Team Connectivity

In This Section

10 Actions You Can Take

Section 3.0: Make a Difference Through Actions

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Starting the Conversation

Section 5.0: When and Where Should You Start?

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Section 3.0: Make a Difference Through Actions

7. Start a conversation with one of your colleagues about what you’ve learned from others and how you’re bringing inclusion into your everyday practice.

  • Try to reach out to someone who hasn’t yet participated in these conversations

8. Find out if your organization has created networks or safe spaces for discussion (for example, employee resource groups) on how to make sure everyone feels welcome and respected.

  • If it has, become a member! Also, ask if those discussions inform how your organization improves the way it makes sure people feel welcome and respected

  • If it hasn’t, suggest to your organization that it could be important to have those opportunities for discussion and learning how to make the workplace better for everyone

Small vs. Large Organization Consideration

9. Pay attention – do you feel that everyone is being held to the same standards at work and being treated fairly?

  • If the answer is “no”, are you pointing it out and speaking up to make sure people are held to the same standards?

  • If the answer is “yes”, are you participating in building that safe workplace?

10. Share this document with your colleagues to continue the conversation!

5.0 When & Where Should You Start? The Six C's

Stage

1. Commitment

2. Communication

3. Conversation

4. Co-Creation

5. Continuous Feedback

Definition

Make a commitment to courageous EDI goals that will transform your organization and are embedded in your business strategy.

Share your commitments with your employees, customers, and other stakeholders  to encourage transparency and build trust.

Start the conversation to create a welcoming and safe atmosphere for employees.

Work with employees from identified priority groups to ensure EDI commitments are tangible and resonate.

Create a structure to receive continuous feedback to ensure your EDI commitments lead to maximum impact and minimal harm.

What does this look like?

Set your EDI goals and map them against your 5- to 10-year business strategies with clearly defined metrics for success.

Showcase these goals through varying channels such as employee newsletters, company intranet site, external website, and social media platforms.

Refer to the Four B’s of How to Start the Conversation (Return to “4.0 How Do You Start the Conversation?”).

Co-create solutions with established Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) such as the Black Professionals Network and existing Employee Equity and Diversity Councils.

Case Study

An anonymous employee feedback survey and regular touchpoints with employees through focus groups and in-person dialogue.

6. Caring
Each component of this journey requires intention, care, and humility.

Scenario Checkpoint 2

Welcome to your Starting the Conversation Scenario Checkpoint 2!
Pearl reflects on what she read from “Where and When Should You Start?” and thinks about current activities the art gallery does to promote EDI. Currently, the art gallery has a section on its website to discuss its commitment to supporting local, diverse artists and promotes local artists as well. However, the art gallery does not have any formalized EDI efforts in place.

1. What steps could Pearl take? Select all that apply.

Back to All Tiles

Larger organizations are more likely to have formal Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), whereas small/medium organizations may not have formal ERGs but have networks of individuals with shared identities/interests.

Large Organization

VMWare Inc.

A significant part of VMWare’s effort in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death was designed to ensure that its Black colleagues felt secure. These efforts were co-created with the organization’s Employee Resource Group, the “African American POD (“Power of Diversity”) community.

A director in the organization felt that her white colleagues separate the Black people who have violently died in racist incidents as being somehow different from their co-workers. “By sharing, I wanted them to see that it’s all Black people that have fear, not just ‘those Black people’.”

The company created an intranet page that used the hashtag #wehearyou for them to share their feelings and concerns. Additionally, as part of the campaign, VMWare contributes to social justice organizations and matches employees’ donations. It has also instituted more training on inclusion for its managers.

Definition

Microaggression

Microaggression is defined as: “A comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group” – Source: Merriam Webster

Definition

Unlearning

Unlearning is defined as: “To make an effort to forget your usual way of doing something so that you can learn a new and sometimes better way” – Source: Cambridge Dictionary

Definition

Intersectionality

Intersectionality is defined as: A framework for understanding how different aspects of a person’s social and political identities (e.g., gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, physical appearance, etc.) combine to create unique modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies advantages and disadvantages that are felt by people due to this combination of factors – Source: Kimberlé Crenshaw, TIME

Definition

Privilege

Privilege is defined as: “The unfair and unearned advantages individuals are granted for having, or being perceived to have, social identities that align with those deemed to be superior according to societal rules and norms. It is often experienced as an absence of barriers related to a particular social identity (e.g., White privilege, straight privilege)” – Source: Egale

Definition

Safe Space

Safe Space is defined as: “A place intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism, or potentially threatening actions, ideas, or conversations” – Source: Merriam-Webster

Safe spaces allow individuals to feel comfortable having brave and honest conversations.

Definition

Emotional Tax

Emotional Tax is defined as: “The combination of feeling different from peers at work because of gender, race, and/or ethnicity, being on guard against experiences of bias, and experiencing the associated effects on health, well-being, and ability to thrive at work” – Source: Catalyst

Definition

Tokenism

Tokenism is defined as: “Performative policies that ostensibly promote diversity or equality (placing women or diverse groups in leadership positions), but do not truly have a positive impact on the workplace. Tokenism isn’t progressive, and it especially causes harm to tokenized individuals, causing extra pressure to succeed due to being perceived as representative of a group and often leaving them in an alienating work environment” – Source: Catalyst

Definition

Psychological Safety

Psychological Safety is defined as: “An environment that encourages, recognizes and rewards individuals for their contributions and ideas by making individuals feel safe when taking interpersonal risks. A lack of psychological safety at work can inhibit team learning and lead to in-groups, groupthink and blind spots” – Source: Gartner