Organizational Culture Assessment/Human Centered Design

Race, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Consulting Services Maurissa Stone

Social Entrepreneur Change Strategist Thought Leader

OrganizationaL culturE assessment

Maurissa Stone, Principal Iona Concepts, Inc. DUNS #008149002 Phone: 410.212.5953 maurissa@livewellbemore.com www.livewellbemore.com livewellbemore1 livewellbemore maurissa-stone-bass-592b039

Iona Concepts, Inc. Race, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Consulting Services

Organizational Culture Assessment OCA provides answers to the following questions: • How does a board measure the disconnection between values, purpose, and practice along with organizational culture?

• Where does dysfunctional power dynamics, deficiencies of accountability and transparency show up?

• How much does the board know about the well-being of the employees?

• What are the blind spots of the organization regarding communities of color?

• How are organizational members of color treated with regards to quality of work life, promotions, training and development?

• What are the hiring trends and protocols?

• Do people feel safe discussing issues regarding race and inclusion?

• How does the organization’s espoused values align with operational behavior?

• How does the current operating culture impact the mission of the organization?

An Organizational Culture Assessment (OCA) using a Race, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (REDI) framework provides an opportunity for organizations to hold a mirror up to itself in order to take a critical look at their operational norms regarding how it engages employees, contractors, and customers.

An OCA reflects the organization’s connections to the communities it serves. It provides a data analysis of demographics of employees, board directors, executive directors and others who are overlooked for opportunities to inform the strategic direction to reverse inequitable processes, policies and protocols. An OCA also provides feedback with regards to who gets access to opportunities such as promotions, consulting, professional development, etc.

OCA using a REDI framework An OCA using a REDI framework can be used as a tool to help onboard staff, stakeholders and strengthen relationships with communities of color. Moreover, it’s a flexible tool to help identify, access, eliminate and prevent racial discrimination, inequities and dismantle systematic and institutional racism. An OCA will also help to inform the organization’s strategic planning process to insure the organization’s personnel, stakeholder community are in alignment with the organization’s espoused values versus actual operating norms.

What is the intended and expected outcomes of an OCA? • Provide recommendations to tailor incremental changes/micro shifts to the existing operational infrastructure, practices, and policies?

• Provides the organization with a road map to advance and embed race equity and inclusion into strategic and business planning, hiring practices, retention strategies, training and development.

• Provides an assessment of impact of policies and other actions on racial and ethnic groups and non-bindery organizational members.

• Defines questions that bring together stakeholders to achieve social change.

• Paints a portrait of operational dimensions of racism by identifying and analyzing root causes of racial inequities. OCA also provides stakeholders with a shared language to present data, describe conditions for employees, board members and beneficiaries of services.

OCA Process • Review pre-exist data • Facilitate virtual organizational Talk Back sessions • Design focus group questions based on feedback from organizational “Talk Backs” • Develop Web-based surveys • Conduct one-on-one interviews • Analyze the data • Develop benchmarks for change • Provide report and recommendations

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that can create tension and resistance. Naming practices through storytelling provides a deeper understanding of the collective impact of systemic practices and policies.

To illuminate racism, we need to name it, frame it and explain it.

Employees of color have been taught by practice that it’s better to remain silent than to share how systematic racism operates within their industry and organization.

The Conversation Begins with Race Literacy Building the social intelligence of an organization using a REDI lens is not a new system of reporting or HR policies, but a roadmap to accountability.

Working committees charged with addressing systemic racism must have a threshold for communication discuss the uncomfortable nature of systemic and organizational racism. Race literacy terms such as structural racism can be difficult to interpret without naming practices, policies, and unspoken power dynamics within an organization.

CULTURE IS NOT TAUGHT IT’S CAUGHT. One’s ability to identify and negotiate racism in the workplace is key to sustaining a job. White allies within the organization can learn how to read racial encounters and what messages are transmitted via policies and practices, and protocols.

Race Literacy defines the following terms: • Equity • Racial Justice • Micro Aggressions • Internalized racial oppression • Institutional racism • Structural Racism • Gatekeeping • Power Analysis • White fragility

Organizational culture can be described as the unspoken contract between organizational leaders and organizational members.

