Innovations International, Inc

Since its inception in 1983, Innovations International, Inc. has been known for its outstanding work in personal and organizational transformation. The company is a strong advocate of diversity and inclusion as essential organizational initiatives for exceptional performance. They believe that both require organizational transformation—in addition to change—for inclusion to become an embedded part of an organization’s culture. In essence, transformation is the process of creating fundamental, irreversible invalidation of underlying beliefs and attitudes, relating to human equality, that maintain discrimination and systemic exclusion.

Such beliefs and attitudes are often referred to as “unconscious biases” and practices of discrimination as micro-aggressions. The essential realization is that both require cognitive transformation and behavioral modification to create permanent change. Most diversity and inclusion offerings today rely almost totally on behavioral and organizational change while ignoring cultural transformation, which is why diversity has not been achieved in a majority of organizations, even after 35 years. And that’s where Innovations International can help.

Following is the conversation that Manage HR magazine had with Dr. Bill Guillory, the President and CEO, Innovations International and Mr. Jeffon Seely, Innovations Lead Facilitator at Innovations International, Inc.

What are the Pain Points (Challenges) that your Clients Face?

Organizational pain points resulting from a lack of commitment to diversity and inclusion are difficulty in recruiting a desired diverse, multicultural workforce and retaining such high-performing individuals who are presently employed. In addition, the lack of a conclusive resolution of fundamental prejudices and discrimination sourced from diversity differences and the resistance to creating inclusion with the same commitment as Quality and Safety initiatives. Needless to say, even progressive organizations today struggle to provide a holistic approach for the health, safety, and well-being of employees, working compatibly across generations, and working with high efficiency in a virtual world—home, office, and hybrid.

How are you Facilitating Online and Person-to-Person Learning Experiences and Processes that Result in Individual and Organizational Transformation?

The key to creating transformation is to use differences to generate engaging “creative tension” processes which result in a more open, expanded, and inclusive mind-set. For example, in a case study exercise where significantly greater responsibility, beyond fairness, is a necessity for success, the tension created is between two differing points of view: “Am I willing to expand my mind-set of responsibility to be successful or be limited by a self imposed necessity for fairness?”

The individual who releases the necessity for fairness in order to succeed, experiences personal transformation. The result of transformation is to reframe unfairness as simply a different approach to personal resolution and success. Organizational transformation occurs when a critical mass of employees decides, irreversibly, that their health, safety, and well-being is more important than job security. As a result, an organization responds with new policies that address the issues involved as an embedded part of the culture moving into the future.

As Humanis HR, our European partner in Athens, Greece boldly states, “We are game changers. We are trend setters. We are committed to continuously disrupting the rules of the game. We bring to the table something new, something different from what you have already tried. We use progressive, cutting-edge methods and tools to achieve personal and business transformation.”

Please Shed Light on How you are Assisting the World Population in Readapting to the Workplace in the Wake of the Recent COVID-19 Pandemic.

We have devised a combined approach to adaptation in response to the impact of COVID-19. This approach is an integration of our new Engagement in a Virtual World and Framework of Resiliency programs. The latter of the two is geared towards achieving greater mental, emotional, and physical resiliency as well as prevention and adaptation to stressful situations. Through this program, we have created a new paradigm for cultural transformation of the world population such that they can transform from a mind-set of fear and survival to one of empathy, compassion, and the compatible resolution of differences, as a way of life. The recent exodus of employees from secure jobs triggered a new context of caring. This new context has resulted in major changes in terms of greater employee safety, security, and caring.

Could you Illustrate a Customer Success Story?

customer success story? Several years ago, a division of the Toyota Corporation and a large Federal organization comprehensively instituted our Small Acts of Inclusion program. The program is designed to achieve inclusion by creating an organization-wide network of inclusive relationships using viral dissemination.