Welcome to Chapter 6 of our DEI journey! If you’re new around these parts, you can follow our progress here.

In this chapter, our Executive Rep Ellie and DEI Coordinator Abena will take you through the ins and outs of how the DEI Council operates. Hopefully it sheds some light on the important work they’re doing, and supports other companies who are interested in starting something similar.

How we got started

It was super important to have equity in the council, so we welcomed applications from across the business and worked with our partners Collective to merge a charter structure they’d created with our unique way of working. As Exec Reps selected members and pulled the council together, we relayed the responsibility across the business, making sure that managers (or People Leaders) knew how to support their team members who were on the council, and time and space were prioritised for them.

What we’re loving and learning

1. This work is informing big decisions to join our team

There’s been a lot of support for our DEI journey from our community of talent - especially from those who are hoping to join us one day. We’ve been taken by the callouts, feedback, invitations for reflection and engagement with our little series, and the way it informs people’s decision-making about where they might like to work next. We don’t take that lightly, and appreciate that this important work factors in.

2. Internally, it’s been raising voices and broadening perspectives

At Who Gives A Crap, there’s been growing support and energy from the bottom up as well as the top down, and we’ve been so fortunate to harness that. People are opening up and calling out where we could be doing better, and council members are growing in their leadership and responsibilities. Initiatives like our DEI suggestion box have made room for projects and initiatives that don’t align with our original strategy, but are meaningful to our rapidly growing team.

3. Building and deepening cross-functional relationships

Cross-functional work across timezones… impossible, you say? We beg to differ. By ensuring our council and task forces are representative of all levels, tenure, functions and geos, we have a great cross-section of intersectionality and company experience. It’s been exciting watching our organisational structure morph and change to accommodate this work. Not only has it been a successful way to bring a diverse team together, we’ve also been able to test a ‘pod’ concept, and are using the learnings to test future iterations across our business, from sustainability to impact and more. These ‘pods’ help us build relationships across the business and do truly meaningful work with people we otherwise wouldn’t spend much time with. We’re big fans!

4. Working to strategy in a messy, human way

Work has been redrafted, initiatives have not landed, priorities have shifted, brains have strained under the newness of language and learning, and we’ve been really vulnerable in sharing our identities and experiences as they relate to this work - all while marching forward with our strategy. It’s helped to have strong alignment from the Executive level all the way through, in partnership with Collective. Our north star is firmly in sight. Human-centered design has informed a lot of our approach, as well. Council members have brought initiatives to life through collaboration and inclusiveness: polling our team mates, inviting feedback and engaging other task force members. 

5. Time is a crazy thing (…can someone please do something about this?!)

Time has continued to boggle the mind, flipping between dragging on and flying by as we’ve worked through this pandemic together. We check in on the council’s bandwidth each quarter, acknowledging that focus areas will wax and wane, and giving each other the space and grace to take care of ourselves. It’s difficult work and we’ve found that opening the discussion in this way helps our council members set boundaries and normalises asking for help. It also supports us as Exec Rep and Coordinator to get a clearer idea of how progress against our strategy might go. 

6. Syncing with our operational rhythm

It’s been interesting aligning DEI strategy with our annual OKR framework. The terminology rubs up against the long lead, iterative, rolling nature of some of our DEI initiatives… so we’re reporting against that framework very loosely. We’ve also chosen to run our DEI strategy at a different cadence to our annual one, so it’s centred and incorporated into the company-wide objectives.

The following rhythm has been working well: our task forces check in with each other weekly in an async way. Every two weeks, our task force leads (who are also on the council) update other members async. The council catches up monthly with Exec Reps to share progress and talk though bigger ideas. Then each quarter, the council and task forces share back their progress to the broader company.

7. Leveraging strengths and expertise

Our partner Collective has been an amazing supporter and facilitator of this work - they haven’t judged, they’ve cheered us on, held space for us to learn, and when needed, have gently refocused our enthusiastic team. We pause to ask the council how and when they’d like to be supported by our amazing strategist Patty - and others across the business have taken the initiative to reach out, too.

We’ve also spotted opportunities to bring functions whose work directly aligns with the council into closer collaboration. For example, the Creative & Brand team is working in lock step with the External & Brand task force, and People & Culture collaborate closely with the Hiring & Representation, Foundation & Inclusion and Professional Development task forces. This has meant that expertise is brought in when needed and a sense of ownership is deepened across the business, with the view of future handovers happening more smoothly.

Thanks for reading! In Chapter 7 we’ll hand the mic back to the council to celebrate all the amazing work they’ve done in their first year - we can’t wait to share it with you.