39 Flock Around and Find Out » Empathy: How well do you understand the lived experiences of the people you’re trying to help? Do you and others involved share that experience? If not, did you engage them in getting a deeper understanding of what’s going on and what they believe will (or won’t) change the outcome? Had you earned their trust sufficiently, so that engagement was strong? Empathy isn’t just about understanding—it’s about centering their perspectives and believing their realities as the foundation for meaningful action. Keep your head in the game. If you’re still committed to workplaces that are fair for all, here’s some of my best messaging to make your case. » Don’t Believe the Hype: What dominates the news cycle isn’t the full story. DEI wasn’t born in 2020, and it isn’t dead. Sure, I can count 12 major corporations and at least one mega association (looking at you, SHRM) that have caved to the “anti-work” backlash in recent months. But while some companies have made headlines for reversing course, the fact is that 82% of Fortune 500 companies are maintaining or increasing their efforts. Companies like Costco and Apple can take all my money if they keep doubling down on the approach that they’d like to sell their products and services to everyone, everywhere and that works best when their workforce is as diverse as our world. » DEI is Horizontal, Not Vertical: If you’ve approached DEI like a role, or department, or committee that could do the work on behalf of everyone else, you’ve got it all wrong. Cutting it actually compromises every functional area of association operations. From membership recruitment and retention to governance and decision-making, from annual conventions to national journals, every corner of your organization benefits when these principles are realized. When DEI is devalued or ignored, pipelines shrink, turnover increases, member growth withers, and even external partnerships erode right along with trust in your brand. » Metrics That Matter: Not all metrics are created equal, so get yourself some good ones that directly or by proxy shed light on the change you’re working to make. Create dashboards for leadership, update them regularly, and use data to drive investment decisions. If your strategic intervention isn’t moving the needle, winners don’t quit, they adjust the play. » The House Doesn’t Always Win: Associations that choose to abandon efforts to address ingrained advantages and disadvantages in on their teams, in their membership, on their stages, in the pages of their journals, and in the industry they serve, are setting themselves up for longterm losses. Doing nothing isn’t neutral—it’s actively causing harm since associations have an outsized impact on perceptions of credibility, and who has it, in their field. It’s also ceding ground to legacy and new competitors who are willing to invest if you don’t. People will build their own table. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. The cost of inaction is steep, not just in missed opportunities but in the erosion of trust, credibility, and reputation. » Fair for All Thinking: The language we use can make or break our success, and that goes double for DEI related practices and change initiatives. Terms like diversity, equity, and inclusion have How many underrepresented professionals from the “diverse talent” pool you’ve targeted did you actually consult before designing your program? Maybe you are part of that pool, and if so you probably know that no community is a monolith whose experience can be represented well by a single, often tokenized, voice. If aren’t them, and your organization wasn’t in community with them to validate and refine what you learned from your analysis, you likely missed critical insights. Your best bet? Include them directly on the design team, because lived experience trumps assumptions every time. » Strategy: Throwing money at a problem without good strategy rarely turns well. Change initiatives require strategic interventions that are carefully designed from the start to address actual problems, not assumptions. There’s nothing strategic about defaulting to a leadership development program just because it’s a common approach. Without doing the work to understand what’s really driving the lack of diversity at senior levels, such initiatives risk being well-intentioned but misaligned. A truly strategic intervention starts by identifying the precise barriers and targeting solutions that move the needle on those specific challenges. » Sacrifice: There’s often a lot of talk about quick easy wins that don’t cost much. After all, it costs nothing to be kind, right? Right. Here’s the rub. Most of the macro inequalities we observe are upheld by systemic practices, not just interpersonal ones, and systemic change isn’t free. Whether it’s time, money, political capital, or energy, leaders must be willing and able to invest what it takes to make the changes that actually have a shot at moving the needle. These resources are not unlimited, and doing this will mean not doing something else. FOUL ON THE PLAY.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Nzc3ODM=