Today's Challenges Related to Diversity and Inclusion

Q Recently we lost a number of young people from our high-performance and succession lists. They left with short notice, and we were not able to change their minds with offers of more money, better benefits, or promotions. What can we do to increase the odds of retaining as many of these team members as we can?

AYou are not alone. Many organizations are undergoing significant turnover, particularly among new team members and those aged 21-30. This trend could accelerate in the years to come, as pent-up unrest inspires people to leave organizations as the economy improves. The key to any lasting solution is bridging the gap between what the work environment provides (in terms of opportunities, interactions, quality of life, learning opportunities, and challenges) and what team members want, expect, and demand.

This gap is especially wide for younger people. As a group, they expect to have experiences that increase their worth to the world. They want to learn every day and have someone appreciate their effort and daily accomplishments. They expect frequent positive reinforcement, work that makes an impact, and a career track. Moreover, they are more vocal-and more willing to move their feet when their needs are not met.

Many of today's organizations are simply not built to meet these expectations. Traditionally, it has taken ten or more years for people to rise to positions of power in many organizations. Similarly, organizations typically give less essential work to their younger, least tenured associates, and positive reinforcement is not built into many organizational systems.

Organizations that want to retain their talent (and we see everyone as talent) must partner with individuals in a way that meets these new expectations. Leaders must ask team members, "How can we give you more meaningful work and increase your knowledge and experience base, so you are more and more valuable to us or your next employer?"

This will require serious change in such areas as HR policies, salary structure, and promotion opportunities. More fundamentally, it calls for a major mindshift among middle managers. Rather than hold on to their best people-and thus make their work units perform, and look, better-they need incentives to move people forward for the sake of the organization.

But these changes cannot be discussed only within the walls of HR, or on the executive vice president level, let alone in the boardroom. The only way to meet the needs of the people of the organization is to include them in every level of the conversation.

Such a strategy is effective on two levels. First, the process itself makes people feel valued, heard, and included, which increases their loyalty to the organization. Second, the new mindsets and policies that emerge from the process provide them with a clearer path to fulfilling their own expectations. All of this, in turn, motivates them to stay.

Q Our diversity and inclusion training has met with a great deal of skepticism from many segments of the workforce. It also fell victim to the "flavor of the month" syndrome: as soon as the next management program came along, diversity and inclusion faded away-and our business saw few results. Yet we know this is important to our success. How do we resurrect our efforts and prevent this work from going by the wayside?

AFor any change to take hold in an organization, the change effort must go beyond training to something that has meaning to people-touching their self-interest and the ways they interact every day. It must also create new mindsets, foster new behaviors from those mindsets, and above all serve the self-interest of the organization.

How does this translate into practical steps? We would suggest the following course of action:

• Find out why the original effort generated such skepticism by asking those who are skeptical. Include every relevant team member in the conversation, because only with every perspective in the room can you successfully identify root causes and arrive at effective solutions.
• Develop a diagnosis of the organization's current state-together with a FROM TO vision targeting which mindsets and behaviors are needed to move forward. This builds a platform for the change to come.
• Identify and educate a cross-section of internal change agents, creating critical mass for the change to take hold organization-wide.
• Align systems, policies, procedures, accountability measures, and other elements to make the change sustainable.
• Through it all, manage expectations to maintain credibility for the transformation and enhance broad-based acceptance.

These steps, taken thoughtfully and with full participation of your workforce, secure greater buy-in and thus allow the change to permeate the organization's way of doing things-making for a lasting transformation rather than a "flavor of the month."

Q Our Diversity Council has been tasked with building greater awareness around diversity, inclusion, and their link to meeting business objectives. To do this, however, we need a substantial commitment-or at least visible support-from our executives. How do we motivate them to sponsor and/or model inclusive behaviors, given the limitations on their energy and time?

AStart by asking yourself about the specific value of leveraging diversity for higher operational performance in your organization. Executives typically limit their attention to two or three areas-areas they see as critical to today's and tomorrow's success. Do diversity and inclusion fit into that category for the most senior leaders? For the people of the organization? And if they do tie directly to the organization's future, do you have Executive Sponsors who understand that, support that, and champion the connection?

If you have not done so already, this is an ideal opportunity to develop a strong business case for your initiatives. Such a case must use the language of the organization's mission, values, and goals; it must tie diversity initiatives to the core strategy of the organization; it must address the key metrics by which the leaders define success. Most important, it must not be created in a vacuum. You increase the potential for buy-in by using Inclusion as the HOW^® to engage these leaders in the case development itself. In the process, you will find out what they want and need from their people in order to reach goals, overcome barriers, and access new opportunities, making the case that much stronger.

The specific steps are not the same for every organization. But if the commitment, passion, knowledge, and voices/thinking of your organization's people are critical to your organization's success, then your change efforts become key to the future. Your job, then, is to articulate the direct connection between those efforts and the bottom-line goals of the organization.