Beyond D&I : leading diversity with purpose and inclusiveness /: leading diversity with purpose and inclusiveness. (2021)

• Record Type: Book
• Further Information: Note: Kay Formanek.
• Authors: Formanek, Kay
• Contents: Chapter 1: Setting the stage for a new leadership paradigm Business leaders, scholars and politicians agree that we are facing a watershed moment in the history of our world. Organisations are required to anticipate and respond to fundamental changes stoked by the exponential role of technology (e.g. exponential growth in computing speed, 5G connectivity, exploding data storage capacity and deep learning artificial intelligence); highly connected financial and trade markets; and a pronounced consumer shift towards socially responsible consumption. Organisations need to consider their business footprint on a fragile world, for the traditional business model no longer serves a world that is overpopulated and where climate change systematically reduces habitable and productive land. The traditional business model has generated relative economic growth, but a significant portion of the world's population lives in poverty and is at war. A new leadership paradigm is required to successfully navigate an increasingly complex environment (VUCA: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). Just as the environment is fluid, so are the capabilities of a leader fluid. Just as the traditional operating model of organisations requires adaptation, so do the capabilities of leaders require adaptation. Specifically, future sustainability for organisations requires a 360-degree view on complexity (through cognitive diversity), the ability to create conditions for transformative innovation (enabled by inclusiveness), and a strategic narrative that inspires, energises and unites efforts (expressed through purpose). At the global-level, diversity and inclusiveness are found in the UN Resolution (The Future We Want), which contains 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in an effort by the UN to create a comprehensive plan of action to build a global partnership for sustainable development to improve human lives and protect the environment. The future we want supposes a global interconnectedness of economics, social issues and the environment – and realising it requires diversity, inclusiveness and purpose. Organisations are inspired by this global SDG blueprint and are driven to incorporate these SDGs into their purpose, their strategy and their operational measures (ESG) by their stakeholders, who increasingly adhere to SDG goals, including assessing organisations based on how they treat their employees, their environment and their community. This creates the conditions for a virtuous and reinforcing circle between diversity, inclusion and purpose. Leaders at the helm of organisations need to respond to these new organisational conditions with new capabilities and a new leadership approach. Specifically, leaders need to authentically embody and express their own diversity and inclusive leadership and purpose as they connect and unite their teams and organisation through the shared pursuit of organisational purpose. Chapter 2: Introducing the Virtuous Diversity, Inclusiveness and Purpose (DIP) Circle This chapter describes the evolution of the terms and meaning of diversity, inclusive leadership and purpose and their mutual influence and impact, presented via the Virtuous DIP Circle. It also addresses the interplay between diversity, inclusiveness and purpose. Diversity means having a seat at the table. Inclusiveness means making sure voices are heard at the table. Purpose is having different voices aligned around a common intent. And bias is the reason why some seats at the table are provided to the same people and why some people are listened to more than others. An example of what is covered in the chapter: Diversity encompasses inherited dimensions of diversity (such as race and gender both tightly associated with systemic social disadvantages) and also acquired dimensions of diversity (such as work experience) that together result in expanded cognitive diversity. How diversity is defined is how it is led. This means that acquiring and nurturing a rich understanding of diversity and how it links back to organisational performance is critical. With this richer framing of what diversity means to an organisation, the diversity gap, with reference to the organisational journey, can be defined. FIGURE1: Proprietary Virtuous Circle Diagram Chapter 3: Putting the Virtuous DIP Circle to work This chapter enables leaders to apply the Virtuous DIP Circle within their organisation by leading a strategic assessment of the level of environmental complexity, the associated transformation journey their organisation faces, and their gaps in the Virtuous DIP Circle. The leader is given the tools to identify gaps in diversity, inclusiveness and purpose vis-a-vis their external environment. This Chapter also dwells on the movements in 2020 around COVID-19 and the #BLM offering case studies and examples on how organisational leaders can raise their voices and that of their organisation to support their societal purpose. FIGURE 2: Proprietary Virtuous DIP Circle Assessment Chapter 4: Introducing the Integrated Diversity Model The Virtuous DIP Circle creates a compelling strategic narrative for the organisation vis-a-vis its external environment. The Virtuous DIP Assessment provides the leader with an understanding of the gaps allows the leader to power their transformational journey by capitalizing on their Virtuous DIP Circle within the belly of their organisation. This is done by way of applying the Integrated Diversity Model. The model comprises six critical intervention areas that need to be acted upon in an integrated manner, so that the strategic narrative is fulfilled by tapping into the power of diversity and inclusion. 