Team Capability

In This Section

Guide to Sustaining Organizational Change

Section 1.2: Training and Development

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Guide to Sustaining Organizational Change​

Section 1.3: Sponsorship and Mentorship

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1.2 Training and Development

An important consideration to sustain organizational change is continued education for those who are decision-makers as it takes time to put learned actions and behaviours into practice. Below are two types of training that board members and leaders can participate in to foster an environment focused on respecting the differences of others.

1. Board-Specific Training:

a)  Training to help new board members grow and get support they need to succeed

  • Recruiting diverse board members is not about “checking a box”; it is about supporting the transition of women and/or non-binary individuals, Racialized, Black, and/or People of Colour, 2SLGBTQ+ and/or gender and sexually diverse individuals, People with disabilities, and “Aboriginal” and/or Indigenous Peoples into board positions
  • Finding ways to educate people to be a good board member and support their fellow new board members to be successful is critical to the success of the board

 

b)  Training to align on expectations, behaviours and goals of existing and new board members

Key Action

2. Formalized EDI Training:

Board members should partake in the following formal EDI training:

  • Inclusive leadership training: Training on how to become an inclusive leader
  • Unconscious bias training: Training on how to become aware of unconscious bias and how to recognize your own biases

Here are two learning modules you can take:

Unconscious Bias Learning Module
Psychological Safety Learning Module
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These E-Learnings offered by CCRW provide training on inclusive disability practices in the workplace

1.3 Sponsorship and Mentorship

As board members and leaders of the organization, it is important to consider the role you play in equitably sponsoring and mentoring potential board candidates.

A sponsor is someone who talks about you in decision-making spaces and advocates for you using their own professional capital to help progress your career forward. Implementing formal mentorship and sponsorship programs enhances employee engagement and retention, improves employee performance, and promotes a culture of talent recognition and support.

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As board members you can take the following actions within your organization:

  • Support the implementation of a formal sponsorship program, where managers and above are paired with employees from the five priority groups
  • Get board members committed to sponsoring and mentoring board candidates from the five priority groups, with the goal to recruit them to the board
  • Enable and support the success of potential board candidates from the five priority groups
    • For example: Pair yourself with a high potential board candidate and sponsor them when they apply for a board position
    • For example: Help and encourage new board members where you can, such as with board meeting preparation and sharing their points of view
Calling board members and leaders in Western Canada! Sign up to be a mentor to a newcomer to Canada or to learn how to create a mentorship program within your organization

As leaders, you can take the following actions within your organization:

  • Implement a formal sponsorship program, where managers and above are paired with employees from the five priority groups
  • Get managers on board and committed to mentoring employees from the five priority groups by highlighting benefits to both them and the organization
  • Advise mentors to encourage employees from the five priority groups to apply for leadership positions or promotions as they are less likely to do so
  • Promote the skills, talents, and ability of the individual you are sponsoring, and help them work through mistakes
  • Reach in at key moments and encourage, even nudge, towards the next role
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Think about the board’s comfort around talking about the “why” of setting some of these strategies.

  • Why do you want to recruit members in our community?
  • What will you do to ensure members of our community feel comfortable?

Cultural Competency Training:

  • “Aboriginal” and/or Indigenous Cultural Competency Training
  • Anti-racism training: some boards offer anti-racism training to leadership and board members
  • Training on gender identity and expression
  • Training to increase awareness of people identifying as having disabilities

Large Organization:

Ontario Public Service

The province of Ontario offers The Ontario Indigenous Cultural Safety Training (ICS) Program, a provincial program administered by Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre.

The Ontario ICS Program is focused on supporting the health transformation for of Indigenous Peoples, which is aligned to the health and social service systems transformation ongoing in Ontario. The purpose of this training is to improve healthcare experiences for Indigenous peoples by educating healthcare workers across the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) on the unique history and challenges facing Indigenous people so that they can better support them.

Men are 50% more likely to attribute their advancement to a senior leader’s support than women are. However, 80% of companies do not have a formal sponsorship program. Women candidates with high potential are often over-mentored and under-sponsored.

Large Organization:

Abbott

Abbott places a large emphasis on mentorship and sponsorship within its organization. The focus is not only on hiring diverse employees, but developing them for growth.

In the organization’s 2020 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report, an employee who identifies as Latino credits his mentors and sponsors for supporting his career growth. He indicated that the fact they didn’t look like him made their support more meaningful. To pay it forward, this employee now acts as a mentor and sponsor to others in the organization. As a result of his dedication and support, he has won the President’s Award for his work to advance EDI within the organization.

Large Organization:

Bank of Montreal (BMO)

In 2014, BMO launched an Enterprise Sponsorship Program. Senior leaders are paired with employees from priority groups who have been identified as candidates for leadership positions. Sponsors advocate on behalf of these employees, provide them with visibility, and help them foster connections that lead to development opportunities. Different business units across the bank have implemented this program to advance the pipeline of diverse talent throughout the organization.

Engage male employees to be allies. Allies will initiate and participate in open and honest conversations about equity, diversity and inclusion, advocate for gender equity, and encourage greater sensitivity in the workplace.

Think about how you, as a leader in the organization, promote, sponsor, and enable career success.

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