Navigating DEI Backlash: The Role of Transformative Leadership and HR
When you think of DEI today, what comes to mind?
In all likelihood, you’re going to think of news reports surrounding DEI or policies and legislation surrounding it. Or, maybe you’re thinking of the phrase “DEI is dead” and how it seems to be everywhere these days, draped in warnings about the concept itself.
The truth is, a lot of DEI backlash is caused by a fundamental misunderstanding of what diversity, equity, and inclusion truly mean within a workplace. In short, while DEI resistance is rising in some spaces, interest and investment in DEI is growing in others. For every article and corporation declaring DEI dead, there are others fighting to show that it isn’t, and that they are prepared to continue to incorporate it into their programming.
Why is DEI Facing Backlash?
Misconceptions about DEI’s purpose and perceived ambiguity, a fear of change, and concerns about fairness and representation tend to be some of the largest pain points. Additionally, a lack of clear communication about the purpose of DEI initiatives and programming is pervasive across organizations, especially when leadership has yet to buy into DEI as a crucial part of their work.
Consequently, when DEI is fundamentally misunderstood and backlash is ignored, it can become a significant challenge to implement DEI-based policies, procedures, and training initiatives.
Some challenges include:
Seeing DEI as a Threat: Some individuals, particularly those experiencing the least marginalization, may incorrectly feel that DEI favors one group over another.
Resistance to Mandatory Participation: Mandatory DEI training is often necessary, but when communicated unclearly people may feel as if they are being villainized or directly challenged.
Fear of Saying “The Wrong Thing”: Individuals fear making mistakes that could lead to repercussions or being labelled as biased.
Of course, these claims can be rectified - it’s not an easy task of course, changing people’s minds and challenging their beliefs is an upward battle.
But, it’s not an unwinnable one.
Where Do We Start?
DEI consultants, who work within these situations on a regular, if not daily, basis, often assist in steering conversations towards truths and realities of DEI while addressing negative views and biases . Trained to navigate discussions surrounding DEI, including backlash and resistance, they bring a level of calm and respect to organizations and can help clarify the need, reasons, and importance of DEI.
But their internal ways too; leadership and executive teams play a critical role in steering a workplace towards DEI initiatives. If leaders and managers are emphasizing the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion work, employees will more easily follow suit.
Of course, this means the opposite is also true - when leaders and managers are not on board or on the same page, that spills over into frontline roles and middle-management positions, raising resistance and disinterest.
As a result, the consequences of ignoring or mishandling backlash is a significant part of navigating it. This could include damaged workplace trust and relationships, and stalled progress towards DEI-focused goals. And, addressing these concerns with empathy, transparency, and open dialogue can transform DEI resistance into opportunities for growth. In that respect, leaders and HR professionals play a vital role in navigating these challenges, ensuring that DEI efforts are inclusive, constructive, and aligned with organizational values and goals.
Deepening Our Understanding: The Subtle Reasons for DEI Resistance
To address the impact of DEI resistance, it is important to have a detailed overview of where the resistance comes from in the first place. We’ve named some ways: lack of clarity, fears of change, and more. But there are other subtle ways, too. In “Beneath the surface: Resistance to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in organizations", a review of DEI insights, reasons for resistance, and prior research, they break down the subtle ways in which DEI backlash rears its head within the workplace.
The three main reasons for DEI resistance as follows:
Individual-Level Factors
This includes prejudice, personality, and upbringing. In essence, this is your everyday behavior on a person-to-person level.
For example, individual factors include negative stereotypes, prejudice towards minoritized groups, and ethnocentrism.
Group-Related Factors
Here, we include race, gender, class, and sexuality. These are factors that are not chosen, but rather incorporated into our lives by our backgrounds, cultures, and interests.
For example, groups of white people and men support DEI less than marginalized groups. They tend to view these initiatives as threatening, believing DEI aims to lessen their access to opportunities and cause an overall shift in cultural norms.
On the other hand, individuals from groups who understand the direct benefit of DEI initiatives tend to be from marginalized backgrounds.
Contextual Factors
This includes characteristics and framing, as well as the environment people are exposed to.
These factors are more difficult to parse. Contextual factors can include things like framing DEI practices in a way that does not clarify them or explore the fundamental reasons for these initiatives usually leads to lessened support.
