Integrating an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) initiative into organizational culture to withstand society’s cyclical pendulum swings requires openness, commitment, tenacity and stamina. It involves deep transformation of entrenched systems and culture. It needs not just executive champions, but a choir of diverse, empowered voices leading across an organization, over time.
Anchored with a clear vision, ongoing data analysis, accountability structures, project plans and success measures[1], workplace EDI success centres on strong leadership[2], sustained over time.
Further, leveraging diverse talent throughout the organization and amplifying impactful voices allows an organization to build cohesive momentum and entrench new policies, approaches and norms. Initiatives that rely on the support of a few key leaders risk losing support and momentum.
The depth, complexity and long-term commitment required for effective EDI programs may seem daunting. Some who want to be involved may not know how, nor have sufficient restorative practices to sustain the work, risking burnout.
This article suggests four key steps to ensure sustainable personal involvement in workplace EDI programs. These four key steps can support anyone in an organization; whether you are a senior leader, a human resources specialist, a manager asked to improve results for a diverse clientele (expecting improved service alignment to client needs), a supervisor (wanting to retain talent in an increasingly diverse workforce), or if you simply want to contribute your voice in EDI efforts, regardless of your formal role.
These four key steps are:
Step 1: Reflect on your own identity and bias
Step 2: Build and maintain your own personal foundation
Step 3: Use your voice where you can have the most impact
Step 4: Celebrate mini-milestones
Step 1: Reflect on your own identity and bias
Self-reflection is in service of developing your response to a key question: How can I uniquely contribute to workplace EDI efforts? Authenticity, rooted self-knowledge, supports impactful leadership. Here are a few ways to support your exploration.
Schedule time to self-reflect: Carving out time for an appointment with yourself may be difficult, but the results are worthwhile! Repurposing a time slot that is not well-used is one option to find space for reflection.
Use tools to deepen reflection: Tools such as a “Social Identity Wheel” can support deeper reflection. We each have intersecting identities that we have inherited, absorbed, learned and developed through our experiences. Almost everyone can tune in to experiences when they felt excluded or unwelcome related to elements of their identity. How might that be showing up for you or others in your workplace? These reflections can help access the skills and empathy required for enhancing inclusion and belonging in the workplace.
Engage a coach or counsellor: A skilled professional can help guide your introspection and can serve as a support when challenges arise and stress mounts. Your organization may have an Employee Assistance Program or other resources to get you started in finding a good match for your specific needs.
Partner with others to unpack and explore bias: Reaching across identity boundaries opens one up to information on how others view and experience the world. Exploring alternatives to your own lens supports the discovery of new perspectives, and unconscious biases that may stand in the way of your effective leadership in the EDI sphere. This also provides an opportunity to exercise allyship (verb vs noun) and demonstrate inclusive collaboration, setting an example in shaping an inclusive workplace culture.
Step 2: Build and maintain your own foundation
Workplace EDI work can be stressful, so it can be hard to stay present and engaged. Brave conversations and difficult decisions are often required. The courage and resilience required to lead long-term transformative change can be best supported with a strong personal foundation. Beyond stress reduction, a strong personal foundation can ground and enhance the intangible presence that can amplify your impact. This is the “being” versus “doing” of leadership to which others are drawn.
Self-care commitment and practices: Pre-planning by writing and even signing your own self-care plan helps ensure that you know what to do for yourself when stress levels rise. A wide range of practices from music, art, sports, dancing, hiking or time in nature, breathing exercises, mindfulness or meditation can be intentionally used for stress reduction and tuning in to the best version of yourself. For most of us, the key is to have reminders in place to return you to those practices when you get caught up in the tensions of leading change.
Build your support team and networks: make a list of those who can act as allies, thought-partners and/or a sounding board. Your resilience is enhanced when you have people to whom you can turn to when the going gets tough, then when the time comes, you can pick the right audience for the range of challenges you may face. From formal and informal mentors, coaches, counsellors, friends, family and colleagues, listing those who are there for you means you know where you can go to break isolation and build confidence in navigating the intellectual and emotional complexities of this work.
Step 3: Use your voice for impact where and when it matters most
Living with the reality that you can’t do it all can be challenging for many. Assessing and re-assessing priorities will help you pick your battles and find key moments to shine.
Discernment and agency: Beyond what you must do, there is space for your own agency in EDI involvement. Use your agency to decide when and how to speak up. When assessing individual situations, consider the broader systems in which you and your organization are situated and the power dynamics that are present. Decide when to step forward and back.
