Team Effectiveness Touchpoints are a curated series of brief, actionable tips designed to embed inclusion and connection into how your team communicates, collaborates, and makes decisions. Each Touchpoint encourages team members to co-create a space where everyone feels heard, respected, and empowered to contribute. Delivered in bite-sized moments, Each Touchpoint offers a simple, practical way to build team effectiveness — one conversation, decision, or action at a time.

While it is important to set clear expectations for employees, when done with care and intention your handbook also provides a great opportunity to actively shape culture and foster belonging. Your handbook can be something much more meaningful: it can reflect who you are, what you believe, and how you work together and support each other.

The growing attention placed on misguided claims against DEI poses a threat to hard-won progress and may even lead to a reversal in the strides that have been made toward more equitable workplaces. Those of us committed to this work need to stay steadfast in our mission. Below are some tips for navigating uncertainty with clear, actionable strategies to sustain commitment to DEI.

Ageism is a type of discrimination based on age and can affect everyone both young and old. If organizations fail to address ageism in the workplace it can have a negative impact at the individual and systemic level. Here are some things you can do to spot and stop ageism in your own workplace.

Bias throughout the hiring process can impede our ability to choose the best candidate for the job and even worse can lead to disparity and discrimination in our workplaces. There are some simple steps you can take to help eliminate the impact biases can have in your hiring process.

Belonging is being accepted for all of who we are – no need to hide or change. But that sense of community can be harder to find for employees who are not part of the dominant social group or do not easily conform to organizational norms. ERGs can be instrumental in providing that community and fostering belonging.

Respect is a prerequisite for a healthy, inclusive and professional workplace where all employees feel appreciated, valued and safe. We can help create a culture of respect by thinking inclusively with our heads, supporting respect and inclusion with our hearts, and acting respectfully with our hands.

Creating an environment where ERG leaders are empowered to make decisions and lead confidently requires the active, empathetic and engaged support of the Executive Sponsor. Here are some tips for empowering ERG leaders.

Microinequities are those small, commonplace things we do or say that make people feel less-than, uncomfortable or hurt.  Because the impact of each act on its own appears minor, microinequities often go unnoticed by everyone except the target – and therefore can be difficult to address. As the name suggests, microinequities may seem small; but compounded over time, they can have a profound impact on the target’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being.  Here are some tips for addressing microinequities.

Bias is a very real part of life and every corporate culture and significant research shows a connection between our biases and our actions and decisions. However, we can take some steps to recognize our biases and limit the impact on our decision-making process.

Joining and actively engaging in a company-sponsored Employee Resource Group can be a great development tool and career enhancer. Most Employee Resource Groups have specific goals in place to provide development opportunities to their members. Here are some tips and strategies you can use in order to make the most of your ERG membership.

Intersectionality addresses the complexity of being an individual by recognizing that everyone has multiple aspects to our identity. “Intersectional Equity” is a term that was originally coined in 1989 by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw. The theory behind intersectionality is that we cannot approach DEI with a singular lens because every individual encompasses many components of identity and cannot be reduced to just one-dimensional aspect.

It’s common practice for employees to reflect organizational norms and values to fit in and move ahead. But when employees whose backgrounds, values and perspectives differ from those of the dominant employee groups, this can be particularly challenging and stressful – and authenticity often comes at a price. If the upside of authenticity is a greater sense of overall wellbeing, then how do we manage the downside? Here are some tips to pursue authenticity at work.

Measuring the impact of DEI and progress towards your goals is a critical success factor. Metrics are the best way to solidify focus and commitment, to demonstrate ROI, and to signal when to pivot, where to stay the course, and what to change. Here are some tips for measuring DEI impact in your own organization…....

Supporting authenticity at work requires systemic change at the organizational level. Here are some tips to support authenticity in your organization.

Empathy is the ability to recognize and share other people’s emotions, and to understand their perspectives and what they might be thinking or feeling. Empathy fuels connection and is driven by our ability to accept another person’s perspective without judgment or disregard.

Fostering belonging is challenging in the best of times. The new era of hybrid working has changed how we connect, interact, and socialize as employees. It’s changed how we experience ‘belonging’ but not our need for it.

Any organization is not a mere concept but rather a collection of the people who lead, work, and interact on a daily basis. And belonging happens in an organization when those people feel acceptance, acknowledgement, and connection. While we can and should approach this work from an organizational standpoint, it stands to reason that creating a Culture of Belonging can be achieved one person at a time.

Allies play a very important role in creating inclusive workplaces, yet it has become more difficult in the virtual environment. Disconnecting from the physical workplace has posed new challenges and introduced new emotions. Everyone, from leadership down, can play a role in maintaining an inclusive culture – even while online. So, when you’re ready to step into the role of ally, here are some things you can do to ready yourself and increase your effectiveness.

Here are some tips to help you grow your ERG member base.

One of the most effective ways to develop yourself and move your career forward is to look for internal career mobility opportunities. Here are some tips and strategies you can use in order to make the most of these opportunities and to ensure you are seriously considered for internal promotion.

Quick tips and how-tos to help you navigate diversity challenges and opportunities

Navigating relationships across difference can pose challenges and requires some cultural knowledge to navigate this terrain. Here are some tips for developing cultural sensitivity in your patient/customer interactions.

Extensive research demonstrates that most employees cover to some degree at work and that covering
has a negative impact at both the individual and organizational level. By promoting psychological safety,
we can create a workplace where employees are more comfortable bringing their whole selves to work,
are happier, more fulfilled and engaged and are more committed to organizational outcomes.

Language surrounding identity is constantly evolving. And while using non-binary pronouns might at first be challenging, using someone’s personal gender pronoun is as important as using their correct name. It takes awareness, understanding and practice. Here are some tips for getting it right.

Facilitation is the art of leading people through a process in order to collectively reach agreed-upon objectives in a manner that encourages participation, respect, and creativity by all those involved. These tips can help ensure your conversations are effective and productive.

With the constant barrage of news feeds, tweets and blog posts it’s almost impossible to keep discussions regarding charged topics such as politics, religion, race, immigration, gun control and women’s rights from permeating our workplaces. It can be tricky to navigate topics like these at work. But, with some basic ground rules, these discussions can be enlightening—no matter which side of the issue you’re on.

If you are in a situation where you have privilege, you have an opportunity to leverage that privilege to help and support others. Leveraging our privilege is a great way to serve as an ally. Allies can help amplify the message, break down barriers and secure support of the masses. Here are some things you can do to leverage your privilege as an ally.

Quick tips and how-tos to help you navigate diversity challenges and opportunities