce, you need to create a culture of belonging.

As we think about diversity and its impact on innovation, we need to think about the many levels of diversity in our organizations. We have identity diversity, which reflect attributes that are more visible (race, gender, etc.) and we have cognitive diversity, which reflects how we see the world and think about things. A recent HBR article adds a third, experiential diversity reflecting how our affinities, hobbies, and abilities shape us.  Each of these types of diversity is impactful in driving innovation. https://hbr.org/2018/05/the-3-types-of-diversity-that-shape-our-identities

 When we talk about work, where is most work happening? Work happens in teams and teams have meetings. So, how can we make meetings more effective in creating an environment for a diversity of thought to drive innovation. The following is the list of ideas presented by Cara Pelletier to promote diversity of thought in a team environment:

1.     Set the Stage

2.     Set Expectations

3.     Create Psychological Safety

4.     Encourage Speaking Freely

5.     Speak Up

In setting the stage, think about the physical space such as how the tables and chairs are arranged. Are you unintentionally creating a physical space that suggests some voices matter more than others? Are you creating a collaborative meeting agenda and sharing it in advance? Using sharing document tools and encouraging the team to pose questions in advance encourages participation and hearing from diverse voices .

Establish team participation expectations. If you have been invited to the meeting, you are expected to participate. Set up a practice of taking turns to allow all voices to be heard during a meeting. Create an environment of psychological safety by ensuring that all participants are fully present. Agree that meeting is device free. Encourage listening. Google found that creating psychological safety was the most important attribute of highly successful teams. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html

If you really want new ideas, you need to encourage all team members to speak freely and to disagree even with the boss. Pose questions to promote thought such as:

1.     What is missing?

2.     What might go wrong?

3.     Why might this blow up?

4.     Who has an alternative idea?

5.     Who is willing to bet $1,000 that the idea will succeed?

6.     What has worked in a similar situation?

Speak up to recognize and acknowledge contributions. Ask if we have heard from everyone in the room. Redirect questions to the most qualified Subject Matter Expert (SME). Speak up if there are interruptions, if someone is consistently asked to perform an administrative task, and  if someone’s voice is being diminished.

Next time you are setting up a meeting, take the time to plan the setting and agenda and begin the process of creating and enforcing group rules. I bet you will begin to get more ideas and new perspectives promoting a diversity of thought to drive innovation.

Moving the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Needle

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is a hot topic. Despite numerous trainings, programs, and initiatives, organizations continue to struggle to drive significant impact. Research tells us that stand-alone DEI training sessions drive awareness but don’t deliver impact. DEI programs are frequently one-off pilots that aren’t scaled across an organization. Often, I hear leaders say that they want to improve the diversity of their leadership team, but they lack qualified candidates in the pipeline. With so many good intentions, why are so many organizations failing to deliver on diversity? The short answer is that we need to build more inclusive and equitable cultures so that all stakeholders can be authentic, contribute and thrive within their organizations, Creating a culture for diversity requires a Transformational DEI Strategy.

In order to build a Transformational DEI Strategy, it is imperative to identify where your organization is on the DEI Maturity Continuum. Many organizations are in the Compliance Stage with initiatives lead by the Legal Team and HR to meet federal, state, and local compliance and reporting requirement such as EEO, sexual harassment training, and pay equity. Projects and activities in Compliance focus on training, data gathering, reporting, and analysis. It is a good beginning  but initiatives tend to be  siloed and lack strategic alignment so they can quickly wither on the vine.

As an organization moves to the Foundation Stage, the impact begins to impact more broadly. The group of stakeholders expands to include C-suite leadership and dedicated teams such as a DEI group. A key to the change is senior leadership support and focus on goal setting for  identified groups such as female representation and opportunity across the organization. The business case for risk mitigation and opportunity creation begins to be formulated. Metrics to measure progress are introduced. Programs and education on topics such as Unconscious Bias and Social Dominance promote  greater awareness of the prevalence of bias in all of us and the steps to begin to reframe assumptions, decision making, and opportunity identification. Most projects remain siloed or pilots. In terms of culture change, this state represents a significant change in the perception of DEI programs and their value in business strategy from a senior leadership perspective.

As organizations reach the Developing Stage, the stakeholder group expands further to include senior and middle managers. DEI is a strategic priority  and it is reflected in leadership goals and tied to their performance compensation. The talent process is redefined in terms of recruitment, development, and promotion to remove barriers and to promote opportunities. Training is provided to all managers to promote and create a more  inclusive culture. Management focus is on creating a more inclusive environment at all levels of the organization.

At the Integrated Stage, the DEI strategy is fully integrated into business strategy.  It is reflected in organizational culture and evident in in their people, process, and policy. Relationships with external stakeholders including, suppliers, partners, industry groups and communities are also evaluated through a DEI lens. All levels of the organization embrace DEI as the norm and model it in their actions and behaviors. Once reaching this stage, an organization should reflect its community and customers. Employees are ambassadors for the organization promoting its values and making it an employer of choice.

Driving impactful DEI change takes time, talent, and resources. At each stage of the DEI Maturity Continuum, an organization bolsters its culture, processes, and policies to better address DEI challenges. If we can be helpful as your organization embarks on its own DEI journey, please reach out to Kris@HRComputes.com.