The Justice Gap Framework
Organizations get the results their systems are built to produce. So we look at behavior, decisions, policies, and how resources are allocated, and measure the gap between what you say you value and what people experience. The Justice Gap Framework is how we close that gap, whichever service you start with.
See: Look Closely
Gather evidence about what is actually happening, from documents, data, and people.
Name: Speak Honestly
Describe the gaps honestly, in language leaders can act on.
Design: Build Together
Redesign policies, practices, and decisions with the people who will carry them out.
Lead: Lead Boldly
Equip leaders and boards to model and carry the change.
Sustain: Make It Last
Put measures and routines in place, and re-measure the gaps.
The stages are not always a straight line. They can overlap or repeat, and what Sustain measures becomes the evidence for the next round of See.
Inside Stage 1: the Justice Gap Assessment
The assessment looks through four lenses, known as JUST:
J
Justice. What experiences and outcomes do practices produce, and are they fair?
U
Understanding. What assumptions, beliefs, and norms shape the organization?
S
Systems. How are those assumptions built into policies, processes, power, and resources?
T
Transformation. Is the organization ready and able to change, and who owns it?
It measures five gaps:
- Commitment. Between stated values and day-to-day practice.
- Experience. Between how leaders describe the organization and how staff experience it.
- Fairness. Differences across groups in pay, advancement, retention, voice, and treatment.
- Decision. Between how decisions and resources are supposed to flow and how they do.
- Readiness. Between the change leaders want and their capacity and ownership to deliver it.
The evidence
Every assessment includes seven core sources. Others are chosen with you to fit your situation, so that every lens and gap rests on at least two sources.
- A review of your stated commitments and key documents
- Workforce and operational data
- A confidential staff survey, with a parallel survey of leaders
- The Intercultural Development Inventory, a validated measure of intercultural capability
- Interviews and small-group conversations
- A readiness review of leaders and the board
- Audits of everyday practices
Ground rules
These commitments apply to every engagement.
- Participation is voluntary, and people can skip any question.
- Responses are confidential, and no group smaller than five people is ever reported.
- Supervisors and their direct reports are never placed in the same focus group.
- Staff from historically excluded groups are not asked to carry the work without pay or credit.
- Everyone who takes part hears back about what was found and what happens next.