DEIAB is a Foundation, NOT a Coat of Paint
I just read “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Trainers” by Maria Morukian and will have a book review on that coming soon. As an instructional designer, I feel that everyone in L&D must be a DEIAB advocate to be effective at creating a good learning culture and organizational culture and cultivating a meaningful employee experience. To me, this is a non-negotiable, no brainer. I don’t live in fairy land, and I know the challenges, but I do have hope.
In no world, do I claim to be a DEIAB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Belonging) expert (though I’ve been in rooms/spaces where I am the one with the most expertise in some aspect of it, which sometimes is more about that room/space than my stellar expertise). But one thing I know and can’t express enough is: DEIAB must be foundational. But too many people, organizations, and institutions want it to be a coat of paint.
Decorative image: A person using many paints, the paintbrush currently in a canister of brown paint but with red, blue, purple, orange, black, teal, yellow, beige, and white paints around them in various states of use.
They want to keep doing what they’ve been doing but improve DEIAB. Generally, those two things don’t really work together—they are opposing needs in many ways. Change management is essential to a good DEIAB initiative because it is almost never a coat of paint or an interior design job. It is usually going to involve knocking down some walls, adjusting some ceilings, and even re-pouring a new foundation.
Diversity does not “happen” without intentionally seeking it and separating it from tokenism.
Equity is not improved without facing inequitable systems that already exist and the foundational inequity every institution is built on.
Inclusion is a mindset and approach, and you can’t be inclusive as an organization without empathy built in at systemic and institutional levels (though individuals can, of course, foster inclusion even in terrible, toxic spaces, they will at best create “pockets”).
Accessibility cannot be solely considered at the end of a process (though that’s often where it falls) or you either have to make unnecessary compromises or spend many more resources to do it well.
Belonging is both an outcome and an organizational culture. You can’t say people belong without recognizing and celebrating their differences and uniqueness. You can’t say people belong without considering psychological safety and trauma-informed organizational practices. You can’t say people belong when they don’t belong as they are.
And, most of all, there is no “end goal”. There is no finish line to this race. It is an eternal effort, and there will be failures to reflect on and hopefully successes to celebrate, but you can’t just “do” DEIAB and call it a day. Organizational culture and learning culture are in need of perpetual upkeep at best, and most organizations and institutions — not even because of their own failings but the societal challenges that birthed them — are nowhere near the upkeep phase in DEIAB efforts, if that even exists.
