Skip to content

Article Meetings / Events 2 min read

Daily Buzz: Practical Tips to Address Diversity and Inclusion

Creating inclusive teams starts with addressing intersectionality. Then, make it part of your organization’s operations. Also: how to cancel a conference.

Heads up: this content is over 5 years old, so some information may be out of date.

It’s no secret that inclusive teams make better business decisions  (opens in a new tab). But creating teams in relation to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) can be difficult when nonprofit leaders are predominantly white  (opens in a new tab), writes Emily Teitsworth in the Stanford Social Innovation Review  (opens in a new tab).

“Acknowledging intersectionality—the reality that we live within a system of overlapping and interdependent privileges and disadvantages—is a first step toward truly addressing DEI,” Teitsworth says. “But how can we make acknowledging intersectionality a practice and not just a conversation? We can start by making relatively simple changes that center our work at the intersection of race, gender, sexual orientation, ableism, and implicit bias.”

After that acknowledgement, Teitsworth suggests making practical changes to address DEI:

Look at the way your organization operates and move to make changes systemwide, not individualistically.

Gear the group’s focus toward collaboration, as “new models of leadership that share structural power are a fundamental step toward actualizing inclusion and distributing decision making.”

Use your privilege to challenge bias where you can, but understand that “the journey toward greater diversity, equity, and inclusion has no fixed end point.”

Creating a Meeting Disaster Plan

After all the planning that goes into a conference, sometimes unexpected challenges still arise. In some cases, the solution might be a quick fix; in others, it might require a meeting cancellation.

Canceling an event can be challenging, but doing it appropriately can take just as much skill and professionalism as organizing the rest of the event. The best thing to do is to develop a disaster action plan from the start, says MeetingsNet  (opens in a new tab). From there, create a core team of decision makers who will take the lead—including communicating with vendors, sponsors, and attendees—when disaster strikes.

Other Links of Note

Research shows that managers of the future will look a lot different. Inc. details the skills you’ll need to hone to prepare  (opens in a new tab).

Apple’s new products could improve the way meeting planners work, from Smart Meetings  (opens in a new tab).

There’s no end to marketing analytics. CMSWire outlines a five-step approach to help you get the most out of your data  (opens in a new tab).

(FotografiaBasica/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Tags: #disaster management #event planning #Leadership #Meetings

Comments

Comments are for ASAE members. Learn more about comments on this site.

Log in to your member account or join ASAE!