Dear Gretal,

I so appreciate your point of view about change - that changes are possible now even though we know that change can take a long time. And, that you don't have to be an expert to begin. 

I'm interested to know if you are aware of others who have taken advantage of your tools and resources and how they have used them?

Thanks,

Jeanne

Nice presentation. I'm interested in your answer to Jeanne's question — but here's another one. 

In your abstract, you write, "we believe the TECAID model supports change leaders interested in fostering greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in a variety of contexts." I tend to agree — but do you have any evidence or "anecdata" about that?

Gretal, thanks for your work in this important area! It's really clear that a lot of work has gone into developing resources that are designed to be practical for interested departments. I think it's clever that you've used some physics concepts as metaphors for the work and wonder how that was received. In fact, my most significant wondering is around reception and indicators of readiness in a an ME department. I really appreciate Attachments 6 and 8 in the TECAID Model (provided as an attachment). Have these resources been leveraged actively in your applications? If so, what are characteristics of programs who both identify resistance AND are able to overcome it? 

Thanks for any insights you might have! 

WOW Levi!  What a great question!  To effect change, one not only needs to identify a clear value proposition as to WHY this work is important, but do so in the language of the targeted audience.  I can remember bringing a "pioneering"' engineering dean to a conference on advancing women in engineering.  The conference was informed by research from social science, which although very informative was not in a language that made the work readily "digestible" for engineers.  During the flight back, my engineering colleague shared with me how he translated the work from Social Science-ese into Engineering-speak :-) by using terms such as "drivers," "modulators," "risk management" etc.  That was the first time I really understood how language, in addition to lack of informed value propositions, really caused barriers to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts... So thank you for your feedback that it was clever to use the physics principle application to organizational change. :-)

Although for some reason I could not see the attachments you referred to, I know them well.  You are talking about the "Perspectives on Resistance" and "Strategies for Change:  The Education, Persuasion, Incentives & Pressure (EPIP) Model," resources.  These resources were key to the professional development we provided to the TECAID participant teams in the first phase of TECAID, and because they were deemed so valuable, were included amongst the 15 resources provided with the TECAID Model.

In asking the first question, I suspect you are seeking to learn if resources on resistance have been leveraged not only in the application for the original teams (YES) but to those outside the original teams. To thoroughly answer this question, a third stage of TECAID would be desired--namely solicitation and evaluation of those departments who have used the products created in the second stage of TECAID to help scale the project beyond the original TECAID participant teams. Ultimately, we do not have information on how resources have been leveraged outside of our original participant teams.  Funding for the project provided opportunity to determine IF engineering teams could successfully engage in diversity, equity, and inclusion culture change (YES); and based on the resulting evidence of success, HOW to leverage this evidence to provide resources to others interested in such work so that they would not need to re-invent the wheel.  Your suggestion would be a great foundation for a follow up proposal!

Ultimately, based on evidence from our original TECAID teams, the characteristics of programs who identify AND overcome resistance are those that have engaged in, and continue to engage in, what we called in the TECAID model activities to "cultivate the ground for change." Leadership support is key to not only overcoming resistance, but sustaining long term culture change effort.  Further, success hinges on a change team that recognizes and integrates the myriad of expertise available (both within and outside the institution/organization); is comprised of people who do not have egos invested in being "right" but actively cultivate and sustain a growth mindset; and understands the importance of re-framing "conflict" as an opportunity to learn, and leverage new insights to the benefit of the project, rather than cause the work to stall or worse, degrade into unproductive cycling. 

So, as you indirectly rightly point out, those who are successful in this work are those that seek not only to remove resistance, but also build in "forces" that ensure that the original resistance is addressed and, ideally, used to strengthen the change project.

Finally, as a resource, I would highly encourage you to review the information presented in our forthcoming third On-Demand Webinar:  Insights From Engineering Department Culture Change Leaders:  Dealing with Resistance, currently being edited.  Please bookmark the TECAID Website http://www.wepan.org/mpage/TECAID and check back for the next webinars!

Thanks for your great question!

Warmly,
Gretal

Vision influences engagement in culture change work, so it is important very early on in a change project to be clear as to why you are doing this work, and make sure that your vision aligns with those of your team.  It is not uncommon to  have change work stalled because people on the change team are motivated by different visions, all captured under the guise of enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion.

So, I am interested in your answer to the question, "How would the culture of YOUR department (organization, institution, lab, etc.) be (i.e., look, sound, feel...) if it were more diverse, equitable, and inclusive?" 

I just wanted to draw your attention to work completed by my colleagues at APLU, specifically the STEM-OP: A Survey to Expand and Maximize Opportunity in the Professoriate to identify a series of transformative institutional activities aimed at increasing participation along the STEM pathways toward the professoriate.  This  survey tool will be helpful to institutions, not just engineering departments, in terms of identifying inclusive culture strengths and weaknesses.  Learn more about the APLU project by viewing their 2018 NSF Showcase project here: http://videohall.com/p/1155

Dear Gretal,

Thank you for explicitly stating significant findings from the first phase of TECAID with respect to Mechanical Engineering participants. How did you define and measure a latent variable such as inclusion knowledge and awareness? I am curious as advancing inclusion to Engineering and, more broadly- STEM, opportunities motivates me as well.

Thanks!

TECAID evaluation results indicate significant increase in participant engineers' diversity, equity, & inclusion (DEI) knowledge and awareness;

Dear Gretal,

Nice video!!  I originally learned about TECAID from my colleague Rocio Chavela at ASEE, who suggested that your work aligns well with a project that we are working on to increase LGBTQ inclusion in STEM (http://videohall.com/p/1289).  Your video really drew me in, and I am excited to explore the resources that are available online.  Thank you for your important work on creating department culture change - I think we can learn a lot from your experiences and research.  

I do have a question about your experiences in creating culture change, and please forgive me if the answer is available in the resources on your website (which I have not explored yet).  Do the TECAID change strategies focus on faculty in engineering departments, or do they involve students and other stakeholders as well?  Thanks!

Stephanie

Gretal,

Thank you very much for the feedback. I would agree that targeting how concept knowledge informed respondent interactions with others results in items that capture an element of Awareness. I found it insightful that you used items relating to perceived levels of comfort describing a concept to a colleague as indicative of respondents' perceived level of knowledge about that content. I completely agree, but it is important to note that these items may therefore measure persons' knowledge in a relative sense, at best. Thank you for looking into these items for me.