Office of Equity and Diversity

Office of Equity and Diversity “Counting People” Americans With Disabilities Act Affirmative Action Discrimination Complaints Monitoring Hiring Diversity “The People Count” Training Bridging Diversity Newsletter ERG Work D&I Committee/Team Work Executive Inclusion Council Alternative Dispute Resolution Inclusion “The Outcomes Count” Listening Sessions Data Collection/Analysis Reporting Infrastructure Changes Policy Development/Analysis Consultation Equity The three cannot operate in a vacuum, they must work in tandem to meet the needs of our changing demographics and make sure MnDOT accurately reflects the population we serve. Diversity alone risks a focus on Counting people, counting heads—representation only, outcomes vary Inclusion is about making people count—making people feel welcome, valued, and able to contribute their best Equity is about making outcomes count—focusing on structure and systems change The three together inform our comprehensive approach

What and How Training/Development/Support Policy / Compliance / Dispute Resolution ADA/Reasonable Accommodations Monitoring Hiring and Selection Development of Unified D&I Plan Investigations Dispute Resolution/Intervention Consultation Climate Assessment Policy Analysis and Design Identify & Eliminate Systemic Bias and Barriers Training/Development/Support D&I Training and Facilitation D&I Leadership Development D&I Mentorship/Sponsorship ERG Development and Coordination Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) Diversity Committee Development & Coordination Internal Consultants for D&I Agency Wide Respectful Workplace Harassment Prevention D&I Feedback/Strategic Development Process The Purpose of the D&I Unit is development and implementation of MnDOT D&I strategies; Partnering with and assisting offices, groups and committees to effectively carry out agency goals. The Purpose of the Compliance Unit is development and implementation of Anti Harassment and Discrimination Policies, Investigating policy violations; Partnering with and assisting offices and districts to uphold Agency and Enterprise standards. The two units work in close collaboration

How We View Intercultural Competence Presence of differences Diversity: The Who Leveraging differences to increase contributions & opportunities for all Inclusion: The What “How” to achieve Diversity representation & Inclusion goals Intercultural Competence: The How These assessment strategies can provide organizations with a “snapshot” of how well goals in each of these three areas are being met. Meeting Diversity goals in organizations is assessed by looking at representation statistics; how many people from group X are in the organization, at what levels, etc. Making the organization more inclusive is about developing more culturally appropriate recruitment, retention, performance evaluation, promotion, rewards, and leadership practices and policies. Assessing the level of intercultural competence or capability is done through the use of our training series. Assessed by representation (e.g., how many . . . ) Assessed by outcomes (e.g., climate, tenure turnover, conflict) Assessed by D&I development work © 2015-2017 IDI, LLC used with permission

Intercultural Competence Development Focuses on . . . Eliminating interpretations & behavior based on bias & stereotypes Evaluative overgeneralizations, personal traits assigned to group Stereotypes support less complex perceptions & experience of cultural differences & commonalities Increasing interpretations & behavior based on cultural generalizations/frameworks Neutral, relative descriptions of a group’s preferences Cultural generalizations support more complex perceptions & experience of cultural differences & commonalities Stereotypes refer to overgeneralizations where personal traits are assigned to culturally different groups and individuals from those groups. Stereotypes do not invite the individual into a deeper understanding of oneself or the other. Rather, Stereotypes reduce deeper inquiry into the experience of the other because they support less complex perceptions of what constitutes a cultural difference or commonality.  Cultural generalizations are more complex and value-neutral generalizations of cultural patterns of difference (e.g., individualism/collectivism; direct/indirect communication patterns). As a result, cultural generalizations or frameworks encourage deeper inquiry into the experience of the other and result in greater understanding and more authentic adaptation to cultural differences and commonalities. © 2015-2017 IDI, LLC used with permission

Unified D&I Plan What is a unified plan? Why a unified plan? Best practice and evidence-based plan in which all goals and strategies are pointed in one direction with no redundancy Why a unified plan? Institutionalize Diversity and Inclusion through all systems making our practices “the way business is done everyday”

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