Hi, everybody. It's a pleasure for me to be here in women in tech global conference.In this presentation from intentions to impact, we are going to review some advices, tips, and learnings on how to implement an, diversity, equity, and inclusion plan. And don't get frustrated or or will overwhelmed in the process. So let me move forward. My presentation is moving. No. It's not moving. Yeah. Before digging into our topic, I would like to briefly, present myself. My name is Maria Juliasci. My friends call me Maju. I am based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I, I am a science for, bachelor. And for fifteen years, I have worked in different companies, government, and NGO worlds in in topics, related to CSR, social innovation, and diversity, equity, and inclusion roles.

Currently, I am leading data arts, the, diversity, equity, and inclusion team, and I would like to portray myself as, as someone who can help reach some gaps in processes, with this inclusive and diverse, mindset. So before digging into the topic of our, lecture, I know that, that, diversity, equity, and inclusion topics might sound a little bit overwhelming or abstract. I'm just when you implemented the strategies or these plans in, your organization, either a company, an NGO, in the government, it looks like way too abstract. Like, how I how I am going to have impact with this. I want to do all. I want to do everything, and I don't know where to start. Well, let me help you with that. But before that, I know that this audience is very engaged in the topic, and I don't think, there is, we need to, to explain a a lot about this.

But just in case, why do we think, having diversity, equity, and inclusion plans or projects or strategies in our organizations is important? Well, let me just share two, little figures that can help you with that. First of all, competitive advantage for your business. Diverse, companies, have better financial performance than the non diverse ones. And the most, interesting figure for me is this one that diverse teams are more likely to capture new audiences than less diverse competitors. In that sense, if we are in a company, we're trying to get new audiences, new clients, new, new stakeholders going on, having people think that thinks differently and from different backgrounds in your team can help you achieve, have, got get those new audiences. So in our case, DataArt is a global software company. We are more than 500 5,000, consultants and engineers across plus 20 countries.

We have been in the market for twenty seven years. And while I put there, how many women and men we are just for this, conference. What I wanted to portray to you is like for data, our diversity is our strength, having people from different backgrounds, different countries, different time zones, help us, have the best talent and deliver the best results. In that sense, we we we we when this story was not like this twenty seven years ago, so we grow over the years, and we realize that we need a more structured and tangible plan in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusion. So in that sense, we started a a journey not so long ago to structure and make the more concrete our, day plans. In that sense, I want to highlight that when we talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion, it's not a trend. It's not a quality related thing. It's just making sure that everybody can work in the same place, collaborate and have the better results.

So in that sense, a day plan is a journey, not a final destination. I I love to use this metaphor because it's not a check. We don't want to check a box that we have a plan or we don't have a strategy. We want to learn the process. And what makes sense now might not make sense in the future or might not make sense in the past. So it's a dynamic road and a dynamic journey. How we break this down? Well, how to make this journey overwhelming, abstract, more impactful and measurable and aligned to business needs or organizational needs. So I like to break it through in these four steps, that is assessing plan, take action, evaluate, and recess. And if anybody that is here have has ever managed a project or initiative or a team knows that this might sound pretty simple, but achieving this and applying one of each one of these steps, it's not easy at all.

So let me move forward with the with the first step is having a the first step to have a robust, concrete, impactful diversity, equity, and inclusion plan is to is to have a clear snapshot of where your your organization or your company is. Because we we might have several ideas or very motivated to implement, very big programs or initiatives, but if we are not sure where our organization is and how ready it is to have those kind of programs, for sure, we are not going to, be successful in that implementation. So first step first things. First, assessment, review what you have, procedures, policies, surveys, employee feedback from, other departments. Start interviewing internal stakeholders, not only the ones that you are for sure you know that they are interested in the topic, like, I don't know, HR, legal, in general, those kind of areas, most soft skill related are more in touch with the topic. Start asking questions, asking feedback for your internal stakeholders, from management, from different teams. Also benchmark what companies or organizational similar to you are doing. So you don't reinvent the wheel.

Maybe you have a best practice there or you connect with some colleague or some professional in your network that can help you benchmark what is going on in the market. Thirdly, I think it's it's key to address the challenges. The challenges that you have in an organization, especially when talking about these topics, there are a lot of misconception. There is a lot of pushback depending on the country, the culture, and the organization, readiness. So the key is to map those kind of challenges to tackle them one by one. Last but not least, gather a team. Maybe you don't have the possibility or the resources to have a dedicated team, but you can gather some champions or allies that can help you build this plan and put it into motion. You cannot do it by yourself. You always need to collaborate with different people.

