Anticipate Inclusion:

Building a Sustainable Culture of Diversity

Presented by:
Karl J. Ahlrichs, SPHR
Business Learning Institute

888-481-3500
http://www.blionline.org
 INSTRUCTOR
BIOGRAPHY

Karl Ahlrichs, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

Karl J. Ahlrichs, SPHR, is a consultant to organizations on Human Capital, LEAN

Theory and Risk Management, working at the Indianapolis firm of Gregory &
Appel. He is a “thought leader” on Human Capital, and frequently presents to
national audiences, and has been invited to speak at 17 consecutive SHRM
Annual Meetings. He is certified by NAHU in the Affordable Care Act, and has
the Senior Professional, Human Resources accreditation.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this course participants will be able to:

 Define a modern implementation of Diversity and Inclusion

 Recognize the impact of generational issues on Diversity
 Define organization's culture
 Identify the performance benefits of managing a competitive advantage
 Recognize the ethical underpinnings of Diversity and Inclusion
 Anticipating Inclusion
Building a
Sustainable Culture of
Diversity and Inclusion

Karl Ahlrichs, SPHR,

SHRM-SCP

120
6 Second Attention seconds
Spans
30 Seconds
5 seconds

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Perfect Storm
Economy Gen Wi-Fi

Diversity

LinkedIn
Ethics

Today’s issues:
Diversity
High Performance
Ethics

2
What Is Diversity &
Inclusion?
What does it mean
to you?

To your organization?

Life Without Diversity

Close your eyes and imagine that everyone
in the room is the same.
Exactly the same!
Same hair, eye color, height, weight,
gender, race, language. Everyone dresses
the same and sounds the same.

Now open your eyes, look to your left and

your
right. What do you see?

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 Types of Diversity
Capabilities
Disabilities Age

Socioeconomic Gender
background

Sexual
orientation Race

Religion
Ethnicity

Most diverse generation.

Ever.

Pew Research 2015

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 Most Indifferent?

Boomers

5
 Most Important?

Gen X

Most Talked About?

Millennials

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The Formula:

Happiness =
Reality - Expectation

Reality
Happy!
Success

Boomer
Expectations
Years

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 Not
Reality Happy!
Success

Millennial
Expectations
Years

What Is Diversity &

Inclusion?
To Merriam-Webster?
DIVERSITY: makeup of the individuals in an
organization - it is all the unique backgrounds,
perspectives, beliefs and experience of people that
may be shaped by the individuals’ race, gender,
geographic location, creed, ethnic background,
language, sexual orientation, abilities,
religion, and many other factors.

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 What Is Diversity &
Inclusion?
To Merriam-Webster?
INCLUSION: how an organization embraces the
unique backgrounds, perspectives, beliefs, and
experience of the people , and how an organization
creates an environment where people can bring
their full selves to work and are valued for the
things that make them unique.

Diversity Makes Business

Sense

• Diverse employees provide new, different points of

view.
• Still, some employees may be treated unfairly.
• Biases: systematic tendencies to use information in
ways that result in inaccurate perceptions.
• People often view those like themselves positively and
have biases about others.
• Stereotypes: inaccurate beliefs about a given group.

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D&I Studies
• National Urban League: Diverse companies
generated 18% higher productivity than the US
economy overall
• American Sociological Review: Companies
reporting the highest levels of racial diversity
brought in nearly 15x more sales on average
than those with the lowest levels of racial
diversity. Racial diversity was among the most
important predictors of a company’s
competitive positioning relative to other firms in
the industry.

D&I Studies
• Gallup Survey: Employee engagement is a
validated predictor of organizational
performance; diverse workplaces with culturally
competent workforces have the highest
employee engagement.
• Sirota Survey: Key motivators for employees
are equity, achievement, and camaraderie.
• Conclusion: Empirical data show a
quantifiable link between diversity and
employee engagement and performance
outcomes.

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D&I ROI

Produce Produce Produce

-20% 60% 60%

Poor Average Superior

Producers Producers Producers

68%

Bottom 16% Top 16%

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Forming a Team
There are three important
characteristics of teams: size,
diversity and interdependence.
Teams diverse in skill sets and
knowledge levels, as well as ethnicity
and culture, perform better than those
with identical skills sets.
Diversity actually decreases team
conflicts and enhances creativity.

Diversity In Action

“For beliefs to change, people’s

experiences have to change
first.”
-Harvard Business Review

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 Definition of Culture

• Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of

knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes
and religion by a group of people generally
without thinking about them.

Philosophy
Consider cultural competence a priority. Culture is
dynamic, therefore cultural competence must be
an on-going process.

