CEO of Kantola Training Solutions, an innovative eLearning company focused on Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion and Harassment Prevention.
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Prompted by a shift in national sentiment, many companies have made a commitment to creating a workplace that embraces diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). If your organization is part of that movement and you’re implementing a DEI program (or planning to), you could be facing some challenging resistance. The good news is that there are effective strategies for managing resistance to DEI.
To advance our knowledge in this area, my colleagues and I at Kantola Training Solutions connected with customers and partners and asked them about the challenges they faced in launching and implementing a DEI program. We incorporated what we learned into an overall strategic framework for developing a DEI program called the Leadership Primer: Building a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Program. We further canvassed the issue in a webinar, The DEI journey: Managing resistance, finding opportunities, held in partnership with Littler, a leader in labor and employment law. Let me share some of what we learned, along with some additional strategies and solutions.
Strategies For Managing Resistance
But first, as you dive into understanding resistance to your DEI program, remember that every organization starts from a different point — and whatever the starting point is for your organization is the right place to begin. Consequently, your challenges and version of “success” may differ from other organizations. With that in mind, let’s look at strategies for addressing the resistance you may encounter as you implement your DEI program.
1. Make the business case: Make the case that there are solid business reasons for having a DEI program. According to research from McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group and others, organizations that embrace DEI are more innovative, collaborative, productive and better positioned for long-term financial success.
2. Explain the legal perspective: Explain that every organization has a legal right and responsibility to ensure that employees are conducting themselves in a way that is consistent with both state and federal laws regarding anti-discrimination, bullying and harassment. Your legal counsel can provide you with specific language on this point.
3. Focus on human values: Help your managers and employees to understand that at the heart of it, diversity, equity and inclusion represent basic human principles — like kindness, fairness and respect. Education and training help put these principles into practice and create a construct for how we can interact with each other in a positive and supportive way.
4. Communicate from a point of inclusivity: Emphasize that everyone is part of the solution and that no one will be shamed, blamed or targeted. The goal is to bring everyone together in a work environment where people feel engaged, connected and have a sense of belonging. Convey that an inclusive culture benefits everyone and that no one is excluded from the rewards it can offer.
5. Explain unconscious bias: We’ve all had different life experiences and unconscious bias exists in all of us, so it’s natural to have blind spots. Bias can serve to benefit some people (like when we feel comfortable with them) or exclude them if their identities are not like our own. Education can reveal how different people experience the same workplace in very different ways — and offer strategies and tools to check our own behavior and support others to do the same.
6. Provide a safe place for learning: To conquer resistance, participants should have a safe space for learning, allowing time for self-reflection and personal discovery without feeling pushed to immediately react to what they’ve learned in front of others. A setting where your learners feel most relaxed and comfortable will help them be more open to taking in new ideas and concepts.
7. Respond to feedback with patience, understanding and firmness: Because your DEI program may challenge existing norms or preconceived notions, it may create some discomfort or even elicit a visceral reaction from some employees. Handle this by enabling a listening environment where facilitated conversations can take place in an intentional, respectful and constructive way. Help your participants understand that change can be hard, but it is essential to cultivating a healthy and productive work environment.
As you move ahead, it’s important to keep your aspirations high, but your expectations real. That means finding a reasonable and practical starting point for implementing a DEI program that reflects your organization as it really is, not as you may want it to be. Remember that DEI is a journey. Don’t let the resistance you face along the way deter you from where you really want to go — toward a more diverse, equitable and inclusive work environment that creates a brighter future for everyone involved.
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