Choosing the Right DEI Approach

As a leader who believes that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is important you may be grappling with the question: what’s the best approach? With so many options, from one-off training sessions to fully integrated strategies, it can be challenging to choose. I wanted to break down the pros and cons of three common DEI approaches: one-off training, a comprehensive strategy, and a blended solution.

One-Off Training: Quick Impact, Limited Depth

One-off DEI training sessions, such as unconscious bias workshops or cultural competency courses, are popular for their simplicity and cost-effectiveness. They can quickly raise awareness, facilitate important conversations and help employees understand the basics of DEI and feel equipped to address common issues.

Pros: Participants leave with actionable insights that can be applied immediately, sessions are a smaller financial investment and are easy to implement. Cons: A single session does not address systemic issues and results typically do not yield sustained behavior change.

Comprehensive Strategy: Sustained Change, Larger Investment

A comprehensive DEI strategy includes a multi-layered approach involving policy reviews, regular training, leadership alignment, employee engagement, and metrics to measure progress. This long-term approach aims to embed DEI into every aspect of the organization’s culture.

Pros: A strategic DEI approach supports sustained cultural change, addresses systemic inequity and includes metrics to track progress, leading to higher retention, engagement, and innovation. Cons: A systemic approach involves significant investment, takes time to implement and requires executive buy-in to implement effectively.

Blended Solution: Balancing Impact and Flexibility

A blended approach combines elements of one-off training with strategic initiatives. This may involve regular training sessions paired with systems and policy updates, leadership coaching, and progress tracking.

Pros: Provides the benefits of both immediate training and strategic depth and training can be customized to support the strategy. Cons: Without clear alignment, the mix of efforts may lack cohesion and result in disjointed progress and takes time to implement.

Here are four questions that you can ask to determine which approach is best for your organization:

  • What long-term DEI outcomes does our organization want to achieve?

  • How much budget and time can we allocate for DEI initiatives?

  • Do we have leadership buy-in for a sustained DEI strategy?

  • How well can we measure and track DEI progress within our organization?

If you need help figuring out which approach is best for you, I encourage you to take my short DEI maturity assessment to determine the strengths and opportunities with your current approach and schedule a free 30-minute conversation with me to discuss which options are best for you.   

Tiffany Perry, CEO & Founder of Amberus Partners