DEI Learning Journey
Make it easy and rewarding to strengthen and practice inclusive leadership behaviors by following the steps designed to build self-awareness, broaden perspectives, deepen empathy and understanding and apply an inclusive lens to daily interactions and decision-making.
Learning Journey Steps
Inspiration
Watch this video to spark your thoughts on why inclusion and belonging are important to you.
Action
Write your DEI “why” statement. After watching the video, reflect on why inclusion and belonging are important to you and write a sentence to summarize your “why” for caring about DEI. Your statement could answer:
- How DEI aligns with your values and the person you want to be.
- How you, your workplace, your community or even the world become better by embracing DEI.
Set a DEI learning goal. Use the Inclusive Mindset Continuum chart to assess where you are on your learning journey based on your current attitude and behavior toward commonalities and differences. Based on where you are today, set a goal for where you want to be in several months.
Reflection
- It is important to think of diversity in broad terms because we are all more than what meets the eye. What is one thing people would be surprised to learn about you by looking at you?
- We can all relate to feeling excluded at some point in our lives. Reflect on a time when you’ve been the “only one”, have been misunderstood or had to put forth effort to fit in. How did you feel?
- Everyone is at their best when they feel a sense of belonging. When do you most feel a sense of belonging and what contributes to feeling belonging?
- We can all foster more belonging at work by broadening our perspectives and embracing an inclusive mindset. What might get in the way of taking action on your DEI learning journey to develop and demonstrate inclusive behaviors? How can you hold yourself accountable for following through?
Inspiration
Watch this video to help you recognize your blind spots and focus on what’s possible by becoming more self-aware.
Action
- Examine your social circle. Use the Social Circle Reflection Worksheet to notice who you hang out with and who you don’t. Diversity missing in your personal life could indicate where you have unconscious biases worth exploring. Look beyond obvious differences and consider hidden ones like socio-economic status, professional status, education level, political views and more.
- Take a test. Visit Harvard University’s Project Implicit website and take an Implicit Association Testto uncover attitudes and beliefs you may be unwilling or unable to detect by measuring the strength of associations between concepts (e.g., black people, gay people) and evaluations (e.g., good, bad) or stereotypes (e.g., athletic, clumsy).
- Notice your behaviors. Over the course of a week, pay attention whenever you have a strong reaction to someone – positive or negative – and ask yourself why. Do you feel positive emotions when you see yourself in someone (affinity bias) or negative emotions when you don’t? Pay attention to situations where you give more weight to information that supports your beliefs (confirmation bias) and discard information that does not.
- Bust your biases. With more awareness of when you may become prone to the influence of unconscious biases such as affinity bias and confirmation bias, try practicing some of these Tips to Bust Your Biases to minimize their influence.
Reflection
- What action did you take this month?
- What unconscious biases did you explore?
- What did you learn about yourself and your attitudes and behaviors toward differences and similarities?
- What can you do to be more aware of and minimize any negative consequences of your implicit biases on a daily basis?
Inspiration
Watch this video to inspire you to be curious, challenge your assumptions and widen your view so you can see more.
Action
- Schedule story time. Once a week, commit to consuming a book, video or podcast that exposes you to life experiences that are unlike your own. Here’s a suggested list of Content to Broaden Your Perspective to get you started.
- Watch the “other” news channel. Challenge yourself to tune into news from a source you don’t normally consume. Try to increase your review time by 1 minute each day. Use the bias buster tips if your emotions elevate.
Reflection
- What content did you consume?
- What beliefs or assumptions did you explore?
- What did you learn about someone else? What did you learn about yourself?
- What was challenging and what was rewarding?
- Which bias busters did you utilize?
- In what ways have you widened your view?
Inspiration
See how Matthew McConaughey, Roger Goodell, members of the Petaluma police department and others lean into “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man” to boost your confidence to have honest dialog across differences of your own.
Action
- Understand your feelings. Watch Why We’re Awkward to understand why dialog across differences may make us anxious and feel awkward and how our best intentions may result in miscommunication.