Organizations that use hierarchical systems as an operational model are more vulnerable to maintaining power dynamics for particular population subsets, including Black and Brown people, women, LGBTQ individuals, and others who represent outliers of the organization.

Naming does not mean shaming and is the first step to shifting operating norms. Within any predominantly White organization, Black, Brown, and intersectional employees must negotiate and navigate culture and power dynamics. They must also learn to manage the emotional impact of daily microaggressions. These slights result in the accumulation of toxic stress and often work place trauma. In order to build a culture of trust and organizational wellness. Race literacy allows organizational members to share a common language and understanding regarding terms

These power dynamics are typically evidenced by who gets access to promotions, training, favor or non-binding benefits, and social capital in the form of participation in cross-functional committees and decision- making activities that impact the organization. These policies also extend beyond the borders of the organization’s internal operating norms. These attitudes, values and practices often unintentionally reveal the organization’s eco- system and are replicated in deeds and service.

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4. The Culture of Control: This culture values a high degree of structure and control. The operational norms are formal with autocratic leadership, institutional procedures and practices. This culture is steeped in a high degree of organizational oversight and maintaining the status quo.

Many organizations struggle with how to close the gap between its espoused values (“We Stand with the Black Lives Matter Movement”) and their actual operating norms (“This is how we have always done it”). We are witnessing a global transition that impacts how organization assess both their internal and external practices. The internal operational culture of an organization is often both overt and covert. Organizational members are complicit to the unspoken contracts that exist regarding communication and power dynamics.

Group Dynamics When a sum of people become a group, the group behaves as a system. When such an organism takes life, its fundamental task becomes what it must do to survive. The AKRI Tavistock model refers to this phenomenon as survival of the group. It becomes the primary preoccupation and latent motivating force for all group members, on an unconscious plane.

Four types of organizational cultures Organizations can also mirror a hybrid of all the culture types listed: 1. Collaborative Culture: This culture is rooted in shared leadership and mutual respect: The organization defines itself as a learning organization where leaders mentor and prepare members for organizational succession. Teamwork is valued, and task controlled is defined by consensus. This culture communicates using two-way communication norms with a high degree of relationship.

2. The Creative Culture: This culture is based on innovation, energy and creativity.

Organizational members are encouraged to take risks and think outside of the status quo.

Division leaders operate and are supported as intrapreneurs. The organization is held together by the operational ethos of ingenuity and autonomy.

3. The Competitive Culture: This culture is driven by the operating ethos of rugged individualism, competition and performance outcomes. The culture is typically tough and demanding and values profits and market share. The organization values competition over collaboration. The main value drivers are market share and profitability.

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The primary motivating force in any group is what it must do to survive; therefore, the group is always engaged at an unconscious level in the survival task.

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The group has a life of its own only as a consequence of the fantasies and projections of its members.

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The group uses its members in the service of its survival task; therefore, individuals may have limited control of their own experiences and behavior.

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The behavior of any group member at any moment is the expression of his/her own needs, history, and behavior patterns and the needs, history, and behavior patterns of the group.

Whatever an individual in the group is doing or talking about, through him or her, the group is always reflecting itself. In the face of powerful unconscious forces, authority, and leadership, as well as the exercise of personal responsibility, become key dynamics for the group.

Understanding the group processes may provide group members with heightened awareness and

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the ability to make previously unavailable choices about their roles and functioning in a group setting.

Organizational Wellness Builds Strong Teams

Social Enterprise personnel and board members are often passionate about their work and the communities they serve. They also often ignore signs of burnout and disregard unhealthy work practices. Well-being in the workplace is unchartered territory for many organizations.

race. That’s been the biggest test of the season: How compassionate can our leadership be? It’s making us a stronger team.”

Workplace well-being is more than access to gyms, mindfulness practices such as yoga and meditation. It also is addressing the underpinnings of organizational culture norms that create toxic work experiences and community challenges that induce vicarious trauma. Many organizations find it challenging to remove the hypocrisy of working to improve the welfare and dignity outside the organization while ignoring what goes on inside.

In a recent panel hosted by NeighborWorks® America to discuss new commitments for racial equity, Maurice Jones, President and CEO of LISC indicated that the organization have been focusing on the staff. “We’ve had to give our employees that space and permission to cry, the space and permission to have tough conversations about

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