Hey, everybody, it's Joanna Shoffner Scott here. Thank you for allowing me to join you in your day. No matter when you're listening, I want to share a personal update today on the pod. It's about a significant shift in my work that has led me to stop using the term DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) to describe my expertise and my work. It was a hard decision to make, but I'm glad I made it. And now I want to share a little bit with you about why I made it. Okay, let's dig into my why.

One of the things that I've noticed about working in this space for so long is that the term DEI can mean so many things. It can mean anything from a one-off training to the deeper organizational transformation work that I do and everything in between.

Or it can mean nothing in between.

I wrote about this transition on my blog. Here is a link. 

I've always described myself as a racial equity consultant because equity is the core of what I do. As I embrace DEI as a descriptor, it was a way for people to connect with me and find me and find my work. I've discovered over the years that potential clients don't always understand what I do, and it always takes a little bit of education to bring folks along to the results they can expect from my work. For me, DEI was a quick way to help orient people to what I do. However, I've learned now that sometimes that's really helpful and sometimes not.

So again, I'll take you down through my journey. 

Diversity, equity, and inclusion, depending on your perspective, these three letters can mean much or nothing, as I said a second ago.

As I record this, I recall a conversation with a friend and a colleague who has been in this business a long time who asked me, why do we call what we do DEI? Where in the world did that come from? I flashed back to an old graphic from when I was a consultant with the Race Matters Institute of Just Partners. In that version of the Race Matters training, We always used this graphic to discuss and unpack diversity, inclusion, and equity.

We named diversity first because that is where people tend to start, and I see that even now. Shifts in diversity always call for inclusion because inclusion begs questions around power and voice—who has power, and how are people supported in using their voice? However, neither is sustainable without equity, which in my work focuses on an organization's internal systems, which are upheld and created through policies, practices, and protocols. So that's why we talked about it that way in those early days.

I shared this memory with my friend, and I recall that we made the shift because we thought the order of the acronym was unappealing. If you unpack the acronyn, it would be DIE. 

Who wants to go to a DIE session? 

Turns out nobody does. That was one reason why we started using those letters, right? I'm sure there were others, but that's the one memory that comes to mind. Over the past 18 months, though, I've been using the term DEI to describe my work. That started to feel uncomfortable for me, almost kind of like jeans that are too small, like they fit, but they aren't quite as comfortable as they once were. That's how it started to feel for me. When I started my firm, I resisted the term altogether. I can't say that I was always comfortable with it, but I went with it because it was short, easy to understand, and easy to remember, even though I know that sometimes people didn't always fully know what it meant, if that makes sense.

Here's the why: With that disconnect for me came a recognition of my part in the disconnect. So potential clients would find me after looking for a DEI consultant, but I'm asking them questions about their decision-making, their policies, their practices, how they work, and why they do the things they do. I would get questions like, "Well, what does all this have to do with racial equity?" When in reality, those things have everything to do with equity. And it was that disconnect that factored into my decision to leave that language behind. At my core, I'm an organizational development consultant. 

My focus is on policies, practices, and protocols. I am most interested in where equity lives in thought organizations and the surrounding culture it creates. That is almost always found in the how of everyday work. 

I've always felt that the descriptor DEI and how people understand it varies greatly and does not adequately describe what I do with my clients. And I've landed there because if a client hires me for racial equity work, they will always also get organizational development work. Always. While organizational development can be undertaken without a racial equity perspective, just like strategic planning can, racial equity can't be achieved without organizational development. And I've seen over and over and over throughout the years that if a client has an equity problem, they almost always have an organizational development problem as well. Almost always. So my work addresses both.

Here's some examples: My work is systemic. I look for how my clients define equity, which should always be actionable and measurable. I look at how a client does their work—the planning, the tools, execution, and outcomes. I look for differences in the staff experience by identity. That's the core of my work. I look for how leaders lead and help them work through the growth edges in their journey. I also look at their policies and practices, both the written ones and the unwritten ones. When I think about all of this together, that is the essence of what I do. It feels bigger, more transformative, and for me, it offers greater clarity. I haven't regretted making the shift. It was really tough. It was hard because I was also wondering what people would think. In other words, like, would people think that my shift had to do with the backlash that's happening? 

I really struggled with that. It took me about three months to land in this place. I had some help from a coach, like, helping me work through it. But it was a big shift for me. It feels right for me because of what I confront in my work on an everyday basis. Because if you have inequities within your organization of any kind, nine times out of ten, they're supported by structures that enable them to happen. These types of situations have to be addressed both structurally and organizationally. Even if the inequity is created by behaviors, even then you still have to address it both structurally and organizationally. 

I will also say that calling yourself an OD consultant doesn't sound super fun either, to be, 100% honest. But for me, it feels right. It feels like a new pair of jeans that fits, and it feels accurate. So that when people reach out to me, I am reflecting back to them, like, "Here's what I do, these are the results you can expect, and here's why," which to me, feels super clear.

As I wrap up this episode, I also want to be really clear about how you talk about the work because I think this is really important. I had a couple of people reach out to me about the shift that I made because I posted a video of myself talking about it on LinkedIn right after I made the decision. So a few folks reached out to me. I want to just say to people who are listening that I don't think it really matters what you call your work, to be honest. Like, for me, this was a really important shift in terms of being clear about my work and being clear about what my business focus is on and being clear on the results that folks can expect when working with me. But I also think that whether you call your work DEI, DEIA, DEIB, DE whatever—you call it, what matters is that you are making a commitment to build an equitable organization, to engage in equitable practices consistently in ways that align with your mission, vision, and values. That's really what matters. The letters don't matter. What matters is the commitment behind it.

That's what I say to my clients who ask me, "Should I shift how I change?" You know, "Should I change how I talk about it?" No. If that works for you and you feel like it's specific and clear enough for you, then that's amazing. For me, it wasn't, and I needed a little bit more concreteness so that what I'm communicating out in the world is actually what I do to avoid people getting caught in the disconnect between what they think DEI is and what they think racial equity is and what they think I do. Alright, so I wanted to share that bit of an update. Until next time, take care.

That's this week's episode of Race in the Workplace. Remember to subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts and share it with a friend who can use these strategies in their work. My hope for the podcast is that it reaches every person who needs it. Until next time, take care.