Board Diversity

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Board Diversity

• Alison M. Konrad, UWO
• Dharshi Lacey, LIHC

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Workshop Goal

• Share and learn about the importance of setting a
  vision for diversity within your organization and
  the strategic steps that need to be taken in
  order to become inclusive and reflective of the
  communities we serve.

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Workshop Ground Rules

• Engaged
• Respectful
• Non-judgmental
• Willing to learn
• Willing to teach
• No such thing as a stupid question or comment
• If you have a bad thing to say, do so, we will
  all help to analyze it
• Have fun!

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Visioning for Diversity

• Imagine your organization is managing and valuing
  and celebrating diversity spectacularly well.
• What exciting new directions are possible?

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• What does it look like?
• What are people doing?
• How are decisions being made?
• Who is making decisions?
• Who communicates what?
• Whos supposed to listen?
• What and whose expertise is sought, valued, paid
  for and used?
• What and whose contacts and networks are sought
  and valued?
• What processes are used to hire, promote, train,
  and evaluate?
• Who allocates time, energy and money to what?
• Who influences the allocation?
• Who benefits from the allocation of resources?

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• WE HAVE ALL THESE EXCITING HOPES AND DREAMS, THEN
  WE GO OUT AND MEET THE BOARDS!

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The Language of Diversity

• Diversity the combination of ways in which each
  of us is like all others, like some others, and
  like no other
• Representation the number of demographic group
  members present
• Inclusion the extent to which all members of a
  diverse organization are included in important
  decision-making processes and social interactions

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Stages of Cultural Competence

• Cultural competence the set of skills that
  facilitate rapport, interaction and learning in a
  multicultural setting
• Unconscious incompetence
• Conscious incompetence
• Conscious competence
• Unconscious competence

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The Concept of Racism

• Those aspects of Canadian society that overtly
  and covertly attribute value and normality to
  White people and Whiteness and that devalue,
  stereotype, and label racialized communities as
  other, different, less than, or render them
  invisible
• Under this definition, was racism a factor in the
  hiring case?

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Our Experience

• Shoot the messenger
• Knowledge building shared understanding of
  concepts
• Breadth of views that walks into the room
• Aligning concepts
• Taking away the passive aggression (attitude
  adjustment)

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• Side tracking
• Liberal progressives shut down its too hard
• Frustration, anger
• Resource limitations, competing interests

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Cultural Competency Assessment

• Organizational Culture
• Organizational Documents
• Governance

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Sample Questions Organizational Culture

• The organization acknowledges and respects the
  right of an individual to his or her cultural
  customs, beliefs and practices.
• The organization is responsive to issues of
  cultural diversity, and designs programs and
  services that reflects its client populations.
• The organization considers cultural factors
  (language, race, ethnicity) in developing its
  management and service delivery strategies.

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Sample Questions Organizational Documents

• The mission, vision and policy statements
  specifically refers to providing competent
  services to racially and culturally diverse
  people.
• Individuals from ethno-racial communities
  participate in the decision making process of the
  organization.

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Sample Questions Governance

• Our Board reflects the diversity of the community
  we serve.
• Board members are evaluated on, among other
  skills their knowledge and skills pertaining to
  ethno-cultural competency.

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• Our Boards Strategic Plan includes a
  ethno-cultural competency as an identified area
  for development with clearly defined action steps
  and success benchmarks.
• The Executive Directors evaluation includes an
  assessment of his/her leadership in helping the
  agency achieve its goals for ethno-cultural
  competency.

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Typical Non-Profit Profile
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What is our Diversity Goal?

• Inclusion
• Inclusion in all decision making
• Inclusion in all informal and social practice

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Action Plan

• Name three things you must do to make your vision
  a reality
• Year 1
• Year 2
• Year 3
• Who will be the keeper of the process?

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Critical Success Factors

• Must Dos
• Must Haves
• Key Measurements to Meet Benchmarks for success
• Critical Persons to Influence

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Diversity Metrics

• Diversity of the Board of Directors
• Diversity of qualified applicants per position
• Diversity of new hires
• Diversity of internal promotions
• Extent to which the business case for diversity
  is understood
• Extent to which senior management views diversity
  as a source of value creation
• Reactions of a diverse set of customers

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Communication Plan

• Identify key stakeholder groups and opinion
  leaders / power holders within each group
• List each groups reasons for supporting your
  diversity initiative
• List each groups reasons for resisting
• Identify a strategy for leveraging each source of
  support
• Identify a strategy for dealing with each source
  of resistance

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Things weve learned

• Breaking people out of the box of where the
  organization is today is very difficult
• 1-3 action items is huge progress
• Many similarities across organizations
• Working together is more powerful than working
  alone

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Thank You!