Dive Brief:

• According to new research published in MIT Sloan’s Management Review, diversity, equity and inclusion goals are best achieved with core values top of mind. U.S. Army DEI lead Anselm A. Beach and UNC Chapel Hill business professor Albert H. Segars unveiled their values/principle model (VPM) on June 7.
• The four values are representation (speaking up on behalf of marginalized people, akin to allyship), participation (meaningful action in organizational activities), application (putting DEI principles to work) and appreciation (recognition and enjoyment of the benefits of DEI).
• The study was the result of interviews with 55 executives, 33 middle managers and 73 team members about DEI goals and effective methods to achieve them. Interview analysis resulted in what the pair considered an effective path to guiding principles.

Dive Insight:

The VPM has seven principles. This includes “willful interrogation,” engaging in frank discussions about privilege and identity, to develop fresh “mental models.” The latter phrases, Segars and Beach explain, encompass a person’s worldview or rationale regarding how systems operate in the world. “Organizations have mental models that provide the reasons behind organizational structures, processes, rules and systems. They require attention because they can perpetuate racism, exclusion and inequity, even if the people working within those flawed structures are believers in DEI,” researchers reported.

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