Effective employee engagement is crucial for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) success in every organization. Employee engagement leads to trust, and trust is the currency of change. In a previous article, we explored how leaders can use T.E.A.M. Communication Style® assessments to activate their employees’ strengths and organize them into DEI-focused roles. Now that we’ve identified the types of roles, let’s explore implementable strategies you can take to advance DEI in your organization utilizing T.E.A.M.
Vision Retreat
- Hope and commitment are not strategies. Leaders cannot just say that they care about or are committed to the work without implementable strategies. Before diving into too much work with DEI, you might want to start with a team retreat to get your team thinking about vision, role opportunities, and action planning. As we noted in our previous article, utilizing the T.E.A.M. Communication Styles assessment can be a great way to help people identify their strengths, see which roles fit best, and for the team overall to see how to best organize itself.
DEI Committees
- Organizations create DEI committees to help advance their efforts. This usually is a foundational stage before they hire a DEI professional to join the organization. Passion and a commitment to DEI learning are foundational attributes of DEI committee members, but roles are sometimes not clear, or the committee is not well utilized. Have your committee members complete the T.E.A.M. Communication Styles assessment. Using the results, you can educate your committee on how they can understand all members’ styles and preferences.
This will help your committee create safe spaces where people can share issues and discuss tough topics. In addition, you can also use these assessments as a guide to recruit for gaps and assign roles. Using a matrix, you can assign responsibilities and tasks based on strengths and preferences.
Equity Focused Initiatives
- There are many things your organization can do to advance DEI. They can include focused recruitment efforts to diversify your workforce, team-building activities to increase inclusion, and professional development programs to grow leaders within your organization. Based on your team members’ strengths and preferences, you can empower them to take the lead over certain initiatives that will advance DEI in the organization.
For example, you can have your “E” style team members lead the charge for educating your organization on topics and facilitating important conversations related to these issues. Another example is having your “A” style team members be behind the scenes evaluating policies and procedures to remove any barriers that impact DEI success.
Seeking Outside Support
- The last strategy we wanted to mention is seeking outside support. Sometimes your organization doesn’t have all the people that you truly need to succeed in DEI work. That’s where you can partner with outside consultants or experts from different backgrounds and mutually come together to address challenges in your organization. Using the assessment, you can help identify diversity gaps in your organization and then identify what type of support you might need, such as a consultant, educator, or partner organization. For example, you may realize that you do not have any “E” team members who are comfortable facilitating discussions on DEI, therefore you can bring in a DEI consultant with strong engagement skills.
Part of committing to DEI work is embracing a diversity of experiences and perspectives, and a T.E.A.M. assessment can begin the process of learning from diverse consultants, community leaders, or industry experts.
We hope after reading this you are empowered and motivated to take your organizational DEI initiatives to success with T.E.A.M. Organizing your employees based on their communication style preferences can automatically build more engagement and increase your ability to solve your organization’s toughest issues.
Authors:
Jonathan Meagher-Zayas (he/him)
Jonathan is a Queer Latinx Millennial nonprofit strategist dedicated to addressing equity issues, building capacity, engaging the community, motivating impact leaders, and getting stuff done. He wears many professional hats, including Fundraising and Communications Strategist, Adjunct Social Work Professor, Diversity & Inclusion Consultant, Leadership Development Trainer, Social Sector Career Coach, and Equity Champion. He has over 13 years of experience in the nonprofit sector and has extensive experience managing leadership development programs and advancing diversity, inclusion, and equity initiatives. He is the Founder and Chief Strategist of Equity Warrior Strategies LLC, a consulting company focused on creating change in the nonprofit and social impact sector. We partner with leaders to find the best education and strategies to create an impact at the personal, organizational, and community levels. We help accomplish social equity, leadership development, and capacity-building goals through coaching, learning, facilitation, and strategic planning.
Nicole DamaPoleto (she/her)
Nicole DamaPoleto has been a trainer and facilitator for over 14 years beginning her experience with the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI). She is a graduate of the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities and most recently worked with the Leadership Consortium on developing the training, “Leading Great Teams.” Currently, Nicole works for the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals as the Director of Communication and Programs where she provides administrative, event, and communications management.
