Few words drive true action.  Those moments in time when they do are long remembered.  Last August, President Barack Obama delivered words – 1,181 words to be exact – that have driven action in the diversity realm like seldom before.  In Executive Order 13583, the President directed that executive departments and agencies “develop and implement a more comprehensive, integrated, and strategic focus on diversity and inclusion as a key component of their human resources strategies.”  In the ensuing months, those entities have been working extremely hard to not only publish strategic plans, but to ensure that those plans lead to action and results.

The process began with a working group hosted by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) shortly after the Executive Order was published to elicit the best practices across government and the private sector.  The reaction was strong.  Leaders in diversity came together through a series of meetings, webinars and other forums to create and disseminate the Government-Wide Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan in just three months.  The baton was then passed to the departments and agencies.

Over the last several years, the Department of Defense had moved from a singular focus on the legal enforcement of Equal Opportunity regulations to efforts that proactively build diversity.  Congress even mandated a senior leadership council to find ways of advancing diversity in the DOD.  So when OPM’s plan arrived to the Department, it quickly became part of the revolutionary action underway.

The ensuing foundation of the Department’s Diversity Strategic Plan became simple:  recruit the best, make them better and retain them, and engage in a battle for talent with every bit of energy that the world’s strongest military uses to engage in more traditional battles.

In practice, the Department has now defined significant initiatives to reach out to communities.  Tangible actions have begun to create meaningful relationships that last; relationships that are built upon sustained engagements at the national and local level.  Other initiatives will drive greater collaboration within government as well to maximize the impact of available resources.

The Department has a wide variety of mentorship programs.  Yet to make them more effective in developing talented employees, another initiative from the Department’s plan is to compile the best practices from across dozens of programs, develop a model based on elements that can underlie all others and use it to expand the reach, breadth and effectiveness of mentorship.  Training, retention and workplace enrichment programs will undergo similar processes.

Most importantly, the Department’s plan focuses a great deal on its first goal: Ensure Leadership Commitment for an Accountable and Sustained Diversity Effort.  For without the full commitment of leaders from the Secretary of Defense across the chain of command to supervisors throughout every unit and the world, a strategic plan becomes merely a collection of words, no matter how well-meaning they may be.

An accountability review construct based upon actionable metrics will play a significant role in efforts to implement the Department’s Diversity Strategic Plan.  Metrics help gauge progress toward a tangible goal and certify the results of leaders with respect to that goal; thus providing a means to assess and to providing accountability.  

A specific path to implementation will also aid the Department’s efforts.  Similar to how OPM released its plan, an implementation plan with measures of effectiveness and designated responsibilities accompanies the Department’s strategic plan.  Measures and timelines are aggressive, but they match the importance of this effort.

President Obama gave the Department, along with other departments and agencies, an effective deadline of March 16, 2012, to have plans in place.  Leaders across government are determined to meet the requirement.  Yet more importantly, this latest in a line of diversity and inclusion efforts has given the Department a new outlook.  A focus on affecting real change is now paramount to the effort.  Commitment – real leadership commitment – will drive that change.  Ultimately, with this current effort and way ahead, the Department is poised and empowered to move from words to action.

Captain Kenneth J. Barrett is currently serving as the Under Secretary of Defense’s Acting Director, Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity in Washington, DC. He is also a member of the INSIGHT Into Diversity Editorial Board.

Originally published in our February 15 issue (March 2012).