So then, this is the key part where you have the baseline and based on the snapshot you have in your assessment, you can build that plan, build that strategy. You want to do all at the same time and you cannot do it because of lack of resources or lack of time or whatever. You have to prioritize what you need to do. What is strategic? What is aligned to the mission, vision of of your organization? Also with the business needs. Because if not, you are going to have your own DNI strategy and plan, and it has nothing to do with the business where you are or the organization goals that, where you are. So that is key. A cool tool to do that is to, during the assessment, to have, like, a SWOT analysis, strength challenges, and to have a clear view, of what is your baseline.

Start working on how you're going to have internal awareness about the topic because generally, the strategies, teams, or plans are more or less one person or some a a small team that it's there in somewhere. And and the key there is to start talking with lots of people and start generating that internal awareness that it's going to gain you some champions and people that can help you as well. Last but not least, build a dashboard, build a document, or any tool that can help you log what you are going to measure. It's key to measure what you do because if not, it's it doesn't exist. It doesn't have impact because we can tell a lot of that we do a lot of programs. But if you don't measure it, it's not going to to be impactful. This is the best part.

The the best step for me, take action is what everybody wants to do to put that plan into motion. Key here is to set the goals, smart goals, achievable goals with KPIs and how you are going to, review yourself over time and monitor yourself over time. Engage leadership. That's key to have some sponsor or some high level management, member that can help you, generate that engagement or, internal awareness is key to have that buying. Also, what I was talking before about internal awareness cascading what you're doing, your plan to different teams, not only the your own team or your team that you usually work with. Here is the cut. Sorry for that. It's key to start tell telling about this plan to different teams. And if you have either if you have a dedicated team to work on DNI strategy or you are working with volunteers, the key here in this part is to have team governance.

What I mean with team governance is either create a committee, a board, a group of volunteers that meet regularly, that have meeting many minutes, that have responsible for has responsible for each action that will ensure that this move this plan moves forward. Last but not least, I am running out of time. Celebrate and community communicate the milestones. If you don't communicate, it doesn't exist. So whenever you have a success, a success story, or you achieve something on you, launch a survey or whatever you do, the key is to celebrate and communicate those milestones. Last but not least, partnered with, or area areas than yours. This is for me the most important important part. After you done that done this, you have to evaluate and reassess what you have done based on data, based on the dashboard and the KPIs that you you build. If not, we set in stone our plan, and it's going to fail.

We have to make a retrospective every now and then, to adjust and monitor what we are doing. And for doing that, data is key. Either our KPIs or gather feedback from important stakeholders is key to adjust the original plan. So a few key takeaways about this practical, advises or tips of how to make, an idea very abstract as an DNI strategy into something impactful. Is first having to consideration that diversity, equity, and inclusion, plans, and strategy is not a trend. It's something that could help you innovate, have a better working teams, financial competitiveness, what we review at the first part of our, conversation. The, diversity agenda is dynamic. It changes what is important now might not have been important thirty years ago or might not be important in thirty years ago.

We have to be aware of where the agenda and the topics and what is important is there to grasp, that and portrayed in our plan. It it is key to be, I like this phrase, be a champion, be an advocate, be an enthusiast within your organization. You as a team lead or as a team member of a DNI team, you're going to be in charge of telling everybody your plan, make them bite, make them help you, and it's it's only you that is going to drive that force. It's key to gather to have that, leadership or or or senior management engagement in order to be successful as well and key to set these, measurable goals and monitor what you are doing and adapt if you need to do it. I like this one, this is last two key takeaways that are take a small but planned steps. When we think about our DNA strategy, we want to do everything to the highest level program or to many actions in the press or in social media media, but you have to build step by step as a house.

First, you have to assess, then you have to plan, then you have to take action, and you have to take these steps like very small but firmly in time. And last but not least, awareness, awareness, awareness, or communication, communication, communication. One boss told me once that something that is not communicated, it doesn't exist, even though I am not a specialist in communication and believe that phrase. If you don't tell people what you're doing and why you're doing, and what is the purpose of what you're doing, is the same thing of not doing it. So we are running out of time. I don't know if somebody has a question in the chat. But hopefully, what I have shared very quickly, I can spend hours talking about this on how to implement a DNI plan. There are so many tools available as well.

It could take me hours. But in case there is no question, I would like