On board with DEI… until it gets real

This is what happens: sometime after your organization/community makes a commitment to DEI, people – including people who were formerly “on board” – push back. And your DEI practitioner/office/team now gets in trouble. For doing what you asked them to do.

Advancement does not get in trouble for raising money. Admissions doesn’t get called out for admitting students. But DEI predictably gets held to account for… advancing DEI.

This is the “DEI for real” phase, in which DEI is not just words and ideas, but structural and systemic change that impacts people, inconveniencing – and even disrupting – their usual way of doing and being, expecting growth and holding everyone accountable for impacts, not just intentions.

And this doesn’t have to be. Because we can predict this phase of institutional growth in DEI, we can plan for it. If your organization is aspiring to more than just saying you care about DEI – if, and only if, you really want to advance DEI – then you can:

1. Strategically plan your organization’s growth in DEI: look 20 years out. What’s your vision? Where are you headed? What institutional and cultural changes do you anticipate? What hurdles and growth pains can you expect? What will it take to get where you aspire to be?
2. Champion your organization’s DEI initiatives, especially throughout the leadership level. Be prepared for resistance and blowback. Practice what you will say when… And sometimes, name the discomfort, fear and stress because you can reasonably anticipate it, and it may be useful to acknowledge and address it, instead of waiting to see “if” it’s an issue. (Some things aren’t a question of “whether” they’re an issue, but how you’ll find out.)
3. Proactively stand as team in the spotlight of DEI, especially throughout the leadership level. Be the faces and voices at the front of this work, not to take the credit but to collectively shoulder the responsibilities.
4. Write DEI into your position’s responsibilities, especially throughout the leadership level. If your job description doesn’t say anything about DEI, yet your organization is committing to institutional change, well, this is part of that change. Yes, your DEI practitioner/office/team is running point on DEI. But they are not solely responsible for DEI, especially throughout your work. And when you write in those responsibilities for DEI, don’t let the fear of personally failing hold you back. Write those responsibilities truthfully, fearlessly and with the accountability that your position ought to bear. Then, pursue the professional growth you need to live up to the DEI you may not have signed up for originally, but is yours to advance. And share your DEI responsibilities with your DEI practitioner/office/team. Equity is that you know what they’re responsible for, and they know what you’re responsible for.
5. Name and talk about the developmental stages of your organization’s commitment with your community. Let everyone know the vision, the strategic plan and what you anticipate it will take to get there, including discomfort and the non-negotiable expectation to grow, but not to be unsafe.
6. Provide DEI professional growth to empower all employees and volunteers, especially throughout leadership, to pilot, practice and integrate in their work. Not just conferences and workshops – create professional learning communities and coaching. And you probably need to increase internal capacity to coach growth in DEI.