State of HR: DEI That Works For Everyone

When I am facilitating DEI workshops, I always start the session by asking people for their own definitions for diversity, equity, and inclusion. We go through each term by itself, pulling in multiple perspectives. The participants always start with a variety of definitions for each of the terms. We then work across the group to get to a shared definition of each of the terms that the group can buy into. These are sometimes challenging discussions, because the individual lived experiences influence how each participant sees each of the three terms.

I would like to go through this exercise with all 340 million USA residents (international DEI has its own challenges, we’ll just start with the easy stuff). That way, when somebody is setting DEI on fire, I at least have a general idea of where we might start the conversation. 

For the record, I enjoy having conversations about how DEI is currently being challenged. The strawman arguments, revisionist history, and shallow positions are all welcomed with me. I like the fact that people finally feel comfortable enough to discuss their issues with DEI. It’s important to note that there have been plenty of missteps with DEI, but missteps happen in every field of work as the work evolves. It’s fair to acknowledge DEI missteps, then work to ensure our DEI work is even stronger.

Veteran DEI practitioners have been pushing the boulder up the hill for so long that this current pushback on DEI is just the flavor of the day. If we take a breath, step back, and look at DEI work from a broader context, we see the overall work continues to trend in the correct direction. There is still significant work to be done, and the work will not go away.

So yes, please bring forth every legal challenge. Let’s get all these issues out into the open and talk about them openly. This is a fantastic time to be a skilled DEI practitioner, because we have the opportunity to reconfigure our DEI efforts in a way that makes them stronger for everyone in our organizations. It’s time to create DEI That Works for Everyone.

This article is part of a 10 article series I’m doing in anticipation of the Cleveland SHRM State of Human Resources event. Please join us on January 22nd, as I discuss the state of Human Resources with Cleveland SHRM’s President, Jared Daly. Registration: https://www.clevelandshrm.com/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1890209