5 Things to Consider when starting an ED&I strategy

Equity, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) work is popular at the moment. Lots of organisations and leaders recognise that something needs to be done about the lack of diversity and representation in their organisations. However, often they don’t know why they need to be more diverse and they don’t know how to achieve it. They are also worried about getting it wrong and causing more harm than good. 

Here, I will explore 5 things that CEOs and senior leaders should consider before embarking on an ED&I journey.

#1 Why are you embarking on this journey? 

Are you clear about your ‘why’?   

It is important that you are clear on this before you begin. As an ED&I consultant, when I ask this question, I get a wide range of responses including: ‘Following the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement….’; ‘our staff/students/clients have raised some concerns and we know we need to do more’; or, ‘we have done some things towards improving diversity and inclusion but we need to do better’. I practice a non-judgemental approach to my work and so I listen to the reasons leaders give me for embarking on this work and offer challenge and thinking points to help leaders to gain clarity and begin to move forward. 

Let’s own and sit with the reason why we are doing this work. Often, we have been pushed into it or there has been a catalyst such as BLM, a complaint from an employee, outrage from the public about an issue or someone in the organisation desires change and campaigns for it. When people realise they have been pushed into diversity and inclusion work, this can create a range of emotions from people, they can become defensive, fragile and afraid of how they may be viewed as an individual and as the leader of an organisation.

Before we begin to create an ED&I strategy, I encourage leaders to sit with this for a while, and reflect. Self-awareness and realisation is an important part of the process. The important thing for me, is that we recognise where we have gone wrong and understand a range of things such as: perhaps we have ignored the needs of people; perhaps we have an organisation that is systematically racist; perhaps our LGBTQ+ staff do not feel able to be themselves; perhaps our recruitment excludes people with disabilities from applying; perhaps we have practices in place that prevent diversity from taking hold in leadership. Recognise this and then move forward to do something practical and meaningful about it. 

Warning! If you ignore the reason why you are starting, you may be doing performative surface level work. The people you work with will see through performative behaviour very quickly and you will lose the trust of your stakeholders rapidly. 

#2 What will the challenges be in your organisation?

You must reflect on your organisation and all of the stakeholders. Each organisation is different and it is impossible to have a one size fits all approach to an ED&I strategy. 

How well do you know and understand the challenges for your organisation? As an organisation leader, how confident are you that your senior leaders and colleagues are honest with you about the current situation as regards discrimination, complaints, pay gaps, career progression etc? How confident are you really that you know the answers to these questions? 

Consider the attitudes and behaviours of leaders and other stakeholders in your organisation. How receptive to change are they? How aware are they of the need and benefits of diversity and inclusion? Consider the characteristics of all staff in your organisation. Are the demographics all the same throughout the organisation, or are there certain types of people in certain types of role? In schools, are certain types of children gaining all of the behaviour points, accessing mental health support or being excluded?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, how will you find out? 

When you have considered these and other areas of your organisation you should try to work out what your specific challenges are and how you can begin to systematically approach them.

#3 Who is best placed to do the work?

Quite often, CEOs feel time pressured because of the catalyst for change we described earlier, and will look quickly to put someone in charge of this area of responsibility. 

My advice would be to stop and consider who is best placed to deliver diversity and inclusion work? Most ED&I leaders agree that the best person to be responsible  for diversity and inclusion is the CEO or someone very senior in an organisation because these are the people who have the resources, leadership experience and platform to deliver effective change management. They are able to be accountable and hold others to account on measurable targets. Just because this person is responsible, does not mean that they should do it all themselves. They can appoint someone who does the ED&I strategic leadership, but my advice is that that whoever is delivering ED&I strategic leadership should report to the person at the very top of the organisation. 

Who in your organisation has the right experience for the role? Feedback suggests that people prefer that someone in the role of ED&I leader, and those delivering training, have a recognised protected characteristic for the sake of credibility, genuine understanding and the ability to draw on real examples. 

I’ve written and spoken numerous times about the importance of proper recognition for the emotional labour, research, impact on all outcomes, and leadership requirement. How will you acknowledge this? Will it be in giving people proper time to do the work? Will you afford them the proper leadership wage?

#4 What do you want the outcome to be?

This work will never be done.

I always start my consultancy work by being honest with leaders about the realistic expectations of ED&I strategy. It will never be ‘complete’. This is ongoing work that requires constant updating of knowledge and understanding of legislation and inclusive practices. 

You will of course need a clear vision. A clear understanding of what you want to achieve, by when, and how. I often support organisations in creating a 3-5 year strategic plan which outlines the vision of what diversity and inclusion will look like, but you must be ready to monitor, evaluate, review and update goals and targets throughout this period. 

So, you need to be clear on what your vision is. What do you want your organisation to look like in a few years’ time? How will all of your stakeholders feel about you and your organisation?

#5 How will you measure impact?

What gets measured, gets done.

Often, leaders I work with are afraid of measurable targets in this work. They will say things like, ‘we can’t find anyone to apply’, ‘look at where we live/work- it’s impossible to diversify’, ‘what if we don’t meet the target, how will this make us look?’ The problem with this is you’re letting yourself off the hook and place yourself on a slippery slope to performative behaviours.

Any target in an ED&I strategy that uses words such as ‘consider’, ‘try’ or ,’aim’ are not measurable. I can consider having a cup of tea. It doesn’t mean I’m going to go into the kitchen and make one and then drink it. I might change my mind about being thirsty, I might go into the kitchen and come out with coffee, I might make the cup of tea and not drink it. ‘Considering’ is pointless as a target. Avoid vague words such as this. 

For me, a target gives us a clear aim and the basis for robust actions and conversation. If targets are missed, it is the narrative and the explanation of what we did in our endeavours to get to that point that matters. What did we do? Why didn’t it work? What will we do next? What is our method of monitoring, evaluation and review? How do we report on this work and who to? It isn’t so much about a number or an ultimate goal, it is about the journey to that goal and our value led actions that really matter. 

As a CEO or C-suite leader, you need to consider these questions and reflect on your values, desires and beliefs. They should be discussed with your wider leadership and support team too. Make your decisions on each point and then you can embark on your EDI journey in a reflective and receptive manner.

If you would like any further guidance please feel free to contact me or book a chat with me here. If you would like to develop the training of your ED&I leader then you can find our more here.