DR. TYRONE A. HOLMES
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How to Communicate the Importance of Diversity: Step 2 – Identify the Key Leaders

3/23/2016

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A few weeks ago, I introduced the first step in communicating the importance of diversity within an organization – clarifying the benefits. Once you are clear about the benefits of creating a culturally inclusive work environment, your next step is to identify the key leaders and decision makers within the organization. To do this, answer three questions. First, who are the people that have the greatest influence? Keep in mind that these may not be the people at the top of the organizational chart, or the people with ‘manager’ in their title (but you will need to include some top managers). It’s the people that others listen to. Second, who are the people that make the decisions? In other words, who has the authority to approve the steps you want to take to empower diversity and create inclusion within the organization? Finally, who are the people that will be most supportive of your inclusion efforts? Try to identify two or three people that meet all three criteria and begin the diversity communication process with them.

Next Post: April 20, 2016 – How to Communicate the Importance of Diversity: Step 3
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How to Communicate the Importance of Diversity: Step 1 – Clarify the Benefits

3/2/2016

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Last week, I introduced this topic by briefly discussing the importance of making the “business case” for diversity within an organization. I also introduced 4 steps you can take to make this case. The first step is clarifying the benefits of empowering diversity for your organization. These benefits can be summarized into three areas. The first is Improved Individual and Organizational Performance. When we do a good job of recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce, AND we help employees develop the skills they need to communicate, resolve conflict and solve problems in culturally diverse settings, we improve the overall quality of the workforce. We increase our ability to attract and retain top performers. We increase productivity on both an individual and group basis. We improve communication, reduce conflict and enhance trust between staff members. And we increase the likelihood that every individual, regardless of his or her background, will have an opportunity to be successful. The second benefit is Enhanced Internal and External Service. Simply stated, when we effectively increase the diversity of our staff, we increase our ability to understand, connect with and satisfy a diverse customer base. Our third and final benefit is Improved Bottom-Line.  When we do a good job of creating culturally inclusive environments (and not just enlarging diversity by playing a numbers game), we reap bottom-line benefits such as reduced turnover, increased retention, reduced hiring costs, and improved revenues.

Next Post: March 23, 2016 – How to Communicate the Importance of Diversity: Step 2
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How to Communicate the Importance of Diversity

2/24/2016

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As a consultant, I have helped many organizations facilitate diversity activities and interventions designed to improve both individual and organizational performance. To ensure success, I have found the most important step to take is to communicate the “business case” for diversity throughout the organization. You can do this by taking the following steps:   
  1. Clarify the benefits of empowering diversity for YOUR organization.
  2. Identify the KEY leaders in your organization.
  3. Describe instances where empowering diversity will help you achieve SPECIFIC organizational goals.
  4. LIVE your commitment to diversity.
During the next month, I will describe each of these steps in detail and offer examples for how you can effectively communicate the importance of diversity.

Next Post: March 2, 2016 – How to Communicate the Importance of Diversity: Step 1
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Removing the Barriers to Effective Multicultural Communication #2 – Empathy

4/14/2014

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Increase your empathy. Empathy can be defined as the ability to step into another person's shoes, and experience the world from his or her perspective. It is a cognitive and psychological state where you truly understand where another person is coming from. Empathy is the single most important element of multicultural communication. Without it, there is no true connection between people, and there is no chance of removing communication barriers such as stereotyping and ethnocentrism. To increase your empathy, you must actively work at getting to know culturally different people. You can do this by participating in social activities with culturally diverse individuals, attending cultural events, participating in programs specific to a cultural tradition like Black History Month, attending worship services at churches, synagogues and mosques, visiting ethnic restaurants, participating in diversity workshops, reading books by and about members of different cultural groups, and joining cultural organizations.

Next Post: April 28, 2014 – Removing the Barriers to Effective Multicultural Communication #3



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Creating a Climate for Diversity: The 15 Tips

2/17/2014

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Over the past several months, I have proffered 15 tips you can use to create inclusive organizational environments. To summarize and for easy reference, I have listed these tips below with a hyperlink to each blog post:
  1. Create opportunities for culturally different individuals to interact with each other on a continuous basis.
  2. Help employees develop the skills they need to effectively communicate, resolve conflict and solve problems in culturally diverse environments.
  3. Develop, implement and enforce anti-harassment and discrimination policies.
  4. Actively work to recruit a high quality, culturally diverse workforce.
  5. Ensure that organizational policies and practices support a diverse workforce.
  6. Formally assess the diversity climate and make changes as needed.
  7. Make sure the work environment supports the physically challenged.
  8. Facilitate a brown bag educational series.
  9. Provide a mentor for every new employee.
  10. Start an organizational diversity program.
  11. Provide performance coaching for every employee.
  12. Start resource groups for underrepresented group members.
  13. Hold your meetings and events at a local cultural center.
  14. Hold a series of town hall meetings.
  15. Facilitate a cultural audit and make changes as needed.
I will provide more tips for creating a climate for diversity in the future!

