DIY DEI: Building a Diversity Program From Scratch...on a Shoestring

Too many corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs begin with the best of intentions – and fail.?

My team’s DEI program could easily have ended up as just such a statistic. But we didn’t fail. Actually, our efforts are creating a positive ripple effect across our team, organization, and beyond.?

Let me take you on the VMware Tanzu Support DEI “how it started…how it’s going” journey. In this article, I’ll explain the development and evolution of our DEI program and will spotlight several activities and elements that contribute to our initiative’s success.

Winding the clock back to December 2020, my leadership team asked me to launch a DEI program for our support organization – to begin a month later in January 2021.

I had zero experience running such a program. I also knew enough to realize that I didn’t want it to end up as just another DEI fiasco.?

Although I had no formal DEI training (at least not when I started down this path) not knowing what I didn’t know turned out to be a good thing. I’m a researcher by nature, open to discovery. Plus I’ve had a few lucky breaks.

The first of which is my leadership team. While they offered counsel and encouragement, they also provided no specific requirements aside from “do something educational.” After they gave this one directive, they stepped back. Taking a hands-off instead of a top-down approach was a demonstration of their faith in my abilities.

Having no preconceived ideas, previous models, or roadmap to follow was liberating. I was free to begin a learning journey. I was free to design and develop a program that would emerge from a place of authenticity and intentionality. I was free to think big. The keyword here is free.?

I could be as creative as I’d like with my 2021 budget of $0 dollars. And, I could devote as much effort to DEI as I chose – as long as I kept my full-time day job as the team’s communicator.

With few restrictions and even fewer resources at my disposal, I turned to Google and applied my appreciative inquiry-based training, asking what an effective and engaging DEI program might look like. Actually, what I put into the search bar was “what not to do when starting a DEI initiative.”

Immediately I knew the Tanzu Support DEI program had to be more than just tick-the-box or performative. Our program would not be window dressing.

As I drafted the plan, I listed qualities that would reflect what our program would be all about: inclusivity, empathy, education, and a sense of belonging. These would be our conceptual building blocks.?

VMware has identified representation and employment targets. However, most of my support colleagues don’t directly influence how many women and minorities get hired. What we all can do, though, is catalyze our organization around being inclusive, understanding, and open to differences.

Thinking about desired outcomes, I listed a central goal of our DEI program: to foster a more educated workforce. In the plan, I wrote if we could expose team members to new ideas, beliefs, and cultures, we could promote a learning culture and mindset. If we could ensure that our leaders consistently walk their DEI talk, we could bolster a spirit of inclusion. To accomplish these objectives, I proposed the following: 1. establish a DEI council, 2. run a monthly speaker series, and 3. communicate regularly.

DEI Council

While VMware has active employee resource groups (called PODs), our program would focus specifically on our Support group’s needs. I put out a call for volunteers. What emerged is our DEI council. The council meets monthly, contributes articles to the newsletter, and plans and supports organizational activities.?

Currently, 10 percent of our nearly 250-person team serves on the council. Representatives are individual contributors and managers and reflect a cross section of our departments, functions, levels, and backgrounds. Council members hail from our three regions, Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific, and from our offices in China, Ireland, Egypt, Costa Rica, and across the United States.

During our first year, the council established norms, set expectations, developed a calendar, and matched each month with a designated theme. The council planned communications and hosted team-wide events. As the program lead, I created a monthly council newsletter, which includes links to meeting minutes and recordings, slide decks, and articles to keep council members connected and informed.

A highlight of the 2021 plan was our speaker series. Council members helped arrange these events which we held during our standing Ask Us Anything sessions. Each month, before we moved on to team business, we set aside 20-30 minutes for DEI-related activities.?

Because we had no budget, we had no funds to pay speaker fees. Instead, we asked VMware’s POD leaders to connect us with colleagues who could speak on a topic that would correspond with our monthly theme.?

By the end of the year, we’d hosted 30 speakers. Presentations spanned a range of topics from dealing with disabilities in the workplace to combatting ageism, and from supporting a transgender child to experiencing what it’s like to be Black in tech. Our most popular speaker joined us in May as we addressed mental health awareness. A retired U.S. Army combat veteran, our speaker from the Veterans@VMware POD held everyone rapt as he shared how he copes with PTSD.

