It’s a gorgeous, sunny day in June and I’m at my neighbor’s backyard barbecue, veggie burger in one hand, lemonade in the other. I’ve been exchanging polite “and what do you do?” small talk with my neighbor’s best friend and when I tell her that I develop EDI workshops she blinks.
“Ooof. I might need to hire you. Or bring you into consult? In 2020, we ran a bunch of EDI trainings and I don’t think they worked. Nothing changed.”
She bites into her burger and sighs. “We still get the same complaints to HR, we still have a higher turnover rate than we want.”
This is not the first time someone has told me something like this. Honestly, when people hear I lead EDI group coaching programs, at least half of them say something along the lines of “We tried that and it didn’t work.” (Though they’re usually a bit more diplomatic in how they phrase it!)
If your EDI trainings and coaching programs haven’t had the impact you were hoping for, there’s probably a good reason.
Why your EDI training didn’t work
1. Your EDI training didn’t work because it wasn’t built on solid teaching principles
Being an expert in a topic, understanding how to teach that topic, and knowing how to facilitate discussion around that topic are three very different skill sets.*
When a training spends too much time on theory or overwhelms attendees with too much information at once, it’s bound to fail.
If my math teacher just talked about the pythagorean theorem without giving me exercises to work through and test, I’d probably struggle to understand it. And if my high school chemistry teacher tried to teach me university-level Organic Chemistry on the first day of class, I’d probably give up.
A trained teacher or coach uses the “i + 1” pedagogical approach - we meet the attendees’ current level and add one level of difficulty, like the next rung on a ladder. We also help attendees recognize what to do, rather than telling them what to do. We’re all adults here! Nobody wants to be given a one-size-fitS-all script!
2. Your EDI training didn’t work because you expected change too fast
Changing a company’s work culture and making it more inclusive isn’t a marathon - it’s ten marathons.
It would actually be quite unusual for a company to see a significant change the same year that they launch a EDI program; that doesn’t mean that the program isn’t working. Changes could be slowly building behind closed doors and in people’s minds, in ways they’re not even articulating yet.
True Story: I first started working in EDI in 2008 at a huge corporation that had an almost all-male C-suite. For 15 years we plugged away with female mentorship, awareness, workshops, town halls and put it on the big agenda, wondering if any of it was making a difference. The year I left, they hired their first woman C-suite exec. Sometimes change takes a decade plus!
3. Your EDI training didn’t work because it ignored the emotional aspect of this work
EDI work can bring up shame and guilt for employees - “Oh no! I had no idea I shouldn’t be saying that.” “I’m part of the problem. Ughhhh.” “I feel like the rules keep changing! I’m doing my best but I keep screwing up.”
It takes time to process and recognize these emotions, significantly more time than one, 60-minute training. We need time to do the inner work that is required to start noticing gaps in our knowledge.
The book Me and White Supremacy unlocked A LOT of blindspots for me. I worked through this book in a group of 10 other white folks over the course of about a year. Honestly, it was very impactful, uncomfortable, heart opening, full of guilt and shame - which are all common and necessary feelings while navigating change.
You don’t necessarily have to join a group like this, but we can certainly ask ourselves questions like:
Why is this term/phrase/newscycle/event/training triggering me?
When did I feel bullied or oppressed or not included?
What bias do I notice I have when I’m hiring a new employee? Is there a type of new employee I prefer?
What blind spots do we have in our organization that I haven’t noticed because they don’t affect me?
4. Your EDI training didn’t work because it didn’t address privilege in a way that people can handle
Privilege is real and important and a huge part of the EDI conversation. An effective EDI program is one that talks about power and privilege gently and at a pace that employees can grasp.
When we bring up privilege too fast, it can feel judgemental and people will shut down. If your team is made up of people who belong to a population that’s typically considered privileged - white, cisgender, heterosexual, male, able-bodied - it can be particularly important to ease into this topic.
