Left behind, exclusion or forgotten employee, failure or mistake to come late and miss the bus, … [+] opportunity gone away concept, frustrated businessman come late running to catch the run away bus.
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives saw a dip in recent years, with some organizations treating it as a passing trend. That was a mistake. DEI is back with renewed vigor, driven by both employee demand and a growing understanding of its link to business success. In the past month, hundreds of organizations have took a proactive stance on supporting DEI, even amongst the negative news and anti-DEI rhetoric.
This isn’t just a rehash of old ideas, though. This time, DEI is more nuanced, focusing on:
- Intersectionality: Recognizing the complex interplay of identities.
- Data-driven approaches: Measuring impact and holding leaders accountable without controversial quotas.
- Allyship: Holding leaders and all employees accountable for inclusive behavior.
Intersectionality
Intersectionality recognizes that people have multiple, interconnected identities that shape their lived experiences. These identities include race, gender, class, sexual orientation, disability and many other identities. These identities don’t exist in isolation but interact in complex ways, creating unique experiences of privilege and oppression. For example, a Black woman may experience discrimination differently than a white woman or a Black man due to the intersections of race and gender identities.
Understanding intersectionality is crucial for the evolution of DEI as it widens the focus beyond oversimplified, often visible identities of race and gender. By broadening the focus, DEI can better engage the dominant group that may feel left out of DEI, despite the organization’s best intentions. This diffuses potential backlash narratives of “reverse racism” or “anti-white male.” Consider evolving your DEI programming, communications and strategy around an intersectional, broader array of diverse identities.
Data-Driven Approaches
Data-driven approaches to DEI involve using data to identify and address disparities within organizations and communities. This can include analyzing demographic data to understand representation across different levels, examining pay equity data for fairness or collecting employee feedback through surveys to gauge experiences of inclusion. By using data to identify areas of improvement, organizations can make targeted interventions and track progress over time.
Data-driven DEI ties DEI to business problems. It starts by asking the question, “What business problem are we trying to solve with DEI?” This approach helps move beyond well-intentioned yet often performative initiatives, and ensures that DEI efforts are grounded in evidence. This pivots DEI to being focused on measurable impact, not mandates or quotas which invite the zero sum game opposition. Tracking metrics over time helps to improve awareness and acceptance of DEI. These metrics should be tied to a business impact like talent acquisition or retention, innovation or engagement. This increases the alignment for dominant group members, allies and historically marginalized people.
Allyship
Ditch the checklists and the performative DEI statements. Allyship is about fostering a culture of vulnerability and courageous conversations. Encourage dominant group members to lean into their discomfort, acknowledge their own biases and actively listen to those with different lived experiences. Allyship is about progress over perfection.
Successful allyship programs are rooted in a strong “why.” Aspiring allies need to connect allyship to their own personal motivations as a leader, or more deeply as a human. Perhaps the reason for allyship is about justice, fairness or leaving a legacy for future generations. Allyship is about empowering employees to be more empathetic to the lived experiences of others, leaning into vulnerability, acknowledging personal power and privilege, creating psychological safety, conducting candid conversations and inspiring other dominant group members to be better allies.
Allyship is a journey, not a destination. It’s about showing up consistently, intentionally and taking action to create a truly inclusive workplace. Allyship is not about buzzwords or self-proclamations, it is a consistent set of intentional activities over time. By proactively engaging those in positions of power and influence in the DEI conversation, and holding them accountable for these behaviors, there is less likely to be the pushback of DEI as a distraction from work. DEI can be seen as a necessary part of achieving business goals.
DEI’s resurgence is an opportunity for business leaders to deepen their commitment and proactively defend it. DEI is strongly tied to business performance. Leaders need actionable strategies to leverage and deploy this moment. By focusing on intersectionality, data-driven approaches and allyship programs, leaders can better adapt to the ever-changing DEI landscape.
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