Weaving Diversity Into the Fabric of Business Is Everyone’s Job…Starting With L&D

Andrea Lipton
by Andrea Lipton | July 9, 2020
Andrea Lipton
Learning and development professionals walking and talking
The first corporate diversity and inclusion (D&I) programs began in the late 1970s 
and early 1980s. More than 40 years later, most organizations continue to treat 
D&I as an initiative separate from our core human resources, talent, and learning
 & development functions. Now, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and killing of 
George Floyd, discussions of diversity and inclusion have moved from the fringe
 into mainstream conversations—not just in business but on the front page of
 newspapers and at the top of social media feeds across the globe.
Whether your organization has been working on these issues for decades or is
 confronting them for the first time, the moment to take action is now and the 
opportunity is clear—make diversity and inclusion a central tenet of how we do 
business. And the people at the heart of this effort are L&D professionals.
At Harvard Business Publishing, we recognize like many of you that our 
organization is not yet a place where every employee experiences the same deep
 sense of belonging, nor do they feel they have the ability to bring their whole
 selves to work. Until that is the case, there is work to be done. And as we do 
our own work internally, we are excited to be on this journey with you and share 
our insights into how we can all weave diversity and inclusion into the fabric of 
our businesses, starting with how we train and develop our employees—
especially our leaders.
Our new microsite features diversity and inclusion resources, including regular 
blogs in three areas we see as critical to making meaningful change:
    1. Creating Inclusive Talent Strategies
    2. Designing and Delivering for Inclusion
    3. Enabling L&D to Support D&I Efforts
Creating Inclusive Talent Strategies 
If we are going to create truly inclusive organizations, all of our talent-related 
efforts must be aligned and designed to recruit, hire, develop, retain, and promote
 diverse employees. Understanding how to integrate our D&I efforts into every 
aspect of our talent strategy is required.
As a starting point, ask yourself:
  • How inclusive are our hiring practices? Where do we seek candidates? 
  • How do we vet them? Are these practices helping or hurting our D&I efforts?
  • How inclusive is our leadership development training? Do we treat every leader
 the same, or do we tailor programs to address the unique needs of leaders from
 
  underrepresented and underserved groups?
  • What about our high-potential programs? Do our selection criteria take into 
consideration the impact of code-switching and other costs diverse employees 

face that may take away from their ability to qualify for our hi-po programs?

  • How diverse and inclusive is our L&D team and how does this impact the 
   solutions we provide?

Designing and Delivering for Inclusion

As L&D professionals, understanding the D&I landscape inside and outside 
of our organizations and creating talent strategies to support diversity and 
inclusion is not enough. If we do not actually design, develop, and deliver
 programs that create a supportive learning environment for everyone, we will 
come up short of our goals.
At Harvard Business Publishing we are committed to delivering inclusive and
 safe learning experiences for our clients and our employees, and we will 
continue sharing the tools we develop so you can do the same for your 
employees. Together, we can create a future of work that celebrates diversity, 
welcomes differences, and includes everyone.
Enabling L&D to Support D&I EffortsL&D is at the frontline of the diversity and inclusion movement. 
Whether we are being asked to train employees on D&I or develop programs 
to support the growth of historically underserved employee populations, 
our organizations and our leaders need us to take action. To be successful, 
L&D professionals need to develop a baseline understanding of the key
 D&I issues and how they live in our organizations.
As a starting point, ask yourself:
  • What do I know about diversity and inclusion—in general and at my organization?
  • Do I understand the key terms and concepts surrounding D&I, so I can speak knowledgeably about this topic?
  • How inclusive is my organization today?
  • What is our past track record on issues of diversity and inclusion? How might this impact our efforts moving forward?
  • Whose buy-in do I need to move the needle forward on our D&I efforts?
What is the biggest issue your organization is looking to solve in regards to diversity and inclusion?
Andrea Lipton is senior learning solutions manager at Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning. Email her at andrea.lipton@harvardbusiness.org.