Now that you have developed your strategy it is time to work the plan. This is the hardest part. You may think that getting the right people on board was difficult but actually keeping all of the players on board and engaged is really the challenge. Like anything else people are excited at the beginning but may lose interest along the way.
I have worked with a number of organizations over the years that suffered from what I call the start/stop syndrome. A well-crafted diversity strategy seems to lose its momentum until finally it is just a distant memory and those who were involved are cynical and feel that diversity and inclusion was merely a program of the month.
It is up to those charged with D&I to keep the strategy alive, despite setbacks such as changes in leadership, economic downturns or new organizational priorities.
Here are 5 tips to keeping your D&I strategy alive and well and contributing to organizational growth.
1. The executive inclusion council…all of them…need to be actively engaged on an ongoing, continuous basis. The group needs to meet at least monthly to review the progress of the strategies and actions that I discussed in last week’s post. Quarterly meetings are not often enough to keep the momentum going. The executive inclusion council members should each have specific roles with responsibilities and accountabilities, such as overseeing some aspect of the plan implementation. One of my clients decided to meet quarterly and soon learned that there was really no traction from quarter to quarter.
2. In addition to the council, engage a critical mass throughout the organization. Seed the organization with ambassadors or champions whose role it is to coordinate action plans in their respective divisions that align with the overall strategy. This group needs to check in frequently as well to share best practices across the organization.
3. Implement visible and impactful initiatives that will address key challenges. For example if attraction and retention are issues, develop business resource groups and engage them in supporting your inclusion efforts. This is another way to increase the number of people involved.
4. Measure your progress frequently, especially connecting progress to business results. For example, if you improve retention, calculate how much that saved the company in recruitment and on boarding costs. Track sales to multicultural customers showing the contribution to the bottom line.
5. Refine the D&I strategy as the overall business strategy changes. You need to ensure that the D&I strategy is totally in sync with the direction of the business, which means the D&I practitioners have to be at the table where those strategies are developed.
