Thought Papers

Telling All Our Stories:

10 Steps to Greater Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion in Museums

This thought paper outlines ten pathways by which museums can move toward greater diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion. These pathways are designed to help museums harness the benefits of an inclusive culture.

Inclusive Responses in Times of Fear

The information in this guide empowers organizations and individuals to respond effectively to current events and engage in meaningful dialogue. This resource guide is meant to be shared widely.

Does Unconscious Bias Training Work?

Four Intervention Strategies that Can Help Create More Consciously Inclusive Organizations

This paper lays out four intervention strategies that can help create more consciously inclusive organizations: Education, Priming, Structures & Systems, and Accountability.

Is Your Organization Ready to Explore Unconscious Bias?

Whatever we call it, in the worlds of diversity, leadership development, and talent management, unconscious bias is a popular topic. This focus has reenergized a somewhat tired diversity conversation. Focusing on unconscious bias has rejuvenated the field, but isn’t a quick fix. This thought piece provides 10 strategies and tactics to consider to get the most value from your education efforts.

Everyday Bias:

Further Explorations into How the Unconscious Mind Shapes Our World at Work

This paper lays out ten distinct ways unconscious bias manifests in the workplace, including a case study from a Cook Ross client, a leading global management consulting company that has leveraged unconscious bias awareness to increase the number of women in senior leadership positions. Additionally, the paper presents practical guidelines for reducing the influence of unconscious bias on decision-making in the talent management process.

Reinventing Diversity

There is a profound sense of “diversity fatigue” sweeping over the majority of society while new studies question the effectiveness of our diversity efforts. Do training programs work? Is the increasing diversity in communities leading to stronger or more fractured communities?

This white paper, Reinventing Diversity, provides a roadmap for companies looking to create a new set of distinctions through which we can view the challenge and the opportunity that diversity presents to us in the 21st century.

Bias in Performance Management Review Process

Creating an Inclusive Talent Pipeline by Understanding Our Filters

This article explains the four domains of bias in performance management: rater bias, self-rater bias, structural bias, and calibration bias. By addressing and managing biases, organizations can provide equal growth opportunities for persons of all groups and ensure a robust team of employees necessary for success.

Changing the Game:

Strategies for Harnessing the Power of Female Talent

In today’s fiercely competitive environment, organizations cannot afford to underutilize nearly half of their workforce.

Women influence 83 percent of all dollars spent on consumer purchases. Both men and women agree that women have special insights into female consumers. Yet little progress is being made in the development, advancement and leveraging of female talent at many consumer products and retail companies.

Proven Strategies for Addressing Unconscious Bias in the Workplace

This thought paper explores unconscious bias by trying to understand the purpose of bias. It also provides steps to identifying and addressing unconscious bias, including: recognizing that you have biases, identifying what those biases are, dissecting your biases, and deciding which of your biases you will address first.

Background on Haiti and Haitian Healthcare

This primer is being shared publicly in the hope that it will provide information that will positively impact 2010 post-earthquake humanitarian relief efforts in Haiti.

Retaining African Americans in the Accounting Profession

For years, there has been widespread recognition that the turnover of African Americans in accounting has been problematic for the profession. Although there have been rigorous efforts to address the issue, especially in public accounting, the problem persists.

As organizations look at their diversity efforts, it is important that they make sure these efforts are fully joined to their business objectives. Without this connection, the efforts expended on diversity will not succeed. In difficult times, it is de-emphasized and any gains previously achieved are lost.