DEVELOPING A GREAT DEI STRATEGY

We are all busy preparing our organizational and institutions’ strategy documents to address workplace Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. You may also focus specifically in one area such as ensure equity or inclusion or addressing workplace culture.

In our organization, the annual planning cycle is a routine of preparing or reviewing our business strategies, so preparing DEI strategy may not be so strange however the process is a bit unique bearing in mind DEI touches on diversity dimensions that give us identity and identity is so personal and evokes emotions. So this strategy process is rather emotional and tempers may flare or people may be a bit edgy compared to when you are developing a new product or new IT systems strategy. In DEI strategy people are emotionally invested.

A quick overview of the process of developing the DEI strategy.

You first need a business case on why DEI?

Why does DEI or a specific issue in DEI say, gender equality, racial equity or demographic diversity, etc. matter to your organization?

While in business strategies we may use strictly profit and performance measures to build the business case, in DEI we must also use justice measures such as fairness, equality, dignity, human rights, all key, and fundamental human values. Human values trump profits. If you seem to focus on profit alone you come across as insensitive especially to the pain suffered by other human beings who have been victims of discrimination and exclusion from your organization's systems, processes, and culture. So this is an opportunity to stand up boldly and be countered as taking action towards improving your DEI stand and experiences for your stakeholders in terms of DEI.

Preparing your business case for DEI is also a chance to tie your DEI case to sustainability efforts. Any conscious organization that also has a sustainability mindset will holistically focus on people, planet, not just profits and they can expand this to global peace and prosperity especially those with cross-continental/geographical reach.

After making the business case you start your strategy development actions.

The Process of designing your DEI strategy, follow a simple three steps:-

1.  Diagnosis - use tools to check or assess the state of DEI in your organization. You can use various tools for various data points.

·        Primary data- surveys, focus groups, one on one interviews

·        Secondary data- literature and desktop reviews.

·        Administrative data-mining current relevant data from the operations of the business. In DEI we mainly focus on HR data and zero in on the talent cycle data to review what is happening. This administrative data can also be used to build a business case and convince skeptics why the organization must address DEI. Some leaders may think DEI does not matter, it's simply a passing flavor of the month due to external pressure such as, 'me too or black lives matter movement', while others may be denying the existence of systemic discrimination inbuilt into the system, administrative data can be the true litmus test.

2.  Design

Here you need a sound conceptual model to help structure your solutions so that it is sound, scientifical and follows a coherent process.

For example, if you are addressing internal DEI, employees are your focus, they are the ones experiencing lack of inclusion internally, and here you can use design thinking to map employee experience. If you are addressing external DEI and let’s say suppliers or customers are your focus, you will use design thinking to map supplier or customer experience, etc. You will also assess the various aspects and variables that act together to create a good or bad experience for your target group concerning DEI, so apply system thinking and tools.

You need sound conceptual models in both diagnoses (to know where to look) and design (to know how to design impactful solutions).

3.  Actions plans and measurement.

The designed solutions must be translated into action plans with key measures, responsibilities, and accountability. Including a tracking process during implementation, to tell whether the dial is moving and then improve as you go and a budget. Measurement, analysis, and improvement is an iterative process of continuous improvement to realize the desired benefits.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

During the DEI strategy development process and the realization of the final product i.e. the DEI Strategy, you need to subject both the process and the product to a quality assurance process.

·        You must assure the process because a product is as good as the raw materials and the process used.

·        Assuring the process - in hard products we look at the credibility of man, machine, and methods while in soft products we can look at, yes, the individuals involved in the strategy development, the approaches, frameworks, tools, and methods (conceptual models) used and ask are they credible?

·        We must also assure the product coming out of the process.

I have four approaches that I recommend using with clients' organizations when one is supporting the DEI strategy development and deployment. These are:-

1.   Process assurance - is the process participative and inclusive. First and foremost we cannot speak of inclusion if the process of developing, say, a workplace inclusion strategy or inclusive culture change strategy is not inclusive in itself as a first requirement. A participative and inclusive process in a DEI strategy development process leverages the power of diversity. It allows for a diversity of ideas, thoughts, and innovation to take place hence a better document.

2.   Concept and design assurance- Checking whether the design of the strategy development process and the outcome document have a sound conceptual foundation. Strategy development should be built on sound knowledge and thinking. There are many models and tools used in developing strategies but they also need to match and fit the context. How the concepts, theoretical frameworks, and the context come together should be objective and coherent. e.g. for internal DEI Employee is the client/internal customer /center of internal DEI work hence use theoretical frameworks e.g. such as design thinking to map the employee workplace experience relative to DEI dimensions you are looking at and assessing the employee touchpoints within the organization to gauge the experience of exclusion or belonging. When it comes to the design of interventions and initiatives to close the gaps and improve the sense of belonging or inclusion, you should support this with data for objectivity and also theoretical concepts that anchor the design and implementation of these initiatives, such as awareness and knowledge precedes adoption of any practice of behavior but this alone will not transform the culture, you need other measures such as change management capability, behavior accountability, rewards, and penalties, what gets rewarded gets repeated. A lot of Organizational design and development tools are quite effective here.

3.   Product specifications (Subject matter expertise) SME measures- This ensures that the right people, tools, and subject matter expertise are used in the DEI strategy process and specific expertise to the DEI dimension e.g. gender or race equity, and that the bare minimum expected in that specific fields are included and can be seen within the final product.

4.   comparative/Relativity measures (internal /external) - this checks how your strategy/final product looks like when held against other similar strategies in a similar sector, subject, and environment. A strategy on gender, in a developing country, in the technology sector in a mid-sized organization or large multinational or private or public sector, or INGO should be held against similar others for comparison.

NB:

Remember…..

A complete DEI strategy document is not an end in itself, it’s only the beginning since now the rubber must meet the road, i.e. implementing your strategy, translating intentions into actions, actions into results, results into sustainable impact.