Written by Amie Lawrence, PhD, former Director of Global Innovation
Over the years, the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has been amplified by events and movements like #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. Social justice as well as diversity and inclusion in general have reached new levels of awareness within social consciousness and are beginning to significantly influence business decisions. They have also become important factors in how employees and candidates evaluate the attractiveness of employers.
What is allyship in diversity and inclusion?
Allyship refers to the active, ongoing process of using one’s voice and privilege to support marginalized groups, advocating for fair opportunities and respect for everyone involved. It requires empathy, understanding, and intentional actions to amplify voices, challenge biases, and promote equity. Becoming a DEI ally involves proactively creating an environment that fosters inclusivity and equity where everyone can thrive and achieve their full potential.
Why is DEI allyship important?
Companies that focus on fairness and take steps to embrace diversity have a better chance of attracting their ideal candidates and achieving their allyship goals. Organizations have seen a number of positive business outcomes when it comes to diverse workforces, especially those with diversity within their leadership teams and board rooms. Forbes cited a number of these benefits including increased innovation, retaining top talent, and enhancing morale.
Many organizations have at least started to move in this direction. Pew Research Center reports that 54% of employees credit their organization with giving increased DEI efforts the proper amount of attention. Additionally, 61% say policies exist within their organization that promote fairness in hiring, pay, or promotions. While these numbers are promising, some organizations still readily admit that they don’t know where to start when focusing on the benefits of DEI allyship. If you’re still in the initial stages of your allyship journey, we can help.
How to create a culture of DEI allyship
When making any large organizational shift, it is important to have a clear vision for the end goal. What is organizational success when it comes to DEI? There are numerous opportunities to address equity and inclusion within HR processes and decision making, but those changes will not be successful if the organizational values system and messaging are not cohesive.
Each individual within an organization is likely to be in a different place in terms of their understanding, awareness, and commitment to DEI and allyship. Creating a consistent vision and setting expectations will help guide behavior as employees work towards becoming a DEI ally to support the initiative. A framework that applies nicely to this issue of differing levels of commitment is our ABC model of allyship. In this framework, the end goal is to become a true DEI ally by actively advocating and taking action on behalf of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
DEI allyship is not a new concept to those familiar with literature in this space. What we like about this model is that it recognizes that becoming a DEI ally is a journey that starts with awareness and ends with individuals playing a more active role in championing change.
Below, we describe our ABC Model of DEI allyship and its three phases:
Appreciate inclusion
Allyship begins with an awareness of the issues and experiences of disenfranchised groups. It is an acknowledgement of the differences and an openness to learning. Individuals in this phase are identifying privilege and seeing how it impacts and contributes to systemic bias within society and their organization.
Unconscious bias training is an intervention meant to help people begin their journey towards becoming a DEI ally and agent for change by raising awareness and alerting them to behaviors that can be perceived as microaggressions. This phase of allyship requires some questioning, mental flexibility, and willingness to adjust one’s thinking about the nature of the environment for everyone within it.
Build inclusive climate
The second stage of this model moves from individual awareness and openness to the demonstration of behaviors. Individuals in this phase of allyship are helping to build an inclusive environment by gathering diverse perspectives, empathizing, actively listening, communicating transparently, and showing humility and authenticity.
These behaviors, especially when modeled by leaders, build an environment of trust and psychological safety. Individuals and teams are more open, creative, and effective when working in a supportive and inclusive environment. At this stage, individuals tend to support DEI within their scope of influence and may feel uncomfortable formally speaking out or challenging organizational policies.
Champion change
The last phase of DEI allyship is one of advocacy. Individuals at this stage take their behavioral commitment to another level. They tend to look for opportunities to affect change formally and informally. To be successful at this stage, individuals need to be courageous, action-oriented, resilient, and willing to commit to large change effort.
Organizational change does not happen quickly or easily, but creating a culture that champions allyship won’t happen at all without individuals in this phase. Ideally, the entire organization is full of DEI allies that are all working together because their work environment supports these behaviors. At a minimum, organizational leaders should all be able to model allyship, identify improvement opportunities, and use their power and status to push forward changes.
Create long-lasting impact with DEI allyship
Creating an inclusive culture and workplace climate that champions DEI allyship is a large undertaking and requires the organization to tackle it by looking at all internal processes and at all levels. Before embarking on such a change, it’s important to consider where your employees and leaders are within their journey towards allyship. Without DEI allies leading the efforts, organizational messaging and behavior can be incongruent and inconsistent.
Additionally, organizational interventions are likely to be received differently by employees at different phases of their allyship journey. When choosing interventions, consider those that help move people along their journey towards becoming a DEI ally and agent for change within your organization. Raising awareness alone is not going to create an ally. Look at the big picture and focus on the activities and initiatives that create DEI allies who affect change, leading to the development of an inclusive culture.
