As promised to @deborahjsloan and @jlush2 last week here is a thread on the 8-step process we @MRC_LMCB have successfully used to drive a cultural change to promote EDI in academic STEM: Science Technology Engineering Mathematics. It's pretty long so make yourself comfortable!

We @MRC_LMCB @UCL recently renewed @Athena_SWAN Gold award in recognition of our sustained success in promoting gender equality in UK academia. The most important thing we learned is that addressing systemic inequalities in society requires a cultural change.

The @MRC_LMCB EDI committee, I co-chair with @Acton, and prior with @SaraMole, has followed a 8-step process for cultural change. The 8 steps needed for cultural change were originally identified by John P. Kofte in the context of keeping businesses competitive/profitable.

John P. Kofte “Leading Change - Why Transformation Efforts Fail: Leaders who Successfully Transform do Eight Things Right (and do them in the right order)”.

The 8-step process can be used by any organisation for any purpose, but is not an easy fix.

It takes 5-10 years of sustained effort for achieving change. We realized early on, 2008. that the UK @Athena_SWAN charter provides the structure needed to take the 8 steps necessary to lead change. I will go through the steps providing examples of our experience in UK academia.

Step 1: Establishing a sense of urgency

To change a culture you need to convince people of the need for this to happen. Nobody likes change so there has to be a good reason.

Promoting equality is generally thought to be ‘the right thing to do’ but there isn’t a need for it.

In the UK the linking of research funding to Athena SWAN Silver Award (2011) gave promoting gender equality in academic STEM: Science Technology Engineering Mathematics that urgency.

Senior management had to get on board or risk their organisation losing research income.

The threat of linking it to all government research funding, which is what happened in Ireland for Science Foundation Ireland funding, really did make them sit up and pay attention.

The hope is that these days commitment to promote EDI affects the choices of people to work or do business with organisations. A failure to do so will both affect excellence and competitiveness of the organisation and their cash-flow providing a need for change.

Step 2: Forming a powerful guiding coalition

To implement change you need to convince the majority of people of the need for change. Some will always be against change, don’t waste your time convincing them, but some are willing to commit time and energy to drive change.

These people sit on our EDI Committee. The EDIC aims to drive the change and convince the majority for the need for change. Key to these efforts is ensuring you have a gender balanced diverse group of people driving the change. Senior management SHOULD recognise this work.

Step 3: Creating a vision

You need a clear vision, that can be used repeatedly, to remind all why there is a need for change to convince the majority.

We experienced the importance of this when we Initially adopted Athena SWAN’s vision ‘promote women's careers in science’.

This did not resonate with the majority at all but when we changed this to ‘simply good practice’, where you implement actions that remove barriers so everyone can succeed, which might benefit underrepresented groups more so than others, we were getting the majority behind us.

Step 4: Communicating the vision

Implementing a communication strategy. It’s not just so that EDI becomes visible (content on website, annual EDI seminar) but more so that it is considered in all aspects of the decision-making process at the institute.

To achieve this you need to make EDI a standard item on every committee agenda to have embedding EDI updates. This way it becomes common practice, part of the culture, to always consider EDI. To communicate our vision beyond the institute we use #simplygoodpractice on twitter!

Step 5: Empowering others to act on the vision

The first step is for the EDI committee to identify issues of inequality. This requires a picture of your institute in numbers based on gender, which is the first step in an @Athena_SWAN application.

It includes data on all staff at all levels, but also committees, seminar series, students, recruitment, fellowship applications, funding levels, etc. Ideally a survey would be run to add to the picture/data. A survey is also a powerful way to monitor impact of any actions taken.

Data collection requires significant time commitment, but is absolutely essential to identify practical solutions to address issues that contribute to inequality. The data allows you to identify & discuss what could lie at the basis of inequality & how this could be addressed.

This results in an action plan. Recent examples from the @MRC_LMCB are extended leave policy, promotions committee, inclusion guidelines for conferences, support staff career progression training opportunities, design and implement a parent pack, onsite career training.

Once you implement new actions, procedures and guidelines, which is the second step in an @Athena_SWAN application, you provide the tools that allow others to act and this is when the real change starts to happen.

Step 6: Planning for and creating short-term wins

Once people are willing to act on actions to promote EDI you have to keep them informed of the successes. This will show them that their actions have had an impact and convince them that it’s worth their effort.

This maintains momentum in the cultural change.

Setting annual goals will help. We have an annual EDIC Prize to highlight someone’s successful effort in promoting EDI, celebrate annual promotions & fellowship success, nomination for @ucl awards and applying for @Athena_SWAN!

In addition, inform everybody of survey results to highlight improvements made and areas to continue work on, indicating how these will be addressed. This will both show progress (success) and the need for more change. In addition it will show that concerns are being addressed.

Step 7: Consolidating improvements and producing still more change

Based on the picture of your institute and survey data you can assess the impact of your actions. This will indicate what worked, what needs more time or another approach.

If an action has an impact you imbed it in the institute’s practice so it becomes part of its culture. If no impact you go back to step 5 and repeat the process until you find actions that have an impact. This process has to be repeated for 5-10 years to drive the cultural change

Step 8: Institutionalising new approaches

The accumulation of actions imbedded in the general practice that impact on promoting EDI results in a cultural change. It implements good practice in the daily running of the institute.

Even if you would take away the group of people that drove the change, the EDI committee, the good practice would remain.

This is the third and final step in the AS application, sharing good practice and acting as a champion.

This includes beacon activities at university, national or global level, for example speaking or consultation. Some examples from our work are sharing our appraisal checklist, contribution (workload) model, appointment guidelines, and inclusive meeting guidelines.

Inequality is systemic in society but whilst the are commonalities to what drives and maintains this, every organisation, business, and institute has particular issues that require specific actions to make a positive change.

The one thing that promoting EDI has in common is that it needs a cultural change. This thread highlights an 8-step process to give structure to do just that. The examples are largely focussed on promoting gender equality, but this approach can be used to address EDI in general.