Trust forms the foundation of every successful workplace change initiative. Without it, even the best-intentioned diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are at risk of falling flat. In DEI Deconstructed, strategist and consultant Lily Zheng provides advice on implementing DEI in workplaces with high, medium, and low levels of trust.
Understanding where your organization stands on the trust spectrum—and adapting your strategy accordingly—can mean the difference between meaningful progress and wasted effort.
Table of Contents
How to Implement DEI in the Workplace
There’s no one-size-fits-all practice for achieving DEI. Rather, Zheng explains that the process for carrying out effective DEI work in an organization depends on the level of trust in that organization. Trust refers to how much faith everyone involved in an organization has that the organization will follow through on its word. When employees share their experiences or participate in organizational initiatives, they’re spending trust, just like spending money. An organization can nurture and replenish that trust by treating its members with understanding, appreciation, and respect. However, if an organization retaliates against employees for sharing their experiences or fails to reward hard work, that trust dissipates.
(Shortform note: The reason organizational trust is so essential in doing good DEI work may be because it provides a sense of psychological safety. Psychological safety is the degree to which people feel it’s safe to take interpersonal risks such as communicating openly with each other, expressing ideas and concerns, and inviting feedback. Research shows that teams perform better when there’s a high degree of psychological safety, whereas a lack of psychological safety hinders learning at both the individual and the organizational level. Experts note that implementing and measuring DEI work requires both learning and honest feedback, so organizations should work to foster psychological safety as part of their trust-building efforts.)
Zheng provides advice for how to approach DEI work in three types of environments: high-trust, medium-trust, and low-trust.
High-Trust Organizations
Zheng explains that, in high-trust environments, members of an organization rarely challenge decisions from leadership and readily back them. They provide feedback without fear and aren’t impatient with change, as they feel confident that leadership is doing what they can for the good of all members. (This is important because most impactful initiatives take months or years to produce the desired outcomes.) A high-trust organization’s past behavior assures members that its leadership’s decisions tend to be good. In these environments, formal power can effectively drive change, and because there’s already implicit trust, the key roles will be backers, strategists, builders, and reformers.
This makes DEI initiatives relatively easy to implement, as they face little pushback when introduced. Leaders in these environments should prepare the organization for the changes ahead, making sure everyone understands their role. They should gauge the current situation using data from surveys and personnel files, as well as feedback from employees. They should also present the initiative as a story about what needs to be changed, as this will make it more compelling and persuasive than mere data and statistics. They should then cautiously test potential interventions rather than implementing them haphazardly. Finally, they should celebrate successes and repeat what processes prove successful.
Medium-Trust Organizations
Zheng explains that, in medium-trust environments, members have limited faith that the organization and leadership will follow through on their word. They don’t view change as impossible, but they approach every initiative with some suspicion and have less patience with slow rates of change. In these environments, it’s easy for people with less formal power to feel like they have no way of holding decision-makers accountable, so striking an equal balance between all seven movement roles is essential.
To implement DEI in medium-trust environments, leaders must first commit to accountability, defining the goal for everyone involved so it will be clear if progress is being made. Because there’s less faith in leadership in these organizations, they should create additional groups—like DEI councils—led by people in non-leadership positions to keep leaders accountable. And, importantly, the organization should make sure these groups have power over the decisions being made. Finally, leaders should focus on minor successes before tackling larger systemic changes, as this helps build trust incrementally. Once organizational trust has been shored up, it’s easier to approach larger issues through the steps outlined above.
| How to Persuade an Organization to Change In addition to the practical advice Zheng gives for high- and medium-trust environments, research suggests that persuasion is a key skill for leaders trying to implement change (such as DEI work) in their organizations. Experts recommend a four-part strategy for persuasively preparing an organization for change and carrying it out. First, leaders need to prime employees for the upcoming changes, cultivating a mindset of challenging the status quo and embracing new ideas. This could include highlighting the benefits of implementing changes, as well as explaining the negative consequences of continuing with the current state of affairs (for example, the potential for the organization to fail). This stage may be especially important in medium-trust environments, where there will be greater initial skepticism and resistance to new initiatives. Second, leaders must frame changes in a way that helps everyone understand the plans without misinterpreting them. This can include affirming the organization’s core values, explicitly outlining the details of the plan so people know what to expect, and responding to or anticipating criticisms or objections. In high-trust environments, affirming the organization’s values can be especially effective for getting members on board, as these represent a common ground that employees already feel committed to. In medium-trust environments, leaders may want to pay special attention to explaining timelines and metrics so employees know how long they’ll have to wait to see change, and how they’ll know that it’s working. Third, leaders must closely monitor and manage the emotional responses people have as change is being implemented. Change is difficult and can lead to dejection, discouragement, and complacency. Leaders need to keep an eye on employees’ moods and uplift them through optimistic but realistic messaging, recognizing their accomplishments and contributions, and welcoming ongoing feedback. Regardless of the level of trust, this step is especially important when the change being implemented involves significant sacrifices from the people involved. Finally, leaders must work hard to keep the organization from regressing after change has been implemented. It’s easy to slip back into bad habits when old problems crop up, so leaders must create ample opportunities for employees to practice their new, good habits. Leaders should also model these habits and help coach employees as they’re practicing them. In medium-trust environments, it may help to recruit people in non-leadership positions to assist with modeling and coaching, as employees may still feel suspicious of the organization’s leaders. |
Low-Trust Organizations
In low-trust environments, the organization’s past behavior leads members to approach every new decision with suspicion and pessimism by default, explains Zheng. Members refuse to participate in decisions and don’t view DEI initiatives as anything but bad-faith attempts to improve the organization’s reputation. The organization’s past has shown that it rarely has the members’ best interests at heart and that attempts at change almost always fail. In these environments, advocates, educators, and organizers play a key role in driving change.
Implementing DEI in low-trust workplace environments presents the greatest challenge and requires a fundamentally different approach from the other two scenarios. Any attempts at change will fail until the organization builds enough trust to become a medium-trust environment. Zheng advises letting change emerge from the bottom, with those holding the least formal power making the first move. Leaders must respond to grassroots movements by sincerely apologizing, acknowledging where they’ve failed, and redistributing power so that grassroots movements can create change. If they can’t or won’t do this, any movement will fail.
| Reducing the Risks of Leadership Roles Cultivating change from the bottom up presents a unique challenge because, as research shows, people are often loath to take on leadership roles because of the risks involved. They worry that becoming a leader may damage their relationships with other employees, cause others to view them negatively, or lead others to blame them for failures. Therefore, fostering psychological safety can be especially vital for prompting those without formal power to form grassroots movements. To make leadership less risky, organizations should make sure disagreements remain professional and work-focused while finding ways for people to experiment with leadership roles on low-stakes projects or issues. Some members, such as newer employees or people from marginalized groups, may be especially risk-averse as they face additional challenges in the workplace. Organizations should consider which employees might be more sensitive to risks and take special care to offer them leadership opportunities, invite their input, and draw attention to their accomplishments and skills. |
Learn More About Implementing DEI
To better understand DEI implementation in its broader organizational and societal context, check out our guide to DEI Deconstructed by Lily Zheng.
