When it comes to an organization’s DEI journey sustaining efforts is critical. It’s easy to hit a benchmark, check a box, and pat ourselves on the back. But rarely can we confidently declare “Mission Accomplished.” After hitting a milestone some will lose interest fallaciously believing that initial efforts will be sustained not through rigor and consistency, but through a sense of hope that foundational DEI strategies will simply pay off without additional action. And of course, that wouldn’...
Sarah Black, Global Communications Consultant for The Kaleidoscope Group’s Global Practice, outlined the dilemma in an episode of the company’s Becoming Inclusive Podcast, hosted by Kat Potts and Reggie Ponder. In the podcast, Black outlines what she refers to as the “Five C’s framework” which reflects: Culture, Cause, Community, Care, and Consequences. Companies are increasingly expected to take a stand on social issues, particularly if they have committed to diversity, equity, and inc...
“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” ― Steve Jobs There’s a buzz going around among hybrid and remote workers and it’s not reached a boiling point yet, but it’s simmering just under the surface. It’s about micromanagement and its impact on the employer-employee relationship—especially among hybrid and remote workers. The Steve Jobs quote above, is just one example of a savvy leadership approach w...
Measuring diversity, equity and inclusion is an important, vital, part of implementing a robust strategy that delivers desired outcomes. But as organizations accrue data to qualify and quantify their efforts, they need to think beyond the organizational data points to ensure that their efforts not only focus on the business in the macro sense but also at the micro level to understand better the impact DEI has on the team level. At least that’s the point made by two senior DEI experts with the...
Embracing DEI is now a common organizational value shared across most sectors and industries. But how do organizations measure and benchmark their efforts? Truth be told, it’s a lot more difficult than people often think—particularly when we’re talking about external benchmarking. Measuring culture internally is challenging enough, but measuring and benchmarking competitors is fraught with all kinds of obstacles and misperceptions. At least, that’s the position of Mary Hunter, Senior Vice Pre...
Managing change is a complex process that entails engaging diverse and disparate groups of stakeholders. Often these various stakeholders have different priorities within the workplace despite everyone working toward a supposedly common goal of organizational success in one way or the other. However, when it comes to engaging these individuals and groups the process can be a bit sticky, given the degrees of buy-in expressed by stakeholders of the changes they are being asked to accept. ...
To understand organizational culture, consider this analogy from the late author and novelist David Foster Wallace. Here’s how it goes: A big fish meets a little fish and asks “how’s the water?” In response, the little fish say’s “what’s water?” The water is like organizational culture, which is slightly different than how we talk about culture in a broader sense. So in the fish and water analogy, organizational culture is the water we swim in. If we apply this to the workplace, it's co...
Ask people about company loyalty today, and you’re likely to get a lot of different responses—especially generationally. The days of working for a single employer over the course of a career, earning a pension, and retiring at a relatively young age are gone. And they’ve been gone for quite a while. But that doesn’t mean that loyalty doesn’t exist at all because it does. It just manifests in a completely different way. Billionaire Richard Branson puts it this way saying, “Train people ...
Inclusion is not some nebulous concept. It’s a critical business priority that stokes innovation and increases organizational performance in real terms. Therefore, it’s important that inclusion is strategic and efficient in process and deployment to arrive at the desired outcomes. Some might believe that inclusion means everyone has a voice on every matter or decision; which, if we’re honest, is a recipe for failure. Real inclusion prioritizes the impacted stakeholders and brings them into th...
The concept of workplace diversity isn’t new. It’s been around since the 1960s, growing out of the Civil Rights movements—which included the Women’s movement and Gay Rights movement. In a large part, these complimentary movements focused on fairness and social justice, not smart business per se. But since the early 2000s, etymology has evolved significantly. Today, rather than only discussing diversity, we talk about DEI (or DE&I) an acronym for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The...
