“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and in commitment to sharing tools to make work better, we wanted to put together some of the small actions your team can take on a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis to advance inclusion and allyship. Our DEI DIY Toolkit is a culmination of just that: discussion prompts, challenges, and assessments that build belonging and create community on your team. We compiled four key actions below that you can implement this week with your team.
Ask a meaningful question at the start of a team meeting to build belonging and understanding.
How often do you jump directly into a meeting’s agenda when joining a call? The pre-meeting small talk that used to take place in conference rooms seems to have disappeared as we attend back-to-back virtual meetings. We begin all of our team regroup meetings with either a question or a prompt to get people warmed up and comfortable in the setting. Here’s one of our favorites that you can try this week: “What is the most memorable lesson you learned from your family?”
From our Level Up Your Team IQ
Invite a colleague or friend for virtual coffee and discuss one card from SHRM’s conversation starters.
After your conversation, reflect on the exercise. What did you learn from the activity? Was it easier or more difficult than you thought it would be? What conversation starter did you choose and what insights did you gain? How can you apply these ideas at work?
From our 30-Day Challenge Deep Dive Discussions
Subscribe to a newsletter or follow a news source that amplifies diverse voices.
Some ideas and resources include Deloitte’s Inclusion, Diversity, and Leadership newsletter, Fortune’s RaceAhead, and For Colored Girls Who Tech. Dedicate time each morning or evening to really dive into these resources, and forward to your teammates when you resonate with the content. If you feel bogged down by emails, subscribe to the Instagram version instead!
From our 30-Day DEI Challenge
Offer ongoing DEI development opportunities.
While this option may be a long-term goal, this week is the perfect time to get started. Host an open dialogue meeting where you discuss an article, book, podcast related to current events. Last week, our team discussed this HBR resource: How to Talk with Your Team About the Violence at the U.S. Capitol.
From our DEI Organizational Assessment
These are just four options from a multitude of activities we highlight in our DEI DIY toolkit. Learn more about the toolkit here, and follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for more inspiration to advance allyship, promote inclusion, and make work better.