Giving Compass' Take:

• CEOs and board leaders share seven ways to make considerable changes in diversity and inclusion practices.

• What is your organization doing to take DEI programs seriously in the workplace? In the past, what have been some of the major critiques of DEI initiatives? 

• Understand more about diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

The killing of a yet another unarmed black man by police and the resulting week of protests are reminders of how many nonwhite Americans feel that institutions are stacked against them. And the numbers, unfortunately, bear that out, whether one looks at the disproportionate number of African Americans in prison or the lack of people of color in corporate leadership positions.

But experts on diversity and inclusivity say that while tackling societal changes may be beyond the corporate world’s scope, change inside organizations are not. From his perspective, Andrés Tapia, global diversity and inclusion strategist at Korn Ferry, says it starts with a mindset change at the top, creating inclusive leadership. “It can’t be going through the motions,” he says. “It’s insisting on change.”

Does such change need to take place slowly, however? Here are seven ways expert think leaders at organizations big and small can speed up D&I growth in their firms:

  1. Acknowledge the problem.
  2. Select behaviors you could change or adopt today.
  3. Challenge existing norms.
  4. Diversity without equity and inclusion just doesn’t work.
  5. Embrace—and communicate—that diversity, equity, and inclusion are good for business.
  6. Give ethnically and racially diverse workers P&L responsibilities.
  7. Hold leaders at every level accountable for demonstrating inclusive leadership.
  8. Commit for the long haul.

Read the full article about diversity and inclusion by Andres Tapia, Ayana Parsons, Jean-Marc Laochez, and Alina Polonskaia at Korn Ferry.