Design and Development of a DEI Audit Tool

BACKGROUND/OPPORTUNITY

LTHJ Global hired data2insight to design and develop a survey tool to help their small-organization clients to quickly identify the best DEI strategies for their teams.

LTHJ Global Founder Lindsey T. H. Jackson wanted a survey tool to use with a membership organization made up of small teams (1-10 people per team). Veronica Smith, data2insight lead executive and equitable scientist, facilitated a virtual survey design session using Mural to map LTHJ Global’s organizational domains to the Multicultural Organizational Identity Continuum (MCOD) framework that data2insight uses for organizational assessment. Then we built and tested a 10-minute survey based on this mapping. 

SOLUTION

A beta version of the organizational culture survey was tested at a national member organization work session.

The result was a beta survey tool which 10+ teams from different organizations completed to identify their primary organizational identity phase, from monocultural (where differences are seen as deficits) to multicultural (where differences are seen as assets). When the teams came together for the nation-wide, virtual session, they received recommendations for taking strategic action to get them from where they were to where they wanted to go. 

OUTCOME

Leaders left the work session energized by the insights they gained from taking the survey and the strategies they learned that would help them take immediate action to advance DEI. 

In breakout sessions, team leaders who were in the same phase, discussed the strategies that had been suggested for them and opportunities and challenges to taking needed action. When they came back together, they talked about ways they could work across organizations to support each other to continue to navigate forward. For example, because the organizations are non-profits, they shared thoughts about how they could work together to identify funding for the needed next steps. Team members appreciated how the survey tool helped them gain a better understanding of their organizational culture through a DEI lens and identify next steps in their team’s DEI journey.

LTHJ Global is now working with data2insight to develop a beta version of the organization assessment tool for small businesses, on their new DEI platform Sojourn.