Elf on a Shelf? Yes, Right Next to Your D.E.I. Commitment Statement.

I know some of you are thinking its way too soon for a reference to Elf on the Shelf (didn't we just put those away?!) but go with me here today: I promise there is a point!

One of the first things I believe all organizations should do is write a D.E.I. Commitment as I believe it is key to how you move forward in implementing key D.E.I. strategies.

How?

Well, because without this, you won't have clarity for?why?you are doing this work,?whom?you are doing this work for, and?what?is the vision that you need to go back to when you get off track in the work.

You also may realize in writing this that you don't have shared language by the terms you use around this work in the first place, meaning you've got 50 different people on completely different pages about how the work will get done (more on this next week).

Here's the thing: at some point, as you're implementing strategies and hopefully working to reduce the harm that historically gets caused, there will come a time when you will get off track. And your commitment statement, if written and seen as an active part of the process, will quickly remind you what you committed to in the first place.

So, where does the Elf come in?

The Elf on the Shelf (from my humble perspective) is an item that sits on a shelf. It randomly can pop up through different places in your house, and perhaps it even comes off of your shelf every once in a while.

But y'all, for the most part: it stays on the shelf.

And this is how I see a lot of company D.E.I. statements: items that were created to " say" you're committed to the work but ultimately, the commitment and the work stay on a shelf.

Perhaps every once in a while there are moments that make you want to go get the statement off the shelf for a moment, only to move it to a different spot on a different shelf in your company.

Ultimately, though it stays on the shelf. This is where you might be hearing or feeling that a statement is a waste of time...because you never see it come off the shelf.

How do you change this?

You write a D.E.I. commitment statement that guides the work and is referenced often in this way. You write a statement that is active, not passive and then you keep it active by bringing it along in the work.

In my mind, an active D.E.I. commitment statement has 4 core parts to it:

1. Acknowledge Your History: This is where you're taking the time to name where your organization has been in its D.E.I. journey and yes, where it has caused harm historically. This section gets avoided often because people don't want to talk about what they haven't done but guess what...it leads to real transparency and can be one way of beginning to address restoration and rebuild rust.
2. Name Your Beliefs:?In this section, an organization is naming what they believe in regards to D.E.I. My biggest caution is to make sure that you can back up your beliefs with actions that people can see. If you say we believe Black lives matter, can we see that in how Black people experience your company? This is just one of many examples to consider.
3. Define Your Guiding Principles:?Here is where you begin to express, based on where you've been and what you believe, how will you commit to seeing D.E.I. come to life throughout your organization. How will you ensure it does not become 'D.E.I. on a shelf?' and what principles will guide your work? This is also a great place to go back and clear up any definitions that need common clarity, such as why do we use a certain term, what does x phrase means to us, and how do we use specific words and terms in our work.
4. (Optional) Name Your Commitments: The 4th part is to name the commitment steps you will take to realize this entire statement in your day-to-day work. I always name this section as optional as I see organizations immediately spend so much time here because of their bias for action and then end up still confused about the foundational beliefs and principles that guide their work.

Most statements? Only have a segment of part 2 and is usually focused on more tactical actions than principles. Building a statement on tactical actions doesn't leave room for it to remain an active part of the work; instead, it encourages your statement to evolve into only a commitment checklist, solely focused on what we can check off to say" we're doing the work."

This is all simply a very long way of me saying " Yes, D.E.I. statements?do?matter", and organizations should take time to build them.

Just not so much time and energy that they end up just like the ELF, sitting on the shelf.