What we seek, we find. What we focus on, grows.
What we seek, we find. What we focus on, grows.
My colleagues Tony and Jennie Silbert at Spartina Consulting, whom I have the pleasure of regularly partnering with to create the conditions for organizational change and growth, frequently share the above framing of the Anticipatory Principle of Appreciative Inquiry.
My firm, Inclusion Wins, uses a process for culture and DEI strategy formation that centers around Appreciative Inquiry (AI, not to be confused with the machine learning kind). We are firm believers in the Anticipatory Principle and other AI principles. Why are we convinced that focusing on what we want vs. what we don’t is better for DEI?
Related article: Without a Clear “Why?” Don’t Invest in DEI
Three reasons why we go big on the appreciative (want) vs. degenerative (don’t want):
Since the death of George Floyd, narratives of DEI have mainly consisted of deficit and a belief that all disparities when comparing an amorphous majority of “white” people and people of color, particularly those of African descent, are due to racism.
The creation of race and the tragedies that it has perpetuated need a historical archive. What they need less of is the persistent narrative that race and its inevitable traveling companion, racism, define the lived experience of all racialized people. Insisting that the reason why we need DEI and why DEI practitioners must serve as the harbingers of all that is potentially, marginally, or categorically racist leaves DEI and DEI practitioners in a light that is significantly reduced from the transformational potential of the space.
My partners and I are committed to creating conditions for people to thrive and organizations to be generative, adaptive, and antifragile.
Generative, adaptive, and antifragile organizations prioritize DEI. They will do so without needing to react to silly people who think DEI is about giving people preference because of their skin color. Of course, there have been instances where DEI has intentionally or unintentionally connoted or has been equated to gender or racial preference vs. skills/capabilities.
This is not DEI. Rather, these well-intentioned actions have helped many people who otherwise would not have access to certain opportunities. Such affirmative/positive action policies have enriched quite a few people. Conversely, they have still been focused on what we don’t want. We don’t want to perpetually have to right past wrongs by similar tactics that created past wrongs.
We have experienced that placing a plus sign in front of a discriminatory practice can produce desired results for historically underexposed groups, at least for a period of time. Hardwiring such tactics for the future, as we have recently experienced with the U.S. Supreme Court decision, affirmative efforts are not evergreen. And, I would add, nor should they be.
A generative, adaptive, and antifragile approach would be to go upstream (i.e. earlier in life stage and educational trajectory) and help people with less access and opportunity (in a racially neutral, yet considerate manner) to account for potential biases) build the skills they need to grow their agency.
Those endowed with the capabilities to expand their agency, pay it forward. Not all people with significant agency do so. This is because they don’t fully understand that their agency is not naturally endowed nor is it something that one possesses solely at the level of the individual. Those who understand that their influence and impact only expand, over time, through others will naturally and purposefully contribute to the development of their community. That’s leadership.
If organizational supports and structures signal an understanding of interdependence; it signals connection as essential. The story, the script in the organizational mind is a “We” script. It transcends personal or tribal preferences, and tightly held group or organizational traditions, and rejects what is now convenient for what is life-sustaining for the future.
It’s time for DEI and those of us who practice it to work with our communities, clients, and colleagues to focus on what we want in the places we work, live, and play worldwide.
Related article: Are you creating an “Inclusion System”?
I hope this was helpful. . . Make it a great day! ✌🏿
In this episode of the ‘Reconstructing Inclusion’ podcast, I interview Laura Smith, a celebrated organizational researcher and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) strategist. Laura shares her journey from Detroit to Europe, her encounters with distinct cultures, and the notion of work in different countries. She highlights the significance of DEI in startup and scale-up companies, discussing a data-driven approach to understanding employee safety, company culture, and readiness to respond.