Sharing the Vision for CSIOP’s EDI Standing Committee:Strengthening Relationships and Prioritizing Outcomes
by Aisha S. Taylor, Ph.D.
The purpose of this article is to introduce you to the vision for CSIOP's inaugural Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Standing Committee, which we are in the process of forming. Here, you will read about its background, the purpose of the committee, and our vision for it.
Background
In the Fall of 2021, CSIOP formed the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Working Group. The group's charter was to support CSIOP's commitment to this critical work. The committee had 12 members, including me. We met regularly for a year, taking important steps along the EDI journey. For example, we conducted an organizational assessment often used in strategic planning, called a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis, focused specifically on EDI. As of this writing, members of the EDI Working Group are developing a learning document to share more about the group's process.
One idea that came from the working group is a new role on the CSIOP executive committee, called the EDI Strategic Lead, and this is the position I currently hold. Its role is to act as a liaison between the EDI Standing Committee and CSIOP executive, ensuring communication is happening in two directions: from the committee to the executive team and vice versa. Since it is a newly formed position, the role will adapt as needed in the coming years.
To ensure the work continues in a collaborative way, with multiple viewpoints and perspectives represented, we are forming an EDI Standing Committee and we invite anyone who would like to be a part of it to complete an interest form.
Purpose
The EDI Standing Committee's main goal is to develop intentional and impactful strategies to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion within CSIOP. While the focus is on our professional association, we are confident the committee's work will also positively impact the fields of IO Psychology, Organizational Behaviour, and Human Resource Management.
With the learnings of the EDI Working Group under our belt, we will focus on building and strengthening relationships and prioritizing outcomes that can make a difference in our fields and the occupations and people they serve.
Vision
Three-Legged Stool. One of the metaphors I use to describe the approach often taken with EDI committees, councils, and working groups is the "three-legged stool". The legs represent people, process, and results. I describe each leg of the stool below.
People. In a professional society such as CSIOP, nothing will stick in EDI work if it is not based on trusting relationships. We are volunteers. People will get busy, conversations will get tense, and the work will seem like too much if there is not a solid foundation of care, concern, and friendship (or at least psychologically safe working relationships). For the committee members, this means getting to know each other and forming an inclusive team. This also means reaching out and making connections with members of CSIOP, as well as others interested in EDI in our profession and in psychology more broadly.
In EDI, it's people for people sake. Building relationships is EDI work. Healthy relationships, though, require trust and safety. How do we know if someone has had an equitable experience? How do we know if someone feels truly included for all the uniqueness they bring? How do we know if folks are code switching because they feel a need to assimilate or bend over backwards to make people in majority groups comfortable? All the while, they slowly disengage, quietly quit, or turn tail and run in the other direction. Why would someone talk about these things if they couldn't trust the person asking? Part of EDI's work is getting to know each other and becoming aligned on our vision. Then we can do the hard work of individual, group, and systems change together. That is not easy, and it requires authentic relationships built on foundations of trust.
Process. If the results seem good, but the journey to achieve the outcome is full of unethical and disrespectful actions, it will ultimately not achieve EDI. For an organization to do so, it is necessary to be intentionally inclusive and equitable along the way—the entire way—and to apologize and make amends for mistakes as they are made. As it relates to the EDI Standing Committee, our commitment is to infuse EDI principles into the ways the team works together.
While the committee is currently being formed, we have already begun this work. For example, in the interest of transparency, we are making the committee formation process public and open to all. We are actively soliciting interest from our networks to submit interest forms.
Once the committee is formed, there will be a simultaneous focus on role clarity and shared leadership. For example, a question on the interest form asks whether one would like to be a co-chair of the committee. Operating with a co- chair model will establish collaboration in the leadership of the committee. We also want to share the tasks of running the committee, such as opening and closing meetings, meeting facilitation, and overall information-sharing. We will take steps to ensure members are able to share their unique knowledge, skills, abilities, and other competencies with the committee. At the same time, we will clarify roles and be explicit about who is responsible for what, so we can achieve our goals and share the results of what we have done, come this time next year.
