Culture & Leadership: The Key to your D&I Success

Strict targets, waterproof processes and elaborate work/life programs – all of these contribute to D&I. However, without a deeper understanding of the corporate and leadership culture, your company will not generate sustainable improvements.

Gone are the days when D&I-focused adaptations of the HR value chain (recruitment, development and retention) allowed companies to drive change, achieve progress and add value. The sophistication of work and life integration has also advanced a lot. However, many still ask: When and how will tangible change and measurable progress occur?

The mental side of D&I: corporate culture, values and unwritten rules

After many years of underestimating the importance of corporate culture, some studies and even more practical examples have created a new paradigm. The corporate culture, and in particular the management culture, are critical for successful changes and necessary to generate benefits from diversity. The reverse is even more obvious: as long as unwritten rules (aka implicit norms or basic assumptions) in your organisation impede the Propelling Performance Principle, neither D&I efforts nor work-life programmes will lead to positive effects.

Nevertheless, many companies do not know the unwritten rules of their corporate culture well enough – for underlying tension is often difficult to notice. The identification of implicit standards is a decisive initial step of your self-reflection and understanding. Our work aims at creating the basis for a healthy and sustainable change as well as occasions for internal dialogues and discussions through intelligent analyses.

Common questions include: How easy and accepted is it to make use of part-time arrangements, home office or sabbaticals or how do final decisions take place at the end of a formalised selection process?

Diversity & Inclusion leads to success in your company only when the corporate culture you live and experience includes a positive recognition of differences.

“Corporate cultures are as persistent as they are sensitive: they don’t change on command.” Michael Stuber

The Practical Side of D&I: Inclusion, Collaboration and Leadership Quality

The daily, concrete implementation and thus the personal experience of D&I require supportive behavioural patterns. When individual talent is actively acknowledged in processes, teams and by managers, your company reaps the benefits of the Propelling Performance Principle. Here, the term ‘inclusion’ stands for effective collaboration, team performance and top leadership quality. With our operationalised approach to D&I, both employees and managers, as well as the company as a whole, benefit from utilising diversity:ENGINEERING D&I.

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