3 Reasons Your DEI Council is Ineffective
Having stood up dozens of DEI bodies (e.g. ERGs, Councils, Equity Teams, Committees and BRGs), we're sharing three reasons why these groups sometimes don’t work 🚫 – even when the organization has committed resources for these programs and employees are going to meetings regularly.
While there are additional reasons, the three outlined below are the ones we have seen the most. 👀
#1 The unhealed self
Unhealed traumatic workplace experiences, where harm was caused by a leader or team member toward a historically excluded group in the organization, impact how council members show up to lead DEI initiatives in the organization.
Unresolved incidents and years of micro aggression, gaslighting and bias creates fertile soil for trauma-bonding workplace relationships. In these circumstances, members may end up using the DEI council as a coping strategy to manage their feelings of powerlessness and as an opportunity to bond with colleagues, when intentional spaces were not created to address past and on-going harmful behaviors.
#2 Dysfunctional team dynamics
Dysfunctional dynamics occur when team members are not used to working collaboratively and across functions. Collaboration requires trust, clear processes, reliable structure, distribution of power and the ability to influence others without formal authority.
Employees and leaders often rely on formal positional power – role level and job function – to get work done. When these markers of influence and clear rules of engagement are not present, one person may end up dominating the group or no one takes a leadership role, which slows down progress or limits the group's ability to effectively execute their strategic plan.
#3 Prioritizing the comfort of leadership
When teams are not accustomed to a culture of constructive feedback, transparency and inclusive decision-making practices, collaboration can be very challenging.
Travis Taylor, an executive at the Red Willow Production Co., one of the largest oil and gas companies in the U.S. and privately-owned by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe in Colorado, recently shared, “A lot of companies get very narrow minded and don’t listen to a lot of their employees’ ideas.” According to him, their leaders take the time to not only get to know their teams, but even as a large corporation they still maintain a mom and pop culture that centers the collective and not just the few. Ute Tribe members are also the shareholders of their tribe’s resources.
There’s a better way. Reach out today to get support from a long term strategic partner!
