No! It’s BIED, not DEI+B
Think BIED - It's Belonging, then Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity
It starts with belonging. A place where you don't have to fit in. You're yourself in all aspects, in differences and alikenesses. You feel, own, and care for your coworkers, and they feel, own, and care for you. You’re in it together in successes, dreams, and failures. You share in believing in the company purpose with them.
You love and belong at your company so much you want to include someone into it. So you invite her to join. Her values align. She's excited about joining in purpose. She didn't come from a fancy college. Hard knocks couldn't stop her. She interviews with the team, and they see she'd need some added mentoring and training, in skills-comparison to the other candidates. She’s been out of the workforce for 20 years. They could invest in her, and give some equity on her behalf, for a better company in the future. She even looks a little different, diverse, in her bright-colored clothes and what looks to be she-warrior tattoos up her right arm to her bicep.
When she told her back story, the company's core values echoed in it. They could tell she'd already chosen them, and she was bold and vulnerable about it. She wanted in on the tribe. And they chose her too. Belonging’s a 2-way-street.
Not DEI+B
DEI, outside of belonging is fraught with resistance.
Diversity, without belonging it's a quota that gets fought,
Equity, outside of belonging is easily seen as an unjust handout
Inclusion, less belonging's embrace, makes for a stranger in an unfriendly land
I know the arguments and statistics prove that DEI is better for business. I agree 100%!!!
It's just that evidence and arguments don't pan out very well in the work world. If they did, we'd of progressed way farther. I mean, shit, the data proves it. We ain’t come a long way. Sadly.
Start with Belonging, real, not a sense of…
It's from the story where we belong, that we're willing to give, even go without, for another, to bring them into our company tribes. And more so, in their full uniqueness. Betting on their potential. It's about the heart, and belonging, by living in the company core values, and believing in shared purpose. It begins with the Us Story. Here, filtering by how one sounds and looks, seems kind of dumb.
Creating diversity, equity, and inclusion isn’t as easy as mandating. Because, the moment the mandate threatens our belonging, DEI, in its honorable objectives, becomes the adversary. It’s neurobiology. We’re wired to belong, as to really belong. Where you feel, own, and care for them, your teammates, and leaders in their successes, dreams, and failures. And they feel, own, and care for you in yours. This is where we go to the mat for each other.
So, scrap the “sense of” talk. Would you accept a “sense of” a paycheck for your work? Would you accept a “sense of” love in getting married? Make belonging real.
DEI effort needs the “we’re in this together” bidirectional space so that it’s not working against the tide.
The long game is won by this!
Create a place where the ways you #belong come from your no-compromise core values for each other, as you accomplish your shared belief in purpose.
#Include, or invite someone in, based on whether they'd embrace the ways your company tribe belongs in their shared objective and purpose.
Look more towards their potential, what they can and could do, vs just what they've done and where they're from, you're being willing to use #equity to get them and bring them in.
Seek all those, in their complete and individual #diversity, who'd embrace the ways you belong in accord with your core values, and pursue your company's promised land.
Oh, and the woman with the warrior tattoo, her tattoo gave her teammates the power to overcome even more hard knocks like she did!
If you’re curious, or, you’d like to couch your DEI in belonging for real success, give me a holler. I’m available for Fractional Head of People services and OrgDev Coaching for a Belonging Culture.