Phil Cross

Why is it important to understand maturity?

“Where are we now?” It’s the vital first question to ask when establishing our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) strategy. It clarifies our organisation’s DEI maturity level and means we are more likely to:

Solve the right thing
Focusing on programs and initiatives that help tackle the most relevant, pressing, highest-impact challenges and opportunities.

Solve the thing right
Doing so in a way that won’t meet resistance from our organisation’s culture or internal systemic or bureaucratic roadblocks.

What is your organisation’s DEI maturity level?

At Leaders for Good, we have developed a proprietary scale to assess organisations’ DEI maturity in an objective and consistent manner. In this post, we share a simplified version to help you start thinking about where your organisation currently sits.

The scale ranges from 1 to 5. We start at level 1, where DEI is mostly adopted as a compliance requirement. Level 5 is the highest, where advocacy and disruption create impact beyond the organisation. Let’s take a high-level look at each of these levels:

1. Level 1: Compliance. These organisations lack a strategic approach to DEI beyond compliance with laws and industry regulations. For example, reporting for the Modern Slavery Act or gender equality though WGEA and completion of mandatory training around areas such as harassment in the workplace.
2. Level 2: Siloed Initiatives. Organisations at level 2 still lack a strategic approach to DEI. They do, however, provide ad-hoc support and funding for DEI initiatives that are primarily driven by self-motivated individuals and groups. This might look like celebrations and acknowledgement of key events such as International Women’s Day and NAIDOC Week. There may also be some sporadic DEI training at level 2, e.g. unconscious bias workshops.
3. Level 3: Talent Strategy. At level 3, DEI is an integral part of an organisation’s people strategy. Responsibility typically sits under the Chief People Officer, Head of HR, or Head of DEI. Organisations work to create a more diverse and inclusive culture through inclusive hiring and onboarding, talent strategy, learning and development, reinforcement of values-based behaviours, etc. DEI has its own budget but is still siloed to an extent, and not fully integrated with other areas of the business.
4. Level 4: Business Strategy. Level 4 organisations have embedded DEI into most core functions and practices within the business. DEI is not a function in isolation, but rather an enabler and driver of product development, innovation, sustainable partnerships, effective marketing, etc. DEI is seen as a true catalyst of business performance. Accountability typically sits at the highest level, under the CEO.
5. Level 5: Advocacy & Disruption. At level 5, the DEI impact goes beyond the organisation. The explicit intention of organisations at this level is to have an impact both internally and on the broader community. Some examples of level 5 activities include: rigorous vendor and partner selection based on internal DEI principles and practices, setting up dedicated internships to bring talent from underrepresented communities, sharing best practices and data outside the organisation, publishing fully transparent DEI data, etc.

Hopefully this gives you a sense of where your organisation sits currently. If you want to dive deeper and get a more accurate picture of your current maturity, we would of course recommend conducting a full assessment. This involves a close look at both quantitative (surveys) and qualitative (interviews and focus groups) data , as well as a thorough evaluation of all structures, policies, systems, processes, communication, partnerships, etc.

What’s next?

Once you understand your DEI maturity level, you can decide how to move forward with your efforts. Some things to consider:

Where do you want to be?
Not only does the maturity spectrum inform you of your current maturity, it also helps you think about where you want to be in the future. We normally look at this on a few different time spectrums (e.g. 12 months and 3 years). This provides a structured way to start building your improvement plan.

Working with your organisation’s current level
You need to meet your organisation where it is and build from there. For example, if you are currently at level 2 maturity and try to accelerate the DEI journey to jump to level 5 without establishing foundational building blocks, you’ll likely face resistance and frustration from stakeholders. There is also the chance of negative publicity that we often see when organisations make bold statements or engage in high-level community projects (level 5) without having the DEI basics sorted internally.

Getting alignment
Although the maturity spectrum is something you can consider on your own, the best way to use it is as a method to align your leadership team. Agreeing where you are now and where you want to be is a perfect starting point to get everybody on the same page before devising how you’re going to achieve your goals.

Understanding where your organisation sits on the DEI maturity spectrum is a critical step in building a robust and sustainable DEI strategy.

However, building such a strategy is a complex endeavour. In our next blog, we will talk about the five most common mistakes we see organisations make when it comes to DEI and, more importantly, how and what we can learn from them.

 

This post was originally published on the Leaders for Good website. If you’d like to discuss anything written above, you can email me at [email protected]