You’ve Made Some DEI Progress. Don’t Stop Now

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Over the past few years, organizations around the world have invested in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives with varying results. But to achieve lasting change, they'll need to commit to that work for much longer, says Ella Washington, organizational psychologist and professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Her research shows that companies move toward DEI maturity in five stages (aware, compliant, tactical, integrated, and sustainable) and each takes time to work through. She explains why some organizations get stuck, and how to overcome those challenges. Washington is author of "The Necessary Journey: Making Real Progress on Equity and Inclusion" and the HBR article "The Five Stages of DEI Maturity."

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the HVRI Deicast from Harvard Business Review.
0:13.9	I'm Allison Beard.
0:21.6	I first met today's guest, via email, in May of 2020.
0:26.0	Do you remember what was happening in the US at that time?
0:28.9	The video of George Floyd's murder by police had gone viral, and protests against racial
0:33.6	violence were sweeping the country.
0:35.9	At HBR, we were wondering what advice we could give companies about how to respond.
0:40.8	And Ella F. Washington, an organizational psychologist and professor at Georgetown University's
0:46.0	McDonough School of Business, stepped up to help.
0:49.8	With co-author Laura Morgan Roberts, she wrote the article, US businesses must take meaningful
0:55.1	action against racism.
0:57.4	What have they?
0:58.9	It's been two and a half years since those protests, and Ella has spent much of that time
1:03.0	working with organizations to build more robust, diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies.
1:09.1	She's here to report on how companies are fairing, not only in the United States, but
1:13.1	also globally, since these issues arise, albeit in slightly different ways everywhere.
1:18.5	She'd like us all to start thinking about DEI progress in stages.
1:22.2	Aware, compliant, tactical, integrated, and sustainable.
1:26.7	Because ambitious, top-down directives rarely work, unless you've already built a foundation
1:31.0	and scaffolding from the ground up.
1:33.6	In addition to Ella's work as a consultant professor, she wrote the book The Necessary
1:37.8	Journey, making real progress on equity and inclusion, and the HPR article The Five
	...

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