Next Post: February 24, 2014 – The 3 Barriers to Effective Multicultural Communication
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Creating a Climate for Diversity: Tip # 15 – Cultural Audit

2/10/2014

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Facilitate a cultural audit and make changes as needed. A cultural audit evaluates your organization’s strengths and weaknesses when it comes to diversity practices related to recruitment, selection, retention, training, performance management, customer service, compensation and the use of outside vendors. For example, an audit might pose questions such as:
  • Has your organization developed plans and goals for the creation of culturally inclusive environments?
  • Does top leadership provide vocal, visible and continuous support for diversity?
  • Is there a specific process in place for the recruitment of high quality, culturally diverse candidate pools?
  • Have you evaluated the predictive validity of your selection processes?
  • Does your organization provide formal career development opportunities for all employees?
  • Is there an employee code of conduct that clearly prohibits engaging in racist, sexist, biased, sexually harassing or sexually/physically abusive behavior?
Next Post: February 17, 2014 – Creating a Climate for Diversity: The 15 Tips
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Creating a Climate for Diversity: Tip # 14 – Town Hall Meetings

2/3/2014

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Hold a series of town hall meetings. These meetings, which are open to all organizational members, provide a forum for discussing topics of common interest (e.g., diversity issues). The goal of these meetings is to build a stronger community through the open exchange of information and ideas. Town hall meetings offer several benefits including improved organizational communication, enhanced decision-making regarding diversity efforts, a greater sense of ownership and involvement on part of employees/community members, and reduced confusion and miscommunication regarding diversity goals and activities.

Next Post: February 10, 2014 – Creating a Climate for Diversity: Tip #15
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Creating a Climate for Diversity: Tip # 13 – Use Cultural Centers

1/27/2014

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If your organization holds off-site meetings, conferences and seminars, consider hosting some of these events at a local cultural institution such as a museum of Native American or African American History. These facilities generally offer meeting services and the participants will have an opportunity to interact in a culturally diverse setting. Keep in mind there are many centers to choose from. Some examples include the Latino Arts Center, Chinese Cultural Center, Irish Cultural Center, German Cultural Center, Jewish Historical Society, Japan Society, Korea Society, and Hispanic Society of America. Simply type "cultural center" in your favorite Internet search engine and you will find your local options.

Next Post: February 3, 2014 – Creating a Climate for Diversity: Tip #14
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Creating a Climate for Diversity: Tip # 12 – Resource Groups

1/21/2014

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Start resource groups for underrepresented group members. A resource group is an internal association dedicated to the professional development of a specific cultural group (e.g., LGBT, Asian-Americans and women). These groups provide an excellent networking source for the members and can significantly improve retention within an organization. To make sure your resource groups are successful, keep the following points in mind:
  • Identify a clear business purpose for the group. For example, the purpose can be to improve retention and reduce turnover, to enhance diversity recruitment efforts, to facilitate employee development and mentoring, to increase promotional opportunities, or to improve external relationships.
  • Identify an executive sponsor for the group. This should be an individual in high levels of management with significant organizational influence. Such an individual will be able to provide knowledge, experience, connections and other resources of value to the group.
  • Welcome all employees to participate in the resource group. While the group may be geared toward a particular underrepresented employee population, everyone should be made to feel welcome.
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of your resource groups. Bottom-line, do they fulfill their identified purpose?

Next Post: January 27, 2014 – Creating a Climate for Diversity: Tip #13
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Top Diversity Measures and Metrics: Turnover Rate

1/6/2014

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Happy New Year! I hope you had a safe and prosperous holiday season. Our next diversity metric is a fairly common one. Turnover rate provides an excellent means to determine how effective you are at retaining your employees. It also allows you to compare retention rates between different employee demographic groups and categories. Turnover rate uses a simple formula that compares the number of terminated employees with the average employee population for a specified time frame (e.g., one year):
  • Turnover Rate = NT/AE
  • NT = Number of Terminated Employees (Voluntary and Involuntary)
  • AE = Average Employee Population
  • Example: 45 terminated employees/318 average employee population = 14.2% Turnover Rate
Next Post: January 9, 2014 – Top Diversity Measures and Metrics: Stability Factor
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    Dr. Tyrone A. Holmes is an author, speaker, coach and consultant. He helps his clients develop the skills needed to communicate, resolve conflict, solve problems and improve performance in diverse organizational settings.

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