12/06/2021

How to Put Your Good DE&I Intentions Into Action

You need targets and a willingness to take a risk

In the past couple of years, more associations—and plenty of corporate brands—have been working toward meaningful diversity, equity and inclusion goals. It’s been an imperfect process, to be sure. Last month, my colleague Ernie Smith pointed to a recent study from Willow Marketing that revealed some of the ongoing challenges: Only 16 percent of respondents rated their association “excellent” on DEI issues, and 40 percent were unsure if their association has a documented DEI policy.

To some extent, this is a communication issue, and Smith’s piece has some helpful guidance on how to make sure your association’s DEI work gets noticed. But it’s important for leaders to know that DEI goes beyond communication. If the substance of your DEI efforts aren’t, well, substantial, it’s easy for them to be ignored.

That’s a point that Shawn Boynes, FASAE, CAE, executive director of the American Association for Anatomy (AAA), made in a keynote speech last month. Speaking at a conference of the Association Foundation Group, Boynes described the struggle that many groups have faced in making meaningful DEI decisions, especially following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. “Many organizations stayed away from social justice issues because it didn’t fit into a nice, neat box,” he said.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.