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Strategic Planning To Action:
Becoming a Culturally
Competent Organization
Dawn Cooper
Manager, Diversity & Cultural Competency, The Arc
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Learning Objectives
• Review the strategic purpose of diversity, inclusion and cultural competency
• Review the need for a sound organizational imperative
• Learn key steps to successfully implementing a change strategy around diversity within your chapter
• Explore the obstacles/barriers to diversity and strategies for overcoming resistance and achieving success
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Why Diversity As A Strategic Planning Initiative?
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If Our Organizations Look Like This
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And We Want To Be Closer to This
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What is Diversity?
• What it is NOT
• Affirmative Action
• EEO
• Just Training
• Human Resources
Owned
• Minority Focused
• Us vs. Them
• What it IS
• Strategic
• Tactical
• Systemic
• Business Driven
• Inclusive
• Goal oriented
• Everyone’s
Responsibility!
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Diversity is:
The conscious decision by an organization to
examine it’s systems and processes and create
an environment that maximizes the potential
of all it’s employees for continued optimal
organizational success
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Inclusion is:
A work environment where everyone has an
opportunity to fully participate in creating
business success, and where each person is
valued for his or her distinctive skills,
experiences, and perspectives.
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Building a Diversity Strategic Plan
Step 1: Assess the
environment
Step 2: Identify and
educate your diversity
champions
Step 3: Create an
organizational imperative
Step 4: Communicate the
vision
Step 5: Remove Obstacles
Step 6: CREATE A
DIVERSITY STRATEGY
Step 7: Measure and
Report Progress
Step 8: Anchor the changes
in the Corporate Culture
Step 9: Anchor the changes
in the Business Plan
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Step 1: Assessment Why
Assessment?
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Hiring
Retention
Succession Planning
Financial
Sustainability
Community Outreach Customer Satisfaction
Education
Attitudes
Behaviors
Corporate
Culture
Awareness
Program
Development
Customer Support
Implicit Bias
Barriers
Systemic Bias
HOW
DO
YOU KNOW
WHAT TO WORK ON?
Promotions
Evaluations
Rewards and
Recognition
Inclusion
Product
Development
Market Share
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Benefits of an Assessment
• Gauge the degree to which your organization is effectively addressing the needs of its core population;
• Determine the knowledge, skills, interests, and needs of staff, board members, and organizational membership;
• Improve access, utilization, outcomes, and satisfaction with services and activities conducted;
• Establish meaningful partnerships;
• Determine strengths and areas for growth for the organization and its staff; and
• Help develop a strategic action plan!
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Step 2: Champions
Organizational members who assume the role of facilitating the change initiative in the organization.
• Champions are a conduit for disseminating information
• Drive behavioral and cultural change across the organization
• Continually reinforce and link diversity and inclusion to organizational objectives
• Model behavior
• Communicate effectively about D&I to a range of audiences
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Who are Your Champions
• Senior Leadership team members
• Employee leaders
• Middle management leaders
• Employee Resource Group members
• Diversity Team members
• Diversity Council members
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Step 3: Organizational Imperative
Why should your organization implement a
diversity initiative?
• Changing workforce demographics
• Evolving workplace and community needs
• Maximizing diverse markets
• Recruiting and retaining top talent
• Improved performance / productivity
• Organizational sustainability and growth
• Increased adaptability that ensures survival
Business
Drivers
15 A Good Organizational Imperative
will…
• Expect and sustain a long-
term effort
• Accept the new
demographic reality
• Make rapid change the
constant
• Be willing to pierce the
power and work through the discomfort
• Be honest
• Spread goodwill
• Demonstrate commitment
at the highest level
• Seek involvement and
commitment from the
bottom up
• Teach a wide array of
management techniques that work cross culturally
• Integrate diversity into the
fabric of the organization
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Organizational Imperative
A diverse, culturally competent organization will increase effectiveness, credibility and transparency by expanding our capacity to
create impact in the development and implementation of programs, to provide
resources and support, to influence public policy, and to advocate for the needs of a
diverse local and international I/DD constituency.
Created with the support of the Board Committee on Diversity, August 2014
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Step 4: Communicating
EVERYONE!!!
Staff Community
Board Customers
Shareholders THE
WORLD!!!
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Step 5: Removing Obstacles
Organizational barriers to Diversity include:
• Cost of implementation
• Fear of hiring under skilled, uneducated employees
• Strong belief in a system that favors merit
• Annoyance at reverse discrimination
• Perception of progress
• Not a top-priority issue
• Impact on existing systems
• Sheer size of the organization
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Step 6: Create a Diversity Strategy
A Good Strategic Plan should:
• Address critical performance issues
• Create the right balance between what the
organization is capable of doing vs. what
the organization would like to do
• Cover a sufficient time period to close the
performance gap
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A Good Strategic Plan should:
• Be Visionary – convey a desired future end
state
• Be Flexible – allow and accommodate
change
• Guide decision making at every level –
operational, tactical, individual
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Step 7: Measure and Report Who are we
hiring?
Who’s on our board?
What new
products are
being
developed?
Who’s leaving?
Who’s using the
benefits? What benefits
are not being
used?
Who’s buying
our products?
Who’s using our
services?
What impact is
our marketing
having?
Who’s supporting us?
Do we have a
diverse
candidate
slate?
Who’s staying?
Who are we
promoting?
How’s our customer
satisfaction?
What’s our
employee
satisfaction?
Who’s in our
succession plan?
Who’s being
developed?
What does our
pipeline look like?
Who are we
training? What are we
training on?
Is there
adverse
impact in pay?
What new
services are we
providing?
22 Step 8: Anchor the corporate
culture
Identify Competencies
Identify Behavior
Train (or Hire) Reinforce Reward
How?
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Step 9: Anchor in Business
Organizational Imperative
Report Out at Year End
Corporate Scorecard
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Discussion Questions
• What is the diversity profile of your organization?
• Does your management team reflect the cultural make up of your workforce?
• Does your workforce reflect the cultural makeup of your customer base?
• Who should be responsible for monitoring and driving diversity issues in your organization?
• What is the goal(s) of diversity training?
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Discussion Questions
• Is diversity training a passing fad created by a societal move towards “political correctness”, or does it have a legitimate place in your business?
• Can you eliminate workplace discrimination or cultural insensitivity simply by changing policies to ensure fair treatment?
• Is an organizational commitment to valuing diversity compatible with a commitment to merit and organizational excellence?
• Should diversity training attempt to change attitudes or behavior?
26 Key Components of a Successful
Diversity Initiative • Executive level commitment to partner with HR
and champion this kind of change initiative is critical to its credibility and long-term success
• Training is a wake up call, not a panacea for institutionalizing diversity in your organization
• A Diversity Council can be an effective culture change agent, if structured and staffed appropriately
• Accountability for managing diversity is a shared responsibility, with expectations to be met Measure and celebrate the measures of your success