Elevating an Affinity Group

“Having the team from Ethos on hand to facilitate and synthesize conversations around organizing our DEIB efforts ensured that we emerged from the process with a clearly prioritized, well reasoned and – perhaps most importantly – actionable roadmap for our near- and longer-term future.” – Ellen, Table XI

Situation

Table XI had invested time and energy into a successful and productive diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) grassroots initiative within the organization. As this group of DEIB team members came together for planning in the new year, they determined they needed assistance in prioritizing their DEIB initiatives for 2020.

Objectives

This project had a number of unique objectives to get the committee running at its full potential. 

1. Set a vision, guiding principles, and a clear direction for DEIB at Table XI
2. Develop the most important DEIB initiatives for the company in 2020
3. Build timelines and milestones for each initiative
4. Connect the DEIB team and the leadership team in setting mutual goals and working together

In putting all these objectives together the goal was two-fold:

• Get the DEIB team focused and oriented toward strategic, attainable goals 
• Forge a stronger connection with leadership so these goals would be supported at the highest levels through launch and execution
  

Ethos Approach

Ethos began the engagement with a leadership-only meeting to provide context and learning around DEIB, gain alignment around current needs, and help the leaders of the organization capture their desired DEIB initiatives.

In the second phase, we worked closely with the DEIB team through four sessions to help them focus on their goals. 

Outcomes

By the end of the engagement, the DEIB team had solidified their 5 key initiatives for 2020 which included: an inclusion survey, more transparency around the continuing education budget, a process flow for DEIB feedback on company-wide initiatives, more junior recruiting, and formalized DEIB training. 

Additionally, in planning the year’s initiatives, we identified a key need for a DEIB statement. Working together with the committee, we drafted the document and used that as a guiding light to prioritize the initiatives, brainstorm new ideas, create timelines, and set roles and responsibilities.

Conclusion

By leveraging leadership and grassroots groups together, Ethos was able to help Table XI’s DEIB committee create a solid plan for building and developing their DEIB work into the new year.

“Ethos was thoughtful, goal-oriented and helped us amplify the voice of the DEIB team while clarifying their purpose. We really enjoyed working with them!” – Alicia, Table XI

Interested in leveraging Ethos to help your ERGs reach their goals? Reach out to [email protected] for more information on how we can transform your organization.

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