Promise vs. Practice

Moving from empty DEI statements to action

In 2020 we saw the largest Civil Rights Movement to date. All over the world people protested for racial equality and urged organizations to take a stand. Statements condemning racism were being published daily. Companies vowed to create inclusive work environments and better the world. But have they held up to those promises?

We’ve seen it before a hundred times in a hundred different ways:

“I swear I’ll change! I love you!”

*Literally goes right back to old behavior and doesn’t change*

“Honey, we love you even if you are gay! We would never treat you differently because of it.”

*Winces or looks away every time you hold your partners hand and refers to them as “your little friend”*

“There will be no racism in my company! I won’t have it!”

*Writes a letter of camaraderie to employees and pays for one diversity training then stops*

It’s a part of being human — sometimes we say things we don’t mean, or worse yet, sometimes we say things we mean but never follow through with.

“Hope is the worst of evils for it prolongs the torment of man.” — Nietzsche

Diversity, equity, and inclusion work is just as personal as it is professional. Giving your traumatized, hurt, tired, and hungry for justice employees false hope may just be the straw that breaks their backs. With a global pandemic, a rapidly changing workplace/workforce, economic uncertainty, and social injustice all happening at once….yeah, I’d be afraid and tired of empty promises, too. This is an opportunity for leaders to make a positive impact in people’s lives rather than giving them false hopes which are bound to be shattered later. Leadership is a lot about installing and managing optimism with real opportunities that people believe they can achieve.

This article is a call to action; we can no longer tolerate people talking the talk without walking the walk. People’s lives are at risk; we are at the brink of systemic change and it is crucial to our global society that we continue on a journey of inclusion.

I want to be clear that I am not minimizing the impact of explicitly saying you will not tolerate exclusionary behavior within your organization, it is an amazing first step. In the DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) world we call this first step — including the personal work of educating yourself — allyship. Allyship elevates your consciousness and allows you to see that there is a problem. It forces you to open up your eyes and begin to analyze your own thoughts and behaviors. The next step is to become an accomplice.

An accomplice is someone who takes action against interpersonal, organizational, and systemic oppression of all kinds. During the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 we saw thousands of White people marching alongside their Black peers, actively demanding reformation. They placed their White bodies between Black protestors and police officers in an attempt to keep them safe, all while knowing damn well that a police officer is much less likely to fire rubber bullets or tear gas at a white person than a black person. That is an accomplice.

An accomplice in the organizational sense will look a bit different, but the mentality remains the same. A truly inclusive organization, one that is following through on their promise, will be actively practicing what they preach. For example, if an organization released a statement saying, “We do not stand for racism, or oppression, of any kind. We are committed to being an inclusive organization — one where all feel welcome.” and then implemented gender neutral bathrooms, removed race from their applications, and issued company-wide DEI training, they would (in part) be acting on their words.

I will leave with you a few “do’s and don’ts” of safely communicating and planning DEI intentions with your organization:

Do

• Understand the leadership challenge you face — you’re teaching people how to succeed in a crisis.
• Consider your employees’ perspective and think about what you would want to hear if you were in their shoes.
• Admit when you make a mistake or are wrong.
• Think micro inside of macro — aka — find out what your employees need as individuals, and then apply that to the entire organization. For example, if 25 Black employees tell you that your Handbook policy on “Appropriate Hair” is exclusive and sends a message that you believe natural Black hair is not professional, you wouldn’t just change the policy for those 25 people. No, you would change the policy in the Handbook and allows those who don’t feel safe enough to voice concerns to benefit as well.
• Call on internal and external allies for help.
• Give your team concrete actions to take.
• Let people know in advance that the organization is concerned about systemic bias and keep them informed.

Don’t

• Trade in speculation. Be honest and truthful about the facts and the work you are doing/going to be doing.
• Don’t avoid the topic of race.
• Don’t become defensive.
• Don’t generalize
• Don’t touch people’s hair. It seems obvious but it is something that certain people feel it’s ok to do

And lastly, don’t do nothing.