People choose to center and apply a “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging” (DEIB) lens in their work because they care, care to make the spaces around them better for others. The motivation for DEIB focused work initially may be rooted in care and also need to be deeply rooted in competencies required to bring about equity and justice.
DEIB focused work requires people to have a rigorous and nuanced anti-oppression and systemic understanding and analysis of how structural oppression produces the material realities of organizations. Without a thoughtful analysis, organizational issues around diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging are then addressed at the level of band aid solutions and not at the roots. Band-aid solutions allow for inequities to continue in new aesthetics and forms. Subsequently, to move from understanding to practice, it requires skill building. As DEIB-centered practitioners we need to be able to create and hold containers and processes for and with people to undo and uproot oppressive ways of being baked into organizational practices, policies and overall culture. DEIB focused work requires people to slow down enough to take the time to build and deepen their knowledge and skills to contribute to ongoing movements of addressing inequities and injustices at its roots.
This program is an opportunity to slow down enough to commit to a rigorous understanding of the challenges in front of us and to be in community of building and deepening our skills to find a way out collectively.
On the surface, “DEI” may ask who isn’t in the space , why not and how can individuals shift the organization so that more “diversity” can exist. What if we keep asking questions and include the following? What is possible then?
- How do we understand and locate the challenges and aspirations for equity and justice within larger systems such as the nonprofit industrial complex and racial capitalism? How do we bring this into focus diligently when it is and can be overwhelming and paralyzing?
- How do we imagine “DEIB” as practices and commitments to being pro-worker? pro-collective well being? pro-wealth redistribution and economic justice? Pro-democracy?
- How do we problem solve at the roots for sustainable change?
Our DEIB for Consultants program is just one way we are doubling-down to our commitment to DEIB. This program offers the space to slow down and have these intentional conversations to strategize and build toward a more equitable world. I hope you can join us!