In this episode, Michelle covers some of the top ways to drive lasting DEI change in your organization, providing actionable insights for leaders at every stage of their diversity, equity, and inclusion journey. Drawing from extensive experience, Michelle outlines broad, mindset-shaping principles essential to making DEI efforts effective and sustainable, rather than just a box-ticking exercise. She discusses that while tactical tips for program design or policy implementation are important, actual lasting change starts with thoughtful leadership, cultural alignment, and ongoing accountability.

She also talks about the critical importance of leading by listening, being honest about their DEI journey, grounding their strategies in their organization’s unique culture, and setting purposeful, measurable goals for both internal and external impact. Michelle also discusses the need for authenticity, stressing that performative actions can hinder efforts, and highlights how integrating DEI into the organization’s core DNA, backed by strong leadership and accountability, is key.

To learn more about Michelle, visit: https://www.equity-at-work.com/

Key Topics Discussed:

• Leading by listening and demonstrating empathy
• Honesty and transparency regarding DEI progress and setbacks
• Developing culture-specific DEI strategies and language
• Clarifying the purpose and goals of DEI work
• Balancing internal and external DEI goals
• Avoiding performative actions; being “real” or stepping back
• Operationalizing DEI so it becomes part of organizational DNA
• CEO and top executive leadership in DEI efforts
• Building clear accountability into every people leader’s role
• Grounding all DEI initiatives in change management techniques

Michelle I'm Michelle Bogan, Founder and CEO.

Of Equity at Work, and this is your DEI minute, your go to podcast for leaders looking to navigate the ever evolving landscape of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. Whether you're just starting out with DEI or looking to sustain your long term successes, each episode will provide you with actions you can take to move DEI forward at your organization, all in 15 minutes or less.

In this episode, I want to share with you our top 10 best practices for DEI. And you know, as you can see.

Through all the episodes that we've had.

There are so many things to think about when you're doing DEI work.

If you're leading it, if you're participating, if you're even just sort of thinking.

About, you know, what your goals and strategies are.

These are big picture best practices that.

Will help you get in a certain.

Mindset and kind of framing for the work. So certainly there are a lot of.

Best practices within each of the steps that you're going to take related to program design, outreach, standing up ergs, recruiting policies, et cetera. Again, these are meant to be sort.

Of bigger picture framing things to keep in mind as you're doing this work.

The first one is to lead by listening. So do this in a way that.

You'Re where you're demonstrating empathy, you're providing space for everyone to be heard respectfully.

As part of that, playing back what you heard, you know, validating that, making sure that they feel like they've been heard and then being really clear about.

How what they shared will or won't be incorporated into your plans either now or in the future and why.

So listening, that's our mantra. We start with listening.

We always lead by listening.

I think it's really a great practice.

To engage in, obviously with any people focused effort, but in particular with DEI work.

The second one is be honest about where you are today, where you want to go, what it's going to take to get there, what may be standing in your way, how you're going to address that, how long it's going to take for you to get where you.

Want to go, and be honest about.

You know, as you're working through your roadmap and implementing different things, you know.

You'Re going to have learnings along the.

Way, you're going to have things that.

You tried that worked, things that didn't.

Work, and you need to pivot. So being really honest and transparent about that builds a lot of trust and.

Will drive engagement in your programs.

Develop your DEI strategy in a culture specific way. So defining what de and I mean at your organization, aligning that with your vision, your mission and your values, and.

Using the language that you use within.

Your organization that really reflects your culture.

Even if that means calling it something totally different than dei.

And in particular, if calling it DEI.

Gets in the way of you doing.

The work, then call it something else, but focus on the work and do it in a way that really just.

Enhances all of the things that you're trying to offer to your employees, your.

Customers, your clients, your communities through your business.

Very related to that is being crystal clear about the purpose of the work.

So a lot of people kind of launch right into, we're going to start.

Training, we're going to set up ergs, we're going to start recruiting differently.

We've talked about a lot of the.

Pitfalls of rushing into things, but grounding.

In what is the purpose?

Why are you dedicating time and resources to this? What do you as an organization specifically want to get out of this work.

And then really be good about communicating that? You might.

This might be about providing education, it.

Might be about enabling advocacy, it could be about addressing a big turnover problem. It could be many different things, but.

Making sure that the purpose is very.

Clear to everyone and in alignment with.

