5 Things / Fired
Around this time last year, we were fired by a consulting client. Although I was upset when it happened, I’m grateful for the lessons learned.
At the time, I was a reasonably hands-off leader, trusting our consultants to do their thing by assessing our clients and making recommendations on DEI strategy. Besides focus groups and employee survey data, I didn’t quite know what tools our consultant used to do the assessment. Although I thought our deliverable was somewhat vague regarding action items, I signed off anyway.
We were fired, mostly because what we delivered was sub-par. I took 1000% responsibility and knew there was no way I was ever going to let that happen again. I’m too customer-obsessed.
What I have since learned is that many other DEI consultants also don’t use a concrete rubric or tool to assess an organization’s opportunities for equity and inclusion. As a CEO, this felt waaaay too arbitrary for me. How can we provide meaningful, actionable solutions for our clients if we do not measure against clear benchmarks?
That’s why I decided to build a rigorous, and I do mean rigorous, DEI assessment. Patti Flynn and I worked together on identifying almost 300 questions that we separated into 20 unique functional areas, everything from Talent Acquisition to Procurement to Marketing. What we created was a comprehensive rubric that holds organizations to a high, but achievable, standard. And because it’s a custom web app, it delivers an instant, concrete DEI roadmap. Since many of the questions came from the solutions presented in my book Inclusive 360, I decided to call our tool the Inclusive 360 Assessment.
Originally built to make the consulting work we deliver to our own clients much more impactful, we know that’s just the beginning. DEI consultants who want to save time (and scale) by using this valuable rubric can use it as the foundation for their own client work. For organizations looking for a DIY DEI self-assessment tool, it gives visibility on where they stand today and delivers a roadmap with actionable solutions to their DEI improvement opportunities.
Being fired is humbling, but if you’re a regular reader of 5 Things, you know that I’m committed to my own growth and sharing what I learn along the way, even when it’s hard to admit.
In the spirit of learning and back to school, this week’s 5 Things are books about DEI and leadership. The last three I’ve pre-ordered and can’t wait to get this fall: