Dei Deconstructed: Your No-Nonsense Guide to Doing the Work and Doing It Right

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Subtle Acts of Exclusion: How to Understand, Identify, and Stop Microaggressions” by Tiffany Jana and Michael Baran Am I trying to say with all this that “DEI doesn’t work”? No—something quite different. I’m saying that DEI done wrong doesn’t work, and DEI that doesn’t work is often the case because it was done wrong. I think what makes Lily an expert is their intersectionality and lived experiences. They don’t say this outright, but… you can’t be a cis-hetero white dude AND be a DEI expert. BUT, there is space at the table if you do fall into this category. For example, you can be an executive that triumphs DEI-focused change within an organization, but please leave the teaching and coaching to those with the lived toolkits.

Educators use movement-related information to increase the ability of stakeholders at different stages in their learning journeys to make change. It’s one thing to say that, as a collective, the DEI industry doesn’t have a handle on how to ensure effectiveness and quality control as a standard. That’s not a problem on its own—many emerging industries and fields experience similar challenges. The problem is that if you look up “DEI” or “diversity equity and inclusion” on any internet search, that’s the last impression you would get of what you’d find. Diversity, equity, and inclusion, however, are undeniably in vogue. More companies than ever have turned to the industry, asking for professional help. More new and aspiring practitioners have jumped into the industry seeking experience, knowledge, or even just a piece of the very lucrative pie. Yet, despite this scramble, I’ve noticed an increasing undercurrent of concern coming from the people whose job it is to lead or even just exist in the workplaces DEI practitioners sell to and opine on.

Table of contents

Performative Allyship: Zheng identifies the problem with allyship being more performative than leading to actual change. Zheng examines the criteria for performative allyship, asking, what makes an action performative? “If an action is intended to gain social media clout or make a person look good, those are dead ringers for performative allyship” (p.87). One of the brightest minds in DEI work today brings us a ‘how-to’ for inclusive leaders. You’ll be amazed at how Zheng’s straight talk and clear thinking are so deeply grounded in research. You should ‘book club’ this one in your business; it offers the path for avoiding ‘performative allyship.’"

Everyone has the power to instill real change in the world (whether informal or formal). We must harness our individual and collective capabilities to challenge the status quo.To help, we’ve gathered some of the best books about this topic, written by authors who combine lived experience with DEIB expertise. Our list will help you build your understanding of inclusion —while helping you learn how to avoid personal bias and lead with allyship. DEI surveys are only as good as the practitioner or expert administering them and the organizational leaders following up (or not) on their findings. Ineffective deployments of DEI surveys can result in unintended consequences, including retaliation, decreased employee trust in leadership, and unhelpful interventions informed by inaccurate survey conclusions. DEI Talks One training devolved into name-calling and profoundly unproductive conflict when one workshop participant called another a “White supremacist bigot” to his face, that participant told the first participant that they would “burn in hell” for being LGBTQ+, and the facilitator did nothing as the session erupted into chaos. The next step in your DEI journey starts here. Building on the knowledge base of DEI Deconstructed, Lily Zheng offers a workbook with 40 original exercises, worksheets, and other tools to help guide youand your organization toward more substantive and lasting DEI outcomes. Whether you’re a new or veteran DEI practitioner looking to improve your practice, a leader looking to grow your leadership skills, or an advocate looking to play more powerful roles in movements, this book willgive you the practical tools to do just that. But still, they’re expected to take on extensive projects and initiatives, often without a team, budget, or necessary tools to perform their tasks well.

This, in my opinion, is the next evolution of DEI work beyond simply “good intentions.” It is DEI without the bells and whistles, boiled down to what is pragmatic, rigorous, and effective for solving challenges, changing outcomes, and achieving the impacts we need to. Critics point to these factors as reasons why the DEI industry does more harm than good, and some go so far as to claim it is past saving, suggesting that those who care would be better off disengaging from it completely. The most idealistic advocates brush off these factors as slight complications alongside an otherwise unproblematic and hopeful upward trajectory. Both have a point, but both mischaracterize the path ahead of us. So who am I? I’m someone who deeply and personally feels the imperative of making better organizations and a better world. I’m someone who wants to use their understanding of the world, of organizations, systems, and people, to fix things that have been broken for a long time—perhaps even within our lifetimes. I am radically impatient and uncompromising when centering those negatively impacted by systems. I work to understand the structures, cultures, people, and processes that constitute systems to help people make better ones. I rely on data of all kinds to understand, justify, process, and enable change. I believe that people can change and grow, that systems can adapt to undo inequity rather than perpetuate it, and that we can both build and fight our way to a better world. The Conclusion caps it all off. You’ll look at the past and future of DEI through a pragmatic lens, review the challenges to solve in the present and receive a final primer on how we collectively dismantle the DEI-Industrial Complex and achieve the outcomes we want to see in our lifetimes. You might get a few inspirational words from me. Maybe.

Achieving any of these requires a strategy that dismantles historical inequities and meets people’s unique needs.”

Women of color deserve truly equitable workplaces where our success and well-being is centered. Lily Zheng’s DEI Deconstructedis a compelling must-read for leaders who want to stay accountable, make change, and create better workplaces for us all.” Inclusion Revolution: The Essential Guide to Dismantling Racial Inequity in the Workplace” by Daisy Auger-Domínguez

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Source: “Why Diversity Programs Fail,” by Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev, July–August 2016. Authors’ study of 829 midsize and large US firms.