A Look Back: Building DEI Readiness

There are few times in one’s life when one’s work, purpose, and skill set meet a unique need.  

When I joined VICE Media Group as Chief People Officer a year ago in the early stages of a pandemic that instantly upended our way of life and work, transforming workplace culture in the most extraordinary of circumstances seemed an ambitious and promising goal. Little did I know that in a matter of weeks we would face an internal and global racial reckoning for which I was uniquely positioned to help lead and guide the company through.   

I was barely into my second week on the job when George Floyd’s murder ignited a global uprising. I introduced myself to the company through a global note where I shared resources for coping with and understanding racial trauma. I didn’t know most of my colleagues but I knew we needed to center on providing the space and support they needed — especially BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) employees - to reset and recover from compounded health, economic and racial trauma. I encouraged executive colleagues to pause before jumping to action, to listen to what their team members needed, and to show evidence of care even when they didn’t know what to say. I had not met anyone in person at this point. It’s hard to build trust, influence and community without physically meeting nor experiencing culture as it naturally happens in the spaces that naturally define it. But when you swim against a tsunami together, that creates its own unique level of proximity. 

I was able to step into this work with confidence and resolve because I’ve long been committed to building anti-racist, equitable, and inclusive organizations where everyone feels they belong. I also knew from experience that while the urgency across every industry was clear, the roadmap was not. We had work to do and we had a responsibility and unique opportunity to get it right. The good news was that our CEO, Nancy Dubuc, had already set about a quiet transformation across the company. She hired me specifically to do this work, and I had her full support and that of my peers. 

We did not rush to make bold statements and ambitious commitments about equity in the workplace. I knew it would take time and effort across the entire organization to create real change that lasts. That is why we set about doing our work internally without fanfare. When everything around me was spinning, I was desperately trying to slow things down. When employees and leaders were clamoring for statements, I asked us to challenge our assumptions about how and where work got done, the behavioral norms and expectations across teams, how leaders led, how managers managed, and how we were structured. I embraced the opportunity of highlighting how systemic racism in practices, policies and everyday decision making advantages white majority employees and disadvantage BIPOC employees in regards to access to jobs, work assignments, promotions, compensation, and a sense of belonging. As a Dominican-Puerto Rican who has spent a lifetime navigating cultural and racial identity, this was also a moment of liberation for me.

We doubled down on learning and skill building while the world seemed to be imploding all around us. While every single person has to see themselves in this work, we placed the responsibility on leaders and managers to address the varied sources of inequalities that exist for marginalized people at work. There’s a lot of pressure for leaders to have all the answers. They don’t. We provided them with the training, encouragement, and resources to meet this complicated moment.  

There are no silver bullets or shortcuts to creating a culture of inclusion and belonging, but you have to start somewhere. To build our readiness for a sustainable approach to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), I leaned on the model that I have been testing for years:

1.Reflect: First, you have to get clear on what you’re trying to solve for and why. You need to understand your truths and the truths of your coworkers - the variations in your points of view, feelings and identities, your motivations, and how these impact organizational climate. Give yourself permission to embrace this work with curiosity, compassion and grace.

We conducted an internal audit and interrogated our culture, practices, policies, and systems - what existed, what was followed, and what was missing. We undertook a listening tour to better understand the lived experiences we overlooked, missed, or took for granted. To identify and define the problem, you have to ask better questions:Why does DEI matter to me and for the organization? What does a desirable outlook look like? Why am I enthusiastic or hesitant? What is possible? 

2. Vision: To create change that lasts, we approached this work from a place of ideas and values, and also from a place of pure pragmatism - fixing one part of the system at a time. We also anticipated setbacks, including formidable challenges, that could prevent us from achieving our goals. This is the space where inspiration lives and breathes. 

I used my newfound knowledge of the organization’s climate, resources, systemic and structural opportunities to build a way forward. My team was eager and ready to do the work. We built a DEI strategy focused on four pillars: People, Culture, Systems and Standards, and created a public dashboard for all teams to track our work. We leaned on values of transparency and accountability - pillars of the work of our journalists and creative teams. We integrated intersectional and inclusive values and behavioral expectations. Our Year One roadmap was about building readiness. Year Two would be dedicated to strengthening our DEI muscles. 

3. Act: This is how we build solutions! We created our own best practice learning lab. Giving ourselves the room to test and iterate, and everyone the opportunity to define the role they wanted to play. 

We did “all the things”: launched an inclusive hiring playbook, conducted a pay equity study, broadened inclusive benefits, calibrated performance management to be more objective and reduce bias, delivered management and inclusive leadership training, expanded our approach to collecting and reporting workforce demographics, strengthened our Community Groups and DEI Board of external advisors, created an internal DEI & Impact Council, and launched new Code of Conduct and Respect in the Workplace policies. 

Small, consistent, deliberate and sustainable actions made over time deliver the greatest impact. My goal was not to change the entire organization overnight; rather to make and act on a plan that reflected on our values and aspirations. To increase the capacity of others to do good.

There’s still much work to be done. What works, what has proven to work for generations before us, is millions of people acting in millions of different ways and across millions of moments, not just completing one discrete task at a time. 

At VMG, we are navigators of culture, revealing What Happens Now in a world that needs our diverse voices and global perspectives more than ever. I couldn’t be more excited to continue to strengthen our DEI muscles. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to address and root out inequities and systemic racism across our organizations. In doing so we can change the world.