The Justice Informed DEI Roadmap: How To Stay the Course While Navigating a DEI Journey
Many DEI strategies lose their footing before they ever get off the ground. Here’s how Justice Informed ensures its DEI roadmaps are tactical, impactful, and adaptable.
We are in a moment where increasingly, valuing and embodying the work of DEI is societally misunderstood at best and under attack at worst. It is crucial that organizational DEI strategies can withstand the scrutiny of this microscope of critique by getting tactical and speaking directly to the needs and ambitions of their marginalized and minoritized staff. The best way to get clear on the DEI road ahead for your team or organization is to develop a clear and actionable DEI roadmap.
Many organizations jump to the work of creating a roadmap without first determining the destination where that roadmap is headed. Before developing a DEI roadmap, organizations should first take the time to understand what DEI can and should mean to its various stakeholders and the extent to which those stakeholders are ready to embrace the work. In fact, Justice Informed holds off on developing a DEI Roadmap for its client organizations until they have first undergone a thorough assessment of their past and existing DEI efforts, DEI policies and practices; internal team culture and dynamics, and more (read more about the contents of our DEI Assessments here). The specific and unique results of these assessments provide the information necessary to decide what is and is not important to the organization in terms of DEI moving forward.
Still, even a thorough DEI assessment may produce a jumbled list of next steps with varying levels of complexity and priority. It is easy to succumb to feelings of overwhelm when presented with such a list. Part of creating a good DEI roadmap is the ability to think tactically about ordering actions in a way that will maintain momentum going without burning out stakeholders too quickly. One way to consider prioritization and sequencing of the various actions that is used by a variety of organizations is to rank strategies and tactics based on their impact and ease of implementation. As such, we encourage our clients to breakdown their DEI priorities into the buckets of Major Projects, High Priority Actions, Deferred Actions, or Quick Wins according to the following matrix:
The results of both an assessment and the above prioritization exercise will inevitably create DEI strategies that vary widely from organization to organization. This makes sense given the unique nuances and particularities of the makeup, ambitions, and structures of each and every organization. Still, at Justice Informed, we know that regardless of your organizational DEI priorities, most good DEI strategies are typically made up of the following five core building blocks:
1. Strategy Launch
The first step in any DEI roadmap should involve a thorough process of socialization of any DEI assessment or audit, opportunities for feedback and edits on the contents of the roadmap itself, and consensus- and culture-building activities among stakeholders. This is also the appropriate time to establish how the work of the roadmap itself or DEI in general will be managed moving forward.
Typical Timeline: First 90 Days
Primary Activity and Tactic Examples:
Review DEI audit or assessment findings and host any follow-up discussions or interviews
Modify Roadmap and create/edit implementation plans as needed
Finalize DEI management structure (i.e., DEI Council/Committee, Roadmap Task Force, etc.) and accompanying decision-making authority
Consider incentivizing participation in DEI-related strategies or bodies
Host a series of mediated and/or restorative sessions among organization stakeholders
2. Building Momentum
Following the Strategy Launch phase, a Roadmap should build momentum by kicking off major learning and development projects, continuing the team-building work that began in the first phase, and establishing some quick wins and/or completing some high priority items, which can work to establish trust between DEI leadership and staff. Other major, more structural projects (e.g., updating a DEI Policy) may be better saved for closer to the roadmap’s one year mark.
Typical Timeline: Months 3 - 6
Primary Activity and Tactic Examples:
Launch initial major projects
E.g., Full-scale pay equity audit
Invest in creating accessible social events for staff
Introduce a mentor/mentee program
Have all staff undergo a DEI retreat or training
Hire an executive coach for the executive team
3. Finishing One Year Strong
At this point in the Roadmap process, major projects should be substantially underway and high priority action items should be nearing completion. This phase should also take the opportunity to refine the organization’s approach to sharing out ongoing updates on DEI work, either internally, externally, or both.
Typical Timeline: Months 6 - 12
Primary Activity and Tactic Examples:
Officially determine a market-aligned DEI budget
Identify cadence for ongoing updates on DEI progress
Publish and act on results of ongoing pay and promotion equity studies
Review internship, externship, college recruiting, and other programs
4. Implementing and Tracking
One full year into your roadmap, you should consider reporting externally on progress and establishing or maintaining space for DEI discussion, given that initial staff momentum around this work may have died down. It is also natural if the contents of this phase of your roadmap are different from the intentions you initially laid out, as new areas of exploration were likely raised during the strategy’s first year. This is also an excellent time to address some of the actions that have been tagged as deferred.
Typical Timeline: Months 12 - 24
Primary Activity and Tactic Examples:
Host stakeholder workshops on new DEI statement
Introduce roundtable discussions across the organization
Begin reporting publicly on DEI progress
Begin refreshed review of internal documents and policies
5. Strategy Review & Refresh
At this phase of your strategy, you should take time as a team to review the success of the roadmap in order to develop a new, two-year plan. This is the time when it may be appropriate for your organization to conduct another, refreshed DEI audit or assessment to see how staff sentiments around the subject have or have not changed.
Typical Timeline: Month 24 and Onward
Primary Activity and Tactic Examples:
Review implemented strategies and two-year plan
Identify additional opportunities to increase DEI attainment and goals
Conduct assessment and update strategic plan accordingly
Consider stretch goals and opportunities for new plan (e.g., connecting CSR with DEI)
Refresh of DEI Strategy
*Please note that the above ‘Primary Activities and Tactics’ cannot and should not be applied to all organizations. We have presented these examples as key areas for exploration at each phase of the Roadmap based on our experience with client organizations.*
Are you ready to create a DEI Roadmap for your team or organization? Reach out to Justice Informed today at info@justiceinformed.com or visit our website today to see how we can help.
