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Case Study: State and local government

Bringing a university together to close diversity, equity, and inclusion gaps

Promoting diversity through shared understanding

After several years of work on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues, faculty and staff within a large department at a prominent research university discovered they had not made as much progress as they had hoped.

In a letter to department leadership, graduate students identified persistent challenges and a list of items they considered necessary to improve the diversity, equity, and inclusion climate. This letter created an impetus to understand diversity, equity, and inclusion needs and experiences across the department.

How could the department bring together students, faculty, and staff to understand and close its diversity, equity, and inclusion gaps?

We decided the end goals should be to:

Refresh their climate survey to assess the current state

Develop a roadmap to target focus areas and actions most important to stakeholders

Diversity, equity, and inclusion issues are top of mind on campuses and in companies across the country.

While we refreshed the survey, we needed to generate broad support for the initiative.

Our multi-faceted approach:

Develop trust

We listened to the concerns of the students’ diversity, equity, and inclusion council as well as the department’s diversity, equity, and inclusion committee

Building understanding

We conducted interviews and focus groups to gain insight into the current state of diversity, equity, and inclusion

Promote transparency

We invited input from all stakeholders as we refined the survey

The revamped survey was the result of intradepartmental communication and buy-in across stakeholder groups.

RESPONSE RATE
among participating graduate students

RECOMMENDATION AREAS
identified to achieve the desired diversity, equity, and inclusion climate

1 WIDELY ATTENDED TOWN HALL
that allowed stakeholders to openly reflect on the survey findings

Why Eagle Hill? We’ve got the right mix.
Vast experience in organizational assessments and change management + our collegial and inclusive approach to consulting = the right mix

Eagle Hill’s approach to change management

Immerse ourselves in the organization

Engage people from the outset

Gain and give valuable insights

Measure and accelerate adoption

We see differences of opinion as opportunities for progress—not roadblocks to it.

As we demonstrated for this client, bringing people together, through every stage of a transparent process, leads to successful change.

Related Services

ChangeTalent

Related Industries

State and local government

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