The New Information Drives New Ideas innovation exercise is designed to train individuals and groups to think differently and apply this process to solve real business challenges and uncover new and exciting opportunities.

The Innovation at the Intersection exercise is designed to help managers and their teams apply diverse perspectives to business challenges and opportunities.

What does it really mean to innovate? And how, as leaders, can we foster a culture and environment that truly drives innovation in our work teams and places of business?  This article provides tips to driving innovation within your teams.

Today, immigration, the use of technology and ease of travel have made globalization everyone’s business, whether you work in a neighborhood gift shop or a Fortune 100 company.  It is a worthy task to invest some time and energy in developing a conceptual knowledge of cultural perspectives and global issues.  While this can seem an overwhelming task there are some simple steps and valuable resources that can help you on your journey.

Inclusive leadership has become the current buzzword in diversity and inclusion work – but what exactly do we mean by inclusive leadership? Is leading inclusively a wholly different concept than “regular ” leadership? This article explores the idea of what it means to be an inclusive leader, arguing that the key is a strategic and deliberate shift in mindset.

The transition to becoming an inclusive leader is more complex than simply saying that you believe in inclusive leadership. It requires a shift in mindset and a commitment to alter individual behavior. Although this takes time, learning, and dedication, there are steps that can help guide you in this process.

Strategic networking is essential for personal growth, business development and knowledge exchange. Taking a strategic approach to building your network helps uncover and leverage new opportunities for yourself and your organization.

This tool provides a framework for diversity and inclusion practitioners to use in creating their own D&I strategic plans

Planning for the futurecan be an extremely daunting process. A lot rides on your strategic plan –it defines your goals and more importantly how you plan to achieve those goals. Done right,your strategic plan can be the key to forward motion and success.

When crafting your diversity and inclusion strategic plan it is important to keep one very important question top of mind –“What’s my Line?” A well-crafted diversity and inclusion strategy has the opportunity to impact the business in three key areas–Pipeline -Bottom Line-Top Line.

The structure, role and responsibility of councils vary among organizations but regardless of how your D&I council is structured, there are some key tips that will help ensure the success and effectiveness of your council.

An effective council sends a strong message about the importance of D&I to the organization and is a visible sign to the organization that senior leadership is sincere about its commitment to diversity success. This article clearly outlines both the role the diversity council as a whole plays and the individual responsibilities of members.

This toolkit contains disability factoids, a quiz, and dos and dont’s that can be shared with employees in your organization.

The Circle of Influencers model and worksheet provides a framework for individuals to build a network that will be instrumental in achieving their strategic goals.  This tool can be used independently or as a companion piece to the Strategic Networking Presentation.

Diversity management is not easy work, but it is important work. To be successful, diversity must be integrated into the core functionality of the business and requires an investment of time and capital. With this kind of commitment, the organization will begin to see a return in the form of higher accountability and productivity, and expansion into diverse markets. This article provides 10 easy tips any organization can follow to establish some successful foundation-building practices to ensure a greater probability of success.

Those organizations that have a commitment from the top rise above the rest and are truly on a path to imbed diversity and inclusion into the fabric of their being. Here are 5 ways CEOs at best-practice companies show their commitment to diversity and inclusion.

An alphabetical listing of common diversity and inclusion terms and their definitions.

Straight allies are the ultimate advocates: People willing to put themselves on the line of an often still-controversial topic because they know that inclusion and equality can only thrive when everyone participates in the effort.

This article offers several tips that are designed to engage employees across the organization in overall diversity and inclusion efforts.

This cultural competence conversation starter is designed to help managers and their teams recognize how cultural competence can impact the success of business interactions.

This cultural competence conversation starter is designed to deepen our understanding of how our actions and decisions effect colleagues on an individual level and impact overall organizational culture.

In our work to build cultural competence for individuals and organizations, we see recurring myths pop up about this skill. This article explores the five myths that explain why we don’t pay attention to cultural competence or don’t think that it applies to us.

Talent management and diversity practitioners are dedicating more of their energy to the challenges associated with a multigenerational workforce. Norms that define each generation result in communication problems, perceptions regarding work ethic, varying demands for feedback, and general culture clash. This article provides an overview of some generational norms and the associated challenges and how to best manage your workforce.

Building the business case for diversity and inclusion has been an ongoing struggle for diversity practitioners. Over the past decade, we have witnessed a dramatic and significant shift in the conversation.  In order to move from conversation to actions, organizations must dedicate significant intellectual capital and time to developing and executing diversity and inclusion strategic plans that are well aligned with overall business goals.

Once we shift to thinking about diversity from the perspective of leveraging different perspectives in improving decision-making and driving innovation, the business case becomes clear and our ability to draw benefits from diversity becomes more straightforward. The danger is in losing ground in the support of increasing demographic diversity at all levels in our organizations. The trick is to be able to make clear connections between demographic diversity and the diversity of thought.

We see more and more organizations linking the diversity strategy with the business strategy – primarily leveraging diversity as driver of innovation, a resource to gain customer intelligence and a connection to talent.  The real benefit is derived from harnessing the diversity of thought at that table. It is not enough just to have diversity – you need to create an environment where different perspectives are encouraged and valued.

Employee Resource Groups have become a key component of successful diversity and inclusion strategies. ERGs can serve as a tremendous support system to foster respect, drive awareness, and promote inclusion within the workplace. Over the past decade organizations have been able to successfully demonstrate ERG impact on talent sourcing and management, community relations and business impact.

An organization should never lose sight of the original purpose of the ERG – to serve its employees. Above all the ERGs should provide resources to the employees they represent including a rich and inclusive network, access to coaching and networking, and opportunities for career advancement. We share five tips for enhancing the effectiveness of your ERG member engagement strategy.

There is no denying that accepting the role to lead an ERG comes with an abundance of work outside your day-to-day responsibilities. Often times ERG chairs can feel as though they are drowning in the work to be done, and do not have a clear understanding of the benefit of taking on such a role.  In order to fully maximize your role as an ERG chair it is important to first understand the typical roles and responsibilities of the chair and co-chair positions.

Provides an overview of how to recognize bias in yourself and several steps to manage those biases for positive impact.