Organizations deeply committed to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work understand it’s a long game. DEI is a journey rather than a destination. Yet, having tangible priorities and expected outcomes is key to long-term success.
Industry leaders in DEI often build a road map of activities for the coming year. It is connected to an overall strategy that outlines what DEI means at the organization and why it matters. Before building a road map of priorities, define your DEI strategy. This should align with your organization’s mission and values to ensure authenticity. Ideally, DEI connects to your existing cultural values. Also, consider doing an assessment to determine your organization’s current DEI status. Without a thoughtful assessment, you risk prioritizing the wrong activities.
Road mapping can be done in a variety of ways. For example, it can be accomplished through a formal off-site with senior leadership; or with a DEI Council or Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that do annual planning; or, even better, by using employee input to decide what is important to prioritize in the short-term.
Priorities distinguish what’s important to the organization. Resourcing them signals an authentic long-term commitment to DEI. Here are some examples of DEI priorities to include on a road map:
- Assessments
- Focus groups
- Senior-leadership education
- Education for all employees
- Inclusive-leadership training
- Employee resource group (ERG) programming
- Cultural celebrations
- Communications support
- Community involvement
- DEI headcount
- Bias-intervention tools
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to DEI. Priorities should match where the organization is on its DEI journey. For those at the beginner phase, it makes sense to do an assessment before deciding priorities. For those further along in the work, focusing more deeply on systemic issues like bias intervention can be more impactful.
The Impact vs. Investment Matrix
There are two critical questions to ask when deciding priorities for your DEI roadmap. First, quantify the impact you hope the priority has on the business, team and organization. Second, estimate the investment necessary for the resources and time to support the priority. Here are some factors to consider when quantifying impact and investment:
Impact
- Productivity boosts
- Employee engagement increases
- Cost savings
- Turnover reductions
- Competitive advantages
Investment
- Dollars invested
- Headcount added
- Time to support
To help with buy-in, organizations can utilize a voting process where everyone gets to pick their top three priorities. Then, the budget can be allocated to the top-rated priorities. That way, everyone has input and will be more deeply committed to rolling out the priorities over the coming year.
Organizations can take this a step further and chart out, on a simple two-by-two matrix, the expected impact and investment. Ideally, those priorities seated in the high-impact/low-investment quadrant are prioritized first, followed by the high-impact/high-investment or low impact/low-investment quadrants (depending on the budget available), and any low-impact/high-investment options should be deprioritized. This process helps prevent groupthink or senior leaders dominating decision making.
DEI is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. The specific priorities and strategies will vary based on the unique needs and context of your organization. The key is to maintain a long-term commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion while continuously striving for measurable progress.
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