Communications & resources lists

It’s important to keep the DEI conversation flowing apart from monthly speaker sessions. To do this, we rely on established channels and provide DEI-related content and communications with the entire team each day.?

Our bimonthly team newsletter always includes at least one article or element connected to our monthly theme. We also publicize team DEI efforts and activities, feature in-depth write-ups, include a calendar of events at the enterprise and organizational levels, showcase our global locations and team members, and provide links to VMware’s inclusion activities.

Since January 2020, we’ve shared more than 800 posts on our dedicated DEI Slack channel. Whether it’s a link to an article, video, book recommendation, podcast, or photo, at least one post each day is related to the monthly theme. Other submissions are random, relevant, just plain interesting, or feel-good. Council-specific communications take place via a separate Slack channel.?

In addition to publishing the team newsletter and overseeing and posting to our Slack channels, I developed an ever-growing “learn more” bibliography – a list of books and videos. Sensitive to our international population, I’ve looked for resources published in the majority of our global languages to engage the team.

Measuring, iterating & evolving?

A year-and-a-half into our DEI trek, I can report that the response to our program has been positive. Data helps tell this part of the story.

• Survey results from late 2021 show that the speaker series and associated learning are helping us move in the right direction. When asked “Do you think bringing in diversity-related speakers contributes to creating a more inclusive environment within Tanzu Support?” the affirmative response rate was nearly unanimous.?
• Posting similar positive response rates, the team affirmed that management is devoting enough time, attention, and effort to advancing DEI efforts.
• Additional data shows that the majority of our team (more than 90%) feels psychologically safe. They report that they can bring their full, authentic selves to work without fear of bias or discrimination.?
• Readership for the team newsletter remains consistently above 75%, which dovetails with alignment and engagement.

Further feedback indicates that our efforts are bearing fruit. Colleagues feel engaged and seen, and report a greater sense of inclusivity and empathy. This sentiment is reflected in our net promoter score which measures if an employee would encourage a friend or family member to join Tanzu Support. Our eNPS score significantly outpaces that of our company's business groups.?

All of this happened in 2021 alone.?

While there is much still to do, early results from our DEI program are promising. On balance, it does appear that Tanzu Support is creating a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment.

So where is the program headed in 2022? Momentum continues to build and new members continue to join the council. Regular communications continue apace. The monthly focus has moved from primarily one of recognition to more something conceptual.

Two examples. In addition to celebrating Black History Month in February, the team spent time learning about and addressing microaggressions. May’s mental health awareness presentation was expanded to include understanding neurodiversity and how to integrate neurodiverse colleagues into our workplace.

In 2021 we accomplished tremendous things with zero dollars and our bootstrap creativity paid off. In 2022, our leadership team allocated funds to bring in experienced DEI trainers who are leading two sets of custom-built workshops.?

One four-part workshop series is being required of all employees and attendance is being tracked in VMware’s learning and development portal. Combining an instructor-led component with breakout sessions, each workshop is to be repeated three times over the course of the day to accommodate employees in our three regions. These four workshops will cover psychological safety, unconscious bias, imposter syndrome, and building inclusivity and allyship.

The second four-part series is being designed for managers. These workshops will address intentional leadership, unpacking the values of a dominant culture, creating an environment of belonging, and moving from diversity to equity. They, too, will be offered multiple times so that remote managers can participate in each workshop.

As we look ahead to 2023, I’m mindful and appreciative of how my leadership team is continuing to let me have (mostly) free rein to explore, expand, and iterate on this initiative. Rather than telling me what the program should be, we’re all learning as we go on our shared DEI journey.?

I expect we’ll continue to communicate regularly and that we’ll provide ongoing educational content. I intend to enhance the DEI council and will look to expand the role of the council members as well as host engaging speakers and sponsor DEI events. And, I’m planning how to allocate funds so we can offer small group facilitation and coaching sessions. Further, replicating our model and expanding our program’s reach to colleagues from other business groups is definitely in the cards.?

While I didn’t know what I was getting into when I took on this project, I can honestly say this has been one of the most rewarding professional experiences of my career. Thanks to the encouragement of Tanzu Support leadership, participation of the DEI council, and engagement from the entire organization, we’re all being exposed to new ideas, cultures, and beliefs. By allowing ourselves to be open to learning, we are indeed building and becoming a more inclusive, educated, and empathetic organization.?