Summary: This book shows how to approach difficult conversations on topics that are often considered taboo in the workplace — that includes discussions of race, religion and politics. The goal is to help you face and undermine stereotypes. So who am I? I’m someone who deeply and personally feels the imperative of making better organizations and a better world. I’m someone who wants to use their understanding of the world, of organizations, systems, and people, to fix things that have been broken for a long time—perhaps even within our lifetimes. I am radically impatient and uncompromising when centering those negatively impacted by systems. I work to understand the structures, cultures, people, and processes that constitute systems to help people make better ones. I rely on data of all kinds to understand, justify, process, and enable change. I believe that people can change and grow, that systems can adapt to undo inequity rather than perpetuate it, and that we can both build and fight our way to a better world.

An uncomfortable percentage of modern DEI work amounts to moonwalking toward inequity, from poorly designed training to irresponsibly deployed policy to earnest but unskilled volunteer initiatives. Summary: Overt discrimination may be easy to spot, but subtle actions can exclude employees at your organization. Jana and Baran provide a practical guide to identifying these microaggressions and lay out how to stop them. This book can guide you toward a company culture of belonging for all employees. In the past, I didn’t always have the answer to these questions, and that just wasn’t acceptable. It wasn’t okay to finish a six-month engagement and only have positive feelings of progress from a few leaders as my indicators for success. I needed answers, both for my conscience and to hold myself accountable to those I worked for. Finding those answers shaped who I am today and this book. A must-read guide for how to advocate for change at work and in the broader world. Lily Zheng’s insights on the various roles that changemakers take on, combined with their deep analysis of the history of the field, will make DEI Deconstructeda critical desk reference for all of us seeking to build the better world we imagine.” Why you should read it: This book enables readers to assess where they are as an ally today, then helps readers move forward by exploring their reasons for committing to DEI work. Kim shares hard questions you can ask to test your commitment to DEIB, which can help you guide your organization to get real results in this area.The current DEI approach within companies has been ineffective. A shift in structure is essential for achieving the purpose of DEI and creating tangible results. But still, they’re expected to take on extensive projects and initiatives, often without a team, budget, or necessary tools to perform their tasks well. Summary: Ladau’s book acts as an actionable, thoughtful guide that can help you become an ally for people with disabilities. “Demystifying Disability” outlines actionable steps for what to say and do to create inclusion. There’s nothing wrong with DEI volunteerism as a way to augment effective efforts. But when scope-crept DEI volunteerism is used as a replacement for well-resourced DEI work undertaken by trained professionals, it can become a way to exploit passionate employees for their labor, avoid accountability, and perpetuate a glacial pace of change. Chapter 8: Achieving DEI is the strategy chapter, where you’ll learn how to use and gain trust as the currency of change. I’ll be honest about what happens when the work gets messy and what to do when the neatness of theory meets the complexity of practice. You’ll learn how to carve out a path for yourself and your organization toward diversity, equity, and inclusion that gets things done, whether your stakeholders trust their leadership to lead DEI step-by-step or have so little trust that even good-faith consideration of DEI sounds like wishful thinking.

The definitive comprehensive and foundational text for critically analyzing and applying actionable DEI techniques and strategies, written by one of LinkedIn’s most popular experts on DEI. I’ve seen these outcomes myself, whether from the perspective of a workshop participant or in helping organizations do damage control after another practitioner’s clumsily executed training.In medium-trust environments, there are two core tensions, “the tension between legitimacy and power and the tension between stakeholder patience and intervention effectiveness.” Zheng recommends leaders with formal power put skin in the game by making commitments with consequences, and creating and empowering stakeholder groups to hold them accountable. Then they can follow the high-trust playbook, but start with small wins to build trust between the accountability groups and the formal leaders. I couldn’t care less what identities these people have. It doesn’t matter if they have privileges. It doesn’t matter if they have marginalizations. All I care about is that they do their jobs, eliminate inequities, and make things right within the environments they hold responsibility for. … individuals must be stewards of the system within the environments they hold responsibility in [and answer the question] “Am I fulfilling my responsibilities to eliminate harm and make my environment diverse, equitable, and inclusive?”