A Practitioner’s Workbook. The landscape of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives is often fraught with superficial efforts and performative gestures. Lily Zheng’s “Reconstructing DEI” dives deep into this complex terrain, offering critical analysis of current DEI practices and shortcomings. Ready to challenge your assumptions about DEI?
Table of Contents
Genres
Personal Development, Management, Leadership, Corporate Culture, Society, Culture, Social Justice, Business Ethics, Critical Theory, Sociology, Political Science, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Race Studies
Zheng dissects the inadequacies of mainstream DEI approaches, arguing that they often perpetuate the very systems of oppression they aim to dismantle. The book exposes how corporate DEI programs frequently prioritize optics over meaningful change, leading to tokenism and superficial diversity without addressing underlying power imbalances. Zheng challenges reader to move beyond surface-level diversity and engage in deeper transformative work that tackles systemic inequities.
“Reconstructing DEI” delves into the historical context of DEI, tracing its evolution from the Civil Rights Movement to contemporary corporate manifestation. Zheng critiques the commodification of DEI, highlighting how it has been co-opted by capitalist interests to maintain the status quo. The book advocates for more radical and intersectional approach to DEI, emphasizing the need to address the interconnected nature of oppressions based on race, gender, class, and other social identities.
Review
Zheng’s work is powerful and thought-provoking critique of the current state of DEI. This book’s strength lies in clear and concise analysis, supported by extensive research and real-world examples. Zheng’s writing is accessible and engaging, making complex theoretical concepts understandable to broad audience.
“Reconstructing DEI” is an essential read for anyone interested in understanding the complexities of DEI and potential for creating meaningful social change. The book challenges reader to critically examine their own biases and assumptions and provides framework for building more equitable and just organizations and societies.
However, some readers might find this book’s critical stance on mainstream DEI approaches to be overly pessimistic. While the book effectively deconstructs existing models, it could benefit from offering more concrete alternatives and actionable strategies for moving forward.
Introduction: Practical exercises for strengthening your DEI know-how
Reconstructing DEI (2024) offers an in-depth guide for implementing effective diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies (DEI) in various organizational contexts. It provides readers with practical tools, exercises, and case studies to navigate and enhance DEI initiatives, aiming to foster more inclusive environments and equitable outcomes.
Navigating the complex world of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) requires more than theoretical knowledge – it demands actionable strategies and a commitment to effecting change.
This Blink serves as an essential resource and practical guide for anyone wanting to expand their understanding and application of DEI principles. The exercises we’ll cover build on one another, so we recommend moving through the Blink in the order we’ve laid out.
A note before we begin: the author recommends first familiarizing yourself with the content from their previous book, Deconstructing DEI. This is because jumping into action before understanding the underlying principles can end up doing more harm than good. So, if you haven’t yet read the Blink for Deconstructing DEI, feel free to head there first.
Defining yourself
Effective DEI work requires introspection. In order to drive systemic change with integrity, it’s essential to first understand your own values, identities, and experience.
Begin by identifying your core values, which serve as a compass for your actions and decisions. Specifically, come up with a list of eight of your top values, such as compassion, integrity, or knowledge. Reflect on how each of these values manifests in your behaviors and life decisions, as well as how they’ve evolved over time. This exercise helps to ground you when a situation challenges your convictions.
Next, you’ll explore your various social identities. This deep dive into the interplay of privilege and marginalization in your life reveals the complex ways in which your identities have impacted you. First, name your identities across some common identity dimensions, such as race, nationality, gender, neurotype, religion, sexuality, or anything else important to your self-identification, like military or immigration status.
Now reflect on how each of these identities confers privilege or marginalization on you, noting the unique advantages or disadvantages you’ve encountered. How might two or more of them have combined to increase either marginalization or privilege? What topics do your identities give you unique expertise in? And less expertise in?
Finally, drawing from these answers, consider the question: If you had to give a 10-minute presentation on a topic you have identity-related expertise with, what would you choose? Conversely, you can also think about a 10-minute presentation you would like to hear from someone else on a topic in which you lack identity-related expertise. What might you hope to learn from it?
These exercises will deepen your understanding of yourself and help steer your DEI efforts.
Expanding your capacity
Now that you’ve reflected on your core values and identity, you can leverage this internal groundwork by expanding your capacity beyond yourself. This means beginning to cultivate supportive relationships, and establishing shared accountability.
To engage others effectively, first identify DEI goals that could benefit from mutual support. Consider specific, concrete objectives that you aim to achieve in the coming weeks or months. After identifying your goals, think about who among your colleagues or within your network could serve as partners in shared accountability. These people should not only share your DEI objectives, but also possess complementary skills or perspectives.
Once you’ve identified potential partners, reach out with a well-thought-out request for shared accountability. You might explain the DEI goal you’re working toward, why you believe shared accountability would be beneficial, and how you envision working together.
Let’s say your goal is to speak up more against biased comments in meetings. You might seek out a colleague who shares this goal and is present in the same meetings. You propose sending each other a quick DM during a meeting to confirm whether a biased comment was made and then take turns speaking up about it.
