Category: Event Takeaways

Whether it’s a future of work powered by software that supports workers and businesses alike, technology infrastructure to manage sustainable supply chains, improving digital access and safeguards for our democratic process, or removing bias in data and AI platforms that impact marginalized communities, the actions we take in the present to invest in equitable digital platforms will determine whether our collective grasp will ever extend outwards to our collective reach.

During a NationSwell virtual roundtable on May 25th, a group of cross-sector leaders gathered to discuss the role of emergent technologies like generative AI have to play in advancing that impact and what leaders can do to implement ethical digital and technical solutions in order to scale solutions and provide equitable access.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

Organizations must stay disciplined when it comes to asking larger questions about who they’re using AI to serve and what they hope to accomplish. In order to bridge gaps between intent, strategy, and the actual digital products and services that end up being built, companies must establish clear mandates and decision matrices about how to best serve the populations they’re working for. One of the first steps to guaranteeing alignment should be to make sure that clear lines of transparency and clear moral imperatives are present throughout the entire organization. 

The adoption of an “ethical ombudsman” can help to ensure a shared ethical responsibility. Rather than adopting “shiny new tech” just for the sake of doing so and then allowing the ethical buck to get passed on to the tools themselves, companies and individuals should take a more active role in assuming the ethical burden by creating a new position designed specifically to oversee projects at the organizational level and evaluate the potential risks and harm that new technologies can pose to individuals and communities.

Train new systems with humanitarian concerns, not just technological ones. The tech we use broadly everyday (internet, social media, etc.) was created by a relatively small group of people, technologists who are good at making things, but not necessarily experts at holistically considering the ecosystems and people that will use that tech in everyday life. To solve for this gap, we’ll need to build better and more intentional methods to ensure that public interest is baked into design — potentially by hiring folks with humanitarian backgrounds to serve as model trainers and by ensuring more cross-sectionality in design phases.

Drawing distinctions between the types of potential harm that new technologies can cause will be critical to mitigating the damage. We need to think about potential technological harm as falling into two distinct categories: acute harms and institutional harms. The former includes harms done to the individual, while the latter includes harms to communities and populations. These different types of harm will require unique interventions, and getting clear on which is which will be the first step to any mitigation strategy. 

Pathways to widespread adoption of potentially transformative new technologies must be established in order for underserved populations to thrive. In addition to ensuring pathways to adoption, it’s also imperative to bring in the people who stand to be most affected by the digital divide during the design process and incorporate their feedback into the build. Bringing boots on the ground into the regulation process and having the right people around the table to help in the decision making can also be a way to reduce inherent bias.

For the past two years, organizations have been forced to navigate a series of social, financial, and political pressures that no one could have seen coming. As the dust begins to settle, it’s become increasingly obvious where organizations have made great strides towards achieving more equitable cultures and organizational outlooks — and where they still have room to grow.

As we continue to steer towards that more equitable and egalitarian future, join us for a conversation on what your fellow leaders are doing to build a culture of equity and belonging — one that prioritizes DEIB initiatives, mindful hiring practices, and workforce satisfaction and retention rates.

In a NationSwell virtual roundtable, leaders connected to discuss some of the challenges they’re still facing, while surfacing opportunities we’re eyeing to help us advance corporate cultures that pave the way towards progress, equality, and greater social impact overall. 

Here are some of the key takeaways:

Wrap arms around the ways that work has fundamentally changed in the pandemic era. Workers and leaders alike share a heightened awareness of organizational shortcomings; and while all leaders have blind spots, there is new urgency around stakeholders’ expectations that you will work to address them. But even as we work to address them, they way we all work is changing: hybrid work means new technology, and new technology means new opportunities alongside new challenges. As internal stakeholders may feel even further from the rooms where big decisions are made, building a culture rooted in transparency becomes paramount to organizational success.

To build an equitable and inclusive organizational culture, align around what you mean when you use the word “transparency.” Workers want leadership that is clear and consistent, but just as there is a danger in sharing too little information, there is a danger in sharing too much. This often necessitates being explicit about what you will share, and what you won’t — especially in difficult moments. As an example, share the criteria around why you might terminate an employment instead of sharing the specifics around why one person’s employment was terminated.

A thriving culture often aligns around norms and expectations for when to have a meeting. In a hybrid work environment, meeting bloat can feel like the enemy of productivity. At the same time, those meetings were often designed to enable productivity, efficiency, and innovation. It’s helpful to align around what meetings ought to be used for, and what the norms are for being in one another’s presence: think about friendly ways to reinforce that attendees shouldn’t be working on anything else, and that they should focus to the best of their ability on the information that is being shared.

Culture is communication. Build performance management systems that can evaluate based on outcomes but also behavior and collaboration.  Reward people who hit goals, but also support positive behaviors that improve culture (and hold those accountable who damage culture). Consider using a work style assessment tool, such as DISC, to help employees understand one another better. 

The pandemic ushered in a wave of fresh challenges for companies and leaders, but it also served as a much-needed pause for leaders to reflect, retool, and reset. Now, nearly three years on, we’ve inherited a radically transformed workplace environment — and we’re tasked with implementing some of the carefully considered changes that will better serve our teams and help us to create the workplace of the future.

In a conversation hosted by the NationSwell Council community on Wednesday, we came together to parse exactly what leaders are doing to address DEIB goals, team attrition rates, competing needs amid a newly hybrid working world, and more.

Here are some of the key learnings from the event.

1. We often think of how we create value for customers — now it’s time to start thinking about how we create value for our teams. New, remote work challenges have prompted a slew of new questions about how to keep teams engaged and how much “in-person” time is actually needed. Some leaders who are used to thinking about how to create value that makes customers want to show up are now flipping that question on its head, asking what they can do to incentivize team members to work from the office. Creating a hybrid schedule where employees are only expected to come into the office on certain days of the week — and then offering special perks, like free lunches and special affinity group meetings on those days — can be a helpful system for making team members feel like their time in the office is valuable and worth it.
2. Building out effective listening engines will be critical to accurately assessing employees’ needs. With so much shared wisdom on how to respond to team members’ post-pandemic needs flying around, it can be tempting to impulsively deploy some of those solutions and policies, especially given that the underlying assumption is that they will make employees’ lives easier. But as one member pointed out, not every team member’s needs look the same — and it’s important to build out an infrastructure for feedback that ensures that you’re capturing your specific team’s needs as accurately as possible.
3. Pay as much attention to why people are staying as you do to why they’re leaving. When it comes to high turnover rates, the intuitive response is to get to the bottom of why people are leaving and what can be done to mitigate the departures. But it’s equally important to figure out why people are staying — and which policies are actually working — so that you can be sure-footed in creating an environment that people genuinely want to be in, and not just one that they’re not ready to leave.
4. If you value DEIB, put a premium on mental health. Team members’ mental health and well-being naturally dovetails with DEIB concerns: conversations about compensation, job security, hybrid work schedules, pipelines for advancement, and more are inherently stressful, and play a huge role in employees’ livelihoods and psychological safety both inside and outside the workplace. Investing in wraparound support structures can help to ensure team members’ happiness and well-being in the long run, and can set your organization up to more sustainably foster a workplace that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
5. Work with team members to build hybrid schedules that suit their lives and needs. Rather than mandating that employees be in the office at certain times on certain days, create flexible mechanisms by which team members can choose to work from home when needed, as long as they let team members know well in advance. 

The NationSwell Council community brings together a diverse, curated community of bold individuals and organizations leading the way in social, economic, and environmental problem-solving. Learn more about the Council here.