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Many of us, especially those who are “professionally” successful, have been trained to be perfectionists, over-achievers, and fixers.

If there is a problem, our immediate reaction is to ask - how do we fix this?

We see this all the time when we do DEI and culture work with organizations. At the end of our initial discovery phase we present our findings, and the desire to react with solutions, actions, next steps, and a resolution is so deeply engrained, it creates a palpable kind of fix-it itchiness in the room.

What does an equitable and transparent compensation structure look like?

A question that often comes up, especially from our non-profit clients, is on how to retain valuable BIPOC employees so they don’t leave for better paying opportunities elsewhere.

While race and class are not necessarily inextricably intertwined, the history in this country means that a huge racial wealth gap continues to be pervasive, and BIPOC folks, particularly Black people, face inter-generational systemic marginalization that means they are least likely to be able to afford being under-compensated.

What is an organization to do, particular a non-profit where funds might be tight all round?

Committing to DEI as a concept is not the same as committing to it as a practice

In our work at CCI, we hear a lot from organizations who are very earnestly and firmly committed to DEI and racial justice as a concept but are lacking the commitment to it as a practice.

As with any decision, committing to it is only the first step. In fact, it shouldn’t even really be the first step if you don’t actually have any idea what you are committed to DOING.

People are not ok

Abortion rights under attack, a formula shortage, covid rates rising again with almost 1 million dead in the US, and this past weekend, another deadly racist massacre by a white supremacist domestic terrorist... all differing outcomes of similar systemic root causes. Knowing it's the system working exactly as designed doesn't make it hit any less hard though.

I’ve been catching up with Brene Brown podcast episodes from the past few months and one thing she keeps saying is “people are not ok.” I appreciate that framing. I don’t think I’m any more or less ok than anyone else. Which is to say that I’m more ok than some and less ok than others.

I think that collectively we are not ok.

Transparency matters

Last week we talked about how feedback may be painful but is critical for equity and inclusion. To follow up on that conversation, it also feels important to say that transparency matters.

I often like to say that the only thing worse than not gathering feedback is gathering feedback and then not sharing the results.

Seriously. The distrust and loss of morale that can be caused by this is not to be underestimated.

And I can’t tell you the number of times we hear from staff that this has happened when we start working with organizations.

Feedback may be painful but it is critical for equity and inclusion

When I first started doing DEI consulting, I have to say I didn’t expect that so much of what we do would be about opening up spaces so our clients can gather feedback from across their staff.

However, it has proven to be one of the most valuable aspects of our work.

What we’ve realized is that we are hired to uncover the truths that may be painful for organizations to hear but that have the potential to be transformative if only they are open to it.

Revisiting burnout

I won’t lie - I’m tired, although it comes in waves, and it’s hard to know if its from covid or just... all this. Burnout is coming up with some of our clients too, especially those on the frontlines of putting DEI to practice in their organizations. The work is tiring, and it can be hard to pinpoint what exactly is exhausting us the most.

I think, to some extent, it doesn’t really matter, or if you need an answer but can’t figure it out, it is probably all of the above. Figuring out the source can be helpful, but only to a degree, because what if we can’t change the source?

Inclusive LeadershipAlethea FitzpatrickJanuary 16, 2022#pandemiclife, #needs, #burnout, #selfcare, #DEIinapandemic

The heaviness of grief

Things are so much better than they were for my family now that the kids are settled back into in-person school. That they are thriving seems like a miracle, and with my younger son just a few weeks away from being fully vaccinated, there is the sense that I can exhale just a little bit.

And yet, with the exhale comes the grief, multi-layered. Waves and waves of it, especially, ironically, at the weekend when there is more space for it.

It can be easy to numb ourselves through a variety of means, including throwing ourselves into work. The danger is that grief unnamed can come out sideways to exacerbate power differentials and systems of oppression.

Inclusive LeadershipAlethea FitzpatrickNovember 21, 2021#pandemiclife, #parenting, #grief, #selfcare

Design thinking can help to build inclusion

Design Thinking is an iterative process in which we seek to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding. At the same time, Design Thinking provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It is a way of thinking and working as well as a collection of hands-on methods. - Interaction Design Foundation

Sounds like DEI to me!

When trauma and power intersect

It has long been my experience that white women, traumatized by patriarchy, become tools of white supremacy. White women talk about recognizing their privilege but what we also need them to do is recognize their trauma. Hurt people hurt people, and while that isn't an excuse and doesn't let anyone off the hook, it is a dynamic that I believe needs to be unpacked and reckoned with.

