How Organization Development is Transforming Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

A Booming Industry

According to a study at MIT, American companies spend close to $8 billion on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) efforts. DE&I professionals are now present in 234 of the S&P500 companies, and Glassdoor.com currently reported job postings for over 27,239 DE&I Managers, 5,338 Consultants, 11,178 Directors, and 2,543 Chief DE&I Officers. These positions earn significant yearly base salaries, with consultants making up to $105K, directors $180K, and executives $390K. This field is no joke!

... with room for growth

However, despite the field's rapid ascent, which is accompanied by a growing number of genuinely inspiring leaders and success stories, on average DE&I efforts continue to yield ineffective and unsustainable results. Deloitte’s 2019 State of Inclusion Survey reveals that even though 73% of employees feel comfortable addressing bias in the workplace when they perceive it, only 29% stand up in the moment on behalf of themselves or their coworkers. And even though Google invested over $264M in 2014 and 2015, in 2019, black employees comprise just 3.3% of their workforce, and only 2.6% hold leadership positions. Additionally, according to Gallup, the gender pay gap has barely improved over the last decade.

... and a natural ally

Graduates of Organization Development (OD) programs are increasingly recruited into the DE&I profession because they demonstrate a blend of competencies necessary for leading inclusive, organization-wide change efforts that lead to measurable, sustainable, and best of all, self-perpetuating results. Some of the best OD practitioners will tell you that their ultimate aim is to work themself out of a job (so to speak) by building employee capacity and breaking dependency on leaders and consultants. Insert Plato's Allegory of the Cave here.

While it may seem obvious that DE&I and OD make the perfect couple, this union deserves far more attention than it’s currently receiving. Lately, I've felt an urge to explore how OD is transforming DE&I efforts. Although a five-minute read on LinkedIn can't beat a rigorous academic chapter on the subject - which I am working on - I hope this piece will help get the ball rolling for practitioner dialogue.

A 2003 study published in Human Resource Management, titled The Effects of Diversity on Business Performance, tested (what continues to be) a widespread business case for diversity: "diverse teams produce better results." To test this assumption, the research team studied the impact of race and gender diversity on performance at four large firms. According to the findings, organizational culture and group processes matter more than group composition alone... by far. Their assessment indicates that OD should not be on the periphery but rather a central characteristic of all DE&I efforts. According to the study:

"To be successful in working with and gaining value from this diversity requires a sustained, systemic approach and long-term commitment. Success is facilitated by a perspective that considers diversity to be an opportunity for everyone in an organization to learn from each other how better to accomplish their work and an occasion that requires a supportive and cooperative organizational culture as well as group leadership and process skills that can facilitate effective group functioning. Organizations that in-vest their resources in taking advantage of the opportunities that diversity offers should outperform those that fail to make such investments."

The quote above is about as close to a definition of OD as you can get! Don't take my word for it. Check out the OD Global Competency Framework, which can be found on the Organization Development Network website and you'll find terms like Systems Change Expert, Culture Builder, Process Consultant, and Equity Advocate. Sound familiar?

Whether OD is learned incrementally through webinars and certificates or more transformatively through graduate school programs, the sooner we connect DE&I leaders with this discipline the better. While I couldn't possibly list all of the OD superpowers that DE&I leaders can benefit from, I'll explore 6 back-of-the-napkin ideas, and in the spirit of OD, invite you to share your 7th idea in the comments section below.

#1 Change Baristas

Whether you're a Starbucks, Dunkin, Caribou, or Costa person, one thing all of these places have in common is that they provide a wide range of choices: origins, roasts, and flavors. You leave with a delicious creation in your hands. You feel a pep in your step and maybe just a little bolder than you did before. There is also a particular pride that comes with your choice and joy in watching the creation process - the smell, the sounds, the movement. If prepared the right way, OD can be just as magical. The method of discovering that perfect blend starts with you and continues with you, long after you tip your favorite Barista.

While DE&I training is an integral part of the change equation, it sometimes triggers animosity and even backfires because the process feels forced and devoid of choice. In a Harvard Business Review article titled Why Diversity Efforts Fail the author writes:

Executives favor a classic command-and-control approach to diversity because it boils expected behaviors down to dos and don’ts that are easy to understand and defend. Yet this approach also flies in the face of nearly everything we know about how to motivate people to make changes. Decades of social science research point to a simple truth: You won’t get managers on board by blaming and shaming them with rules and reeducation.

