Fundamental, Systemic Change Drives Sustainable Results in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Karen Jaw-Madson is an author, executive coach, and the principle of Co.-Design of Work Experience. She is author of Culture Your Culture: Innovating Experiences @ Work , founder of Future of Work platform “A New HR,” and instructor at Stanford University’s Continuing Studies Program. She empowers organizations through coaching and developing leadership, enabling them to leverage culture, diversity, and employee experience, optimizing their talent, and driving change management and transformation.

Karen is also one of several dozen contributors to the book, The Secret Sauce for Leading Transformational Change, for which I am lead author. In her essay, “Sustainable Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): Transformational Change at the Individual, Team, and Organizational Levels,” Karen explores ways that illustrate just how accessible sustainable transformational change in DEI can be if an organization is willing to grasp it.

“The graveyard of dead DEI initiatives cannot deter the pursuit of more diverse, equitable, and inclusive organizations,” she writes. “Both the upsides of success and the consequences of inaction are too great.”

According to Karen, “results come in the form of discernable progress, not just milestones and metrics, but a shared belief that sufficient improvement has been achieved.” Organizations that go beyond treating DEI as just another initiative and instead treat it like the systemic, ongoing, and fundamental change it has to be, she says, can attain sustainable results.

As “arguably the foundation of how a business operates,” her essay focuses on making systemic changes to culture at the individual, team, and organizational levels. She writes that “implementing DEI without changing a culture to support it guarantees superficial outcomes.”

Here are some of Karen’s insights on changing a culture to be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive individually, on teams, and organizationally. For a more in-depth read, her full essay can be found in The Secret Sauce book.

Individuals

Most people believe it is beyond their ability to influence company culture. The reality is that with the right mindset, tools, and motivation, one person can indeed make a difference. For those who want to move from bystander to ally, granting that “permission” may be enough to inspire action.

This is done by combining self-awareness with continuous learning. Both activities build one’s knowledge. Transformation comes from utilizing that knowledge.

Everyone can decide how they want to evolve as an ally, including individuals.

They can demonstrate allyship by taking action. Perhaps the organization has identified behaviors to demonstrate diversity as a value. Allies should role model these ideals. In the absence of that, they can apply what they have learned and determine how to show allyship.

Partnering with others is one of the most important steps an individual can take. It can come in different forms, but the idea is to give and get support by building community, where people can combine superpowers for exponential effect. This strategy grows the solidarity dividend, what New York Times bestselling author and policy advocate Heather McGhee defined as “gains that come when people come together across race, to accomplish what we simply can’t do on our own.”

Teams

Teams are where the work of individuals, culture change, and DEI implementation begins to scale. It is within every team’s power to manage their own culture and prove how they can leverage DEI.

Increase team awareness to uncover critical information on needs, motivations, strengths, blind spots, and opportunities that impact performance. Understanding the individuals on the team, how they collaborate, and how that aligns with their work not only supports talent optimization but also promotes an appreciation for their diversity. There are many tools available to do this, but maintaining that awareness is the true differentiator.

Establish and preserve psychological safety. This is a necessary condition for team performance, change, and DEI. Team members must believe that having differences not only is okay but encouraged because it leads to better outcomes. Research has shown that trust, respect, and care for one another are ingredients for psychological safety. This is something all workers desire regardless of background but is especially needed for DEI.

Create a social contract that ensures DEI. Develop a team charter as a group to engage and align members.

Organizations

The ultimate goal is to deliver sustainable, organization-wide transformation. Having DEI as an enduring competitive advantage requires adoption into core values, systemic integration, and matching lived experiences. Design of Work Experience (DOWE), as explained in the book, Culture Your Culture: Innovating Experiences @ Work, provides an in-depth understanding of the current state, a design for the future state, and a roadmap with action plans for how to get there.

Get a baseline to gain a deep understanding of the complexities of the current culture. The process of acquiring that knowledge engages people from the very beginning of the transformation journey and indicates what will most likely be successful given a company’s unique context. Without that deep understanding, everything else is trial and error.

Co-create the DEI strategy to align with the culture and employee experience. There are no better collaborators than the people expected to carry out the vision for the future. In the Create & Learn, Decide, and Plan phases of DOWE, leadership and employees partner to design the strategy blueprint, roadmap, and action plans for adopting DEI holistically. This construct brings together and leverages the diversity of knowledge, talent, and experience across the organization.

Implement change with the guidance of the roadmap and action plans that are constructed through the DOWE process. Plans include the content of the change itself and “the how” of implementation. Both drive the momentum necessary for change.

Sustain on a continuous basis. This step determines success or failure based on how well desirable changes take hold. Meaningful substance and momentum must permeate at all levels. The benefits of change are realized as long as the organization continues to pay attention and manage it.

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The Secret Sauce for Leading Transformational Change, from lead author Ian Ziskin and with contributions from dozens of senior business leaders, HR leaders, experts, coaches, and consultants, shares insight, vivid stories, lessons learned, and best practices for what it takes to lead, survive, and thrive in periods of transformational change. Learn more at https://www.transformationalchangebook.com .