Sort of your broader purpose as an organization.

Next is set goals for both internal and external DEI work, and set those goals based on your purpose and your.

Honest assessment of where you are today, where you want to go, and what it's going to take to get there. So this is really kind of bringing that all together.

The goals will then set the foundation for your roadmap and for the pacing.

Of the work that you want to do.

But really where a lot of people fall short here is they focus so.

Much on the internal, they forget about the external, or they feel they're too small to do much internally, so they.

Focus only or primarily on external. You've really got to have a balance of both. It doesn't need to be necessarily 50.

50, but making sure that you're thinking.

About both as part of your goals and your planning. Really, really important.

Next up.

And this one, I think, needs to be a mantra overall in all of.

The work you're doing is be real or don't do this work at all.

If anything that you are doing or training on or saying is performative and you're not, kind of like walking the walk behind that, then stop.

Your employees will sniff it out a mile away. It will end up wasting everyone's time.

You've got to either be in it.

Or, or really step back. As you move forward, make sure that you operationalize dei so you're integrating it into all the different ways that you work across your organization. So that really has a chance of becoming part of your organization's DNA. That's really the end goal of all.

Of this DI work is that eventually you won't need a program manager for this or someone that just focuses on.

The roadmap development and kind of advocating for this work. That it's really built into all the different ways that you work together. Now, shifting a bit to leadership and.

Accountability, the first on that is make.

Sure your CEO is leading this work from the front and that they're role modeling the behavior that she, he or they want others to use.

So where we see people fall short.

On this is that the CEO may make a great statement and then kind.

Of step back and say I've delegated.

This to some of my team and they're going to lead the charge.

But absolutely your CEO is going to.

Need to delegate some elements of this, but they really need to be the face and voice of the work consistently.

So that employees in particular feel that.

This is a top priority for the.

Organization related to that one. The next one is creating clear and.

Specific accountability for DEI for every person in a people leader role in your organization.

Now, I don't mean to say that if you're at step one of setting.

Your DI foundation that you're going to.

Know exactly what every people leader needs.

To be accountable for. It probably will start with the CEO and the senior leadership team and then as you get further into the work, you can then roll those accountabilities down.

Once you've got clear goals and know.

Sort of the the key steps and tasks and some of the interdependencies that you're going to need to work through.

To get there, but the goal needs to be to get that accountability built.

In for every leader.

That also means as part of that.

Accountability they will have goals that they.

Are required to work toward achieving.

And ideally those should be incorporated in.

Their reviews so when their performance is evaluated at the of each year or however frequently you do performance reviews, that.

That'S part of the conversation. It should have a weighting that impacts their raise and their bonus. That's where you really get skin in the game.

When you've got those KPIs measurables and.

The impact to reviews and bonus built.

Into that accountability and then finally ground your DEI work and change management. We're trying.

With DEI work, oftentimes you're very focused on changing behaviors. So yes, you may stand up new policies, you may have new programs, processes.

Et ceter, but all of those come down to expecting your employees to behave.

A certain way with each other.

And it's really tough to change behavior. And it's not tough necessarily because people.

Are philosophically against it or resisting.

It's just, it's a matter of changing.

Habits, you know, old ways of working to new ways of working. So when you ground in change management, you're really defining what's in it for me, for all the different people impacted.

You focus on helping people figure out how to drive that behavior and then.

Integrating that new behavior into the ways.

They work, providing a lot of visibility.

Into plans and progress and learnings and.

Pivots, and then showing, you know, how we're working toward those end goals, how you're kind of constantly reinforcing the purpose, all of those things together and a.

Consistent focus on moving the organization along toward those end goals. That's really great change management.

So draw on those good change management skills. Change management planning, lots of change management.

Communications need to be part of that.

But that really will help ensure your success. So I hope that this, you know.

That these have convened to you some.

Great things to think about and consider.

As you structure your approach to your.

DEI work and put a lot of.

Your plans into action.

And that's a wrap.

I'm Michelle Bogan, and that's your DEI minute for today. Thank you so much for listening. Please be sure to follow us wherever you listen to podcasts. And don't forget to leave us a review. If you ever have questions, please visit our website website or send us an email. You can also sign up for our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram. Links to everything can be found in the episode notes. This episode was produced and edited by Podgrowth with podcast art by our very own Jamie Applegate.