Learning should challenge you, but it shouldn't leave a bitter taste in your mouth. It also shouldn't be too saccharine. Inviting others into a careful blend of choice, creation, and solidarity is OD's trademark.

#2 Fabric Weavers

OD is an approach that draws from behavioral science, adult learning, and leadership studies because its overarching goal is to help organizations align their strategy, systems, structures, culture, teams, leadership, and talent. DE&I professionals often assume a similar strategic approach, but why should they have to reinvent the wheel? A vibrant field of research and practice already provides a tested path for weaving humanistic values into every fiber of an organization. Together, OD and DE&I could combine in creative ways to ensure that compassionate and actionable dialogue becomes a natural expression of being at work.

Now, suppose OD and DE&I had a baby. I imagine it might look like this beautiful, integrated developmental framework produced by a panel of 95 experts, designed to help leaders assess their organizations and hire DE&I staff and consultants.

If this excites you, just wait, another one is on the way! In March of 2021, the Centre for Global Inclusion will be releasing its Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Benchmarks: Standards for Organizations Around the World compiled by 117 experts, many of whom are experts in OD, including Judith Katz, Bernardo Ferdman, Mary Frances-Winters, Laura Belfiore, and many more.

#3 Dialogue Masters

OD practitioners also demonstrate an enhanced ability to help their clients actively recognize, accept, and draw developmental insights from common anxieties, attachments, and biases surrounding DE&I. In the words of the inimitable Carl Jung:

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

This is crucial because sustainable results do not come from a clipboard and a checklist. Instead, they require a bottom-up, inside-out approach to learning, in which the employee experiences enlightenment for themself and with others. This is precisely what OD accomplishes, par excellence. The field of OD shares a treasure chest of knowledge and skills for creating a safe and generative space for genuine dialogue, which is permeable to multiple perspectives, deeply reflective, authentically inclusive, discerning, and inspiring.

One of the reasons why DE&I training is said to backfire is that three-quarters of the messaging tend to be negative. Although identifying deficits can light the flame of urgency and immediate commitment, OD practitioners know that an appreciative approach tends to yield more effective and sustainable results. For this reason, many practitioners adopt the philosophy and methodology of Appreciative Inquiry.

In addition to an appreciative spirit, OD does its work without ever seeming like it was there. Instead, employees are the clear stars of the show. The solutions they create together are inherently tailored and more effective. How do they get there? Dialogue, dialogue, dialogue! And by dialogue, I don't mean town halls, leader-led discussions, or experts who are a little too controlling of the flow and direction of the dialogue.

Whether you are formally trained in OD or not, all DE&I professionals should have a copy of Dialogic Organization Development: The Theory and Practice of Transformational Change edited by Gervase Bushe and Robert Marshak. In addition to learning about what Dialogic OD is, pay careful attention to the opening chapters about dialogic mindset and practice, as well as "Chapter 11: Transformative Learning During Dialogic OD" by Yabome Gilpin-Jackson, and "Chapter 14: From Them to Us" by Ray Gordezky. Here is a quick tutorial of Dialogic OD and a list of 40 dialogic methods you can (and should) add to your DE&I toolbelt, and eventually, the toolbelts of those you serve.

And when it comes to dialogue around inclusion issues, it is not uncommon for paradoxes to arise. To better understand how OD professionals help clients navigate these tensions, check out this exceptional research published in 2017 by Bernard Ferdman on Paradoxes of Inclusion: Understanding and Managing the Tensions of Diversity and Multiculturalism. It covers ways you can actively work through polarities that exist in self-expression and identity, boundaries and norms, and safety and comfort. Ferdman's work pairs well with Howard Ross's 2018 book Our Search for Belonging: How our Need to Connect is Tearing us Apart, which earned Ross the Nautilus Book Award Gold Medal for Social Change and Social Justice.

