Nicole Butts, an accomplished diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) executive, facilitator, strategist, and a highly sought-after public speaker, notes, “DEI must exist in the hearts of individuals. When it doesn’t, no law, policy, or strategy can create it.” DEI holds immense potential in elevating organizations to greater heights of success when corporate leaders assume the responsibility and hone their ability to turn diversity into inclusive and equitable environments. With over 20 years of industry experience, Nicole founded NLYB Solutions, a DEI coaching and strategy firm that helps executives, teams, and organizations courageously navigate personal, professional, and organizational DEI journeys.
In an interview with the editorial team of HR Tech Outlook, Nicole, president of NLYB Solutions, discusses at length how her company helps organizations develop uniquely crafted, transformational DEI strategies to effectively achieve systemic, impactful, measurable, and sustainable outcomes.
Could you provide a brief overview of NLYB Solutions?
We are a DEI coaching and strategy firm focused on helping executives transform into equitable and inclusive organizational leaders and shift their organizations into inclusive and equitable entities. Utilizing our SHIFT framework, we take a three-pronged approach to individual and organizational transformat ion: individual DEI coaching , team DEI coaching, and organizational strategy. Many organizations jump directly into initiatives and strategy implementation; there are two primary problems with this approach. First, they don’t take the time to understand the role individual leaders and the leadership teams play in creating and fostering the current environment. Individual and team coaching allows us to work with individual leaders and the leadership team in understanding how they have impacted the organization and how they want to impact the organization moving forward.
Second, they don’t take the time to align with their boarded organizational mission. Utilizing our SHIFT framework (which includes three steps prior to strategy implementation) makes our approach transformational, measurable, and sustainable.
We refer to our approach as “transformational DEI journeys and solutions” because we ensure that it brings about a change in individual leaders, leadership teams, and the organization as a whole.
At NLYB Solutions, we coach along with developing the right strategy to achieve organization wide equity and inclusion
In my 20 years of experience in the DEI field, I’ve observed that organizations often create policies and procedures to address diversity, but they don’t address the individual and organizational barriers that create exclusion and inequity. Policies and procedures can and are bypassed, bent, superseded and ignored while the status quo is maintained. I founded NLYB Solutions to help individuals, as well as the executive teams, understand how they often unconsciously and unintentionally create barriers to DEI and maintain the status quo. At NLYB Solutions, we coach along with developing the right strategy to achieve organization-wide equity and inclusion.
What are some of the unique services you offer?
In addition to our SHIFT coaching and strategy, we also provide crisis/incident management. When organizations find themselves in a DEI crisis, we identify the root cause, address it, and put efforts in place to prevent similar issues from arising in the future. We collaborate with their communications team to develop culturally relevant, aware, and appropriate internal and external messaging around the crisis.
Additionally, (and one of my personal favorites), is the facilitation of courageous conversations about DEI, culture, leadership, change management, and other topics that stifle the team or organization. Conversations about DEI can be extremely challenging, but when well facilitated, those conversations can transform the interaction and relationship among people and the overall organization. Courageous conversations are the foundation of transformation and NLYB Solutions can stand in the discomfort and tense of those conversations and help organizations turn conflict into connection.
What is the approach you follow while delivering your services to clients?
We have developed SHIFT, a five-step framework to effectively deliver services to clients. We begin with identifying the intention and the goals of our client—be it an individual, an executive team, or an organization. It all lies in the answers to these questions:
-Who do you want to be as an organization, team, or an individual?
-How do you want your organization to engage with employees, customers, partners, vendors, or society as a whole?
Following this, we perform a cultural assessment to identify the client’s current identity.
We then chart a course to help clients become who they want to be - We discern the various tools, skills, knowledge, and attitudes needed, as well as identify the pitfalls that may exist along the way. Being able to understand how clients define and measure success is the key part of charting a course and delivering sustainable outcomes.
I refer to this whole process as a DEI journey.
Could you cite a customer success story?
Ingraining DEI into the organization was a challenge for one of our clients, who was significantly impacted by the social justice movement after the death of George Floyd. Although they were diverse, employees complained that the workplace was exclusionary and inequitable. We stepped in and implemented our powerful five-point SHIFT framework to help the client create an equitable and inclusive experience for their employees, encompassing all aspects of employment, including salary compensation, access to promotion, and employee retention. We began by coaching individual executives, then moved onto team coaching with the C-suite. Next, we started to work on their organizational strategy, which included a cultural assessment. We found that employee salaries were not equitable, particularly for minority men. We also found that minority employees were leaving the organization at a much higher rate than the non-minority employees.
We then charted the course by developing an annual salary compensation strategy, specifically focused on minorities and women. Additionally, we analyzed their retention rate and found that the minority employees were being terminated at a higher rate than their non-minority counterparts. In drilling down, we found that particular departments had high minority termination rates so we studied performance evaluations and consulted with managers. We made adjustments to the salary policy and incorporated employee exit surveys. While implementing these strategies, we continued to evaluate the client’s progress and train the managers, which resulted in immediate improvement in salary equity and an improvement in retention.
What does the future hold for your company?
The roadmap for us is to work with more corporate clients on a “full program,” utilizing the SHIFT framework in a three-prong approach with individual leaders, leadership teams, and organizational strategy. Whether it’s an individual executive, a team of executives, or an organization, the framework remains the same. All in all, DEI has to be in the consciousness and the courage of individuals to create and sustain —something that was true 20 years ago and remains true today.
