This module is the fifth of seven in an ongoing Best Practices in DEI Series.  Each are intended to be stand-alone, or you can participate in the full series.  Dates and topics of other modules listed below.

Over the last couple of years, 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 fifth module is Tuesday, November 8: “Creating a More Inclusive, Equitable Work Environment.”  (Other module dates and topics listed below.)

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
• Dee Sabol, Executive Director, Diversity Council
• Plus other DEI experts to be added throughout the series!

Session 5 is November 8 from 9:00-1:00 CT and will focus on creating a more inclusive, equitable work environment (Item 5.1 in the Baldrige Framework).  Specific areas of focus in this workshop include:

• Assessing workforce capability and capacity (staffing levels), with the goal of creating a workforce that represents the market and communities you serve
• Creating more inclusive recruiting, hiring, and onboarding processes
• Creating more inclusive change management processes, that include consideration for diverse workforce with shifting work environments, new technology or redesigned work systems, new work structures
• Organizing and managing the workforce to capitalize on the organization’s core competencies and the diversity of ideas, cultures and thinking of its workforce, including DEI considerations in organizational design/structure, position descriptions, communication processes, and so forth
• Ensuring more inclusive benefits, services, policies, health, security, and accessibility for the workforce, including maximizing productivity by eliminating barriers that prevent people with disabilities (or ESL or other unique characteristics) from working to their potential

If attending “ala carte,” this 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 series is $1000 (for members only), prorated to $450 for this and the other two modules of the series.

For those interested in participating in the remaining modules in the full series (and benefiting from a series discount) – the rest of the series topics are here:

• Session 1 (Jan 20): Leading DEI
• 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.

We are considering starting the series over again in 2023, so email us if you are interested in being notified of dates!

Most of us — as leaders, professionals, and just people — understand the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion and realize that we need to make changes to improve our organizations and communities.  But change happens at an individual level, so come prepared to understand, identify, and address the unconscious biases we all have.

Biography

Dee Vazquez Sabol is Executive Director of Diversity Council, an organization that has spent more than 30 years ensuring that individuals, organizations, and communities understand the power and potential of equitable and inclusive ecosystems. Ms. Sabol brings experience in cross-cultural communication and change management and has spent time managing public affairs, strategic partnerships, and community and cultural engagement in several states. She has been deeply engaged in the areas of public/private sector collaboration, social justice, and equitable growth. In her current work, Ms. Sabol leads an organization focused on civic equity, educational equity, and health equity with particular focus on equitable economic development, community safety, and public
policy design. She is active in numerous local, regional, state, and national spaces where equity is centered.

Ms. Sabol has degrees in Communications, Sociology, Public Administration and Nonprofit Management. She’s teaches and speaks on social justice coalition building, inclusive community design, and authentic intercultural engagement and her entire career has aligned with equity and inclusion efforts in the US.