Ian Dodds Consulting’s (IDC) Monthly Best Practice: Mar 2014

IDC launches its unique Inclusion and High Performance Diagnostic

I’m delighted to announce the launch of our online Inclusion and High Performance Diagnostic (I&HPD). This has been developed in partnership with Rob Browton of Blue Provident. IDC has always emphasised the value of carrying out a diagnostic at the start of an intervention to leverage the Power of Inclusion. This enables our clients to understand what is helping and hindering inclusion for people in their organisation. To date we have done this with affinity focus groups, e.g. focus groups for women, white men, or minority ethnic people, etc. These have usually been accompanied by senior management interviews to obtain a picture of their perceptions of how inclusion plays out in their organisations by comparison with the focus group findings.

The purpose of these diagnostics has been to establish the issues that need to be addressed to leverage the Power of Inclusion. However, we always collect quotes in these diagnostics and it is the emotional impact of these that creates the senior management will to act. The first time I realised this was several years ago when we carried out a global diversity and inclusion (D&I) diagnostic for a well-known investment bank. When I had presented the finding back to its global task force, there was a hush when I finished. This was broken by the task force chairman observing that he had thought the firm was meritocratic; but the quotes from the women and minority ethnic people had demonstrated that it was meritocratic for white males only and this had to change. The task force instituted, with our guidance, a behavioural change intervention to leverage the Power of Inclusion. Five years later we were asked to carry out another global D&I diagnostic and I was astonished at the progress that they had made with inclusion in relation to their women and minority ethnic people.

Our recently launched online Power of Inclusion diagnostic, I&HPD, asks about respondents’ experiences of inclusion and exclusion within their organisation. The focus of questions is on how well conditions, practices and behaviours ensure that people, no matter what their diversity or background, feel: valued and respected; their voices are heard; they are given the support they need to perform at their best. As well as generating data about what are the factors that are most helping and hindering inclusion in respondents’ organisations, it will also generate quotes which can be used to demonstrate to senior management how exclusion plays out in their organisations for people from different diverse backgrounds. It means too that we have a fast, effective means of carrying out inclusion diagnostics at the beginning of Power of Inclusion interventions that we get involved in.

If you would like to know more about our new diagnostic please contact me.

Dr Ian Dodds,

iandodds@iandoddsconsulting.com,

www.iandoddsconsulting.com

IDC Academy Online: http://idcacademyonline.com/

26 Feb 2014

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