The Next Steps: Building Buy-In from Resistance
Adapting to DEI backlash is a natural part of the process when organizations advocate for meaningful change.
Resistance from leaders is often not coming from a place of outright opposition. Rather, it stems from concerns and misconceptions about what DEI strives for.
Some common reasons for DEI resistance amongst leadership are:
➡️ An overall lack of commitment
➡️ Lack of diversity in leadership
➡️ Lack of understanding for the importance of DEI
All of these lead to the same conclusion: DEI is placed on the backburner, remaining unacknowledged and not fully understood. Leadership creates the backbone of an organization this way - when executives decide to buy in to DEI and not the backlash, their employees are able to see that the investment in diversity, equity, and inclusion is not a performance, but an integral part of their workplace.
What Actions Can Leaders Take?
As the helm of an organization, leaders steer the direction of DEI initiatives. But, even leaders need to buy into them, and that takes intentional work and understanding.
Here are some ways to counteract DEI resistance amongst leadership:
1. Provide Leadership-Specific Training
Many DEI-focused organizations provide comprehensive training specifically for leaders. This can include addressing hiring and interview bias, crafting inclusive spaces, and learning about anti-racism and allyship. These programs give leaders context for the importance of DEI initiatives and provide history and real-world examples of the consequences of backlash.
2. Share Meaningful Metrics and Data
There is no denying that businesses may not be willing to spend money on DEI initiatives if they believe it will damage their business monetarily or not serve any particular benefit. To challenge any assumptions concerning the value of DEI, it is important to establish metrics. Some important metrics are related to:
On-boarding and hiring
Employee retention
Customer loyalty
Diversity in leadership and employees
Metrics can be relayed via an HR representative, a DEI consultant, or a DEI advocate in your organization.
3. Provide Context for DEI
Context and metrics truly go hand-in-hand by working to provide a comprehensive understanding of how DEI impacts organizational success. This means creating opportunities for leadership to learn about how DEI attracts and retains talent, gives organizations a competitive edge, and enhances employee engagement and satisfaction by creating psychologically safe spaces.
Furthermore, we can address common misconceptions directly. For example, explaining that DEI does not just benefit specific groups of employees, but works to build unity overall, benefitting everyone.
4. Share Real World Examples and Experiences
Here, you can highlight success stories from other organizations to show measurable benefits of DEI initiatives. This also means utilizing personal testimonials from employees to show how workplace inclusivity has improved their experiences, work-life balance, and has led to them contributing further within their organization.
This also means taking note of industry standards and trends and illustrating specific, easily understood scenarios where having DEI embedded into your work can create lasting change.
For example, a consultant may ask leaders to imagine a brainstorming session where each and every team member is able to share their work, regardless of culture, background, sexuality, and more. Here you can pivot into how having individuals on your team from a variety of cultures and backgrounds creates the groundwork for innovative, creative ideas through new perspectives.
5. Provide Space for Open Dialogue
While all these points are critical to the development of your DEI goals, one of the most important pieces can be simply listening, learning where people are coming from, and addressing their thoughts point-by-point. This could include:
Hosting roundtables amongst leadership, facilitated by DEI consultants. If leaders don’t feel especially comfortable expressing their thoughts, this could take the form of an anonymous Q&A session as well.
Setting conversational ground rules for respect and confidentiality for every discussion.
Organizing scenario-based workshops focused around DEI, where leaders can role-play situations that may come up amongst their team within their line of work.
Moreover, providing inclusive leadership training helps create the necessary skillset leaders and HR professionals can utilize to listen without interruption or defensiveness within these discussions. It can also assist in outlining why their commitment is so critical to employee buy-in and satisfaction with DEI training and initiatives.
From Resistance to Results: Leading the Charge to DEI Initiatives
Ultimately, it is important to remember that DEI backlash is not an endpoint, nor a failure. It is simply a part of the integration process when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Addressing questions and concerns with empathy and facilitating discussions can pave the way for leaders to fully comprehend the need for DEI initiatives throughout their workplaces.
A successful DEI journey is adaptable, recognizing that creating lasting change is a team effort, led by leadership who are empowered by a commitment to change, growth, and understanding.
