Embed diversity and inclusion into your business foundations

- Inclusive leaders build inclusive organizations. However, organizations don't become inclusive overnight. It is a journey and a major change management process, because nobody really likes change. Shifting a culture into a new paradigm towards inclusion can be both difficult and painful. Why? Because it challenges people's thinking, their belief systems, attitudes, and behaviors. What makes it even more difficult is that belief systems, which inform attitudes and behaviors, have been ingrained and influenced at an early age. Over the years, I've seen the focus of diversity efforts range from stage one to meeting compliance and avoiding lawsuits, stage two to doing the right thing, stage three to doing what's good for business, and four to drive greater innovation and creativity. After practicing in this field for 20-plus years, it's disheartening to see so many organizations today still at stage one. They treat diversity and inclusion as a compliance-only issue and one that they can check the box after hiring a few women and people of color and after delivering a two-hour training session. They demonstrate very little commitment to advancing the culture towards inclusion. I affectionately call this a going-out-of-business strategy, meaning that as the workforce, the workplace, and the marketplace becomes more diverse, organizations must rethink the way that they view and implement diversity and inclusion, or they will be left behind their competition who are already vying for top talent, new customers, clients, members, and donors. One of the first steps in moving beyond compliance-only efforts to building a more inclusive organization is to embed D and I into the business strategy. It has to be seen in a holistic way and positioned at the macro level. The diversity agenda has to be weaved into the business bigger-picture strategy and given the back end to determine meaningful and measurable goals and objectives. For example, it should be embedded into the organization's employment brand, its policies and procedures, communications plans, marketing and advertising efforts, in the customer service philosophy, and in the community outreach initiatives, just to name a few. I have seen that when diversity is a part of the strategic priorities, it gets visibility and it gets funded. It gets resourced and receives broad support. I mentioned earlier that building an inclusive workplace is a change management process. This requires that organizations have an appetite and a readiness for change. When I am consulting with senior executives who call me to partner with them in their efforts towards inclusion, one of the first questions that I ask is, "What is the organization's level of readiness for change on a scale of one to five?" five being very ready, one being not ready at all. How would you assess your organization's level of readiness for change? Finding out the answer to this question is paramount to the success and sustainability of D and I efforts. Diversity and inclusion cannot be seen as a one-off project and a flavor-of-the-month change effort.. Peter Drucker coined it best when he said, "Culture eats strategy for lunch." Diversity and inclusion as a strategy cannot successfully be implemented without having the right conditions being done at the right time and executed in the right way. Forward-thinking organizations today have this best practice in common. They embed diversity and inclusion into their business strategy and make it a part of a larger culture transformation. Companies such as Sodexo, Ernst & Young, IBM, Intel, Coca-Cola, KPMG have done a great job of this, and they continue to be recognized as best in class for diversity and inclusion. I started out this video saying that inclusive leaders build inclusive organizations. If it starts with leaders, it starts with you. Think about what you can do as a leader to better embed or support the integration of diversity and inclusion into your division's or department's strategic goals and objectives.