- Be aware of microaggressions. Microaggressions are everyday, subtle, and oftentimes unintentional interactions or behaviors that communicate bias toward historically marginalized groups. Review the List of Common Racial Microaggressions so you can enter honest dialog more aware and with more confidence.
- Don’t worry about making mistakes. The more you lean in to unfamiliar cultures and have dialog across differences, you increase the likelihood of unintentionally saying something that is culturally improper, insensitive, or even offensive. Making a cultural faux pas may sting, but it is important to know that you can recover. Use these Tips to Recover from a Cultural Faux Pas to learn from the experience and move on.
Reflection
- Use the Inclusive Mindset Continuum chart to assess where you are today based on your attitude and behavior toward commonalities and differences compared to where you were several month ago. In what ways have you grown on your DEI learning journey?
- Which action step taken on the learning journey was most impactful for you? Why?
- What new inclusive behaviors have you learned? Which behaviors could you incorporate in your daily interactions and decision-making to make them a habit?
- Based on where you are today, set a goal for where you want to be in several months.
Inspiration
Watch this video to understand what science tells us about the benefits of having diverse friendships and relationships.
Action
- Diversify your relationships. Identify one way you can put yourself in situations to meet new people where diversity is more prevalent. Consider opportunities to volunteer, attend community events or choose different places to socialize. Put a date on your calendar to take action and make it happen.
- Embrace everyday acts of inclusion. Over the course of the week, invest in deepening one existing relationship with someone who different from you in some way by showing genuine interest and appreciation towards them by implementing an idea from 50 Everyday Acts of Inclusion, such as:
- Be more present with someone during 1×1’s by asking thoughtful questions and listening to the answers.
- Let someone know what you have learned from them and how they have impacted you.
- Share with someone what they uniquely do well or qualities and behaviors you admire in them.
- Give meetings an infusion of inclusion. Be more intentional about seeking and fostering diverse perspectives during meetings with these 7 Ways to Make Your Meetings More Inclusive.
Reflection
- What action did you take this month?
- What was challenging and rewarding about the action taken?
- What was the impact of your action and what did you learn about yourself?
- How can you tell if a meeting or interaction with someone feels inclusive or not? Describe the last meeting or situation you were in that felt inclusive? What made it so?
- What can you do more of or less of to contribute to a sense of belonging in meetings and/or in daily interactions with?
Inspiration
We’ve all experienced times when the voice in our head tells us to stay silent when we’ve seen or have been subjected to non-inclusive behavior. What this video to be inspired to use your voice when you hear that little voice.
Action
- Learn what it means to be an ally. Watch the video, 5 Tips to Being an Ally. and read the article, 10 Simple Ways White People Can Step Up to Fight Everyday Racism.
- Appreciate your privilege. Being an ally to marginalized individuals means you understand privilege – advantages accorded to some people and not others. Some systemic or structural advantages are so ingrained in our day to day, we may not even realize or acknowledge them. Recognize the privilege you have by considering all the ways you can go about your day without having to think about certain things because systems, structures and norms are tailored around you and your dimensions of diversity.
- Set an “internal work” goal. Consider how you will continue on your DEI learning journey. What steps will you continue to take to strengthen and demonstrate the skills explored to date: become self-aware, become comfortable being uncomfortable, be curious and make connections.
- Set an “external work” goal. Make a commitment to speak up and out against inequalities, bigotry and poor behavior and/or to contribute time and money to support organizations, efforts and causes that promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
Reflection
- What does being an ally mean to you? Why does it matter to you?
- In what ways can you go about your day without having to think about things? In what ways do you have to plan ahead in order to get things done or are faced with challenges with getting things done.
- Which dimensions of diversity provide you the most access or privilege? Which dimensions of diversity hurt your options or opportunities the most?
- What are your internal work and external work goals?How do these goals align with your overall personal and professional development goals?
- What challenges and barriers might get in the way of taking action on your goals? How can you mitigate challenges and remove barriers?
- With whom can you continue to discuss progress on your DEI journey? Who can give you honest feedback?
- How can you be sure to reflect on small wins and celebrate successes on your journey?