(22a) Frontline DEI: How to Design and Integrate Inclusion into Team Processes

Organizations across sectors are placing strategic priority on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. However, several case studies show that current approaches—particularly, efforts to change the individual organizational member—are not working as well as they could. Many DEI consulting firms aim to change culture by changing individual members by, for example, putting them through implicit bias training, and engaging in group exercises that aim to build self-awareness about different perspectives. While important efforts, individual-level development can only impact group culture indirectly, at best. Instead, to shape team safety culture, leaders should intervene directly on group-level behaviors. Group-level behaviors are distinct from individual-level behavior in that group behavior is defined as the collective action of multiple interdependent actors. We see group-level behavior unfold through team routines and practices, and in the nature of the interaction patterns that team members regularly engage in with each other (e.g., as informal mentors/mentees, as competitors, as equals/peers). This talk first defines psychological safety, diversity, equity, and inclusion, then operationalizes those terms according to what group actions you would observe if you were seeing these concepts working well versus working poorly within a group. I will then walk through an example of how to intentionally re-design a team practice to incorporate inclusion and psychological safety into the regular workflow of the group. This approach is different from common DEI approaches that rely on organization members to gain personal awareness about implicit bias and difference. Instead, a Frontline DEI^TM framework enables a leader to design an inclusive safety culture by making small changes to existing group routines and practices, and intentionally designing new ones.