Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion with Culture as the Centerpiece
“Just having a variety of backgrounds in place is not enough. People need to be managed in ways, typified by a constructive culture, that bring out their best individual and group performance.” 1
Reframing diversity, equity, and inclusion improvement strategies through the lens of culture will support organizations as they successfully drive change.
As a pioneer in the assessment of organizational culture, Human Synergistics provides the process and expertise needed to help organizations successfully re-shape their cultures to support diversity, equity, and inclusion. At the core of our methodology is the Organizational Culture Inventory® (OCI®). It is the most renowned tool for approaching culture change because it measures real culture—in terms of what’s expected around here—as well as the ideal culture—in terms of what should be expected—to make the organization successful.
Human Synergistics’ Proven Approach
CHALLENGE
SOLUTION
Unite the organization across demographic groups to clarify a diverse, equitable, and inclusive vision for the future that will improve results/outcomes (innovation, customer experiences, etc.).
Administer the OCI Ideal to identify the shared values and behaviors that will enhance motivation, maximize the contributions of diverse groups, and promote goal attainment and effectiveness.
Provide a common language and data for identifying and discussing the current culture and gaps from the vision for the future.
Obtain qualitative feedback (interviews, etc.) to understand patterns of current behavior, underlying beliefs, and the impact on outcomes/results.
Identify the current culture (using the OCI) and gaps relative to the ideal culture (using the Constructive, Passive/ Defensive, and Aggressive/Defensive framework and the 12 cultural styles).
Identify organizational strengths and weaknesses with systems, structures, leadership styles, communication, design of jobs, etc. that are reinforcing the current culture and need to change.
Use the OEI to understand the work climate (systems, structures, leadership approaches, etc.), how the factors are causally related to cultural norms, and the ways they can be changed to evolve the organization towards a Constructive culture.
Inform customization of improvement plans in consideration of demographic and other groups and their unique perspectives on the organization’s culture and climate.
Inform plans around important initiatives and for reaching critical goals (e.g., growth, innovation, customer experience, etc.) with inclusive approaches.
Leverage the OCI-OEI data to understand sub-culture and climate differences (across locations, ethnic groups, etc.), identify targeted changes as appropriate, and refine improvement plans.
Track the progress of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and confirm the culture is evolving.
Administer the OCI-OEI pulse and/or a full OCI-OEI remeasure, identify how the culture is evolving and refine improvement plans.
If you would like more information on to how to manage and measure organizational culture and climate to support diversity, equity, & inclusion please contact us.