Top of the morning or afternoon or evening to you? Now, I have never hit anyone up with the top of time a day greeting ever, but I've always wanted to greet someone like that. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to scratch that off of my must do list. I am not sure why it was on my list to begin with, but I like it, because it symbolizes the epitome of positivity. Although the phrase originated in Ireland and came from how the best part of milk, its cream, rises to the surface, the top of the day idiom is now internationally known to mean best of the day to you. If I had to pick a vibe for Module 4, it would be about having our best days ahead of us, and how organizations rise to the top of its DE&I class through assessments. Now, assessments are meant to be a systematic and ongoing method of evaluation or gathering, analyzing, and using information from various sources about the effectiveness of something. Assessments give us ways to better understand what effect the thing being assessed has had on behavior or how it has performed generally, so that you can make the changes necessary to improve it. But as necessary as assessments are, you should be mindful of their limits or as do's and don'ts go, here are my favorite don'ts to consider. One of my peeves isn't about assessments per se, but the effort surrounding them sometimes feels like busywork. Think about all the time you spent doing an assessment, like filling out a survey. Well, knowing how that information was being used, spinning what seems like way too long, awkwardly answering questions about how you feel about work. Then the feeling you have afterward when you regret being so honest on the survey, and wondering if someone is going to escort you out of the building for providing your truth about how you think the organization lacks commitment to DE&I or some other question. Then you remember, this is probably just to check the box exercise, ie, busywork, which is a sentiment that is reinforced when so much time passes and nothing has changed. See my point? If you are the one doing the assessment, don't let this be you. Get back with the people and let them know the results, whatever actions you have taken to make the thing assessed better for them. Another peeve is that assessments can be manipulated. People can design assessments to make whatever predetermined point they want to make. If you are the one doing the assessment, please don't let this be you. Constantly check yourself and the instrument for bias. If there is any, be on the level about what your agenda is, so that people can decide for themselves if they want to participate or not. Lastly, I can't ever remember an assessment about work that has ever improved my work life. It's usually for some external evaluation, like an audit or best places to work ranking that is using not directly related to my day-to-day job. If this is your assessment, connect the activity to your overall DE&I strategy and market it as a value-add for everyone. That is where I want to pivot and say, no matter what my peeves are, assessments are must do and do often piece of my DE&I arsenal. Assessments are essential because they arm the assessor with the proof that the concept works. With any investment checkwriters want to know if the initiatives are evidence-based, meaning is there something that says that the thing was tested and it worked as intended, and assessments do just that. You know how doctors perform checkups to make sure you're healthy and to mitigate any health issues that you may be having? That's what assessments are for your organization. They check the health and vitality of the mind, body, and soul of your DE&I anatomy. Now before I let you go, I want to make sure you approach Module 4 knowing that my theme for assessments is that they are about the future. Imagine this, someone comes to you and asks the question, "Why are you doing all this DE&I assessment stuff?" I want you to imagine this question, because for many of us many times we forayed into this DE&I space with activities that focus on the past. There is nothing wrong with dealing with the past. The problems come in when we stay there and the needle does not move and the condition under review does not change. I've been there and done that so many times that this result is not hard for me to imagine. History is where our stories and conditions come from. But more importantly, for DE&I sake, our past fuels hope for the future. Just remember that our future is where our narratives of hope and immense possibilities are, stories yet to be written but influenced by whatever we do now in the present. Assessments do nothing to change the past, but they are our guideposts. They inform our decisions for the future and the future is where we're going. Let's be on our way.
