Is My Organization Ready to Hire a DEI Expert?
For months—or perhaps years—you have been considering hiring a DEI expert to do some workshops for your team or organization. But how do you know if your organization is ready to make the investment? Here are 3 things to ask yourself before bringing in an expert.
How much does my team trust each other?
Do we have buy-in at all levels of the organization?
What do we want to get out of the investment?
The Role of Trust
When it comes to DEI work, trust is KEY! You and your team will be diving into emotionally charged content. Although a skilled and mindful facilitator can navigate challenging moments, if there is no trust, your team will not feel comfortable sharing and being vulnerable, which is imperative to the success of your DEI workshop. Before bringing in an expert, observe your team and look for the following:
During discussions about sensitive topics, do most of your staff participate and share?
Does your staff share challenges in their lives with you, especially those that may impact their job performance?
Is your team able to have and resolve conflict without damaging their relationships?
Is your team free of lingering or unresolved conflicts between team members?
Is your leadership in support of the incorporation of DEI?
Does your staff feel comfortable giving feedback to leadership or to each other?
If you answered NO to any of those questions, it is likely your team or organization is not quite ready. When a DEI specialist is brought in to work with a team that is not ready, we have seen the following:
For virtual sessions, most people are off camera and not participating
Most activities remain at surface level and do not yield the expected results
Disagreements between participants take over the session
The workshop is the first and only step taken by your organization, which can be disappointing and disempowering to staff who are invested in DEI
If you want to have a successful DEI experience, begin by getting to YES! Work to answer yes to all of the questions above. Spend time building trust with your team, building trust between leadership and staff, getting buy-in at each level of the organization, and resolving any lingering conflicts.
Getting Buy-in
Without buy-in, or support, for DEI at each level of the organization, it will be difficult for any steps taken to create a more equitable organization. Don’t get me wrong. You don’t need EVERY single person who works for the organization to be a champion. A good DEI specialist will be able to galvanize the willing and even the slightly resistant. However, if your executive leaders or other decision-makers are not on board, it will be an uphill battle to make any changes to the organizational structure or practices. Instead of bringing in a DEI expert, focus on building the capacity of your team to understand the importance of the work and how it will benefit the organization. Here are 3 simple ways to get started on this:
Host optional professional learning community meetings where you pick an article or video around DEI to discuss with your team
Gather and share research that shows the benefit of DEI work on your industry
Attend a DEI seminar or conference with your team and present what you learned to the rest of the organization
Know Your Deliverables
Before calling in a DEI specialist, know what you want to get out of working with them. If you bring in a DEI specialist without knowing what you want, you will get just that: a lack of clarity and direction. You will be left feeling unclear about what to do next or how the engagement will impact the organization. Starting and not following through on DEI work is one of the most demoralizing things you can do for your organization. Here are three potential deliverables that many of our clients outline:
To introduce the staff to DEI as a concept and practice as part of the onboarding process for new staff
To confront a specific challenge in the organization (ex: We hired 6 clinicians of color and they all quit within 18 months)
To change the way that your organization does its work (ex: Modify policies to make them more inclusive of the population that we serve)
If you read this article and decided that your organization or team is not ready, that’s actually good news! Now you can take the necessary steps to get ready so that when you do hire a DEI specialist, it will be electrifying and transformative.