1. The first intervention area is about extinguishing implicit bias and talent blind spots that lead to a homogeneous talent pool and reduce the richness of talent and its perspectives to support the realisation of the strategic narrative. The second intervention area is to develop a clear case for diversity and inclusion that goes beyond the traditional business case that only was expressed across all levers of business performance. The new case for diversity and inclusion is wedged in the societal case and the Sustainable Development Goals. Organisations that are truly operating in accordance with these values can then benefit through the more traditional business case levers. The third intervention area is to build inclusive leadership as a key organisational capability so that leaders are groomed not only to lead the diversity agenda, but also to practice day-to-day diversity leadership through their values, behaviours and actions. The fourth intervention area is to re-engineer systems, processes and protocols such that diversity and inclusion are maximally supported and magnified to realise the strategic narrative. The fifth intervention area is to upgrade diversity metrics so that diversity is measured not only by demographics, but also by engagement and leadership profiles and attributes. The sixth intervention area is to celebrate and augment the diversity and inclusion initiatives and to evaluate to what degree the strategic narrative has been enabled by these initiatives. This chapter not only introduces the Integrated Diversity Model, but also ratifies the strategic efficacy of the model through sharing the latest research validation and illustrating how the model has been applied in varied forms within organisations. FIGURE 3: Proprietary Integrated Diversity Model Chapter 5. Assessing your diversity and inclusion initiatives against the Integrated Diversity Model Over the past 50 years, there has been an increasing focus on realising diversity in society, by legalizing out discrimination, supporting affirmative action in the 1960s, creating a compelling business case for diversity, and holding CEOs and boards accountable for achievement within organisations and through quotas in many nations. Despite this focus on diversity in society, many companies still treat diversity as a side-pillar and 75% of organisations have not been able to convert their focus on diversity into results and many have hit a ceiling. The barriers include a lack of embedding diversity into the transformational journey and leaders who don't walk-the-talk of inclusive diversity; the failure to comply with legal regulations and industry diversity-linked codes; the inability to capture the hearts and minds of the organisation, resulting in a lack of engagement and 'divided diversity'; and finally, lack of supporting systems and processes that operationalise diversity and inclusion initiatives and deliver the desired performance. The authors provide a strategic way for leaders to assess the way that diversity and inclusion initiatives are currently embedded in their organisation (their organisational typology). This is by way of the Diversity and Inclusion Typology Framework. Through this Typology Framework they can discover where the axis of the Diversity and Inclusion initiatives reside in their organisation and envisage how to re-configure and re-enforce new and current initiatives so as to assure effectiveness of an overall integrated effort. The Typology Framework reveals whether the organisation treats diversity and inclusion strategically or operationally and whether diversity and inclusion initiatives are focused more on external compliance or on capturing the engagement and support of its people. It is when organisations are able to drive their initiatives strategically and operationally, with compliance and with the hearts of employees, that there is a sweet spot of diversity performance that creates magnified and sustainable diversity performance. However, there are usually one or more blind spots within an organisation, which results in the organisation placing more emphasis on one or more dimensions to the exclusion of the others, consequently undermining diversity performance. An analysis of companies reveals a certain typology
• Publisher Details: Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication Date: 2021
• Extent: 1 online resource, illustrations (colour)
• Subjects: 658.3008; Diversity in the workplace
• Languages: English
• ISBNs: 9783030753368
• Related ISBNs: 9783030753351
• Notes: Note: Description based on CIP data; resource not viewed.
• Access Rights: Legal Deposit; Only available on premises controlled by the deposit library and to one user at any one time; The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations (UK).
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