Getting Leadership to Get it Practical Approaches to Gaining Leadership Buy-in. Elaine P. Ho, Deputy Chief of Staff, Internal Revenue Service

Transcription

1 Getting Leadership to Get it Practical Approaches to Gaining Leadership Buy-in. Elaine P. Ho, Deputy Chief of Staff, Internal Revenue Service

2 Setting the tone for our conversation. Let s keep it real.

3 A note about Best Practices Consider: Allow employee resources groups direct and regular access to senior leadership Conduct mandatory diversity training Quantify the ROI of your diversity recruiting events/sponsorships Do these work for you? How easy are these to implement? 3

4 Your turn 1. What s a best practice you ve heard to getting senior leadership buyin? 2. Share it with your group. 3. Does it work for you? Why or why not?

5 Best Practice for Buy-In CULTURE It really depends on your culture!

6 Let s think for a moment Compare/Contrast govt with private sector How they: Measure success Recruit talent Receive/Manage Budget 6

7 Practical Approaches - Overview Tip # 1 Tip # 2 Tip #3 It s all about THEM: How well do you know your leaders? It s all about YOU: What tools do you need to add to your toolbox? Putting it together: Helping Them Help You 7

8 Tip #1: It s all about THEM. How well do you know your senior leader(s)?

9 Tip #1: It s all about THEM. How well do you know your senior leader(s)? Exercise: Stand up! Picture a senior leader in your organization.

10 An Exercise: Stand up! Remain standing if you know: How long they have been with the organization? All the functions he/she is responsible for? How high of a priority are those functions in the organization? The demographics of their customers? Their top 5 strategic initiatives? What is their budget? How it is allocated? How are they measured? (What are their metrics?)

11 An Exercise: Stand up! Remain standing if you know: Where did they come from prior to coming to your agency? How many people do they supervise overall? Direct reports? What are their personal interests? What is their appetite for change? For risk? How do they value leadership competencies vs technical competencies What do their employees say about them?

12 Tip #1: It s all about THEM. How well do you know your senior leader(s)? ANY OTHER FACTS WE SHOULD KNOW?

13 Tip #1: It s all about THEM. By the way, they are going to expect (or assume) you know most of this!

14 Tip #1: It s all about THEM. How you can find out: Arrange to talk to them. Should that be the first thing you do? Get briefings from others ask the right questions. Be an investigator and snoop around. (Google searches, intranet) Learn the fundamentals about the business (customers, processes, priorities), how budgets work, etc.

15 Take a minute Write down 2-3 things that you ll commit to learning more about your senior leader(s) that will help you to influence him/her.

16 Tip #2: It s all about YOU What tools do you need to add to your tool box?

17 Think about your senior leader and who they surround themselves with. Share at your table what qualities they have (or should) have?

18 What functions do you feel your senior leaders value more than diversity and inclusion? Why? D&I??

19 May be some tough questions. Self-reflection is a humbling process. It s essential to find out why you think, say, and do certain things then better yourself. - Anonymous

20 Tip#2: It s all about you. First Second Third Be Strategic and Visionary Master Change Management Demonstrate Business Acumen Fourth Be Well-Versed with Data Think beyond D&I! 20

21 Tip #2: It s all about YOU BE VISIONARY AND STRATEGIC

22 In other words: KNOW WHERE YOU RE GOING AND HOW YOU RE GOING TO GET THERE!

23 Learn it hone it Being strategic means consistently focusing on those core directional choices that will best move you toward your hoped-for future. - Erika Andersen

24 Learn it hone it FIVE STEPS Get clear about the problem you re trying to solve. Figure out where you re starting from Imagine and describe your ultimate goal. Paint the picture! Outline your path there Reevaluate your strategy and tactics as conditions change

25 Tip #2: It s all about YOU MASTER CHANGE MANAGEMENT

26 Your role: Change Agent Create positive, meaningful, and lasting change within an organization

27 WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO CHANGE?

28 28 Source: Coffman Organization Culture Eats Strategy For Lunch

29 How do you change a culture?

30 Culture Change The three essential components of organizational culture experiences, beliefs, and actions work in harmony to achieve results. Roger Conners and Tom Smith Change the Culture, Change the Game 30

31 A structured approach to culture change. Results Actions Beliefs Experiences Results Actions Beliefs Experiences Results Actions Beliefs Experiences Step 1: Deconstruct Culture 1 Step 2 Reconstruct/ Create Culture 2 Step 3: Sustain Culture 2 31

32 Tip #2: It s all about YOU SHOW YOUR BUSINESS ACUMEN

33 Vadian Liberman Do Companies Truly Value Their Diversity Directors? From being compliance-driven and tactical at its inception, diversity has grown into a business-driven strategic function......without a clear job profile, many companies become disillusioned with those they hire to manage diversity...thus, the whole discipline is affected when a D&I leader fails in the role.

34 Strike the Right Balance As practitioners, we have to learn the business, understand the business, speak in the language of the business, and focus our activities and efforts in ways that drive the business. But we must, at the same time, not forget that what occurs in the society...comes to work with everyone too. - Howard Ross, Reinventing Diversity

35 A Self-Assessment EEO Compliance Good Faith Effort to Address Low Participation Appreciating Differences Creating an Inclusive Culture D&I as a Competitive Advantage The competencies of the practitioner must evolve with the organization! Where are you? Adopted from Conference Board Diversity Studies

36 Take a minute Write down: what aspect of the business, mission, strategy or your customers can you learn more about?

37 Tip #2: It s all about YOU BE WELL-VERSED WITH DATA

38 an-introduction-to-datadriven-decisions-formanagers-who-dont-likemath Why care about data? Because your leader does.

