Exchange Hero DEI MAY 4 2023

Putting DE&I at the Heart of a Healthy Culture - Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Exchange

Organizational culture is inextricably linked to organizational performance. A late-2022 study by i4cp found that high-performance companies were nearly 6x more likely to report having very healthy cultures. Certain traits—most notably collaborative, employee centered, innovative, learning, and inclusive—were typically used to describe these cultures by employees within them. However, 34% of those surveyed reported the opposite; they cited sensing more toxicity in their cultures during the pandemic. They used descriptors such as hierarchical, cutthroat, insensitive, disrespectful, and chaotic to depict what their cultures had become.

DE&I Exchange members discussed how to weave our D&I goals into building a healthy culture.

 

Top 4 highlights. 

Moving to a healthier state. When looking to move the needle towards a healtheir culture, consider the 18 actions for a successful culture renovation. Each of these actions should involve D&I principles.

Toxic cultures = No safety. People who describe their organizations’ cultures as toxic are 10x more likely to indicate an “unsafe environment for expressing opinions or concerns” as a top issue in their organizations. Register for The Toxic 9 webinar to learn more about how to eliminate unhealthy habits and get your culture back in shape.

Tell stories. When moving to a healthier state and combating toxic behaviors, tell stories to share others perspectives and build empathy. Provide safe spaces for authenticity. Members shared examples of this happening in ERGs and programs that pair senior leaders with ERG leaders to explore 6 different dimensions of Worldview Intelligence.

Hold leaders accountable. This is one of the seven habits of very healthy cultures. Check out the toolkit and How to Hold Leaders Accountable which includes steps to build a business case and implement the initiative. You can also get inspired by high-performance companies like F5, Idaho National Laboratory, and Dick's Sporting Goods.

 

How does your organization stack up?

 

Benchmarking. Take the Healthy Culture Index to see how your organization's culture compares to other i4cp member organizations. You can also explore the Healthy Culture Index Explained to learn more about each question.

Connect D&I efforts to healthy culture traits. Look at the traits of healthy, fit cultures. Consider traits of fit cultures such as brings out the best performance in employees and is highly collaborative. Do your DE&I efforts contribute to this trait or not? What could your team do to align with the research-backed trait of a healthy culture?

As a team, explore an exercise like filling out the table below or download the deck above for a powerpoint template.

Healthy Culture Trait

Our DE&I efforts do NOT contribute to this trait.

Our DE&I efforts DO contribute to this trait.

What would you like to change?

Brings out the best performance in employees.

     

Nurtures innovative thinking and it’s application.

     

Highly collaborative.

     

Values transparency.

     

Employee empowered.

     

Views failure as an opportunity to learn and grow.

     

 

This meeting is exclusively for members of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Exchange. If you'd like to participate, please contact us to see if you qualify. If you are an i4cp member, please log in to access the registration/meeting details.
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This event is approved for certification credits.