Asking for help is another vital skill in the DEI practitioner’s toolkit. You may not always hold the power to directly influence change, but you can still ask others for assistance. For instance, you could ask a manager to allocate time in a team meeting for additional comments to ensure diverse voices are heard. This request specifies the nature of the help needed and clarifies the expected outcome and its alignment with DEI goals.
Identifying DEI issues
Recognizing inequity often starts with a gut feeling that something isn’t right. While important, however, this instinct must be supported by data and evidence that makes a compelling case for change.
To start, it’s best to define specific, measurable outcomes for your DEI initiatives. An abstract goal of “Greater diversity, equity, and inclusion” is too vague. Instead, choose precise goals, like representational parity or an accessible workplace. How might you track progress toward them?
With your goals in mind, start formulating hypotheses to test with data. Keep in mind that your data should answer a specific question you couldn’t easily answer without it, and it should come from a range of sources. Let’s say your hypothesis is that anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination is occurring and is severely impacting LGBTQ+ employees. To test it, you might conduct a quantitative survey measuring key employee outcomes; hold focus groups and interviews; and examine discrimination complaints from LGBTQ+ employees.
Ultimately, however, your goal isn’t just to identify issues – it’s to act. To that end, you need to follow up with leaders who can support your efforts.
A powerful narrative tailored to your audience can significantly influence the success of your DEI efforts. Ideally, your story should address the whys of an issue, and who it affects. Why did the issue arise? Why are you confident in your analysis? Finally, why and how should your audience take action? Discuss the specific outcomes you aim to achieve and link each piece of data to these goals. If your data reveals a disparity in perceived belonging among different demographic groups, explain how this finding hinders your organization’s goal of fostering a supportive working environment.
By grounding DEI initiatives in data and narrative, you can transform intuition into action.
Shifting culture toward inclusion
Championing inclusion in diverse environments requires a blend of self-awareness and practical strategies. While diagnosing inequity is crucial, the core of DEI work lies in creating and maintaining an inclusive culture that actively supports and energizes everyone.
The process starts with a commitment to lifelong learning and adapting to the varying identities and experiences present in any environment. Educate yourself on different cultures and identities so that you’re not imposing the burden of education on marginalized people. If you encounter someone from a culture you’re unfamiliar with, do your own research online or through other resources, especially via content created by people from that culture.
Another key component of championing inclusion is actively working to shift microcultures within your organization or community toward more inclusive practices. Start by pinpointing a focus area, such as within a team or with a specific colleague. Analyze the current norms within this context, such as how success is defined or how decisions are made. Next, envision what a more inclusive environment might look like, brainstorming new values, assumptions, and behavioral expectations.
Then, consider strategies for influencing these microcultures. If decision-making is consistently dominated by the same few people, for example, implement a structured brainstorming process that requires input from all members before any decision is made. As another example, say you’re working toward fostering a culture that values learning from mistakes. You could publicly praise team members when they share lessons learned from their errors, reinforcing that it’s safe and valued to display vulnerability and growth.
The journey to effective inclusion combines the intellectual with the practical, emphasizing the need for continuous learning, thoughtful engagement with cultural differences, and the strategic empowerment of others.
In the work of DEI, addressing conflict and harm is as inevitable as it is crucial. Your endeavors can never rid your organization of harm entirely. But how you manage and repair harm can transform conflicts into opportunities for growth and understanding.
Active listening is a cornerstone in this process. It involves deeply listening to people’s perspectives without jumping to conclusions or solutions. This kind of listening is characterized by several key actions, including: reflecting or paraphrasing what’s been said to ensure understanding; asking questions that seek deeper insight; and validating the other person’s emotions. This approach shows respect for someone’s concerns.
Practitioners should also consider their own experiences with conflict and harm, both as the harm-doer and the harmed. Reflective questions like, “What could have been done differently to repair the harm?” or “How can I listen more effectively in future conflicts?” guide this introspection. Through such reflections, practitioners can develop a deeper, more nuanced approach to navigating conflict
In broad strokes, moving beyond traditional punitive measures and toward a more restorative approach is key in harm reduction. This means prioritizing relationship repair and meeting the needs of those impacted instead of doling out blame and punishment, which can further fracture communities. Restorative solutions might involve the person who inflicted harm offering a genuine apology, making amends, and changing their behavior. For example, if an employee makes a hurtful remark to a colleague, the offender might be urged to understand the impact of their actions and offer a sincere apology. Both parties might then work together to establish steps to prevent recurrence.
Through these practices, you can transform conflict and harm into powerful catalysts for fostering deeper connections and a more inclusive community.
Building coalitions
When creating a mass DEI movement, practitioners often forget that change is rarely the product of isolated actions by singular heroes. Rather, a movement is born from the collaborative efforts of individuals often possessing conflicting ideologies and strategies.
