Putting the E in DEI
I’m doing a keynote speech in a couple of weeks at Accelerate HR, an online HR conference. The topic is “The E in DEI. Breaking down the barriers to create a truly inclusive culture.” I’m currently doing the planning for this and thinking about what would be useful and interesting for the delegates, who will mainly be HR practitioners.
The topic got me thinking about the “E”. Most of us would assume the E is equity or maybe equality. Also, employee is a good option, and I will definitely talk about these topics. But what else could the E represent?
Ideas have been coming to me on walks, talking with people, in the shower and while drinking wine. I have quite a few E words listed in the notes app on my phone, but here are three that are sticking out to me.
What about Ethics? Organisations working on diversity and inclusion are often doing so because they understand the business imperative. McKinsey have done great research in this space to demonstrate how increased diversity leads to increased innovation and performance. But it’s also about doing the right thing. The death of George Floyd and heightened attention to the Black Lives Matter movement have highlighted the need to do the right thing and drive better representation of the communities in which our organisations operate.
Execution is another topic I have been playing with. Often in our diversity and inclusion work it’s hard to get budget, it can be hard to get initiatives approved and then executed. In the book The 4 Disciplines of Execution, the authors talk about strategy (or plan) vs execution. While both are the role of a leader, executing the strategy is the hardest. The day to day “whirlwind” gets in the way. To be a successful D&I leader we need to be able to plan AND execute.
Evidence based. A really important “E” because we need to execute on the right evidence-based work. When I first started work in diversity and inclusion, I contacted some experienced D&I leaders and asked, what are you doing that’s making a difference and progressing your goals. Do you know how many could answer this question? Can you guess?
Using evidence-based work, whether it’s external research into what works, or your internal work where you are tracking progress, makes a big difference. While we need to test and learn with some initiatives, there needs to be some kind of well thought out basis for the work.
What “E” words would you add?
Lisa xx
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