Executive leadership must maintain the ultimate lead (and be seen to hold that role), but it is complemented by the web of aligned leaders. Fortunately, there is a set of 12 CSFs that can provide a great deal of guidance in aligning that leadership and focusing it on the highest leadership leverage points.

1. Answer the “Why?”  Question. This involves the combination of moral, business, and national cases (the ROI) – why are we doing this – the benefits.  It focuses on outcomes and illustrates what is worth the investment required.  It is essential in the beginning and provides motivation throughout the journey.

2. Answer the “Where?” Question. This complements the “Why?” question.  The challenge is to create a clear and compelling “vision of the desired state” that is worth pursuing (speaking to the head and the heart).  It is critical in the beginning to gain “buy-in” and align people – and it is also critical on the path to provide a picture that can maintain a sense of direction and purpose. 

3. Make a Powerful Leadership Commitment. Be very clear about how leadership will lead the initiative – what people can expect to see and experience.  The commitment needs to clearly match the challenge – communicating that leadership understands what is required and is committed to bringing the leadership to match.

4. Put Clear and Compelling Plans in Place. These are plans that can provide direction, leadership credibility, and a basis for accountability (goals, timing, responsibility, etc.).  Plans will naturally evolve with experience as the reality of the journey unfolds.  DEI can be embedded in strategic, annual, capital, and specific project plans.  They can be enterprise or community-wide or related to specific units.  The process of planning can be as valuable as the plans themselves.

5. Establish the Organization or Community Architecture. Develop the organization required to execute the strategies and achieve the vision – from roles, competencies, and relationships to policies, systems, and processes.  “Every organization and community is perfectly designed to get the outcomes it gets.”  Design matters.

6. Build the “Web of Leaders.” Develop the extended and aligned leadership web required to execute the strategies.  This starts with the C-Suite and DEI senior leaders and extends well into the organization or community. Leadership leverage stops where the leadership web stops.  Because of the specific DEI expertise needed for successful DEI initiatives the Chief Diversity Officer, Diversity Council and other DEI experts must be closely connected and aligned with the C-Suite and those charged with leading the required change.

7. Prepare People for the Journey. Lay out the journey and what to expect – and prepare people for it.  DEI initiatives present tough intellectual, emotional, and social challenges and people must be prepared.  They need to know not only what to expect on the journey and how to manage their experience, they also need to know how to contribute and make a difference.  And, if they are part of the leadership web, they need to know how to effectively play their role.

8. Build the Competencies Required. Focus on building the competencies required for success in the envisioned desired state – individual, group/team and systemic.  Some of these competencies will be DEI specific and some will be basic business and leadership competencies.  Developing individual awareness and competencies is essential in DEI.  Group/team development is also essential if all the benefits are to be achieved.  And integration and sustainability rely on developing systemic organization or community competencies. 
9. Connect People Through Communication. Ensure effective communications out to people (particularly in the beginning) and effective feedback loops (particularly as people implement the strategies and the journey unfolds).  Effective communication builds leadership credibility, connects people, and builds people’s confidence that they can be successful and OK on the journey.  Feedback becomes increasingly important because it keeps leadership connected with people and provides the information required to make good decisions in a timely fashion.
10. Connect People Through Relationships.  Developing and managing relationships is at the heart of DEI initiatives.  The relationships might be person to person, group to group, within groups, across levels, and particularly across differences.  DEI initiatives can dramatically expand the number and nature of possible relationships in the organization or community, as well as their quality.  But DEI can also naturally stress relationships in the process, so relationships cannot be taken for granted.  They are a leadership issue and must be carefully developed, supported and repaired when necessary.
11. Establish Healthy Accountability.  Institute a healthy process of accountability – the formal performance system and particularly frequent/informal accountability “check-ins” for fast-cycle learning and response.  Accountability requires having the right metrics to track progress and the systems to deliver them in a timely and accurate fashion.  The key is a frequent and informal approach (fast-cycle learning and response) that provides direction, energy, and even team or community building.  It is based on 3 simple and direct questions.
    • What do we have to celebrate?  Goal achievement, progress, even worthy efforts that were disappointing (keeps risk in play).
    • What have we learned?  About DEI, leadership, our organization or community, ourselves, about change, etc.
    • What do we want to keep doing, stop doing and/or start doing?  Calibrating our next effective actions based on our learning
12. Align the Organization or Community.  Change naturally throws things out of alignment – from systems, policies, and processes, to people, relationships, and culture.   Alignment is critical for performance, so that matters – a lot.  Changes create “ripple effects.”  Those ripple effects must be tracked to assess their impact on the organization or community so that leadership can design effective responses.  Not only will a lack of alignment undermine the initiative momentum, it will undermine the sustainability of goals that are achieved.

“Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without.”

William Sloane Coffin