Carol A. Watson 

Reflections​

The consulting learning group that I participated in was tasked with working with a successful district office of a national insurance organization. The presenting problem was that there are very few women and people of color who are currently agents in the district office. This is a concern experienced more broadly in the organization overall. The regional office has taken on the challenge of increasing their diversity. The Managing Director of the office is interested in what would make the office to diverse employees more appealing and is interested in getting recommendations on how to increase diversity.

 

The consulting group met with the Managing Director and was debriefed on the business model as well as how they recruited, developed and retained talent. The organizational structure was an entrepreneurial and independent yet supportive and loyal office culture. This dynamic offered a unique challenge to solve for diversity and inclusion goals due to the independent organizational hierarchy and lack of collective incentives and rewards. In solving for his presenting problem the Managing Director was committed to identifying a cross section of 34 participants from all levels and functions in the office who could provide insight and feedback on past experiences, culture and insights on how they might increase diversity.

 

It was decided that the primary dimension to be studied was the office staff. We created an interviewing questionnaire that would provide information on participant’s perceptions of the value of diversity to their business and office, their awareness of any initiatives, any interest in engagement and individual data for talent acquisition and success patterns. The value of the assessment in the process offered a variety of benefits to the client in assessing organizational development needs. Creating a structured yet confidential way to get information and experiences through face-to-face interviews from a cross –section of participants in the office provided a credible and confidential sounding board to not only communicate a priority from the company leadership but also to share divergent perspectives that was best achieved by this assessment process. Identifying the examples of success and the personal ratings as a qualitative measurement allowed for patterns to emerge that were instrumental to the feedback and recommendations. Patterns of values, office cultural norms and expectations helped to structure future communications and styles of engagement that were most effective in future interventions. The assessments, particularly in an interview style, if further action is taken, offered anecdotal elements for increased credibility with the client. The assessment allowed the consultant to also make adjustments and observations of their own intuition and judgments regarding the presenting problem, culture or dynamics present.

 

Further, moving from theory to the specific dynamics of each organization is enforced for a more full discovery of any underlying problems as a result of an assessment to ensure an individualized approach to the consulting engagement.The resulting presentation and recommendations shared the dynamics that lead to the success of the office and specifically to the leaders success. We also presented the elements of the structure that might be getting in the way of reaching the goal of increased diversity, the blind spots. What resonated was the concept presented early in the presentation that the organization is perfectly designed to get the results that they are getting. The sales driven and independently rewarded structure of the organization made it important to tie diversity to individual business success as a reward driver for engagement.

 

We shared an organizational framework of the Star Model and the components that he might consider, which would include the strategy, structure, people, and processes, rewards, which added credibility to the discussion. We helped him visualize the components in the process from initial recruiting and mentoring to perceptions of qualified clients and the rewards and models of success leading to the current agent demographics and missed business opportunities from diverse clients. It presented a full picture of how the organizational design and structure resulted in a lack of diversity and missed revenue for the agents and the office.

 

We were successful in the presentation when tying in the business opportunity for the office and providing a framework for thinking about how the leadership can approach communicating the benefit to the organization. Offering objective feedback on the patterns exhibited from both the younger agents and more senior and successful agents enabled the client to experience how important it will be for him to more aggressively approach the organization holistically for sustainable change starting from the initial recruiting outreach through to long term success. To improve on our approach with this client we might have provided a visual of the framework to reinforce its validity and managed an expectation of more specific recommendations detailed at the conclusion of the presentation.

 

The variety of skills and leadership talents of our consulting group were both a value to the client and project experience and obstacle in the process. The group was challenged in learning to take on and resisting comfortable roles and identities to move the consulting process forward efficiently. The final presentation to the client accessed the best of the group to organically leverage our individual strengths and show a united and collaborative team dynamic to the client and access a variety of points of view of the client problem and objective.

 

The extensive experience that I have in consulting with advertising clients on the business value of diversity and inclusion as well as previous experience leading sales teams and organizations provided a significant comfort in the project in connecting with the challenges and needs of the client. The group relied on my diversity and inclusion expertise for recommendations, perspective and a credible point of view. An ability to look for where he might face or feel resistance and staying present in what his unique experiences might be was a balance that worked to support the consulting project. A multicultural marketing and business driving perspective also helped to tie in the client’s desire to grow business with increased diversity efforts.

 

Extensive experience in interviewing, recruiting and career development also supported the interviewing process in garnering confidence and accessing more information from participants and offered more recommendations and credibility for the client to move forward courageously. The assignment challenged my ability to be open, objective and focused on understanding. The self as instrument was a significant concept component enlisted to ensure that all interviewees as well as the client felt heard and not judged. I was able to tap into a desire for curiosity and discovery adding to my own self-development.

 

The cultural dynamics in the community of the client office was a reflection of the geographic location in this country. The lifestyle and expectations of the agents reflected a culture of very specific values and norms around what is important in work. Those values and norms include: the types of people they would want to work with, what gender is responsible for working and caring for the family, what the lifestyle and qualifying financial perceptions are of other ethnic and racial sub- cultures, and then how these out-group cultures are embraced and excluded from the office culture. As a service organization driven by cultural expectations and lifestyle it was important to honor and build awareness for where those cultural practices surfaced and then, how and what it would take to reframe or provide new information to broaden the agents and leadership perspective. In a different country we would similarly need to dig deeper in an assessment and appreciative inquiry to learn more about the values, traditions, practices and heroes of success of participants. An conscious effort will be required to assess how to effectively make recommendations in a culturally relevant way while checking for our judgments and assumptions of what is most important. Acknowledging and validating perspectives will be important in the subcultures of the US as well as globally.

 

Some reflections on the theory of the unit of work was that creating some consciousness around the process assisted me in learning to pay attention to where on the continium the employees and organizational leader might be in their level of cultural competency and to be open to the client and intuitively speak and listen from that point of view. The reality of starting and completing an assignment with limited time to fully realize the value of the assessment and provide thorough recommendations also encouraged me to practice closing the loop on micro and macro units of work..