Five barriers & pathways to DEI, discussed in the context of healthcare delivery. With Professor Laura Morgan Roberts, Dr. Randall Morgan & Dr. Mary O’Connor. Episode 144.

In a recent white paper, “Normalize DEI in Your Organization,” professors at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business discuss common barriers to real progress in DEI, and offer evidence-based steps that can help transform DEI efforts from siloed side-projects to core systems embraced throughout an organization’s culture and practices.

For this episode of the podcast, one of the authors, a UVA Professor, explores the findings of the white paper with two surgeons, one of whom is her father. Together they discuss the importance of inter-generational change, "positive weirdness" and some unique aspects of DEI in healthcare.

The white paper references the following framework:

Five barriers and pathways to DEI    1) The Identity Regulation Barrier, 2) The Authority Barrier, 3) The Things Are Working Well for Me Barrier, 4) The Inertia Barrier, 5) The Motivation Barrier.

Five pathways to DEI    1) Build a More Inclusive Hiring Process, 2) Design for Intelligent Inclusion, 3) Enable Mindful Conversations, 4) Empower Mentorship and Sponsorship, 5) Leverage Identity. 

Featuring Professor Laura Morgan Roberts, Associate Professor of Business Administration, Darden Business School, & CEO and Founder, The Alignment Quest Enterprise, LLC; Randall C. Morgan, Jr., M.D., M.B.A., Clinical Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Florida State School of Medicine, President & CEO, Cobb Institute; and episode host Mary O'Connor, MD, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer, Vori Health, & Chair, Movement is Life. 

“Normalize DEI in Your Organization” (link to article & White Paper): https://news.darden.virginia.edu/2022/09/02/new-white-paper-normalize-dei/ 
"Positive Organizing in a Global Society" https://www.amazon.com/Positive-Organizing-Global-Society-Roberts/dp/1848725760  
 
Excerpts 

“Practice expressing your positive weirdness. It gives others permission to bring out their weird. Differences are assets and resources for organizations, not problems to be solved.”

“Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in the corporate world remain a vortex of passion, malaise, hope and cynicism, despite overwhelming evidence that diverse and inclusive workplaces simply perform better.”  

“DEI does not often generate the short-term benefits that people would like to see. It requires a long-term, sustained, and often inter-generational investment for us to see those returns.”  

“A perpetual learning environment should be a goal of any organization that really wants to make an advance with regard to diversity, equity and inclusion.”

“We need diversity in thought, and diversity in culture and background, because people bring their life experiences into that filtering process. That all matters if we are going to make good decisions, especially in healthcare, with how we take care of people.”

© Copyright 2023 Movement is Life Inc.

Host: Mary O'Connor, MD

Research & Production: Rolf Taylor