Big Updates at Collective and a Brand New Part of the Journey!

Hey, y’all! Kellie here.

When I transitioned into DEI work full-time in late 2017, I took a true leap of faith by launching Collective. While the landscape has changed dramatically since Collective came onto the scene, when we first started out, only a handful of companies were interested in this work. Most of the DEI offerings out in the market seemed either shallow or completely devoid of humanity, focused on data-centric approaches as a way to appease the tech clients who were actually willing to shell out money for DEI.

I started Collective to bring a human-centered, collaborative approach to DEI work. I wanted to do DEI in a way that wasn’t shame-y, cringe-y, or just a plain old drag. And through this rollercoaster of the past 5+ years, I’m pretty proud that we’ve done just that. But, and…

All around us, the DEI industry has been shaken up. When I talk to other practitioners, they speak of being impacted by layoffs or steep declines in sales. Friends who were galvanized by progress have watched their companies’ DEI initiatives falter as resources get reallocated amidst cutbacks. Hit pieces in the Wall Street Journal and other mainstream publications fret about the toxicity of DEI work. Honestly, the past several months have felt pretty bleak for our industry.

Yet, at Collective, we believe that the best changes come out of the toughest pressure cooker moments, and we’ve been using this pressure cooker of a moment to think critically about what the industry and our clients really need and how we can meet both where they’re at. We’re pretty excited with what we’ve come up with.

A New Model for a New World

When it comes to how DEI work gets done, the past several years have taught us a thing or two on the client side and for us as a company—

1. Internal DEI teams (even before they were being dismantled due to budget cuts) are almost always woefully under-resourced. In fact, it’s usually one person expected to play five different roles as an expert facilitator, strategist, coach, project manager, data analyst... You get the picture. The budgets that are allocated to DEI headcount rarely are sufficient to set the work up for success. And that under-resourcing, combined with the draining nature of the work, leaves full-time internal DEI practitioners burnt the F out.
2. For us, as consultants, the typical way of working— agreeing to a set of deliverables after 1-2 sales conversations— rarely ends up meeting the actual needs of clients once we get into the organization in a real down and dirty way. We never quite get the flexibility to be as impactful as a (properly resourced) internal DEI team could be.

So when we started seeing major layoffs amongst internal DEI teams, it got us thinking: What if, instead of a company having just one full-time DEI person, they could hire a full fractional DEI team that could flex and morph to meet their exact needs and budget at different points along their DEI journey? One that could be embedded within their company more long-term, but also didn’t limit them to one person with one specific skill set. A team where the workload is shared so burn out is kept at bay and the work stays high-impact.

This was all the motivation we needed to dive in and lead our first big pivot in how we partner with clients. Since the beginning of the year, we’ve been joining new client’s teams as their very first fractional DEI team, in some cases as their main DEI driver, and in other cases, as a supplement to their full-time DEI leader, and we’re already loving what we see.

We get the flexibility to always be responsive to what the organization needs in each moment to move forward on their DEI journey, and they get the energy, expertise, and impact of a full team. Oh, and those solo DEI leaders? We get to take some of the weight off their way overburdened shoulders and give them a true team to collaborate with. Win-win- win!

A Fresh Perspective Through New Leadership

Hey, remember when we talked about burnout? Yeah, well, CEOs get it too. And burnt-out leaders aren’t set up to be the best leaders. So as we move towards the really ambitious changes I mentioned above, I realized, it was time for some fresh energy and new styles of leading, and it didn’t take a lot of searching for us to find it at Collective.

Our Head of Product, Nas, has been an incredible partner to me and the organization since the very early days of our journey. From developing partnerships early on with companies like Toast and The New York Times to leading projects across every area of the business, Nas has been an invaluable leader in our work. Beyond that, she’s an amazing coach, motivator, and “get shit done-er” and is forever reminding our team why we do what we do. Which is why, as I began to realize that I wanted to pivot to spend more time doing the work that really lights me up, it only made sense that she become the next person to stand at the helm.

So without further ado, I’m so excited to announce Nas as Collective’s new CEO. While she’ll lead the charge through these new transitions to our model, I’m super excited to get back to what I love— being a practitioner and evangelizer as our new Chief Creative Officer. Moving forward, I’ll be bringing you more thought-provoking content, continuing to refine our DEI solutions, and taking on some select speaking and client engagements (which I’m extra jazzed about).

While the past few years have been a true rollercoaster, I’ve been so grateful to lead and learn and grow alongside my teammates and our incredible clients. While transitions can feel daunting for some, I’ve never shied away from them because of the possibilities they bring. I’m excited for the possibilities 2023 brings, the continued evolution of this important important work, and for new energy, new joy, and new ways forward.

Be sure to follow along – we'll share more exciting updates soon!