Allyship is the Future of DEI

There are concerns in the business world that the appetite for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is waning. Compared to the influx of DEI roles and budgets in 2020, the number of DEI positions in organizations have been decreasing over the past 6 months. Like myself, DEI experts predict that DEI is not going away altogether, but rather needs to evolve beyond stalled and/or performative efforts.

Some people believe inclusion is getting rebranded as “employee experience” or “workplace wellbeing.” Although experience and well-being should be addressed—and measured!—as leading and lagging indicators related to DEI outcomes, my take is that the future of DEI lies in allyship.

Allyship is a relationship between an ally and their partner, working together toward the shared goal of fairness, equity, and social justice. Someone shouldn’t call themselves an ally, though. Only the person who benefits from an ally’s work should award this designation. Consider the word ally to be a verb. It’s not who someone is, but what they do. ?

To be more specific, an ally is someone who: ?

• Uses their power and status…
• To support and advocate for…
• Someone who doesn’t share a key part of their identity, for example:
• Male allies for women
• White allies for People of Color
• Straight allies for LGBTQ+ individuals

I believe allyship is the future of DEI because it solves one of the biggest issues related to DEI—divisiveness and perceived exclusion from over-represented groups. Unfortunately, DEI initiatives are often seen as only benefiting a small subset of an organization. On the contrary, when DEI is done RIGHT, EVERYONE benefits—including the straight, white, able-bodied men who often don’t see themselves as part of DEI efforts.

Allyship gets ALL parties involved in DEI, empowering those who hold power and status to actively and intentionally make the workplace more inclusive and equitable for EVERYBODY.

Learn more about the power of allyship in the resources shared below. And don’t hesitate to reach out if we can help bring your allyship into YOUR organization.

Yours in partnership,

"Dr. V"

Victoria Mattingly, PhD

CEO | Mattingly Solutions?

Four Resources:

1. Explore a few tactics you and your employees can try out to promote allyship and inclusion at your organization. Learn More.
2. Tune in to Dr. Victoria Mattingly's DisruptHR Talk as she illuminates the path to a more equitable future through the power of allyship in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Watch Now.
3. An ally is someone who uses their power and status to advocate and support someone who is different from them in some meaningful way. On the surface, measuring allyship may appear easy - all you have to do is measure allyship behaviors, right? Read the blog.
4. Allyship in its truest form is an ongoing relationship between a partner and ally. However, allyship can take many different forms. One example could be on-the-spot allyship in a meeting where someone is getting interrupted, by stepping in to make sure their voice is heard. Read more on the blog, "Allyship defined and how to build ally partnerships." Read now.

Two Calls to Action:

1. Take our course, 'Ally Up: How to Build and Activate Ally Partnerships.' Get 30% off this month only using this link: Start Learning.
2. Reach out if you’d like to partner with Mattingly Solutions to bring allyship into your organization. Contact Us.

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