#4 Humanity Hawks

In an earlier article titled An Anatomy of OD, I shared the results of an inspiring global study of 9 values that set OD apart from other change professions. The amount of attention and discussion that OD professionals spend on values may seem like overkill. Still, they are well aware that they must be mindful and embody their values relentlessly. Practicing such moment-by-moment awareness may be the only way to facilitate DE&I efforts with a sense of efficacy. To ensure that our deeds match our words, we must vigilantly sense and close the gap between what Chris Argyris describes as "the way we think we are acting and the way we are acting."

In Teaching Smart People How to Learn, Argyris suggests that "there seems to be a universal human tendency to design one's actions consistently according to four basic values: (1) To remain in unilateral control; (2) To maximize "winning" and minimize "losing"; (3) To suppress negative feelings; and (4) To be as "rational" as possible - by which people mean defining clear objectives and evaluating their behavior in terms of whether or not they have achieved them." According to Argyris:

The purpose of these values is to avoid embarrassment or threat, feeling vulnerable or incompetent. In this respect, the master program that most people use is profoundly defensive. Defensive reasoning encourages individuals to keep private the premises, inferences, and conclusions that shape their behavior and to avoid testing them in a truly independent, objective fashion."

One compelling method that OD practitioners utilize to close this gap is called Use of Self or Self as Instrument. The following Use of Self Report shares over 60 ways this term has been defined through the years. Here's my favorite:

“Use of self is the conscious use of one’s whole being in the intentional execution of one’s roles for effectiveness in whatever the current situation is presenting. The purpose is to be able to execute a role effectively, for others and the system they’re in, without personal interference (e.g. bias, blindness, avoidance, and agendas)... to have clear intentions and choice” (Jamieson, Auron, & Shechtman, 2010).

Eventually, Use of Self was translated masterfully into a competency model by Dave Jamieson. I highly recommend checking out his publication with Matthew Auron and David Shechtman in 2010, and with Jean Davidson in 2019.

#5 Socio-Technical Surgeons

If you take a look at the most recent and relevant articles published on leading and managing DE&I efforts, you will find that our ideas of success tend to fall into two categories. A recent study I conducted at Penn State with Fatah Arman and Leila Farzam demonstrates that close to half of DE&I studies and organizational practices focus on technical systems, while the other half focus on organic perceptions. Technical aspects of DE&I are binary and lend themselves to checklists and compliance initiatives. They include new systems and structures geared toward equal representation, access to resources, and authority to contribute. Organic components include feelings, sensations, and intuitions amongst employees. These have been conceptualized in research as the perception of respect, being valued, and accepted.

This distinction is important because the field of OD addresses organizations as socio-technical systems, recognizing that it is difficult to witness effective and sustainable technical change without significant and sustainable social change, and vice versa. OD is an art and a science that manages and drives these aspects of performance in balance. Many OD practitioners demonstrate a surgeon-like, political-precision in helping organizations deal with socio-technical imbalance.

#6 Constant Gardners

A good gardener plants their crop in the right soil, with the proper sunshine, at the right time of the year. A great gardener feels the earth in their hands, smells the scent of flowers in the wind, listens to the leaves chattering, and sees a thousand shades of green. Without exaggeration, the best OD practitioners are constant gardeners who submerge themselves passionately in all aspects of their craft. While they may only contract for specific work, they are also profoundly aware of how they influence the organization's ecosystem. And they attend to these aspects without forcing, fiddling, or conditionality.

Just like marigold seeds floating unnoticeably across a field, OD practitioners plant light questions that often grow into a collective and contagious beauty. For instance, while moving a DE&I effort ahead, the OD-minded may note how their work connects with the organization's leadership pipeline (or lack thereof), or the dreams of a specific employee expressed over coffee, or the flash of brilliance in that one manager who seems to annoy everyone. OD practitioners don't just listen deeply; they feel deeply. They don't just understand the bigger picture; they sense it in real-time. Most importantly, they don't concentrate on the crop but rather the conditions needed for a consistent harvest.

#7 What do you think?

OD is a lens, a way of being, a set of tools, and a group of embodied values, that do not merely belong to OD practitioners. They belong to everyone and should hold a particularly special place in the hearts of all DE&I professionals. I've listed six reasons why and now invite you to share your number 7 in the comments below. Thanks for reading!