Cultural competence is the effective use of social

and interpersonal knowledge and skills that
demonstrates understanding and appreciation of
individual and group differences and similarities.

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Cultural Diversity in the Workplace

Cultural diversity in the workplace provides

strength. It also challenges individuals to respond
to their diverse work environment effectively.

“Valuing” individual and group cultural differences

is critical to achieving the organizational goals.

Cultural Awareness
Know your own cultural background.
Recognize your own stereotypes and
biases.
Gain knowledge of cultural history and
heritage.
Be aware of other’s perceptions.
Recognize effects of -ism on the
others.

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 Managing Diverse Workforces
• The workforce has become much more diverse
during the last 30 years.
• Diversity refers to differences among people such as
age, gender, race, religion.
• Diversity is an ethical and social responsibility issue.
• Managers need to give all workers equal
opportunities.
• Not following this is against the law and unethical.
• When all have equal opportunity, the organization
benefits.

Manage Diversity
• Distributive Justice: dictates members be treated
fairly concerning pay raises, promotions, office
space and similar issues.
• These rewards should be assigned based on merit and
performance.
• A legal requirement that is becoming more prevalent in
American business.
• Procedural Justice: Managers should use fair
practices to determine how to distribute outcomes
to members.
• This involves how managers appraise worker
performance or decide who to layoff.

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 How to Manage Diversity
• Increase diversity awareness: managers need to
become aware of their own bias.
• Understand cultural differences and their impact
on working styles.
• Practice effective communication with diverse
groups.
• Be sure top management is committed to
diversity.

Avoiding Harassment
• Develop and communicate a harassment policy.
• Point out that fostering a hostile work environment is
unacceptable.
• Set up a fair complaint system to investigate
allegations.
• If there are problems, correct them at once.
• Provide harassment avoidance training to
employees and managers.

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Bias Pitfalls to Avoid
The Halo Effect: Allowing one good aspect of a
person’s character or performance to influence the
entire evaluation.
The Horns Effect: Allowing one negative aspect of
a person’s character or performance to influence
the entire evaluation.
Partial Rating: Basing the rating on the most
recent period of time, not the total evaluation
period.
Similar to me: Evaluating more favorably those
who are similar to the rater
Favoritism: Evaluating friends higher than other
employees.

Bias Pitfalls to Avoid

Guilt by Association: Basing rating on the
coworkers they associate with
Attractiveness effect: Assuming people who are
physically attractive are also superior performers
Central Tendency: Rating people in the middle of
the scale when their performance warrants a
substantially higher or lower rating
Negative and Positive Skew: The opposite of
Central Tendency – both higher and lower.
First Impression Error Allowing a first impression to
distort later information

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Teaching Tolerance

Tolerance is
defined as
“recognition of and
respect for the
opinions, practices
or behavior of
others.”

Remember . . .

People long
to be celebrated,
not tolerated!

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 Why Should we Pay
Attention?
Engage in productive activities
Recognize & appreciate
Environment of trust, respect, &
tolerance
Talent shortage
Ability to relate to our customers
better
Affects the bottom line

Cultural Diversity Activities

• Multicultural Calendars (cultural information

divided by the month, holiday and country)
• Readings
• Quizzes
• Fact sheets
• Other tools that foster dialogue and questions
within the organization

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Do Your Homework

Learn about other cultures.

Know respectful behavior.
Identify a cultural guide.
Gain entry into the community.

Diversity In Action

Examine practices that were thought

to be gender neutral that may create
bias.
Voluntary diversity training
Self-Managed teams
Cross-training
College recruitment targeting
minorities
Mentoring

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What Is A Diversity Taskforce
And How Can They Help?

• Ambassadors
Internally: Engaging staff to help new hires
feel welcome and adapt to organizational
culture / mentoring programs / encourage
network groups or affinity groups / promote
social accountability
Externally: Share experiences / ideas/
networking, etc.
Ideas/Suggestion council for creating a
diversity model – not a voting committee

Ethics and Diversity

• Societal Ethics: standards that members of
society use when dealing with each other.
• Based on values and standards found in society’s
legal rules, norm, and mores.
• Codified in the form of law and society customs.
• Norms dictate how people should behave.
• Societal ethics vary based on a given society.
• Strong beliefs in one country may differ elsewhere.
• Example: bribes are an accepted business practice in
some countries.

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 Ethics and Diversity
• Professional ethics: values and standards used by
groups of managers in the workplace.
• Applied when decisions are not clear-cut ethically.
• Example: physicians and lawyers have professional
associations that enforce these.
• Individual ethics: values of an individual resulting
from their family& upbringing.
• If behavior is not illegal, people will often disagree on if
it is ethical.
• Ethics of top managers set the tone for firms.

