Why reflective conversations matter for EDI

Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) have become essential topics for leaders.

At a strategic level, reflective questions can help consider the employee experience, assess policies, develop clear intent for EDI, create robust actions plans, and strengthen leadership culture. What's the level of focus and capacity for EDI? Is EDI a performance metric?

At a managerial level, reflective questions include: On a day-to-day basis how do managers interact with their team to create the desired EDI culture. How much are policies followed? Are leaders good role models for EDI? How are leaders trained and supported to embody best practices?

Reflective conversations encourage leaders to pause and examine their own beliefs, biases, and behaviors and how these in turn impact on EDI across the organisation. A coaching space provides an opportunity for honest self-assessment and learning which is critical for genuine progress in equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Reflective conversations help uncover:

• Unconscious biases that influence decision-making

• Systemic barriers that limit opportunities for underrepresented groups

• Personal experiences that shape leaders’ perspectives on inclusion

  
  

Coaching conversations can help you to go beyond surface-level commitments to EDI and invite deep thinking about how to create environments where everyone feels valued and supported.

This post explores how reflective conversations focused on EDI can help you:

• assess current levels of knowledge;

• support you to consider the current level of effectiveness against good practice;

• become aware of blindspots;

• challenge assumptions;

• help you to think through in practical terms how you can contribute to the organisation's effectiveness in building stronger, more inclusive teams.

A leader engaged in a reflective conversation on equity, diversity, and inclusion

Your level of interest

Your level of interest and commitment makes a difference to your thoughts and actions as a leader and these have a ripple effect (intended or unintended).

1. On a scale of 0-10, where would you place your level of buy-in and commitment? Why? What drives this score? What are the implications for your leadership?

EDI data collection and use

1. What does the current EDI picture look like in your organisation? How do you know? What data do you have? E.g. outcomes from particular questions in employee engagement surveys, insights into why people may leave from exit interviews, data relating to recruitment (who is applying and who is hired), tracking promotion data, talking to specific groups of employees.

2. From thinking about question 1, rate the EDI data available in your organisation (quality, quantity, robustness, usefulness), e.g. is it low and largely anecdotal, does it have some structure but lacks rigour and regularity, is it robust and continuous?

3. How much use do you make of the data - and do you act? Acting moves you from positions such as casual observer to the strategic performer.

I have crated a model to represent these three dimensions : Data availability, level of your interest and commitment, your interaction with the data. Can you plot your position?

For example, there may be high levels of robust and continuous data available in the organisation but your interest and use is low (right lower quadrant).

What do you need to shift (or what shifts do you need to make in all three aspects)?

What would you have to do to make this shift? What would it take for you to be motivated to take this action? How would you measure success? What time frame could you expect this change to happen? What would you need?

The following questions can help leaders to dig deeper.

• What are the top three pieces of data (e.g., from engagement surveys, turnover reports, exit interviews, or performance reviews) that genuinely surprised you about the employee experience in the last year?

• What 'verbatim' quotes from recent employee feedback (surveys, town halls, exit interviews) do you find yourself dismissing or rationalising? What is the uncomfortable truth behind that feedback?

• Beyond the data you are given, what specific questions have you proactively asked employees this year to understand their day-to-day experience?

• What questions might you be actively avoiding asking? 

• How often do you attribute an employee's struggles to their personal characteristics (e.g., 'they lack confidence,' 'they aren't motivated') versus systemic or environmental factors (e.g., unclear direction, insufficient resources, toxic culture)? What is your default attribution?

Coaching can start to explore beliefs, values, behaviours and actions that influence EDI data collection and data usage.

Policy level considerations and coaching

Reflective questions at a strategic level can help you to explore the capacity and expertise available in your organisation and addressing this may be important to you in moving forward with EDI.

For larger organisations, there may be one or more top level leaders devoted to EDI offering knowledge, expertise, capacity and drive. For smaller organisations, there may be both a lack of capacity and expertise which can reduce the quality and impact of policies.

