Best Practices Overview

In the table below, you will find best practices identified by each of the D&I coaches.

Name Best Practice(s)

Joy “Have a diverse panel of coaches, clarify to people what coaching is, make it voluntary but incentivise its take-up and create a community around it by peer support, consider starting with group coaching, frame it as a benefit.”

Caroline “Measurable actions based on the data that you found in that organisation. Absolutely targets and quotas. I'm all for that, if they're sensible. So, it's setting up actions and policy and targets, but then actually educating your people to be able to deliver on them.”

Lisa “Take it step-by-step and integrate it wherever possible.”

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“Don’t only push the agenda from top-down, but you really also allow for a bottom-up approach, let employees interested in the specific D&I topic form a group or a network and work on specific elements”

“Resources and making sure that it’s still reflected in the strategy going forward”

“Focusing on the right things, not making mistakes others have already made.”

Theresa “Share the facts, people tend to argue less.”

“Building strong coalitions with non-profits¹¹ that work in the field of social justice, racial equity, being more vocal about equity, racial equity topics, more intentional in all the initiatives and being more transparent as well, people say they know the truth... So, it's really about speaking the truth, acknowledging the errors and moving on and not alone, with everyone.”

Florence “If you've got a genuine interest in creating a culture where everyone – because not all diversity is visible – every human being no matter who they are, show up and feel safe, and feel included and feel valued. And if you need to focus on specific groups at specific times, you do it in a way that is meaningful, it has to be meaningful. It's not just about going through the motions ticking boxes, and being seen doing the right thing, that needs to be something meaningful, and that will be sustainable.”

“If you want to sustain coaching, you need internal coaches. But when you're trying to go through a significant culture change, which is what you need for D&I work, you need that combination of external expertise, to support that shift in culture.”

Kate “It really helps people to change behaviours when the organisation says, ‘Hey, here's our policy for this. And here's what we expect from you as a leader. And here's what we won't tolerate,’ and holding people accountable to that. That's how you make a change, you don't make a change by sending people to a workshop. We do those as well, but not as a standalone.”

“Best practice is to look at the organisation as a whole. Give people the tools, the resources, embed D&I in the organisation's strategy, and make sure that everybody is aligned with that. And for DEI coaching to work, leaders that are offered the coaching, they've got to be invested in it.”

11 More information from Kate: “It’s either individualities, non-profits, or celebrities. We have a call every quarter with our CEO, we send them a newsletter, to keep them updated on what we do. That helps us keep in touch with them.”

119 Claire “Include the employees, create focus groups and ambassadors not only from HR, from

other departments, so that people start joining and are the ones who will be breathing for it.”

“Approach the topic with some continuality, and then know 1) Why am I doing this? 2) What do I want to do? 3) Who do I want to do it with?”

Belinda “Have commitment from the top. Then you will have a clear governance structure for the implementation of D&I work, clear targets, clear measures how you follow up, accountability for everyone, every managerial role, maybe you link it to performance pay. So, managers will be evaluated on their inclusive leadership traits and compensated on that. So, this would be the ideal situation where there's both structure and compensation and follow up.”

Agnes “It’s not like an HR topic, but it's a company topic. We believe, on a company level, that this is a topic worth our time.”

Examples observed in other companies: “Not talking about diversity directly, it's natural, and not aggressive, […] they really respond quickly. So, for example, when we have that discussion about the LGBT in society, and everyone is divided. The way they're thinking, they do some campaigns, and they say, ‘okay, for us, every, every client is important,’ for example. I mean, I really appreciate the companies that are not afraid to talk about it”

Paula “I think there may be still too much about us and them perspective that US are the ones who are in here doing this coaching, and we need it in order to deal with THEM. Whereas it should be internalised that it's us, US, that are diverse.”

Erica “If you want to talk about these issues, you have to understand, to be connected with the history of the country”

“To see your own power position and the privilege you have and what little you actually can do, that can make such a big difference for someone else. […] Because we can all win of that.”

Priscilla “For coaches, not to focus on themselves, but on the other people.”

“If you want to be successful, you have to learn how not just to accept that different is different, but you have to act like it.”

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“When we're thinking about D&I, we can't just think we can fix it. It's not fixable. All we can do is strengthen a belief in fairness and equality, in withholding judgment. But that's where cognitive dissonance¹² comes in.”

Juliet “Keeping stakeholders informed and engaged. But one of the things that makes D&I successful is being able to do that in a way that proactively meets needs of stakeholders so that you understand each part of their business. You do it in a way, where the ‘what's in it for me’ is really clear.”

Matthew “It is important to remove barriers, to create the conditions, maybe have some assurance that in the pool of candidates, there will be for example at least one woman, and we will not close the applications before then, but if there was just a sight that someone got there just because they are a part of minority, I think that would devolve all principles.”

Mindy “Including students in the process of designing for DEI initiatives is important. We are actually co-designing with people and students and stakeholders.”

“Making sure you invest, D&I has priority resources, including staff and personnel, positions within HR, as well as a budget to operate. That's healthy, in terms of driving down the impact that you're trying to achieve. And then to have a D&I plan, a strategic plan. So that these are not one offs.”

Peter “If you're able to solve the challenges that you have with the people, then you're usually solving 70 to 80% of all of your business challenges.”

“Collaborating with the vocational schools¹³, and then influencing also the governmental bodies and sort of inner image of the jobs. At the end of the day, it is about how well we're able to influence on the society level the macro trends.”

“When you talk about social responsibility, you need to take sole responsibility as a responsibility or not as compliance. If you want to promote something, then you need to promote it, not just follow the regulations. […] I think that the companies are

12 More information on cognitive dissonance from Priscilla: “When you believe one way, but your actions do not align. People believe that they should do this and be this, but in their gut, and in their behaviour, they don't necessarily do it. And so it creates huge amount of psychological unrest. And they're not even aware of it. And that psychological unrest manifests itself sometimes in either angry, frustrated, attacking behaviours, or withdraw.

I try to do is reconcile that cognitive dissonance. Does your behaviour match your beliefs? And are your beliefs genuine? Or are they politically motivated?”

13 Type of education focused on providing skills and knowledge needed for employment in skilled craft, technical job, or trade (Meylan, 2020).

121 nowadays a bigger influence than governments in how we live on the planet. And by that the companies need to take that responsibility.”

“I would focus more on sponsorship of diverse talent. Getting a sponsor for a person that promotes the talented areas.”

“That diversity is concerned not to blame anybody. It is to change people, not to play on the things that they have said or done earlier. It is to make sure that we focus on making a better future.”

“You need to have a systematic program on how to do it. If you expect that it happens.

It doesn't.”

Jessica “The more stories you have, the more people kind of get it, otherwise, it's not a felt experience.”

“If you're going to step into the world of D&I coaching, you need to have done some exploration yourself into your own unconscious biases. What it takes for you to become psychologically safe in that space, because you need to be able to portray that to your students or your coachee. So, again, that's often about developing those stories, so that they bring it alive.”

Nora “Cultural champions. So, each location had a cultural champion, and they were responsible for role modelling, it covered D&I as well. So, they had additional role of making sure they were the cultural conscience of the organisation. And they had a lot of ownership, visibility.”

“Coaching clinics. So, it meant that if you were a bit uncomfortable about having one on one, you could say, ‘I would really like to learn about x.’ And we'd offer coaching clinics, like once a quarter on various topics. We've got information on the learning and development team to see what are you noticing in trainings and what you're noticing people are coming up with and questions, and how are people feeling? And then, we would take that and build the clinics based on themes.”