When it comes to DEI in your IT/security org, what sort of initiatives have you created to improve the inclusion aspect? How do you make sure all individuals feel empowered to contribute, speak up, etc, regardless of their background?
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CIO7 months ago
We try to generate a way of working where ideas are part of the group, not the individual. We utilize moderation methods to collect feedback and prioritize without relation to individuals and we set goals cross functional. A long way to go but this are just a few I found helpful.Director, Experience Design in Education7 months ago
Hi there, Your question that speaks to psychological safety. For this, we've leveraged The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety to guide our efforts.
The four stages are:
Inclusion Safety - and that just means that you are accepted and welcomed to the team as you are.
Learner Safety - you feel safe to ask questions, learn, experiment, and make mistakes.
Contributor Safety - you feel safe to participate as an active and full-fledged member of the team. This has to do with competency - you are trusted to contribute your skills and have reasonable autonomy. Think about the times when you've heard about or personally experienced the sensations that go with being competent to perform your job, but unable to do so for illegitimate reasons (being disliked by the boss personally, being in a gender minority, etc.).
Challenger Safety - you feel safe to challenge the status quo without retribution, reprisal, or the risk of damaging your personal reputation, etc.
These build on each other. You can't have challenger safety without contributor safety, and so on.
Leader Factor (https:www.leaderfactor.com) has a lot of brilliant resources on this topic, including a list of small actions you can take immediately to address specific types of psychological safety. I've been using them for over a year and the feedback has been very positive.
Good luck!
Angie
Information Security Director in Media6 months ago
It is important to create psychological safe forums where diverse team members can be vulnerable and share ideas, without getting them discounted. I try to create peer-led group interactions without leaders. I also allow members to use different mediums of communication (live 1:1 or 1:m, email, Teams chat/channels etc..) as everyone has different levels of comfort in contributing, so ensuring all types of communication modes are readily available and welcomed for them to use. Finally is to preface your inquiry for input from the group with " given your experience in development how would we approach to solving this..." to again embrace their prior experiences as valuable insight into problem solving/ideation from their perspective.Board Member6 months ago
As a leader, I am accountable to setting the tone for diversity and inclusion which happens through the modeling of inclusive leadership behaviours, commitment to building diverse and inclusive teams and demonstrating authentic support of the DEI strategy. We, as leaders, define acceptable behaviour for individuals and how they will interact as a a team. I prioritize the acknowledgement and celebration of all religious and cultural holidays, LGBTQ events, etc. I commit to monthly 1:1s, quarterly skip levels and encourage employee feedback. I hold monthly brainstorming sessions and invite full participation creating a safe environment for ideation. I schedule quarterly strategy sessions to keep everyone informed of progress and changes. I rotate facilitators of brainstorming and strategy sessions to provide individuals with development opportunities. I demonstrate commitment to feedback by following up on issues, ideas, etc. I deliver consistent praise of all team members on accomplishments and express appreciation for effort. In conclusion, I have built successful teams which are highly diverse where success was accomplished through support and open celebration of their diversity, authentic commitment to their goals and encouragement of their unique contributions.