Why Behave Ethically?

• Managers should behave ethically to avoid
harming others.
• Managers are responsible for protecting and nurturing
resources in their charge.
• Unethical managers run the risk of loss of
reputation.
• This is a valuable asset to any manager
• Reputation is critical to long term management
success.
• All stakeholders are judged by reputation.

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Social Responsibility
• Social Responsibility: the manager’s duty to
nurture, protect and enhance the welfare of
stakeholders.
There are many ways managers respond to this
duty:
• Obstructionist response: managers choose not
to be socially responsible.
• Managers behave illegally and unethically.
• They hide and coverup problems.

Social Responsibility
• Social Responsibility: the manager’s duty to
nurture, protect and enhance the welfare of
stakeholders.
There are many ways managers respond to this
duty:
• Defensive response: managers stay within the
law but make no attempt to exercise additional
social responsibility.
• Put shareholder interest above all other stakeholders.
• Managers say society should make laws if change is
needed

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 Social Responsibility
• Social Responsibility: the manager’s duty to
nurture, protect and enhance the welfare of
stakeholders.
There are many ways managers respond to this
duty:
• Accommodative response: managers realize the
need for social responsibility.
• Try to balance the interests of all stakeholders.
• Proactive response: managers actively embrace
social responsibility.
• Go out of their way to learn about and help
stakeholders.

Why be Responsible?
• Managers accrue benefits by being responsible.
• Workers and society benefit.
• Quality of life in society will improve.
• It is the right thing to do.
• Whistleblowers: a person reporting illegal or
unethical acts.
• Whistleblowers now protected by law in most cases.
• Social audit: managers specifically take ethics and
business into account when making decisions.

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 Promoting Ethics
• There is evidence showing that ethical
managers benefit over the long run.
• Ethical Control System: a formal system to
encourage ethical management.
• Firms appoint an ethics ombudsman to monitor
practices.
• Ombudsman communicates standards to all
employees.
• Ethical culture: firms increasingly seek to make
good ethics part of the norm and organizational
culture.

Ethics - A branch of philosophy

The study of reflective choice
(decision problems),

of the standards of right and wrong

(moral principles)

and of the good or bad

(consequences)
toward which it may ultimately be directed.

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What is ethics, anyway?
An ethical problem occurs when
you must make a choice among
alternative actions and the right
choice is not absolutely clear.

Often that choice affects the well-

being of other persons.

Layers of Ethics

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Without trust,
fair dealings,
and honest communication
business would grind to a
halt

When evaluating one’s goals

and objectives, a vital
question must be asked: What
is your highest aspiration?
A. Wealth
B. Fame
C. Knowledge
D. Popularity
E. Integrity

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 If INTEGRITY
is second
to any of the alternatives,
then it is subject to sacrifice in
situations where a choice must
be made.
Such situations will inevitably
occur in every person’s life.

U.S. Air Force Academy Honor Code:

1. We will not lie, steal or cheat,

2. Nor tolerate among us
anyone who does."
What do you think is the harder part?
a. Line 1
b. Line 2

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Teddy Roosevelt said, “To
educate a person in mind
and not in morals is to
educate a menace to
society.”

Philosophical Principles
Imperative Principle:
Do what is right.
Act according to absolute moral rules.
(e.g. lying is wrong).

Ethics is a function of moral rules and

principles and does not involve a situation-
specific calculation of consequences.

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Philosophical Principles
Utilitarian Principle:
Do what produces the greatest good.

Philosophical Principles
Generalization Argument:
This is a combination of the imperative
principle and the utilitarian principle.

Make the decision by considering the

consequences if everyone made the
same choice under similar
circumstances.

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Steps in Ethical Decision-Making
1. Define all the facts and circumstances: e.g.
Who, what, where, when, and how?
2. Identify the people affected by the situation;
What are the stakeholders rights and
obligations?
3. Identify the alternative decisions and
consequences.
4. Make the decision.

The formula
Performance = ability * motivation

If you get the culture of inclusion right,

you will have a sustainable organization.

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Start with Your Own
Awareness
Know your own cultural background.
Recognize your own stereotypes and
biases.
Gain knowledge of cultural history and
heritage.
Be aware of other’s perceptions.
Recognize effects of -ism on the
others.
Then, you can turn Inclusion into a
t t i t f t i bilit

Suggested Next Steps

Communicate your “why” firm wide
Create a diversity model with
vision/mission
Recruit & retain with diversity in mind
Create affinity or resource groups

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 In closing…
High Performers want a high performing
culture

Manage for values alignment

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The Perfect Storm is a Perfect
Opportunity.

Karl Ahlrichs
317-250-9081
karl@expertspeaks.com

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