“As I look around today’s D&I learning environment, I see the results of decades of well-intentioned attempts to create more diverse and inclusive workplace cultures, through a focus on numbers and a tendency to rely on generalized D&I training experiences that we’ve learned often hurt more than they help. It’s time to go deeper.

It’s time to start relying on research, instead of good intentions. It’s time to invest meaningful time, energy and financial resources in truly creating diverse and inclusive environments in which all team members can thrive.

I’m talking about the kinds of environments that drive innovation, enhance productivity, minimize D&I liability risks, and add to the bottom line.  Let’s stop being facile. Let’s stop being so fake. Let’s work together to find out how your organization can become sustainably and profitably diverse and inclusive!”

Bj

Who Can Benefit?

• Senior leaders developing strategies to enhance D&I in their organizational culture – or even implement a system-wide, comprehensive D&I initiative

• Managers wanting to address D&I concerns and/or opportunities – who don’t know where to begin!

• HR professionals and teams needing to create, evaluate or improve their D&I- related policies, processes and procedures to optimize outcomes and reduce legal, ethical & PR risks

• Organizations struggling to attract, develop and retain diverse talent

• Startups developing foundational D&I ideals, vision and policies

• Companies needing an expert, seasoned consultant with an “outsider perspective” to evaluate D&I vulnerabilities and opportunities – both in their teams and in their customer/client base

• High-potential employees needing guidance and coaching to successfully integrate into their organizational culture

• Diverse teams needing facilitation or mediation to resolve important, long-standing (or both!) culture-conflict issues

• Groups and teams in which D&I cynicism or negative paradigms are undermining cohesion and performance

Numbers are only part of the picture.

“Diversity is simply good for business: Companies with greater gender diversity in their leadership outperform their less diverse competitors, have higher returns on capital, and are credited with better employee engagement and retention. These companies have more engaged customers, are more relevant to a broader customer base, are more innovative, and better at problem-solving. The same goes for companies that are more ethnically and racially diverse… By only targeting diversity numbers, businesses can end up failing to deal with the underlying causes of how an organization’s diversity makeup came to be, and what the culture of the organization is like.” – Tim Ryan: “Why Focusing on Diversity Numbers Won’t Really Make Companies More Inclusive” (Fortune, 6/21/2019)

What’s the Elephant in Your Room?

Is there a group of team members that it’s still “okay” to marginalize, within the company culture?

Do all team members feel safe approaching supervisors and HR with diversity- and inclusion- related concerns?

Do they believe they’ll be heard?

Are some of your team members afraid to ask questions or deal with important issues, because they feel they may be perceived as offensive – or worse?

Ignoring the elephant in your team’s room won’t make it go away. Let’s dance with it!

Contact me now (and I’ll respond within 24 hours).