Q: What is the capacity level for EDI?

Q: What expertise is available to inform policies and action plans?

With the rise of Agent AI, it may be possible in the future for even small organisations to have continuous access to expertise, with AI playing the role of EDI expert, which would be very useful in formulating and writing policy. This is not a 'quick fix - copy and paste' exercise, but more that the agent could create the thinking prompts, advice, suggestions and options to help organisations build effective policies that are right for the specific organisation whilst also using AI to help benchmark and challenge. Some organisations are turning to freelance HR experts to help create the policies.

Highly effective policies draw heavily on employee voice (or national voices that fit the employee profile) to really drill down and understand very specific challenges, e.g. for employees with children this may be financial support to engage in fertility treatment, considering solutions for morning sickness during pregnancy (paid leave, staggered start and finish), access to different types of childcare support including when children are ill, or different types of flexibility as to where someone works at specific points in a parenting journey. Only through understanding the employee needs, struggles, and experiences can an effective policy be created. How are you building this knowledge base?

• On a scale of 0-10, how important are policies to you in creating the optimal conditions for EDI? (...work through intended and unintended consequences - think dominoes).

  • In what ways are policies helping or hindering this situation for you right now?

  • In what ways might you react if you were in the shoes of specific employees?

  • What can you learn from considering points of tension?

• Can you give examples of specific, tangible daily challenges that a policy (like paid leave for morning sickness) aims to solve?

• Is it a policy issue, an access issue, or something else, like culture and perception? If an employee came to you tomorrow, would they know exactly how to access that specific solution, e.g. requesting reduced hours? Would they feel comfortable in making the request?

• In what ways does the unwritten culture impact on people using the policies?

• Beyond the protected characteristics, which specific employee groups (e.g., working parents, caregivers, neurodiverse employees, long-tenured staff) have you actively consulted to understand their unique friction points with your current policies?

• Think about people in your team and how they are helped or hindered by current EDI policies? What do you see as your role in resolving this?

• If we benchmarked your EDI policies, which one of your policies would be considered the most bare minimum (compliance only), and which one is genuinely innovative or employee-centric?

• If you were to use an external resource (freelance expert or AI), what is the single most critical piece of knowledge, expertise, or advice you would want it to provide?

How can I help you?

It is not just about asking a series of questions, it is about the conversation around those questions that really matters, but this post can highlight how useful coaching could be to leaders, and perhaps in ways that you had not previously considered.

• Through coaching sessions, I can help leaders to explore their relationship to EDI and enable them to identify a) their next steps for personal leadership development, 2) what action is needed to move the organisation forward within their sphere of influence.

• Through coaching, leaders can consider: Investment, Accountability, Buy-In, Operational level, Managerial responsibilities.

• I can help leaders to surface blind spots and challenge assumptions.

• I can bring models to coaching conversations that are useful in reflective exercises, e.g. At a middle leader level, conversations which include reflections against models can help to broaden and deepen reflection, e.g. Jacob's model of eight intrinsic drivers of trust (belong and connect, voice and recognition, significance and position, learn and challenge, choice and autonomy, security and certainty, purpose); Amy Edmonson's four steps to creating psychological safety, or organisation led aims such as those of New South Wales 6 Cs (Committed, Courageous, Conscious of bias, Culturally aware, Curios, Collaborative).

This is example of how coaching when applied in a facilitative, exploratory way can bring about concrete and sizeable improvements.

The structure in this example, can be applied to many different areas of leadership, e.g.

• Level of interest and buy-in; What are the implications of this;

• What knowledge, information and data is available;

• What assumptions are being made;

• How is the data being used to inform action plans and policies;

• What systems and processes are in place to provide solutions to issues;

• How is culture influencing the systems, process and policy performance and application in reality on a day-to-day and longer term basis;

• What is the the leader's level of responsibility and how are duties being discharged?

• What are the team level implications?

• What is the leader's sphere of influence?

These are just broad headings, the answers to the questions actually generate the exploratory discussion.