Our New Year’s Priority: Momentum in DEIB

Happy New Year to all of our clients, colleagues, and friends!

As we begin 2023, we at Fletcher Consulting are focusing on the word “momentum.” Specifically, ways to support our clients in maintaining the momentum of the diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging work that many started (or that picked up steam), in recent years. Some of you might be noticing less engagement and/or fewer resources dedicated to DEIB in your organizations.

One of our core values at Fletcher Consulting is “meeting clients where they are, and partnering with them to move forward.” We are brainstorming ways to enhance our services to advance momentum within our client organizations.

We are still strategizing but here are a few of our initial thoughts:

• Support and reinforce the DEI champions in our client organizations

• Share the successes and wisdom of some of our clients through spotlight stories, to provide others with examples of effective practices that might work for their organizations

• Create new workshops that will center particular audiences, based on group identity

• Coach leaders on how to equitably support the professional development of everyone in their group and build a sustainable DEIB infrastructure

• Develop a phased approach to work with organizations whose work culture or structure can’t support time-intensive projects like strategic planning

If you are a DEI champion in your organization, what would be helpful to you as you contemplate 2023? Tell us what you need in the comments below.

Let’s celebrate the successes of 2022 and work together to keep the momentum going in 2023!

Setting goals with an equity lens

At this time of year, many people think about setting goals for the year ahead. If you are one of those people, be sure not to forget that your journey with DEIAB—diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility and belonging—needs goal-setting too.

And, as you are shaping the ambitions and focus that will put you on a path to growth personally and professionally, there’s one shift I want to recommend that you make to your mindset: Don’t make a separate list of “DEI goals.” Instead, look at the overall goals you’re considering, and put an equity lens on each of them to see what it changes.

Use that lens when you’re reflecting on what happened in 2022. Don’t stop at “did you accomplish your goals?”—ask if your goals closed equity gaps or maintained or worsened them. If you are a leader or manager, what did you do to advance equity in your organization? If you are an individual contributor, how did you help to promote inclusion in your department this year? Did you learn anything new about yourself or others?

Continue with that prompt for the goals you are setting in the New Year. If you have a goal of professional development for your team, ask yourself what it would take to have an equitable outcome. Is there someone who needs a writing program to strengthen that skill along with the enrichment opportunities that others are receiving? If you have a goal to be a mentor, ask yourself how the needs for mentorship may be more acute in some groups than others, and how you can meet that need. You may refine your goal to explicitly name “find a mentee from a different identity group than my own.”

You can go deeper. Imagine that this equity lens is a trifocal. It can bring three levels into focus: personal, interpersonal, and systemic. At the first level of magnification, consider your inner work. Perhaps you want to increase your understanding of a particular identity with which you are not familiar, or dismantle a personal bias about which you are now aware.

Then, look out at your relationships. How would you like to show up differently with your colleagues when you return to work in 2023 so that you advance equity? You could strive to give critical feedback, across differences, to help someone grow professionally. And be willing to receive feedback, without getting defensive, when someone tells you that your words or behaviors had a negative impact.

At the systemic level, what can you do to make sure that policies and practices in your sphere of influence are equitable and don’t have a disparate impact on a particular group in your office?

Best wishes to you and yours as we celebrate various holidays and close out the year.

The joy of belonging

There is something special about being in a space in which one of your primary identities puts you in the majority. Growing up in Jamaica, I took being part of the racial majority for granted. There was an ease of movement and acceptance. No one ever looked at me as if I didn’t belong—not until I moved to Maryland when I was 15 years old. That was the beginning of my being the only one, or one of a few, in the room.

Recently, I was invited to facilitate a couple of sessions at WilmerHale’s Diversity Summit, a two-day event for WilmerHale lawyers who identify as people of color and/or LGBTQ+. I started my career at Hale & Dorr, a predecessor of WilmerHale. It was the second time I’ve participated. And both times, I felt emotional the moment I entered the room.

I was flooded with a sense of pride at how far the firm has come since 1990. If we had held a Diversity Summit back then, when I joined after graduation from law school, we would have needed one table. There were 29 tables with 10 people around each one in the ballroom this year.

The excitement in the room was palpable. Warmth and joy grew as attorneys from different offices met each other for the first time or reconnected. There is a unique power from being with your people, whoever your people might be. Black folks don’t find ourselves in large numbers in professional spaces very often. When we do, the energy is electric. If you are from a traditionally underrepresented group, you know what I mean. I was buzzing with energy for several days after the Summit.

My law school started to hold Black alumni reunions about 15 years ago. My college now does it as well. Every time I attend, it is amazing to see so many Black people on the campus. There is nothing like the joy of getting together with Black women especially! I leave feeling rejuvenated.

The opportunity to connect with people who share a primary identity is powerful. We share stories, generate creative ideas, and feel more engaged in the work.

Beyond the professional benefits, of course, are the human ones. We all need spaces that are rejuvenating and joyful. But because we humans are so good at adapting to our circumstances, we often don’t notice that we are being emotionally drained in our workplaces. Or, perhaps we accept that circumstance and seek connection and rejuvenation outside of work.

Ideally, everyone would feel a sense of belonging in our workplaces—able to show up with our full selves, without fear of being marginalized on the basis of any of our identities. Until organizations can reach that state of equity and inclusion that enables the sense of belonging for everyone, providing periodic opportunities for people in underrepresented groups to come together is a good strategy.