Leaders need to embark on their own DEI learning journey. It is not your ERG’s responsibility to lead DEIJ within your orgnaiation. Don’t ask employees to committ time, expertise, and passion for free, it is essential to provide compensation. If budgets are limited, organizations can offer learning opportunities or professional development to demonstrate their commitment. By allocating monetary resources to DEI, organizations align their actions with their values, demonstrating that DEI is not merely lip service.

“We are co-creating our workspace, culture, and potentially societal structures. This is a very abstract, high-level vision and what I’ve learned is many organizations aren’t ready.”

“I believe that the current standards of professionalism within the capitalist system were not made for or by people of the global majority and of marginalized groups,” Desi Carson shares. “Debunking professionalism, for me, is just bringing back the human component of it and how we can lead with love, compassion, kindness and understanding within the workplace.”

“When it's about finding our voice and speaking our truth… what I like to draw back to is: this is a job that you have, but who you are, how you feel about yourself and the way you function in the world is more paramount,” Minita Gandhi shares. “And so in terms of whether to speak up or not and finding truth, the really simple thing I say is: if you were to talk to your 80-year-old self right now, what would they want you to do in this moment?”

“The purpose of equity work is [so we can all] exist as full humans. White supremacy culture [and] other systems of oppression [are] about dehumanization,” Rachel Vicente shares. “Equity work is about [ensuring] people [can] be human - all of the emotions, life experiences and complexities that come with it, and for us to be able to learn from each other and grow from each other.”

“[Things] have changed some, but if you look at technology teams at most companies in America, it still skews quite a bit to male and white,” John Higginson remarks. “There has been progress, but there’s still a lot of way to go.” John Higginson is Chief Technology Officer at Chief, where he oversees the creation of the technology and data science that underlies the sites and mobile apps used every day by its members.

Michelle Morkert is a coach and Global Gender Scholar and Professor. She is the founder of Michelle Morkert Coaching, where she incorporates 17 years of academic experience in women’s and gender studies with her certified professional coach training. Michelle is a self-proclaimed disrupter of imposter syndrome.In this week’s show, she defines, disrupts, and debunks imposter syndrome and the myths surrounding it. She shares insights on how imposter syndrome intersects with gender and white supremacy culture

Betsy Leonard is Executive Director of Kartemquin Films, an Oscar-winning collaborative non-profit that uplifts and empowers documentary makers who create stories that encourage equity, justice, and engagement in society. As a passionate leader and strategist, she sees herself as a connector of people and ideas.

In this week’s show, Betsy discusses the imperative of doing self-work and shares her personal journey to becoming anti-racist and how she's educated herself.