Changing Hearts and Minds

In our previous blog – The Human Factor in DEI Work – we explored the role of the workplace or organization in changing individual values when it comes to DEI. We believe organizations have an important role in providing opportunities for individuals to examine their opinions, attitudes, and feelings with the potential to change their values. This blog post explores what is known about successful strategies for encouraging DEI reflection and potentially changing hearts and minds.

Changing hearts and minds deals with the individual and interpersonal elements of workplace culture. In other words, changing individual biases, beliefs, attitudes, stereotypes and experience, and changing interpersonal practices, how people interact with, treat and view those around them. Of course, the individual and the interpersonal are highly interrelated. Thinking about another person differently will change how we treat them. Conversely, positive interactions with someone can change the way we think about them and the group or groups they represent.

In considering where to begin, this Harvard Business Review article on promoting racial equity suggests
a highly logical, sequential approach – PRESS:

1. Problem Awareness: Demonstrate and build awareness of DEI problems/issues.
2. Root-Cause Analysis: Understand psychological roots of problems.
3. Empathy: Build empathy, caring and concern.
4. Strategy: Provide strategies to help people address problems.
5. Sacrifice: Put time, energy and resources into the problem.

This model has the beauty of moving from basic awareness to introspection, to empathic connection and finally, to strategy and ultimately to commitment of resources. It also represents a useful diagnostic for understanding potential holes in an organizational DEI culture change plan. To dig deeper, how does one actually bring about individual and interpersonal change, such as problem awareness, understanding, empathy? Based on a review of available evidence, here are some of the strategies that have shown success in changing hearts and minds:

• Promote Open Discussion: Solicit opinions to better explore and understand values, beliefs, and assumptions.
• Challenge Opinions: Dig into what people’s opinions are and where they came from.
• Focus on Empathy: Rather than asking people to confront their biases to reduce prejudiced attitudes and behaviours, emphasize the development of empathy toward others.
• Enable Self-Education and Exploration: Give people time for education and digging into their own values, beliefs, and emotional reactions using evidence, tools and real-life cases.
• Capitalize on Peer Influence: Bystander or allyship programs are a great way of both calling out negative behaviour while also creating new social norms.
• Actively Manage Backlash: Resistance is an inevitable and often emotional responses to DEI efforts. Rather than fearing it, consider backlash and how to manage it from the start.

What may be the single MOST important strategy for creating change and one that is foundational to all others is:

• Promoting Intergroup Exposure: When diverse groups have face to face intergroup contact important things can happen. Whether contacts are causal or controlled, personal or professional, it opens up the opportunity for dialogue, conversation and perspective taking, identifying similarities and understanding differences, gaining an appreciation of each other’s unique circumstances, and challenging stereotypes. Special hint – asking diverse groups to work together on a shared challenge or problem is an especially good way to create conditions for individual and interpersonal change.

Finally, keep in mind that for real success, institutional supports – organizational commitments, leadership, programs and policies – also need to be in alignment with effort to change hearts and minds.