Results. Since George Floyd's murder and the resulting global attention to racial justice, one major change EDI practitioners have noted is a return to focusing on outcomes. In the past few decades, organizations have focused more on well- intended words and EDI interventions that are not evaluated well, if at all. This trend has aligned with the decline of affirmative action in the U.S. and a move away from accountability for leaders regarding their diversity goals. With a return to focusing on results, organizations have been calling for evidence-based, strategic EDI initiatives. While some of this EDI work is being done, the paucity of it is alarming, given the lucrative EDI industry in the U.S. There is a need for well-designed interventions that peer-reviewed research supports, including longitudinal evaluation plans based on rigorously collected qualitative and quantitative data. As we know, this will allow organizational leaders to measure and then demonstrate the results of the EDI interventions, which will in turn enable them to continually refine and re-develop their strategies as needed.
With this in mind, a critical part of the vision for the EDI Standing Committee is to prioritize outcomes, starting with setting high-level goals. Committee members will discuss and select a few priorities based on a SWOT analysis process that builds on the EDI Working Group's assessment of CSIOP. As we decide on priorities, we will also consider what actions we have capacity and interest in doing. The final consideration in setting priorities will be this two-part question: "What will make the most difference and for whom?" The intention is to spark conversation about what we think are the highest-impact actions, and to discuss and decide who is our target audience. Once priorities are set, we will develop Locke and Latham-style goals, including ways to measure progress and define success in achieving them.
Some Logistics. The committee will consist of at least two CSIOP executives (i.e., the Chair and the EDI Strategic Lead), as well as a few members from the past EDI Working Group. CSIOP members and anyone interested in taking action to promote EDI in our fields are invited to submit an interest form. Our goal is to develop an EDI Standing Committee that includes a wide variety of perspectives that 1) mirrors the diversity within the association, and 2) addresses gaps in representation and inclusion for minoritized and racialized groups in CSIOP.
This means we seek representation across as many areas of diversity as possible. I want to highlight one thing here: all identities are needed to do this work. For me, I bring advantaged and disadvantaged or minoritized aspects of my identity to this work, being a cis-gender woman of German-, English- and Irish-American settler descent who is non-disabled and queer/bisexual. If you are interested in this work, but you're worried that your advantaged identities should keep you out of it, please hear this: we need you. We need people of all races to help eradicate racism. We need people of all genders to eviscerate sexism, misogyny, and transphobia. We need straight people to end heterosexism and stop the epidemic of violence against transgender and gender nonconforming people. We need non-disabled people to listen to and partner with people who are living with disabilities to wipe out able-ism and make our workplaces and institutions of higher learning more accessible. Please do not let any part of your identity stop you from doing EDI work. We need each other to develop the best, most innovative solutions to end oppression and build diverse environments that embody equity and inclusion.
In this article, I have laid out the over-arching vision for the EDI Standing Committee. I hope this compels you in some way to get more involved in the complex and ever-evolving field of EDI. If this participation includes CSIOP's newest committee, please let us know by completing the interest form here. In whatever ways your involvement in EDI bears fruit, I hope we cross paths, and I wish you strength, perseverance, and fun along the way!
About Aisha Taylor, Ph.D.
Aisha Taylor, Ph.D., is a professional consultant, coach, strategic advisor, educator, and facilitator. With over 20 years' experience, Aisha has become a respected thought leader in workplace equity, diversity, inclusion (EDI), and leadership. Since 2003, Dr. Taylor has worked with leaders in educational institutions, corporations, non-profits, and government agencies across North America. Her main areas of practice are guiding strategic, inclusive culture change at work, delivering leadership and EDI training programs, and building EDI Councils.
With a Ph.D. in I-O Psychology, she has taught university courses and published her work in academic and practitioner settings. In every engagement, Aisha builds trusting partnerships with her clients, a few of which have included the University of Calgary, California State University at Northridge, the Kinkaid School, Toyota, Honda, Seattle Aquarium, Center for Community Solutions, Carpenters International Training Center, and New York City Dept. of Buildings. She lives in Calgary with her spouse and two children, where they enjoy Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, living room dance parties, and building community.
