Draft Selection Guidelines
Written by Glynis Ross-Munro, for use by the International Business Summit
The Selection Committee for the International Business Summit Diversity Awards uses the following criteria as a basis in the evaluation process of all nominations.
Preamble:
Human differences have been a source of misunderstanding, miscommunication, lack of trust and collaboration, or outright conflict since the beginning of recorded history.
We live in an age of complexity, diversity and globalization. Organizations and their home communities prosper when they have the ability to understand, accept and benefit from difference, and to collaborate and communicate across many diversity factors.
Diversity is defined in a broadest sense by IBS. The bi-national Chambers of Commerce and Trade Associations primarily bring the resource of (a) bi-national life experience and (b) new or wider connectedness to the West Central Florida economy.
IBS however believes that differentness of all types is an economic resource. Diversity of gender or thought style, hobby or generation, occupation or religion, disability or nationality, language or personality type, veteran or parental status, industry background or learning orientation, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation, networks or cultural knowledge… each different orientation, set of life experiences or perspectives offers wealth for our economy.
The Selection Committee is looking for:
Selection Guidelines
The Selection Committee for the -IBS Diversity Awards uses the following criteria as a basis in the evaluation process of all nominations.
Diversity: Nominees looked for, and used human differences as an effective business and economic resource.
The Selection Committee will be interested specifically in any actions that took people or organizations out of their existing comfort zone(s), towards new behaviors or systems, using diversity (of any type) as problem solving or growth strategy.
Evidence of diversity might include:
- a diverse staff - in terms of gender, race, culture and ethnicity, national origin, religion, language, gender orientation, veteran status, thought style etc.
- diverse management – if the organization is large enough, this diversity will be seen at varying levels of responsibility.
- a relaxed atmosphere around the issue of diversity and inclusion.
- an awareness of the value of differentness and of the road blocks that differentness can create in economies. This will show in systematic use of strategies such as small or minority business supplier programs, mentoring of minority talent (e.g. women, racial minorities and unusual thinking styles), soft landing programs for new US residents, training in understanding the cultural differences between occupational groups, divisional, organizational and regional cultures, multi-national cultural preparation for those visiting other cultures on business etc.
- support for community projects that promote the acceptance and celebration of differentness from an early age (e.g. www.communitytampabay.org)
- creation of a community matrix or environment that is welcoming to difference (e.g. support for soft landing programs, development of an environment where diverse people and communities may thrive etc.)
- other?
Collaboration: Nominees encouraged collaboration between diverse people or groups to achieve business or economic objectives. The Selection Committee will be interested specifically in on-going or systemic examples of collaboration, or successful culture change where collaboration is becoming (or has become) entrenched in an organizational culture. If management is consciously driving growth towards collaborative systems or processes, or supporting a collaborative culture where this is appropriate for their business and industry, this will be regarded favorably.
Evidence of collaboration might include:
- the emerging of new products and/or new services, suitable for either existing or new customers,
- process and systems improvements that arise from multiple sources within the organization,
- an innovative culture,
- easy cross-functional communication,
- openness to new ideas, irrespective of their origin,
- high employee engagement,
- a strong employment brand,
- low staff turnover relative to the rest of the organization’s industry.
- other?
Prosperity: Nominees achieved real measurable results, in terms of top-line revenue or cost-effectiveness (bottom-line profitability) as a result of their active investment in diversity and collaboration.
Evidence of prosperity arising from collaboration and diversity might include:
- new or increased revenue streams from innovative products or services, or from the development of new markets by innovative and collaborative processes,
- new or increased revenue streams developed by collaborative and innovative marketing, or as a result of collaborative networking, especially through diverse demographics,
- bottom line profit increases as a result of cost-effectiveness. This may be because of more efficient processes, or systems improvements, brought about by innovation and collaboration. It may reflect improved productivity resulting from team engagement, improved understanding and cross-functional communication
- improved productivity and execution from attracting and retaining talented people (because of being seen as an innovative, collaborative and diverse organization)
- cost-effectiveness from lower staff turnover (but should be resulting from high employee engagement, not from recession fears)
- products or services that make the region more attractive to diverse demographics.
Concrete examples:
Diversity:
- All project teams are pre-assessed to ensure sufficient diversity of thought style.
- Diverse teams use regular process analysis to ensure that minority members (members of minority ethnic, gender, unusual thought-style groups etc) are heard. (This example illustrates that “minority” simply means statistical minority- e.g. in a predominantly female group, a minority group simply means men, who bring a different set of life experiences, world views and assumptions to the group.)
- Sales teams have mandatory annual multi-cultural community networking goals, and training in cultural diversity.
- The organization reviews the local soft-landing program when conducting an innovation brain-storm.
- A company with a Brazilian operation sets goals to meet with the relevant bi-national Chamber and attend events. (This example illustrates that the award is not only about Chambers and Trade Associations that are part of IBS.)
Collaboration:
- The organization established or made good, economically-beneficial use of a supplier diversity program, perhaps with small, local, women-owned, minority-owned, veteran-owned etc businesses. The metrics are in line with, or above, the benchmark 7% savings achieved by NASA, Disney etc.
- Projects were measurably more successful than previously, as collaboration and communication improved between different business levels, silos, regions and/or divisions.
- The organization reached out to other industry players, perhaps through regional structures, to find ways to grow in ways that were not possible alone.
- Deliberate collaborative efforts have led to organizational rebranding, new products, new services, process improvements, staff engagement and retention, or other successes.
Prosperity:
- An organization in the Tampa Bay/Lakeland/Sarasota/Bradenton region worked with a bi-national resident or bi-national resident group, to establish successful trade, manufacturing, innovation or any other cost-saving or revenue producing initiative that would not have been possible without collaborating across differences.
- A cross-functional group in an organization has measurably improved a process, solved a problem or worked together to create a new service/product or marketing campaign. Their different resources (perhaps including networks) were combined in a way that achieved unforeseen, positive results. These results are visible in ‘hard’ income increases, real cost reductions or other measures such as share value, company expansion, market share, job creation etc.
Note: The 2010 Awards are being publicized through the Nine Chambers, each of which has been asked to submit a nominee. Nominations for the awards are also open from all members of the business community of the Suncoast/West Central Florida.
Forms are available from glynis[@]c-psolutions.com, or from the presidents or administrations of any of the Nine Chambers.
The 2011 Awards will be advertised in the media, as well as being available from the IBS Board, and from the boards and administrations of the chambers.
January 28th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
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