Introduction
No matter what you call it – Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) – Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) – or event Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) – there are only three real types:
- Performative,
- Incremental, and
- Transformational
Performative
Performative DEI is when an individual or an organisation pretends to care about DEI but has no intention and no interest in actually making a difference.
These include things like having a statement in your job ad that says “We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We particularly encourage applications from Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples, individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and people with disabilities.” when in fact you don’t interview any diverse applicants.
Incremental
I have found personally that many well meaning DEI practitioners will fall into this category. They are genuinely interested in change however they are working with corporates and center the people with privilege. This can be shown by tracking data and creating budgets for DEI that ultimately end up barely “moving the needle” and end up being seen as a waste or as being ineffective. DEI policies may be created but not enforced and this can lead to marginalised people being attacked with impunity as privileged people are not held to account.
This can lead to frustration because millions can be spend with little improvement such as this article “Most Australian workplaces are failing to achieve diversity: study” and “Football Clubs collectively fail to meet any recruitment targets”.
What is also sad to think about is sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference between Performative and Incremental DEI because they end up with similar outcomes.
Transformational
There are three main principles for Transformational DEI – the antidote to discrimination:
- centering the most marginalised,
- creating safe spaces, and
- providing opportunities.
This leads to exponential transformation.
For instance, by using these principles we helped Research Software Asia Australia create the Accessibilty Fellows that improved accessibility at the conference and brought new members into the community. Many of these Fellows have stayed and contributed to the community and helped bring the next set of Fellows through. This has also created the three level Accessibliity Maturity Model – and 5 talks were given at the highest Accessiblity Maturity Model!
You can read more about what impact transformational DEI looks like.
Summary
So where does your DEI approach fall into? Performative, Incremental, or Transformational.
If you are not following the three main principles for Transformational DEI then you are either falling into the Performative or Incremental category – and that is inefficient, ineffective and ultimately could be more dangerous for marginalised people than doing nothing at all.