Self-Management: Once you determine where and how you’ll involve yourself, breathe, ground yourself, actively listen, acknowledge, and speak from head and heart, pairing empathy for self and others with curiosity and courage to navigate forward. Stay present until it makes sense to close the engagement or encounter, then reflect on the experience, on your own, and in partnership with others.
Equip yourself for brave conversations: Assemble your toolkit of skills and use it wisely. Build a learning plan to fill gaps where you don’t have the skills you need. Courses on EDI, interpersonal communication and conflict management can help build your confidence and effectiveness.
Act as an ally for others and build networks across boundaries: Putting your learning into action and refining skills by seeking feedback will help you assess your progress and build networks for a broader impact. Amplifying others’ voices in their spheres of excellence can be a powerful tool to remind yourself and others of your interconnectedness and mutual accountability for your organization’s EDI success.
Step 4: Celebrate mini-milestones
Model the vision and inspire others. In addition to formal celebrations, marking mini-milestones can help sustain momentum on journeys that may take years or extend beyond any individual’s career. How will you define success along the way in the EDI transformation process? How will you celebrate? Demonstrating mutual support and showing appreciation for the contributions of others can help build cohesion and invite others into the work. Your personal celebrations may be as simple as a toast to yourself or a walk in nature. Leading by example builds confidence and demonstrates how to put aspiration into action. Letting others know that you take time to look after yourself and seek support when you need it can help shift a workplace culture towards a healthier atmosphere for long-term, challenging work.
Conclusion
Integrating EDI into organizational culture takes sustained leadership throughout a workplace. Supporting yourself and others to find and use unique voices to contribute can build momentum for the long term.
Self-awareness and partnering with others for ongoing learning enhances authenticity and amplifies your leadership impact, regardless of your place in your organization. Putting plans and practices in place to support yourself creates the staying power needed to sustain these efforts over time and establishes you as a role model for others.
The four key steps in this article can help you find your place in the important long-term work of enhancing workplace EDI: Reflect on your own identity and bias; Build and maintain your foundation; Use your voice for impact where it matters most and celebrate progress. It is an exciting and rewarding journey!
[1] Stewart, J. (2022, March 15). 4 steps to achieve sustainable dei transformation. Industrial Relations Centre – Queens University. Retrieved December 4, 2024, https://irc.queensu.ca/4-steps-to-achieve-sustainable-dei-transformation/
[2] Dixon-Fyle, S. Donlan, K., Hunt, V. & Prince S. (2020, May 19). Diversity Wins: How inclusion matters. McKinsey & Company, Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters
About the Author
Sena Paradis (she/her) is experienced in transformational leadership, change management, and coaching and mentoring teams and leaders with strengths-focused approaches to empowered performance and wellness. She’s an International Coaching Federation certified coach who develops public service leaders. She coaches executives and also built a specialization coaching equity-seeking groups in targeted programs.
As a senior Government of Canada leader, she oversaw, coached and mentored interdepartmental federal negotiating teams to reach complex agreements. She managed large negotiating mandates and budgets, participating in various decision-making committees and leading approvals in complex organizational systems. Active in staffing, she was also regional Executive Co-champion for Wellness overseeing a committee and leading culture change based on staff engagement. She collaborated on executive teams in successful organizational restructuring and policy changes.
Sena received awards for collaboration in government and with Indigenous partners, plus a national Public Service Award of Excellence for an Outstanding Career. She was Canada’s Chief Federal Negotiator to bring the Tla’amin Treaty into effect and Federal Negotiator for the Maa-nulth Treaty with 5 First Nations on Vancouver Island. She has more than 25 years of experience working directly with Indigenous Peoples, including implementing significant advances in partnering with Indigenous Peoples. She is highly experienced in intercultural relationships and reconciling worldviews.
In addition to her Master’s degree in Public Administration, Sena has post-graduate Certificates in Organizational Coaching and Inter-Cultural Communications from the University of British Columbia, a Certificate in Conflict Resolution (Negotiation and Mediation) from the Justice Institute of BC, and an Associate Certified Coach designation from the International Coaching Federation.
Sena is a lead facilitator for the Queen’s IRC Workplace Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion program.
[1] Stewart, J. (2022, March 15). 4 steps to achieve sustainable dei transformation. Industrial Relations Centre – Queens University. Retrieved December 4, 2024, https://irc.queensu.ca/4-steps-to-achieve-sustainable-dei-transformation/
[2] Dixon-Fyle, S. Donlan, K., Hunt, V. & Prince S. (2020, May 19). Diversity Wins: How inclusion matters. McKinsey & Company, Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters
