Over the last year, we’ve all be made aware (or powerfully reminded) of the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within our organizations and our communities.  The imperative is clear: inclusion and racial equity optimizes organizational performance and societal outcomes — not only for people of color, but for everyone.  But wanting to be more inclusive and actually being more inclusive are usually two very distinct conditions.  The latter takes work: policy and system changes, education and discernment, intentionality and constant effort.
The Performance Excellence Network — in partnership with the Wisconsin Center for Performance Excellence — is pleased to host a special online workshop series: “Best Practices in DEI.”  The series will be seven stand-alone half-day modules and can either be attended “ala carte” or as a complete series.  The content is uniquely aligned with the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework, exploring many facets of diversity, equity, and inclusion through the lens of this proven Framework (though your organization does not have to be officially using Baldrige to benefit from the value of this series!). The first module is Thursday, January 20: “Leading DEI.”

The series will feature seven half-day online workshops — highly interactive discussions that will explore results-based methods and proven effective practices that will help organizations better appreciate diversity; improve inclusion within its workforce, supplier network, and marketplace; and promote greater equity within their organizational systems.  Participants will walk away from each session with a tool, a template, and/or a process – all carefully designed or curated by experienced DEI experts.

Each workshop will be facilitated from a combination of leading experts in DEI:

• Lisa Tabor, President & Owner, CultureBrokers LLC
• Sandra Ogunremi, DHA, Spiritual Care Services, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Monument Health, Rapid City SD
• Jessica Shryack, PhD, Organizational Consultant and founder of Clarity Collaborations
• Catherine Davis, Program Director, Diversity Council
• Plus other DEI experts to be added throughout the series!

Session 1 is January 20 from 9:00-1:00 CT (8:00-12:00 MT) and will focus on DEI leadership.  Specifically, the main areas of this workshop include:

• Foundational DEI concepts and how those concepts connect to the proven Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework – key definitions & concepts, the importance and ROI of DEI to any organization
• Leading a DEI effort – from the top or somewhere in the middle of an organization
• Integrating DEI into organizational vision & core values
• Communicating with and engaging your team and the entire workforce, considering different needs of different workforce groups
• Creating an environment for success – considering how DEI helps an organization accomplish its mission; creating a culture that fosters workforce engagement, equity, inclusion; considering DEI in leadership succession planning; balancing value & the needs of all stakeholders
• Identifying measures for monitoring leadership’s effectiveness related to DEI

As a preview – and for those interested in participating in the full series (and benefiting from a series discount, basically getting 2 modules free!) – the rest of the series topics are here:

• Session 2 (April 27): Governance role in DEI and learning from Baldrige winners, national role models’ DEI efforts
• Session 3 (July 19): Unconscious bias: understanding and adjusting our prejudices and becoming better allies
• Session 4 (Sept 15): Planning a DEI effort; assessing intercultural competencies; integrating DEI into other organizational initiatives
• Session 5 (Nov 8): Creating more inclusive, equitable work environment, such as recruiting/hiring, managing change, work accomplishment including job structure/design, more inclusive benefits & policies
• Session 6 (Jan 24, 2023): Creating more inclusive, equitable workforce processes, such as embedding DEI into drivers of workforce engagement, creating a more inclusive organizational culture, integrating DEI into performance management/accountability processes, integrating DEI into training & career development
• Session 7 (date TBD April/May 2023): Building DEI into customer-facing systems (listening methods, segmentation, relationship management and fair treatment, access/support, and satisfaction determination); building DEI into core operations (design/management of key products and work processes, selecting/managing supply network); and measuring DEI efforts.

If attending “ala carte,” each workshop is $200 for PEN/WCPE members ($400 for non-members).  Teams of 3-4 members $175/each; teams of 5+ are $150/each.

Investment for the full 7-part series is $1000 (for members only).

Most of us — as leaders, professionals, and just as people — understand the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion and realize that we need to make changes to improve our organizations and communities.  Come explore how to improve make true process and system changes that improve our work environments – to truly move the needle on becoming more inclusive, equitable organizations that produce real, sustainable results.