Kick-start your Inclusion Goals
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A large marketing firm kicked off the new year with excitement as corporate leaders rolled out a new DEI strategy that would boost employee satisfaction, improve employee recruitment efforts, strengthen team dynamics, and more. Unfortunately, this new DEI initiative floundered aimlessly without concrete goals or a clear vision to ground it. By mid-year, it was evident that no progress had been made, and many were frustrated by a strategy endorsed by their leaders that seemed to simply tick an HR checkbox.
Had the marketing firm’s leaders set SMARTIE (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound, Inclusive and Equitable) goals from the outset, the rollout of their DEI strategy would have unfolded differently. By establishing a clear vision and objectives backed by an inclusion strategy, the firm would have a roadmap to achieve DEI success.
Don’t underestimate the power of a vision and the clarity provided by SMART goals when it comes to your DEI initiatives. They are the key to fueling a purpose-driven DEI strategy approach, ultimately enhancing your ability to achieve meaningful and measurable outcomes for your organization
Establish A Positive Vision
Have you ever heard of appreciative inquiry? Appreciative inquiry is a strengths-based, system change approach that emphasizes positive idea generation over negative problem identification. Orienting appreciative inquiry as your first step in setting inclusive leadership goals can invigorate organizational development by reinforcing the commitment to the inclusive culture you’re striving to lead.
“Focus only on your problems, you get fault-finding and a view of the past. Focus on your positives, and what is working, and you get possibilities and a forward look into your desired future. So turn problem-solving on its head. Positive change starts by sparking curiosity about what already works.” – Maria Velasco on Co-Creating A New Future
With a positive, inquisitive mindset, the vision for your organization clearly comes to view, strengthening the progress you’ll achieve from your DEI efforts.
The Importance of Goal Setting
Inclusion goal setting provides a clear destination to work towards and allows you to track forward progress and momentum. You don’t want to become a stagnant organization when it comes to DEI or you will be left in the dust of your competitors’ progress. Not to mention the fact that your workplace culture, and the human beings you employ will suffer from the ill effects that DEI efforts claim to combat.
In the Harvard Business Review article, “Are Your Organization’s DEI Efforts Superficial or Structural?,” the authors warn that leaving DEI scaffolds, or superficial efforts, in place creates the “illusion of inclusion,” a dangerous position for any company.
Intentional goal setting when it comes to inclusive leadership is one way to ensure you avoid complacency and see real movement towards inclusion.
Setting SMARTIE DEI Goals
There are several practical things you can do to set SMARTIE inclusive leadership goals that will move your DEI strategy from paper and practice.
First, do your research. Identify HR gaps in the data. Review internal HR surveys, gather and measure employee feedback through interviews, and get creative with the power of observation.
“Workplace tools like Zoom and Slack are also valuable here. Because video calls are digitized, voice analysis programs can show if women are more frequently interrupted during meetings and how much, or who speaks up the most and who stays quiet. In Slack, are certain groups left out of important channels? If someone from a privileged group posts a comment in a Slack channel, do people tend to reply more quickly?” – Cindi Howson, To Make Real Progress on D&I, Move Past Vanity Metrics
Ensure you have leadership buy-in. Inclusive leadership involves letting your employees take the wheel, which can be scary, and quite frankly, something you and other organization leader’s may not feel comfortable doing. Present the why, the benefits of inclusive leadership, and the goals you have in mind to your leadership team before sharing it with the entire organization. Getting full leadership buy-in is a critical component for new DEI practices to take hold and lead to change. Everyone must do their part, from leadership to entry-level.
Determine your SMART Goals. With research and buy-in under your belt, you can finally write your goals! Here are a few examples that may kick-start your creative thinking when it comes to writing your own:
- Eliminate 100% of bias and non-inclusive language in all new job descriptions posted, beginning in Q1, by obtaining a smart tool/software to audit our posts.
- Add one minority-owned business owner to the board in the next 12 months by researching potential partners, conducting interviews, and entering into a trial partnership with measurable KPIs outlined in the agreement.
- Create a leadership advisory committee made up of 10 underrepresented employees in the next quarter with the express goal to increase the underrepresented people in leadership positions across the organization by 20%.
Measure and track success. If you create your SMART goals correctly, they will be time-bound and measurable. This makes them easy to track and share progress with the organization. Be transparent with how things are going and pivot if and when you need to do so. Check-in often and facilitate open conversation around wins and challenges.
Find A Partner To Support Your Inclusion Goals
We help you develop a compelling vision for your cultural transformation and formulate a plan to achieve it. Our strength-based approach to strategic planning and organizational development builds upon what works best to create and implement a vision of an inclusive and equitable organization. Our collective visioning process elevates all voices to increase buy-in and engagement.
We partner with you to:
- Co-create a compelling vision among your stakeholders for a unified purpose
- Develop inclusive and equitable strategies for improved employee satisfaction and performance
- Implement collective action plans that engage and inspire everyone
- Track progress to understand whether your organization is on the path to culture success
Set up a consultation with our team today. to learn more about how we can help your organization create a compelling vision and a plan to achieve it.
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