Three Takeaways: Anticipating and Addressing DEI Change Resistance
These DEI leaders, all Northwestern faculty and/or alumni, included Ahmmad Brown, Ph.D., Dwayne Maddox (‘22 Leading Equity and Inclusion Certificate), and Amie Ninh (BSJ12, ‘22 Leading Equity and Inclusion Certificate). Diane Knoepke (WCAS00, MS16), director of program engagement and outreach for MSLOC and ELOC, moderated the discussion. To get access to the one-hour recording of the session, entitled “DEI Change Resistance: Keeping the Window Open,” please click here.
For three (of many) great takeaways from the session, plus bonus thoughts from the panelists not included in the session, please read on.
#1 Anticipate and Plan for Resistance
Resistance to DEI change can show up in a variety of ways, from team member discomfort and lack of engagement to hoarding resources and avoiding accountability. It can come in the form of competing priorities, insufficient capacity or leadership attention, or lack of understanding. As Amie Ninh, head of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Clever, shared, not only can resistance show up, but it will. Ninh said, “No matter what you do, even if you work at the most progressive organization out there, you’re still going to have resistance. Sometimes it’s not even the ‘I don’t believe in DEI’ type of resistance, it can be a lot subtler. We have to know it is going to come no matter where we are and what we’re doing.”
Organizations must conceive and implement strategic changes that align with their goals or they risk not making the types of true systemic changes that shift the conditions of those most marginalized. Ninh also urged all DEI practitioners and consultants to prepare their leaders for the predictable resistance to come with change, telling them: “This is exactly what is going to happen, and I need you to be ready for these things.”
Dr. Ahmmad Brown, assistant professor, Northwestern University MSLOC and ELOC, built on this idea of anticipating and planning for resistance by asserting that DEI leaders can help their organizations “walk and chew gum at the same time. Our work as DEI practitioners is to figure out how we can both (1) work with people who hold dominant social identities...to support the movement of the [harmful] status quo and (2) do that in a way that does not center and unduly cater to [people with dominant social identities’] needs and their perspectives.” Brown shared that this “both/and” approach will continue to evolve, and practitioners and their organizations are well-served by creatively and proactively facing head-on those objections that can come from all levels of organizational leaders.
#2 Match the Tool with the Challenge
Dwayne Maddox, vice president, DEI program director at Old National Bank, also spoke to the need to build the organization’s DEI goals, strategy, activities, and timelines from the reality of where the organization is today, including anticipating challenges and resistance on the way. Maddox shared, “I’m thinking about the pace of change in my organization right now. What is my organization ready for? Where are we on our maturity curve with respect to DEI? What tools work at what stage of the process? Building out a roadmap that makes sense for the organization that allows us to grow over time and not try to get it all at once.”
He shared his enthusiasm for using all the tools he learned during his time at Northwestern and how he balances that enthusiasm with the need to pace things out, getting the right sequence and creating a roadmap for where the organization can go over time. If we skip that step, more resistance will show up. As Maddox shared, “It may be nothing around the content that causes resistance, but it could be capacity for people. How much can they take on in any given time depending on what’s on their plate, and what else is happening in the organization?”
#3 Differentiate Critique from Resistance
Maddox later shared that some aspects of resistance are beneficial, as they help us identify what we need to fortify in our future plans. Ninh also spoke of how important it is to differentiate useful critique of DEI work from unhelpful resistance, encouraging practitioners to do the work of evaluating whether feedback reflects (a) the internal discomfort of team members with certain DEI topics or changes, and/or (b) a need for DEI leaders to reevaluate their strategies. Critique can be a form of resistance, and it can be used to make the work better.
Dr. Brown also addressed critique of the DEI field, both welcoming constructive critique and questioning why DEI seems to receive outsized scrutiny compared with other management topics and techniques. “Why are we holding DEI to this level of scrutiny that we rarely hold other things that prevail in the management space? I think it goes back to the fact that DEI work is about moving institutionalized and entrenched inequalities, inequities, and injustices.” These types of changes can be more evocative or provocative to an organization or its leaders compared with other types of organizational development and change.
Bonus Round: Keeping the Window for Change Open
As a follow-up to the live session, panelists provided their answers to a question we did not have time to ask during the session.
As educator Mariame Kaba says, “hope is a discipline.” What gives you hope that we can keep the window for change open?
Ahmmad Brown: For me, engaging in DEI work requires grounding in hope—I wouldn’t be able to sustain my commitment to this work without it. Despite encountering active and passive resistance to DEI work--be it institutionally or interpersonally--I continue to be buoyed by the curiosity that leaders (sometimes unexpectedly) have for this work. Ultimately, I remain optimistic that in general, we have the collective will to move the needle on DEI. There are, however, many questions that remain about how exactly to do so. Among other things, what gives me hope, is that I know many of us—in scholarly, practice, and activist spaces—who are seeking and finding solutions for us to realize a more equitable, inclusive, and just world.
Dwayne Maddox: What gives me hope is the valuing of human experiences in a professional context accelerated by the pandemic that has driven visibility, competency, and accountability for DEI (and beyond) around workplace culture & structure that is pervasive and sustainable. I am also hopeful that the scale and level of focus on this work will deliver more equitable and inclusive outcomes for our society, organizations, and institutions going forward.
Amie Ninh: Ultimately, being in community and seeing community gives me hope! Working toward equity and justice is not meant to be done alone!! And community can look a lot of different ways – from community organizing that happens locally to connecting with like-minded colleagues about a new initiative. The greatest joy I've found in DE&I change work is when we're making change together.
Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy is home to several programs that address diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ), change management, and inclusive leadership, including the Master of Science in Learning & Organizational Change (MSLOC), Executive Learning and Organizational Change (ELOC), and the Leading Equity and Inclusion in Organizations Certificate (LEIOC). Each of these helps leaders embrace and advance an ethical imperative to strive for equity in all of their organization’s practices while meeting organizational leaders and teams where they are. For more information, visit msloc.northwestern.edu and eloc.northwestern.edu.