Organizational DE&I: An initiative that doesn’t require waiting on verdicts and tragedies to address

There is an ongoing reckoning within corporate and organizational spaces regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I). Chief Diversity Officers are being hired, DE&I councils are forming, and DE&I mission statements and charters are being revised and published. All of these changes are great. However, the questions that I continue to ask myself and others is this; How will your organization think about the composition (personnel) and disposition (strategic implementation) of these newly formed departments and councils. Will these newly departments have voice, vote, and authority in key decisions, or will they find themselves primarily being utilized after national tragedies to “deal” with social outrage that is “disrupting” business as usual?

In this article, I will provide some considerations for next steps and emphasize the importance of not waiting on verdicts or tragedies to address DE&I. Although tragedies are a part of DE&I related topics, this is not the same issue. If your DE&I initiatives are primarily focused on being reactive to the latest social incident, your organization is missing the point, and not utilizing your personnel and resources in the most effective manner.

Emphasize Organizational Formation over Organizational Liability

Learning and education is critical when it comes to growth and development. The emphasis in DE&I discussions must be focused on formation. The concern of the organization should shift to educating their individual team members about the ongoing and ever-changing cultural landscape and multicultural competence needed to lead well. The more education and learning that happens within the organization, the more likely the organization will be able to make informed decisions that are rooted in awareness and knowledge. Some organizations will hyper-focus on the correlation of DE&I and profits. Treating DE&I as a product that is commercialized will be an unfortunate trajectory that many will follow. Their initiatives will lack depth, authenticity, and risk.

Those diluted initiatives will reek of organizational liability, and leave people feeling that the main focus is not on the people in the company and those that the company is serving, but instead a small group of beneficiaries who profit from keeping business as usual.

Your employees are assessing the organizational behavior and the attitudes of the leadership

Employees notice everyting. They will notice what is said and unsaid on company-wide communication. They will notice how the organization moves social justice iniaitves comparatively to marketing and other initiatives. This requires leaders to think about the impact of foreclosing and/or ignoring the critical discussions that are happening in our country and beyond. Many organizations have unfortunately created an environment that has been more reactive than proactive regarding social change and justice.  This type of behavior will continue to put organizations “right of bang”. In other words, organizations will make decisions on less than desirable conditions, typically after a major social incident. Those conditions and responses will often be riddle with organizational liability rather than thoughtful formation. The attitudes of leaders in these spaces is also critical. Learning how to discuss topics of DE&I is no longer an option and must be treated as an organizational imperative. DE&I initiatives are vital to co-creating an organizational space that is psychologically safe.

Initiate Early, Expect Ruptures, and Emphasize Repairs

Organizations would benefit from initiating conversations. Initiating employee roundtables. Initiating new leadership succession plans. Initiating HR policy reviews. Initiating discussions of DE&I that don’t start with conversations about EO or affirmative action numerics. Initiating retreats and opportunities for increased cross-cultural exposure and interactions. Initiating superordinate goal development.

Individual and organizational ruptures are inevitable. They will happen. Some leaders will not act with haste. Some leaders will say something that is unhelpful at best and egregious at worst. Some employees will be frustrated at times with the consequences of change. All of these examples of ruptures will continue to happen in organizations who are committed to doing the hard work of implementing inclusive behavior and equitable practices.

Learning repairs is essential. The work of the leaders is to create spaces that faciliatate an environment that has pathways to repairs. Anticipating social ruptures and having a plan to address those ruptures expeditiously and thoroughly will be a differentiating characteristic of multiculturally competent leaders and organizations.

Like anything else, repairs will more than likely take multiple iterations of learning, education, and repeating to be effective. However, the time to start thinking and ramping up an organizations DE&I conversation is not after a tragedy or trial…it can start now.

Dr. Cedric Williams is a Consulting Psychologist, Assistant Professor, & CEO of Legacy Consulting & Research Group. His work and research interests are in the domains of Multicultural Competence, Resilience, Leadership, and Occupational Thriving. He serves as the Diversity and Inclusion Chairperson for the American Psychological Association’s Division 13, the Society of Consulting Psychology. Dr. Williams provides coaching and consulting services for individuals, teams, and organizations. He facilitates workshops on Multicultural Competence, Ruptures and Repairs, Anti-Racism, and Building and Sustaining DE&I Initiatives. To inquire about consulting and coaching, fill out the service request form below.  

References

Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383. doi:10.2307/2666999.

Williams, C. (2020, March 27). What is Multicultural Competence? Retrieved from https://legacycrg.com/blog/2020/blog2

Robbers Cave Experiment by Sherif and Sherif. https://www.simplypsychology.org/robbers-cave.html

Dr. Cedric Williams

Founder + CEO

Legacy Consulting & Research Group LLC