DEI 101

Hi, I'm Doctor David Everett. In my 20 plus years of diversity, equity and inclusion work, I have found one step to be significantly important, and that is defining and approaching each term distinctively. Without doing so, the terms can be conflated and the efforts, as a result, ineffective. So what is diversity? Simply put, diversity is difference. These differences can be external, that is, race, gender, ethnicity, and they can be internal. How one processes, how one communicates, and so on and so forth.

Regardless of whether external or internal, these differences are important because we bring them into spaces and places. Inclusion is all about influence or the ability to affect, the ability to affect decision making, the ability to affect policies or processes, practices. Inclusion can only occur when diversity is present, but the presence of diversity doesn't necessarily equate to inclusion. And finally, equity is about impact. What are the results and the realities from the actions and the decisions that we are making?

And more importantly, how are we evaluating those results and those realities through the lens of difference? Given these distinctions, one can easily see how an organization can promote diversity and not practice inclusion. And likewise, it's easy to see how an organization can promote diversity, practice inclusion, and not pursue equity. So I encourage you to think about your DEI efforts as distinct terms. Doing so will allow you to identify where and how diversity, equity and inclusion, individually and collectively, can help improve and move your organization.