XY Planning Network
The Challenge
The XY Planning Network focuses on making wealth management accessible to the Gen X and Gen Z population.
XYPN leaders have always been guided and driven by the values of DEI and were ready to take the next step to make their organization diverse, inclusive, and equitable for employees and clients.
01 My Plan
Strategy
In order to create shared DEI knowledge and awareness, Cindu designed a series of company-wide custom DEI workshops that were tailored to the wealth management/Financial Planning industry. Each workshop was interactive, rooted in theory, and applicable to everyday workplace interactions. All learning solutions required XYPN employees to engage in self-reflection, critical thinking, and uncomfortable conversations that worked to equip employees with the knowledge and skills necessary to cultivate a culture of inclusion and belonging. Employees were also encouraged to apply the learning from each training and attend post-workshop discussions unpacking the content of each workshop as a collective. After the initial set of training was completed and employees had built their DEI competencies and awareness, Cindu facilitated a workshop that was focused on developing an anti-racist workplace culture,
In addition to training, Cindu worked with XYPN leaders to help create a company-wide anti-oppression policy, was featured on a company-wide podcast focused on the intersections of DEI and the wealth management industry, and was a featured pre-conference speaker at XYPN’s annual conference to help educate XYPN’s network of financial advisors.
Cindu also provided DEI coaching to one of the organization’s top leaders to help strengthen their inclusive leadership skills and develop their DEI competencies to more inclusively and effectively lead the growing and evolving XYPN employee population.
02 Execution
Getting it done
XYPN leadership was the driver behind cultivating a diverse and inclusive organization and communicated their commitment by requiring employees to attend the Shakti workshops that Cindu designed and facilitated. The workshop series acted as a short course in DEI and at the end of the six months, DEI had emerged as a pillar and central value of the organization. All workshops were held via the Zoom platform, and required employees to engage in break-out rooms and in larger group discussions. The organization’s leaders and the IDEA committee worked hard to ensure that there was a good ROI from the training by holding post-workshop discussions that worked to unpack learnings. XYPN employees and leaders worked together to apply the DEI knowledge gained from the workshop to create organizational initiatives, programming, and policies that worked to ensure an inclusive, equitable, and anti-racist workplace culture.
03 Results
A stronger sense of belonging and group cohesion
The company-wide workshops allowed for shared language and frameworks to be established across the organization and provided an opportunity for community building and dialogue about topics that the organization was not previously having.
“In between the sessions, I saw a lot of conversation happening among our teammates about what we can do and about our own intrinsic biases. I saw people make an effort to build relationships with each other at work-which was really nice. To see different teammates chewing on what privileges they have, what biases they may have, and what we need to do to be a more inclusive company is a beautiful thing. It also was nice to see our founder and our other executives and leadership team stand alongside us during those training.”
“ I've seen the organization impacted in a variety of ways because it was professional development that sat with us long term. I don't always walk away from training and see teammates and members shift their opinions about things but there was a shift that seemed to happen for many.We have our team that we work alongside but we also serve what we want to be a diverse subset of financial advisors so a lot of our teammates are member-facing. They need to be able to know going into different conversations, how to hold themselves and how to be able to have really hard and frank conversations around where we draw our lines and how to be inclusive so that DEI is felt at every level of the organization”
Exposing XYPN Member Network to DEI: encouraging inclusivity in the larger financial planning industry
“ We brought Cindu not just to our internal team, but to our membership. We are sincere about increasing inclusion not just in our company, but within the larger financial planning industry. We invited a DEI expert to be at our conference to speak to our members about the importance of DEI. This can help us in our interactions with our financial advisors and be able to hold all XYPN community members accountable to upholding the values of DEI.”
Positive impact on company culture - towards a Culture shift
XYPN knew they did not want their DEI initiatives to be a “check the box” activity and are committed to a more long-term process of infusing DEI into the structure of the organization. The organization continues to grow and evolve its DEI initiatives, policies, and programming and uses its shared DEI knowledge base to work towards continued inclusion and positive culture change.
“The training was captivating- your presentation style, the content, the challenging activities you had us do during the breakout sessions, the timing, the cadence - all of that really added to the experience that this was a long-term play for us and we felt like this wasn't just like, okay, read How to be an Anti-racist and move on. We had to sit with some of these things and bring it into our work and into the conversations we were having as an organization. This helped to begin the culture shift we continue to work on.”
“We don't always walk away from training and see teammates and members shift their opinions about things but it was a deep shift that happened for so many of us in the organization which positively impacted the organizational culture.”
Outcome
XY Planning Network sought to take its DEI commitment to the next level in 2020 and they have worked hard to fulfill its goal of achieving equality and diversity in the financial planning industry since. As the organization continues to grow and evolve, XYPN leaders continue to demonstrate a sincere commitment to increasing diversity, inclusion, equity, and anti-racism within their organization and beyond. The organization leaders along with the IDEA members continue to work together to ensure that DEI is a pillar of the organization and that the organization holds itself accountable to continue working to ensure that the XY Planning network offers an organizational culture that is inclusive and welcoming to all. You can learn more about XYPN’s DEI wins and initiatives here.
Client Feedback
“Your trainings were so valuable for the company overall. Your presentation style and your expertise speaks for itself. Anyone who is interested in diving into the harder and more complex aspects of DEI and putting their money where it really is needed would miss out if they didn't engage with you.”
Madeline Roche- Vice President, XY Planning Network
"I cannot say enough about my experience collaborating with Cindu to provide meaningful DEI development for the team. Her thoughtful and intentional approach, coupled with her evident passion for the DEI hemisphere, was palpable throughout the workshop series. Specifically, Cindu met us where we are at, defined and provided a safe space to share and connect, involved herself with ongoing learning/reflection tools, and - most importantly - gave us actionable takeaways and a common language to keep this top-of-mind. This has been an incredible experience that has changed our organization in a tangible way and I can’t wait for the next opportunity to collaborate with Cindu and Shakti Training."
Ryan J. Watin- Chief People Officer
XY Planning Network
