DEI is a Practice, Not a Program

At its heart, DEI is about creating environments where everyone can thrive. Those environments take many forms. They are workplaces where people can contribute and grow, schools where students can learn and feel supported, nonprofits that serve their communities with care, and organizations whose policies and practices reflect the values they claim to hold. They include the programs we design, the services we deliver, the decisions we make, and the communities we help shape.

For organizations committed to this work, the goal extends beyond offering a training or hosting an event. It is about creating the conditions in which people can thrive, whether they are employees, students, clients, families, or members of the communities an organization serves.

Imagine an organization where people don’t have to stop and say, “Okay, now we’re doing DEI.” Instead, they just call it work, not because DEI has disappeared or no longer needs a name, but because it has become part of how people operate. It shows up in everyday decisions, relationships, policies, processes, and actions. Creating environments where everyone can thrive is part of how the organization does its work.

That is the destination. The question is: How do we get there?

Start With the Real Question

When organizations begin thinking about DEI, one of the first questions that comes up is, “What are we supposed to do?” What training should we offer? What book should everyone read? What should we put on the calendar? What should we change first?

Eventually, someone asks the question that sounds practical but can point us in the wrong direction: “What am I supposed to do on Monday?”

There is nothing wrong with wanting to take action. Action matters. But a checklist of actions cannot become a sustainable practice if people do not understand why those actions matter, when they apply, or how to determine what the moment requires.

The checklist may change. The context will change. The people involved will change. An action that makes sense in one setting may be ineffective in another. Without the ability to think critically about the circumstances, people may struggle to adapt. Even a well-intentioned decision can cause harm when it is disconnected from the needs and experiences of the people affected.

The goal cannot simply be to give people more things to do. It must also be to develop their capacity to think, learn, adapt, and act. That requires practice.

Why a Program Isn’t Enough

DEI is often organized as a program: someone is responsible for it, a budget is allocated, activities are scheduled, and results are reported. There may be a designated department, a committee, a training series, or a calendar of events. When DEI lives primarily in that structure, it becomes easy for everyone else to learn that DEI is something someone else does.

The person responsible manages the training. The committee plans the events. The department organizes the activities. The organization reports what happened. Then the person leaves, the budget changes, or priorities shift. What was supposed to be embedded in the organization turns out to be dependent on the program.

Most organizations were never given a clear roadmap for what it means to embed DEI into everyday work. They may understand the importance of the goal without knowing how to build the capacity to sustain it. Recognizing that gap gives us an opportunity to approach the work differently.

When DEI is a program, responsibility can be delegated. When DEI is a practice, responsibility belongs to everyone.

Practice puts DEI where the work is happening: in people’s decisions, relationships, assumptions, questions, priorities, policies, processes, norms, and actions. It asks each person to take responsibility for their own learning and choices instead of waiting for someone else to tell them what DEI requires.

It also recognizes that people do more than participate in existing environments. Through their decisions and actions, they help create and maintain those environments. They reinforce norms, follow or change processes, shape policies, distribute resources, and influence the systems that affect people’s experiences.

DEI is practiced by people. The impact of that practice extends into the systems those people create, maintain, and change.

Practice Means Learning and Acting

Practice begins with learning about ourselves. Our identities and experiences shape what we notice, what we believe, what we expect, and how we move through the world. Reflection helps us examine those influences and consider whether we want to continue showing up as we have.

Practice also requires learning about other people. We encounter experiences and perspectives that differ from our own. We develop curiosity, ask better questions, listen, and recognize that our own experiences do not tell the whole story. We understand that even when we feel like we’ve learned all there is to know about someone, in reality, we’ve only learned that version of someone.

Then, we put what we have learned into action.

Sometimes that means changing how we respond to a colleague, student, client, or family. Sometimes it means reconsidering a decision, redesigning a program, questioning a norm, revising a policy, or changing a process that creates barriers for the people an organization is meant to serve. The appropriate action depends on the circumstances and the people affected. That is why critical thinking matters. We need the capacity to assess a situation, consider different perspectives, make thoughtful decisions, and examine the impact of what we do.

And the learning continues after we act. We can learn from what happened, consider what we missed, examine what changed, and determine what needs to happen next. In that way, DEI becomes an ongoing cycle of learning and action rather than a set of predetermined activities.

Reflect. Relate. Rise Up.

At Decide Diversity, this ongoing work is captured in three movements: Reflect, Relate, Rise Up.

Together, they invite us to examine ourselves, learn from others, and take meaningful action. They help us consider the distance between where we are and where we want to be, between what we know and what others experience, and between what we currently do and what the moment requires.

This movement from reflection to relationship to action connects personal learning to the choices we make and the environments and systems we influence. It recognizes that practicing DEI is about understanding ourselves and other people. It’s also about deciding what we will do with what we learn.

And because circumstances, people, and environments continue to change, the practice continues as well. We reflect, relate, act, learn from the impact, and continue.

The work is to become better at navigating the distance between where we are and where we want to be.

DEI is Part of the Work

Most organizations are not yet practicing DEI as consistently and sustainably as they would like. That is an invitation to think differently about what the work requires.

We need people who can reflect on themselves, relate to others, and rise up when the moment call for action. People who can learn, think critically, adapt, and make decisions with an understanding of the circumstances and the people affected. And we need people who recognize that their practice does not stop with their individual behavior. They also have the ability to shape the environments around them through the policies, processes, norms, decisions, and structures they create, maintain, and change.

For nonprofits, this connects to the people and communities their missions are meant to serve. For schools, it connects to the conditions in which students, educators, and families learn and participate. For businesses and other organizations, it connects to how people work together, make decisions, and contribute to the organization’s purpose. In every setting, DEI practice helps connect what an organization says it values with how it operates and how people experience its work.

The destination was never more DEI activities. The destination is a community where people have the capacity to create, shape, and sustain environments where everyone can thrive.

That is when DEI stops being a program and it becomes a practice.

What’s Next For You?

If DEI is a practice, the next question is a practical one: What would it look like for your group to practice it?

Decide Diversity helps organizations build that practice through experiences designed to move people from learning to action. Depending on where your group is in the work, that might mean bringing your team together for a facilitated learning experience, equipping people with the Table of Diversity to continue practicing together, or engaging in a longer-term experience that gives the work time to take root.

Explore the ways your organization can practice DEI with Decide Diversity.