Given this, initiating a DEI movement begins with understanding how it may affect various stakeholders. Think of a DEI-related issue you believe requires a movement to address. Next, identify as many individuals or groups you can think of who would have something to gain or lose from this movement. From this list, select three that might have the most to gain and three with the most to lose. Out of those six, choose four to research.
For your research, use a combination of strategies: speak to people directly, ask those who know them well, and/or make inferences from your existing knowledge. Note what each party stands to gain or lose as well as how a movement would fit into their own goals and priorities. Further, consider the forms of hard and soft power that each party possesses. Do they have the power to request certain behaviors, promise compensation, or threaten punishment? Can they influence behavior through their expertise, knowledge, or charisma? How could you use all of this information to plan out a successful movement?
Following this step, it’s time to start building a coalition. Identify any individuals whose support you need and craft personalized messages that resonate with their interests and priorities. For instance, you might approach a senior leader with insights on how DEI initiatives could enhance the organization’s reputation and operational efficiency, and present a compelling case for their aid.
By strategically leveraging diverse stakeholders’ interests and powers, you can initiate a powerful DEI movement that enacts meaningful change.
DEI strategy
Creating systemic change in DEI work demands a thoughtful, structured approach. Importantly, it must go beyond generic best practices.
A DEI strategy outlines a concrete plan complete with initiatives, efforts, and timelines aimed at achieving a set of identified outcomes. It’s customized to your organization’s unique context and requires you to use all of the information and techniques you’ve gathered so far.
First, identify the organization, community, or environment for which you aim to develop a DEI strategy. Then, name the most significant, interconnected issues or inequities driving your DEI initiative. For example, persistent disparities in gender and racial representation. Next, select three key outcomes you wish to achieve in order to tackle these challenges effectively. These might be: achieving representational parity, fostering an inclusive culture, and establishing methods for accountable conflict resolution.
Now, it’s time to determine which areas you’ll pool your resources into in order to reach your outcomes. Examples could be: hiring and recruitment; workplace norms; and reporting and accountability. Within these areas, identify up to five specific initiatives that will help you along the way. For instance, you could establish partnerships with educational institutions serving diverse communities or expand informal reporting processes through third-party platforms.
The success of these initiatives depends heavily on the involvement and support of various constituents within the organization. Note which parties you need for funding, leadership, or participation. In addition, make sure you’re aware of any special considerations you need to keep in mind, given the parties you’re working with. If people distrust DEI efforts due to past failures, for example, you should emphasize a “small wins” approach to demonstrate success.
Through this comprehensive approach, organizations can move beyond superficial DEI efforts to drive real, systemic change.
Achieving DEI
Achieving DEI is an ambition that requires sustained effort. Though intended to discourage complacency, the sentiment that “DEI work never truly ends” can feel exhausting. To maintain motivation and avoid burnout, it’s important to keep faith in positive change and prioritize self-care.
As part of your work to achieve DEI, you should regularly assess your progress using the following four-level model.
At Level 1, organizations take initial steps like creating DEI mission statements and celebrating diverse cultural holidays. These actions often lack formal commitment from leaders.
At Level 2, organizations engage in basic collective efforts, such as hiring DEI professionals and collaborating with external benchmarking bodies. At this stage, stakeholder buy-in has increased.
Level 3 marks a strategic integration of DEI into the organization, where data influences decision-making and outcomes are shared with external stakeholders. Actions in this stage demand substantial buy-in and carry significant implications for failure.
Finally, Level 4 represents DEI maturity, where DEI initiatives are not only comprehensive and high-value, but are supported by a culture of universal engagement and commitment. DEI data is regularly collected, analyzed, and shared alongside a full activation of leadership.
To gauge your organization’s maturity, reflect on its foundational, internal, and external DEI. Assign each facet a number based on the four levels, then average the scores. This is your organization’s overall DEI maturity score. Did your organization’s score surprise you overall, or on any one dimension? If so, why? Have recent DEI initiatives noticeably shifted maturity levels anywhere? Make notes. Then, list specific next steps you need to take in order to move up a level on each dimension. Make sure to compare your assessment with trusted colleagues and discuss any areas where you disagree.
Finally, and crucially, an essential part of DEI work is, sometimes, to do anything other than DEI work. It’s easy to feel like your entire sense of identity and worth are wrapped up in this work. But that’s a one-way ticket to burnout. So, be sure to cultivate meaningful relationships and purpose in at least one place outside of work – and always remember to breathe.
Conclusion
Some of the key factors that make DEI work effective are: self-reflection, coalition building, restorative approaches to conflict, tailored organizational strategies, and maturity assessments.
By applying these practical frameworks, you can move beyond superficial and performative DEI efforts and drive meaningful systemic change characterized by inclusive cultures, representation, and long-term sustainability.
Lily Zheng is a prominent diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategist, consultant, and speaker. Recognized as a Forbes D&I Trailblazer and 2021 DEI Influencer, they are the author of several influential books including The Ethical Sellout and DEI Deconstructed. Zheng has made significant contributions to the discourse on equity and inclusion.