DEI is on fire
Did y’all see the news of the recent exit of FOUR Black women working in DEI, with major corporations and companies?
It looks like two resigned, and two were fired from roles such as Disney’s Chief Executive Officer, Netflix’s Head of Inclusion, Warner Bros DEI Executive, and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Executive VP of Impact, as reported by yahoo news.
This news has sparked conversations that consultants like myself have with potential clients about the optics of DEI vs impact. Specifically, how performative these efforts end up being.
So, how does the entertainment industry relate to nonprofit organizations?
Yes, these are definitely different industries, but they have similar leadership hierarchies that are similar to nonprofits. And we’ve seen that across industries, many had the same reaction after the George Floyd murder.
Now, 2 years later, we are seeing that these initiatives were not aligned with follow through. (In the spiritual, therapeutic realm we call it embodiment.)
Circling back to the relevance to nonprofit organizations
We’ve seen through a recent study with Black social workers on the increase in anxiety and depression, one of the four points of feedback included the performative anti racist, anti oppressive, DEI efforts that have been conducted since the pandemic, within the workplace.
One of the aspects of DEI work that I’ve seen glossed over, is analyzing how power shows up in the organization and within roles.
Overlooking and minimizing power dynamics within nonprofits leads to surface level understandings of staff experiences, unknown outcomes and gaps surrounding internal processes and procedures, how the leadership structure may be impacting the culture of the organization, how your role maybe impeding development and opportunities, amongst other indicators.
Its a bit after the mid point of the year, and its time for a power mapping check in. I revised a workshop entitled “Reflecting on how power shows up in nonprofit organizations and in your role”. I would love to support your organization!
Has your organization and/or leadership checked in on power dynamics between January - June?
If not, let’s schedule a consult call before the year is over and direct some of those resources, intention, learning, and decolonization work towards power in your organization.
