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Brain Circuits
DE&I: 5 small steps for big changes
Corporate DE&I is not simply a question of fairness. Implemented successfully, it pays off for both the company and society in general. Here’s how it’s done.
Connect human understanding with data analysis
Many companies use out-of-the-box solutions to increase diversity and inclusion that fail in practice – and often they don’t know why. There’s no point trying to implement a new measure without gauging its success, because you won’t know what works and what doesn’t. To succeed, any DE&I initiative must connect human understanding with data analysis.
Establish a baseline of where you are and where you want to go
The solution to changing behavior is to adopt a data-driven approach. The data helps you create a baseline of where you are and where you want to go. Knowing this, you can reverse-engineer the milestones that need to happen to achieve your end goal.
Use nudges to improve decision-making and performance management
In terms of DE&I approaches, a “nudge” is really a gentle push that helps people see what behavior to adopt. This consists of breaking down desired outcomes into a series of steps and encouraging the right action at the right time that will align with the individual or organizational long-term goal.
Deploy data to combat unconscious bias early
Using data to combat unconscious bias can bring big diversity benefits, beginning with the hiring process. Ask all candidates a list of questions and share it with all colleagues, then share all the feedback on the candidates with everyone at the same time, so no one starts a conversation talking about their impression of an individual candidate. Besides improving the way in which you see candidates and their potential, this also improves the way in which you communicate with your employees.
Focus on personal growth
Formal unconscious bias training often has limited impact because it triggers defensive reactions in people. To avoid this, encourage leaders and managers to think positively by asking themselves questions such as, “How can I become a better version of myself? How can I be a better leader?” Put the focus on personal growth and give people the tools to understand internal processes, such as individual position-taking, so they become aware of their biases, then give them the tools to make better, de-biased decisions.
Key learning
DE&I is not simply a question of fairness. Done right, making small changes to increase diversity and inclusion will help debias your organization, attract diverse talent, manage everyone better and make more money.
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