The Powerful Impact of Creating and Embedding a Diverse Culture

Forbes contributor Corinne Post has written a thought piece that I found packed a punch and wanted to pass it on. It prompts #business #leadership to consider three questions with a view to both creating and embedding a more #diverse organisational #culture.

Working with CEOs and leadership teams, as I do, as a consultant and coach, I found her questions resonated strongly with me:-

‘How do we want to define ‘#diversity,’ ‘#equity’ and ‘#inclusion’ for ourselves, within our organisation?’ #DEI means different things to different people. Aligning on and making explicit for everyone the definition is mission-critical as a ‘north star,’ pointing everyone to what is ultimately sought.

“What’s DEI’s strategic potential?” As Post avers, numerous studies over the years have related and I’ve seen in my capacity, working with teams, “DEI initiatives can fuel learning, change and #innovation.” This said, arguably it’s easier for #leaders to work in homogeneous #cultures and therein lies the rub. One has to see that easy doesn’t mean better!

Post’s third question is “How are we role-modelling #inclusive leadership?” She references a report by search firm Heidrick & Struggles which points to the fact that only “only 30% of senior leaders, on average, model inclusive leadership, in contrast to the 57% of executives in DEI-forward firms.”

Getting leadership teams to a point where they become aware of their current norms and practices -- and, then, do something about them by shifting patterns to become more inclusive -- is not an overnight process. In my experience, it takes leadership will and organisational #energy. This said, as Maya Angelou penned and I do believe is true for business as well as #community: “In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”

What more can you do to spawn more diversity and leverage the powers brought by a diverse culture?

#betterbusiness #sustainabledevelopment #future