Do we demonize leaders too much in business today? Some would say yes, including the hosts and guests on this episode Becoming Inclusive podcast. Frequent guest and Kaleidoscope Group Executive Consultant Brian Johnson joined co-hosts Reggie and Kat to talk about the important role leaders play in launching and sustaining a meaningful diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy. The three concluded that patience is needed to realistically implement DEI strategies. Brian stresse...
“Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.” ― Bishop Desmond Tutu Everyone has a story. But not everyone tells their story. And we don’t always ask. Sharing the stories that shaped and redirected the course of our lives makes us human. When we have these defining moments with others, we connect at a deeper level, beyond roles and goals. Each story is rich, and has meaning and points to ponder, lea...
On this episode of Becoming Inclusive hosts, Kat Potts and Reggie Ponder are joined by Jerry Jones, Global Director of Design and Development for The Kaleidoscope Group where they address Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and how DEI in the U.S. is very different from DEI practices in other countries. It’s very important to remember that every country has a different framework that may not fit into the U.S. narrative on majority/minority dynamics or power structures. So any one size fits...
So much talk in C-suites about the importance of inclusion as part of an overarching DEI discussion. But are those conversations really doing anything to drive inclusion in the workplace? Let’s be honest, it’s complicated at best since “inclusion” is such an abstract term, to begin with. Sure, we all claim to be inclusive as individuals. We all claim to be tolerant, but how do we actually measure inclusion in meaningful, and actionable, ways. Can inclusion even be measured? The answer is yes...
We’ve all been there. We’re working on a team project and have to adapt to a new process, and sometimes new technologies, to fully contribute to the project. But we’re all different in terms of our work and learning styles and our competencies as they relate to technological tools. Tech skills are no doubt important, but so is a diversity of skills and expertise outside of the tech realm. That raises the question “How should project managers address diverse teams to effectively realize ...
In this podcast episode of Becoming Inclusive, the hosts welcomed Hanlie van Wyk, a global change management consultant, to talk about conscious change enablement using a “human forward” instead of a “process forward” approach. The thrust of the conversation mainly focuses on the behavioral aspects people undergo when confronted with change—be it major or minor. As human beings, we’re all constantly experiencing change and although it can cause anxiety or even outright fear, in most instances...
Recently, Elon Musk made news by saying that remote employees who refused to return to the office would be terminated, which caused somewhat of a controversy. But at the recent Davos Conference of global business leaders, Ravin Jesuthasan, a global transformation leader at the asset-management company Mercer summed it up like this . . . "The genie is out of the bottle. Anyone who tries to put it back in is maybe not being realistic about what's actually happened." This episode of Becoming In...
Now that Juneteenth is officially a Federal Holiday, more Americans are aware of the historical significance of the occasion. Celebrated every June 19, until recently mostly by African Americans, Juneteenth marks the final emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S. This episode of Becoming Inclusive highlights the importance of the Holiday and its significance as an important celebration for everyone, not just African Americans. Kat and Reggie were joined by Mitch Brown, a consultant f...
In this episode of Becoming Inclusive hosts Kat Potts and Reggie Ponder forgo their usual guest format to do a deep dive into DEI terminology and specific terminology related to “advocates, mentors, and sponsors.” What exactly are they? Do these descriptors apply to me? Should they apply to me? According to the hosts, an advocate is a person who’s “in your corner,” so to speak. They can advocate in support of an individual, company issue, policy, or even a promotion. Similarly, mentors are n...
With June marking Pride Month, Becoming Inclusive co-hosts Reggie Ponder and Kat Potts are joined by special guest Jeffery B. Strader, head of the LGBTQ+ practice at the Kaleidoscope Group for an in-depth conversation on the Power of Pronouns. According to 2019 study by Pew Research, one in five (1/5th) of U.S. adults know someone who uses gender-neutral pronouns. While not really surprising given the advances of the LGBTQ+ community in past decades, it does provide a bit of context for...