White women need to heal their trauma so they can stop causing harm to people of color.

It's not just white women either.

Designing for spaciousness

This past week was "retreat week" for Co-Creating Inclusion. Starting this year, we have blocked off the last week of every other month as well as the entire month of August from workshop facilitation or any external calls or meetings.

This time is essential for us to take a pause from holding space for our clients and to regroup, process, focus on our own needs, reflect, strategize, build our capacity and more. Some of us also use it for vacation time.

Infusing trauma and equity awareness into decision making and planning

As you may know if you've read recent posts on grief and trauma and focusing on needs, trauma has been very much on my mind and in my heart lately. As this tremendously difficult school year starts to come to a close (or has already closed in some parts of the country), as vaccination roll-out starts to include our tweens and teens, and as pandemic restrictions start to lift and companies and organizations are in various stages of considering their reopening plans, you would think that this would be a time of joy and celebration... and it is for some, to varying degrees, but it is also a time where many of us are still processing and coming to terms with what we just went through, and the trauma of it all.

Not to mention that, as I have said before, the fact that DEI work is the work of dismantling the systems that cause oppression and trauma, as well as facilitating healing at an internal, interpersonal, organizational and systemic level has never been more clear to me.

Do you need to transcend your role in order to do your job?

We've seen it this year more than ever before - how demoralizing it can be to be hired to do a job and then punished for doing it, and to be "consistently thwarted in your ability to enact the values that brought you into your profession."

This has always been the case, but for some, the circumstances of the pandemic have exacerbated the challenges and obstacles of systems and roles that were never in alignment with the mission and values they were purportedly in support of.

Results speak louder than actions

We have talked on this blog about lip service as the gap between intention and action. As the old adage says, actions speak louder than words.

However, there's another gap we also need to talk about, which is the gap between actions and results.

Building capacity

I've been thinking a lot about capacity lately.

After all, it's February, which is usually my hardest month anyway, and we are almost a year into the pandemic here in the US.

I'm hitting a wall, and I know many others are too.

Capacity to me is different to productivity. Productivity is doing more. Capacity can be about doing the same amount of work, but at a lower cost, without expending as much energy.

Inclusive LeadershipAlethea FitzpatrickFebruary 21, 2021#capacity, #selfcare, #DEIinapandemic

No one gets to tell you who you are

A friend shared a link to Gabrielle Union-Wade's Instagram post of an interview with Venus Williams at age 14.

Says Gabrielle:

Speaking up for yourself, for a cause you believe in, for your co-workers, for what's fair and just, or even for your children can be scary. The fear of backlash, the fear of being labeled "difficult" or "aggressive" or being othered is ever present and real.

Demoralization isn't the same as burnout

I read a very helpful article this morning: Teacher Demoralization Isn't the Same as Teacher Burnout.

Says the article: "It is worth distinguishing teacher demoralization from burnout. Teachers' ongoing value conflicts with the work (demoralization) cannot be solved by the more familiar refrain for teachers to practice self-care in order to avoid exhaustion (burnout). Demoralization occurs when teachers cannot reap the moral rewards that they previously were able to access in their work. It happens when teachers are consistently thwarted in their ability to enact the values that brought them to the profession." (my emphasis)

Inclusive LeadershipAlethea FitzpatrickFebruary 7, 2021#demoralization, #burnout, #inclusiveleadership

Lip service

I'll admit that, up until recently, I had thought more of lip service as saying something when you don't actually mean it.

What we're seeing is a kind of lip service where the organization or person may actually genuinely mean what they say, or think that they do, but when it comes to taking action, especially actions that come with some sort of cost, they balk.

It's the gap between intention and action that we have long seen, recognized, identified, and named, but only recently have I started to connect that to lip service.

The past we step into and how we repair it

Calls for unity and healing land as violence at worst, and spiritual bypassing at best, to those most impacted by the last four years and the last four centuries of oppression if there isn't first radical truth telling, acknowledgement, and justice.

Creating space for our own humanity

One of the things I've been thinking about is how we can create space to show up in our full humanity.

Sometimes what this means is being able to take off our hat as whatever role we are playing - professional or personal - and allow more of ourselves and our humanness in.

In other words, letting ourselves, and each other, just BE can actually be quite revolutionary.

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