Written by Janelle Tassart, Vice President of Corporate Development & Strategic Investments at Greater Phoenix Chamber
Why does your company value DEI efforts?:
The Chamber has been learning and growing in the DEI space since we engaged a committee of DEI professionals to help develop a toolkit to support businesses in this space. We were committed to not only talk the talk, we wanted to walk the walk. We understand there are many benefits to embracing the principles of DEI, including:
- New ideas and fresh perspectives
- Opportunities to reach and support a broader audience in the community
- A more cohesive and collaborative team
Exploring the principles of the DEI toolkit for business and how to implement them in a way that works for our organization has allowed new leaders to emerge and cross-team collaboration.
What are some activities your organization is doing to embrace DEI?
The Chamber formed an internal DEI committee led by and comprised of team members across all departments, with support from the leadership team. The committee meets once a month and has created many ways to create awareness across the organization. Some of the ideas implemented are:
- A weekly DEI tip shared at our all-staff meeting
- A monthly newsletter created by members of the committee, highlighting different areas of interest
- Quarterly lunch & learn called “Pathways to Culture,” where team members share food that represents their culture and share information about their backgrounds in an effort to get to know one another better and learn about a new culture
- Ongoing sharing of resources, including movies, podcasts, articles, etc., that highlight different DEI topics
- Contests and games to help our team members better understand how to work together, including a challenge to ask team members across all departments their preferred communication styles
What have you learned from your company’s DEI efforts:
You don’t have to over-complicate this—a big impact can be made with a small budget and a willingness to listen and learn. Some of our biggest ah-ha moments on how to work better together have been through conversations in our meetings and a willingness to speak candidly with one another. Taking the time to get the team together for important conversations has helped us all better understand one another (and it doesn’t hurt that sometimes there is delicious food included!).
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