5. Your EDI training didn’t work because it didn’t acknowledge the roles of empathy and self-compassion
A good EDI program includes conversations about empathy and self-compassion. Empathy means different things to different people.
For me, empathy looks like a listening ear, a hug, and letting me process things out loud. For my husband, empathy looks like giving him space. For my best friend, empathy looks like a text that says “I’m right by my phone if you want to talk.”
When in doubt, I reference the platinum rule (rather than the golden rule!): Do unto others as they'd want done unto them.
Being self compassionate helps us find compassion for others. When I have self-compassion for the times I’ve made mistakes - like the time I loudly wished everyone in my (not-exclusively-Christian) workplace “Merry Christmas!” - it’s easier for me to extend that compassion to others.
6. Your EDI training didn’t work because it pushed them too far out of their comfort zones
EDI work is, by its nature, a bit uncomfortable; learning new concepts or processing new information can be uncomfortable as well.
But we all need to be in a space of emotional regulation in order to receive, process, and internalize new information. Nobody retains information under duress!
Imagine being taught tons of new, complex, advanced information while simultaneously being told that as a member of a privileged population, you’d unconsciously contributed to the hardships of millions. It would be hard not to shut down.
A good EDI program facilitator doesn’t push participants past their discomfort zone. How do we do that? Learn as much about the participant’s culture and openness ahead of time as possible.
I notice when the training is voluntary, the participants are much more open and ready to discuss and explore issues of differences, equity, and their personal stories around bias. When groups are mandated to attend, I find a lot more push back, avoidance, or a pretty quiet group.
This should be acknowledged. I’d start slower and let the group give the okay to move ahead and go deeper.
7. Your EDI training didn’t work because it brought up trauma
When I was navigating IVF, I was exhausted, overwhelmed, and very, very sad. Losing a pregnancy is traumatizing. If I’d taken the wrong workshop, led by the wrong facilitator, during that time in my life it could have caused more harm than good.
EDI work can bring up trauma - we remember things we’ve experienced and tried to forget, or things we’ve witnessed. It’s incredibly important to move at the pace of people's nervous systems.
A good EDI workshop facilitator takes into consideration where people are in their journey. We need to do this work in a way that meets people where they are.
8. Your EDI training didn’t work because it wasn’t clear on what equity actually is
Equity is different from equality; it’s also different from inclusion and diversity.
Equity IS:
Recognizing that each person has different circumstances
Allocating the resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.
About getting curious and asking what employees need to feel like they have equal access to information, physical safety, comfort, and having their needs heard
Equity is the gateway to equality; it’s much more complicated than equality. Equality is giving everyone the same access, or treating everyone equally, which isn’t fair because we all have different needs and circumstances. Equity involves a lot of effort, as well as extra cost, time, and skill to implement.
Equity literacy takes hours or training and experience to learn. Ask anyone doing social justice work - it can feel like an uphill battle.
9. Your EDI training didn’t work because it didn’t account for stages of change
As previously stated, change is sloooooooow and it happens in stages.
Here are typical stages of EDI change:
Issue arises that nudges leadership to take action: big things like a human rights violation, a current event, or smaller things like a change in staffing or noticing you can’t attract a diverse group of candidates for job postings
Employees are required to attend a few workshops designed to address a specific issue
Leadership starts employee resource groups, but without changes to succession planning, mentorship, access to promotion, senior level representation
Leadership changes policies related to said issue
New policy is occasionally used and referenced
Issue is slightly less of a problem
More workshops
Leadership undertakes 1-on-1 or group coaching to understand why the policy changes and workshops haven’t created the large-scale, lasting change they seek
Culture within that company starts to shift … very, very slowly
EDI training is just one part of a multi-pronged strategy. It should be added to your corporate agenda and paired with allowance for inner work with group coaching, data analysis, measurement, formal learning, and a lot of patience. But the good news: It is possible to affect change within your organization. It’ll just happen a bit more slowly than you’d initially expected.