39 In other words ARE YOU ABLE TO TALK FLUENTLY ABOUT YOUR NUMBERS AND WHAT THEY MEAN?

40 Do you know your numbers? Recruitment Selection Promotion Overall Retention By Race/Ethnicity/Gender By Disability By Age/Retirement Eligibility By Veteran Status By Grade Level By Occupation By Location

41 What insights do they give you and your leadership about Overall workforce planning? Knowledge transfer/ management? Leadership succession? Customer Delivery/ Service?

42 Key Points to Remember 1. Always ask the so what question. Why should your leader care? 1/2/2015 Tallying Female Workers Isn't Enough to Make Tech More Diverse - Technology - The Atlantic Tallying Female Workers Isn't Enough to Make Tech More Diverse By Adrienne LaFrance SUBSCRIBE RENEW GIVE A GIFT DIGITAL EDITION Print Close It has become a grand gesture in tech this summer for big companies to release demographic data about their workforces. 2. Learn how to best graphically represent your data. It started back in May, when Google blogged about its lack of diversity, saying, "We ve always been reluctant to publish numbers about the diversity of our workforce at Google. We now realize we were wrong, and that it s time to be candid about the issues." (In recent years, tech companies have fought to keep private the makeup of their workforces, calling such data a trade secret.) Google's workforce, it said, is made up of 70 percent men and 30 percent women. Ninety-one percent of employees are white or Asian. 1/8 Google

43 Think Beyond D&I. First Second Third Be Strategic and Visionary Master Change Management Demonstrate Business Acumen Fourth Be Well-Versed with Data Think like a leader! 43

44 Tip #3: Help Them Help You! Putting it all together

45 We know D&I is tough work. But how can we make it easy for our leaders?

46 D&I isn t easy to talk about. Why?

47 D&I isn t easy to talk about Political Correctness Not for White Males Less Qualified Code for Race/ Gender Training/ Events Feel Good policy

48 It leaves leaders Political Correctness Code for Race/ Gender Not for White Uncomfortable Males Training/ Not wanting to offend Events Less Qualified Not relevant to their every day Feel Good policy

49 It s our job to change that association, by our choice of words!

50 We can teach leaders to talk about D&I in terms of: Greater Engagement Best talent from everywhere Personal experiences and unconscious bias Creativity and Innovation Better business outcomes All differences

51 This allows leaders to be: Greater Creativity and Innovation Engagement Best talent from Positive Better business everywhere Inclusive outcomes Personal Connected to the business experiences All differences

52 Suggestion: 1. Be a model. Talk the talk! 2. Give him/her talking points.

53 Tip#3: Help them help you. FORMULATE THE BUSINESS CASE THAT S RIGHT FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION

54 Forbes asked 341 Senior Executives responsible for D&I Initiatives: Q. What are your top barriers to continuing development of your D&I Strategies? A. One of the top four reasons: Leaders failure to perceive the connection between diversity and business drivers. Source: Forbes Insights: Fostering Innovation Through a Diverse Workforce, July Figure 16

55 To develop your business case: To be successful in persuading your organization to undertake an inclusiveness initiative, you will have to find just the right why. You may need to use different reasons for different people in the organization. Some people will only invest in an inclusiveness initiative if they know what s in it for them. It would be too easy to think that the moral and ethical reasons work in all cases; we know they won t. You may need more than one business case! Source: CLI s 2012 Inclusiveness Manual. A great resource to pick and choose your business case!

56 What is Deliotte s business case for diversity?

57 Developing the Business Case at IRS WHAT Our are my WORKFORCE key resources? WHY are Our we MISSION in business? THE CUSTOMER WHO is my marketshare? (THE TAXPAYER) How does D&I IRS help me BUSINESS maximize the CASE results?

58 Our current state: Scope of our mission + workload Resources

59 At IRS, Diversity is Critical to Our Mission: Our Workforce

60 At IRS, Diversity is Critical to Our Workforce:

61 At IRS, Diversity is Critical to Our Customer: Our Workforce

62 An Example: Taxpayer Advocate Service 2011 Report to Congress

63 Practical Question: Where does your leadership show the most interest and excitement around D&I? Mission (innovation) Workplace Customer

64 Practical Step: Translate the business case to all levels YOU

65 BUT DIFFERENT LEADERSHIP DIFFERENT BUSINESS CASE

66 Source: Maybe This One?

67 Or this one?

68 Key Takeaway:

69 We ve covered a lot! Tip # 1 Tip # 2 Tip #3 It s all about THEM: How well do you know your leaders? stand up exercise What we will commit to learn when we return to the office? It s all about YOU: What tools do you need to add to your toolbox? Be strategic and visionary Master Change Management Demonstrate Business Acumen Be Well-Versed in Data Putting it together: Helping Them Help You Making it easy for leaders (word choice, talking points) Creating the right business case! 69

70 Any last questions? Please contact me! Elaine Ho Deputy Chief of Staff IRS