MU's Business Faculty puts the finishing touch to ELEVATE, the European project redefining how organisations manage diversity to turn it into a competitive advantage, with its Practical Guide
MU's Business Faculty puts the finishing touch to ELEVATE, the European project redefining how organisations manage diversity to turn it into a competitive advantage, with its Practical Guide
MU's Business Faculty puts the finishing touch to ELEVATE, the European project redefining how organisations manage diversity to turn it into a competitive advantage, with its Practical Guide
advantage, with its Practical Guide After two years of research, the consortium made up of universities, companies and organisations from five countries presents its final outcome: the ELEVATE Handbook, a practical guide now freely available to put this new methodology into practice
Diversity is already a part of everyday reality in the teams, customer relationships and collaborations of every organisation. However, according to the research carried out within the framework of this project, only 44% of employees perceive it as something that could represent a competitive advantage. In fact, only 8% of organisations have a clear and genuinely integrated strategy for managing diversity. Addressing this reality has been precisely the starting point for ELEVATE, an Erasmus+ project in which Mondragon Unibertsitatea has participated through its Enpresagintza Faculty, together with five other partners from France, Germany, Luxembourg and Poland.
Over these years, the consortium has combined a review of more than 80 academic sources and 12 intercultural competence models with surveys and interviews with professionals and consultants. The picture emerging from this research is clear: only between 10% and 16% of organisations have a position specifically dedicated to diversity, while a large majority — 66% of employees and 86% of consultants — acknowledge that their organisation does not assess cultural diversity using any formal method.
ELEVATE's proposal
In response to this situation, ELEVATE proposes a change of approach: moving from intercultural competence, which focuses on each individual adapting to differences, to transcultural competence, understood as an organisation's ability to actively build new common ground and turn diversity into shared value, rather than simply something to be managed. To put this into practice, the project has developed four tools that work together:
- A Self-Assessment Tool enabling organisations to assess themselves and identify their strengths and areas for improvement.
- A Learning Path, combining facilitated sessions with practical application in teams' real work environments.
- An AI-assisted e-learning space, which adapts the learning path to each team and provides monitoring and feedback.
- The Handbook, a guide containing the full methodology for trainers, HR managers and educators.
On 28 September, the final milestone marking the official end of the project was reached: the presentation of the Handbook. This document is a practical guide covering the entire process proposed by ELEVATE: understanding the approach, assessing the starting point, learning through the pathway designed by ELEVATE, and the key elements needed to sustain change over time.
With its publication, ELEVATE concludes two years of work today, 30 September, leaving behind an open and applicable methodology for any organisation wishing to turn its cultural diversity into a genuine advantage.
You can download the Handbook by clicking HERE and find out more about the project on its website: www.elevatecompetences.com