About Basic Diversity
“Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Initiatives are essentially LEADERSHIP INITIATIVES. Every enterprise must ask itself ‘Have our leaders created an environment where every member of the team feels included and engaged?’ Because in the end, it doesn’t matter how good your management skills and policies are if your people don’t feel valued.”
Our mission is to make diversity simple, “user-friendly” and uncomplicated. Thus, our name — BASIC Diversity. We will:
› Remove barriers that interfere with your mission.
› Empower your people with simple “user-friendly” skills to maximize the opportunities and minimize the challenges of a diverse organization.
› Assist you in developing systems to leverage the benefits of a diverse organization.
› Resulting in an inclusive organization where every employee shares a sense of belonging.
› Any diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategy that detracts from your mission is a flawed strategy.
The only good DEI strategy is one that helps your organization accomplish its mission in a more effective and cost efficient manner. DEI is not about creating new barriers to your mission. It’s about increasing cultural understanding to remove existing barriers that hinder productivity.
› Diversity, equity and inclusion are more about leadership than management.
Management is about policies and procedures; leadership is about inspiration, motivation and vision. It’s about inspiring every member of the enterprise to feel motivated to help their fellow teammates reach their full potential for the good of the organization as a whole. Leadership in this area does not require a title, it requires taking a stance to ensure everyone feels a true sense of belonging within the organization regardless of their background.
› If your goal is tolerance, you’ve already failed.
Diversity is not about tolerance. Children are to be tolerated; adults are to be respected. DEI is about mutual respect. We must move beyond mere tolerance and learn to truly accept each other’s differences and unique characteristics. We don’t have to all love one another, but we do have to work together.
› White males are a vital part of diversity.
If your strategic DEI plan and/or organizational DEI team do not include white males they are not truly diverse! Further, they will fail. Diversity is not geared towards excluding white males. The goal of DEI is to ensure that ALL voices and demographic groups are heard – including White males.
› Diversity, equity and inclusion are a business imperative.
BASIC Diversity is a human relations firm that understands business imperatives. Improving your organization’s cultural climate can have a profound impact on teamwork and productivity, which ultimately leads to increased profits. Regardless of organizational type: corporate, non-profit, educational or government, DEI is still an issue of monetary concern. Whether the expense shows up in the form of lost revenue, decreased productivity, poor employee retention or lawsuits, it still cost you money.
Additionally, look at your client base. Over the past 40 years the educational levels, annual salaries and spending power of women and People of Color have increased massively!
› Demographics demand that you deal with this issue.
You can not ignore this issue! America’s demographics are changing rapidly and dramatically. According to the U. S. Census Bureau half of all Americans will be People of Color (racial minorities) by the year 2042. Are you ready?
› You must impact thinking to impact behaviors.
If your strategy to manage behaviors at work is based on people complying with policies (i.e. “We don’t care what you think and feel. All we care about is how you behave while at work.”) it will never succeed. Why? Because we’re not machines. We’re human beings. As a result, our thoughts, emotions and unconscious biases tremendously impact and/or subliminally control our behaviors.
If you’re operating under the “compliance theory”, even if you implement great policies and manage them flawlessly, the absolute best you can ever expect to achieve is compliance. Conversely, if you truly impact people’s thinking, you get commitment. Once you get commitment you no longer have to worry about compliance. Additionally, that commitment gives you the strategic advantage over your competitors. While they’re busy attempting to achieve a perfect level of compliance (which they can never attain) you’ll be busy reaping the benefits of commitment.