We were honored to welcome Dr. Rohini Anand in a spirited discussion with HCM Lecturer, Dr. Amy Liu Abel, on the topic of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) with students in the HCM Agility: Leading Through Disruption course.
In addition to holding several board positions at prominent organizations, serving as CEO of Rohini Anand, LLC, a DEI consultancy providing advisory services to clients in the public and private sectors, Dr. Anand spent over 10 years as Senior Vice President, Corporate Responsibility and Global Chief Diversity Officer at Sodexo, Inc.
As a guest lecturer, Dr. Anand shared 5 Principles for creating sustainable DEI cultures within organizations and highlighted anecdotes and excerpts from her new book, Leading Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: A Guide for Systemic Change in Multinational. Based on her experiences leading global DEI at Sodexo, her top 5 principles include:
Make It Local
- Any DEI transformation has to be anchored in a local context e.g. the norms of each place, how identity is defined and expressed
- This doesn’t mean accepting inequities or avoiding issues of race and racism - instead consider ways to address these topics without imposing a US framework
Leaders Change to Lead Change
- Before leading others in deep change, leaders must first transform themselves
- Identifying leaders who have done the introspection work, disrupted their world view, internalized the DEI change themselves is key to creating transformative DEI impact through leader champions
Set a Compelling Narrative
- Every change effort needs to be anchored by a compelling narrative that makes it clear why change is so necessary
- The DEI change narrative must be embedded within the business and provided clarity on why addressing DEI challenges is so critical for business success
Go Deep, Wide, and Inside-Out
- Infuse DEI into all the interconnected systems of an organizations, e.g. structures, processes, etc. in order to support longevity
- This happens in parallel with on the ground behavior change; both are critical
Know What Matters & Count It
- Know what matters in your DEI change efforts and measure it consistently
- Keep teams and sub-organizations accountable to what you are measuring
