Giving Compass' Take:

• Nigel Travis explains how Dunkin' Donuts embraced inclusive practices to being to transform their workplace culture, a process which is still underway. 

• How can your workplace benefit from inclusive practices? How can funders help organizations engage in inclusive practices? 

• Learn about the process of tracking workplace inclusion. 

Companies struggle getting inclusion right, just as sports teams, governments, police departments, and universities do.

Sometimes it takes a jolt to provoke questions and spur action for change.

At Dunkin’, we had just such a jolt in March 2016, at the company conference we hold each year for corporate employees and field staff. The conference is designed to provide the Dunkin’ staff of about one thousand people with an overview of the business and plans for the future, as well as a chance to interact with one another and the leadership team.

After the conference, we asked for comments, and the feedback we got was an eye-opener.  Many of the women respondents described their amazement at the sight of the senior management team when they went onstage to make their presentation. No women in the group. All men, most in their forties.

One female vice president for Dunkin’ Donuts US told me later that she saw that moment as a “stark wake-up call for a lot of people” in the company. The audience was far more diverse than the leadership group onstage. Our customers come in every conceivable human variation. But here were five guys, all of whom looked alike. How much of a challenge could they pose to each other?

Read the full article about transforming workplace culture by Nigel Travis at Stanford Social Innovation Review.