4 Steps To Reduce The Perplexity Of Workplace Equity

Welcome to my weekly Q&A feature. (Scroll down to find the Q&A.) 

If this is your first time here, welcome. I spend a fair amount of time speaking at events and conferences. At the end of my presentations, I leave space for audience members to ask questions—tough questions, brave questions, you name it. The level of candor and curiosity always inspires me, and I want to share that sentiment with you. Each week I pick one question that I believe others would find most instructive and publish my response to it here. 

The purpose of this weekly tradition is transparency and inclusion. 

• Transparency: a behind-the-scenes look at my day-to-day. 
• Inclusion: bringing others along on the journey.

Be Brave™

Bring Clarity To Your Gender Equity Strategy  

Question:

HR manager here. A huge insight I came to recently is the “why” behind all the resistance I’m facing in promoting diversity & inclusion at work. I believe it’s because the topic is so complex and heavy. For example, someone asked me what the difference is between D&I, DEI, DEIB (B for belonging), DEIJ (J for justice), racial equality, gender equality, LGBT equality (or is it LGBTQ+), Black Lives Matter, and ESG. I didn’t know how to respond. How can I reduce the complexity of this issue to actually make a dent in progress?  

Answer:

I’m nodding my head in acknowledgment of the intricacies and weight surrounding the DEI conversation. This work demands bravery. Because when we talk about DEI, we are talking about people. And people are complex, 3-dimensional beings. You, me, your colleagues—we can’t be reduced to checkboxes. Nor should we be. 

Is categorizing people based on their chromosomes, their native tongue, their place of worship, their personality type, or their generational cohort the best way to manage people?

No. We need a better framework for thinking about equity in the workplace. 

Frameworks For Equity   

Instead of demographic check-boxes, think intersectionality. Intersectionality recognizes that our identities (whether they be intrapersonal, interpersonal, or group identities) overlap. These identities don’t compete for space in a hierarchy.

They intersect in the logic of 1+1 = 3. That is, the intersection of our identities transforms our experience of the world. 

Here’s a real-life example to make this concept concrete: Pipeline (my company) found through its implementations that men receive promotions at a 21% greater rate than women. When we applied the intersectional lens, we found the promotion gap doubles for Black women. The intersection of gender and race changes how this cohort experiences the workplace. 

For those familiar with the VUCA framework (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity), DEI falls in the complexity box. It carries an air of elusiveness and has multiple interconnected parts. We can likely agree to our end destination, but we may not agree on how we are going to arrive there. These attributes make DEI categorically complex within the VUCA framework. 

To reach an agreement on the path forward so we can ultimately reach our end goal, we need to inject clarity into the complexity of DEI. We need to be on the same page. How? Follow these four steps to reduce the perplexity of DEI. 

4 Steps To Reduce The Perplexity Of DEI 

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