There is a truism: the quality of the questions you ask determines the quality of the answers you get.
There is a great quote from the absurdist playwright Eugene Ionesco:
“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.”
Full Colour is delivering a nine-month inclusive leadership development programme for a “household name” non-profit. One of the biggest benefits leaders on our programme report is that they now have the practical tools to identify questions that will unlock their progress on EDI.
These leaders are beginning to get under the skin of equity, diversity and inclusion issues, uncover what’s really playing out in their organisation and identify solutions that simply would not have occurred to them before.
Not sure what good questions are? Here are some examples to get you started?
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What would inclusion feel like for the least powerful people in our organisation?
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Beyond the moral case, why does EDI matter to our mission and goals?
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Do our leaders have the right competencies and expertise to drive meaningful change on EDI?
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Do our leaders and managers understand and use specific techniques to ensure they manage their teams inclusively?
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What is getting in the way of us moving more quickly on EDI? (If we don’t know, how can we find out?)
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What assumptions are we making on EDI? (NOTE: some of these might be unconscious assumptions, so how can you shine a light on them?)
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How does power really work in our organisation, beyond hierarchy?
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Who has power in our organisation and how do they use it? (NOTE: They may not be who you think they are…)
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What do we know about the experiences of minoritized people in our organisation?
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Do minoritized people trust us enough to report issues and incidents like microaggressions?
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What impact has the actions we have taken in the past had? What actually changed?
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What kinds of systemic bias are built into how we work? If we don’t know, how can we find out?
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How can we uncover covert bias that might be affecting minoritized people in our organisation? (Covert biases are consciously held beliefs that are not openly declared, but which affect how a person with these biases thinks, behaves, makes decisions etc.)
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How much technical expertise do we have on EDI? No really…?
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What are we prepared to deprioritise to make EDI a genuine priority, rather than a “side of desk” activity?
If you found this Full Colour Friday edition helpful, feel free to share. If you want to find out how Full Colour can support your leaders to drive progress on EDI, we’d love to hear from you at [email protected].