Stories from leaders making it happen - a follow-up

A follow-up: in my last email, I wrote about the legal reality of DEI. 
This time I went directly to the people in the rooms.

I called four trainers inside four very different organizations and asked two questions: are you still doing this work, and what is actually happening?

What they told me runs counter to every headline. These people never stopped.

“We're still screaming [DEIB] on the inside”
The first conversation was with a leader at a nonprofit that serves the LGBTQ community. They receive 80 to 85 percent of their funding from the government. Last year they did scenario planning. What if we lose the funding? What do we do? They made a decision.

They scrubbed their website. Removed their DEIB statement. Took down Black History Month content. Asked staff to remove pronouns from email signatures. Not because their values changed. Because a pronoun in an email signature was enough to trigger a funding investigation. Because Black History Month on a webpage put millions of dollars at risk. Because visibility itself had become a liability. 

Internally, nothing changed. Monthly DEIB training. A Culture Ambassadors program. Every new hire enrolled in Defeating Unconscious Bias in their first week, every month, without exception.

"We're still continuing the work. We're just less outwardly vocal about it. And we're still screaming.” When I asked about that word, screaming, they explained that this is what it feels like to care deeply and be forced to go quiet publicly. The work is still loud. It just moved inward. 

That's not retreat. That's an organization choosing to protect its community over its public image, under conditions designed to make that choice impossible.

“This is not negotiable.”
An HR leader at a luxury property management company recently shared that their commitment to this work hasn’t wavered since 2020. Every people leader is required to engage with this material. There are no exceptions.

She recalled how an employee shared in their exit interview that they didn’t want to complete the training. Their organization's response was simple: “This is part of who we are. If you want to be part of this place, this work matters. It’s how we build a community grounded in respect. It’s not for everyone, but it's who we are."

She also highlighted a colleague who stepped forward to lead sessions, despite not being in HR. This individual is deeply committed to helping teams work together with less friction and more inclusion, and this individual executes on this by volunteering her time because she believes in the impact. Together, they’ve reframed how they talk about this work: not as “the soft stuff,” but as a core part of effective leadership and how the organization thrives.

“It might be even more important now”
Two trainers at a health equity center have been delivering Ouch! That Stereotype Hurts and Ouch! Your Silence Hurts to staff in collaboration with a large university. An affiliate with the university asked them to come in and conduct training over several cohorts spanning a few years now. 

In one session a couple of years ago, a participant made a demeaning comment and defended it by saying it was just a joke. (We’ve all heard that one). But a few of the participants stepped in and spoke up, using a the techniques from the Ouch training. They addressed the comment directly, respectfully, right there in the room.  

In a recent cohort, participants opened a conversation about stereotyping they were seeing within their organization and dialogued about how to talk with leadership to decrease/eliminate these instances, using ideas they learned through the Ouch! Training. 

"There aren't the policies in place anymore that help govern people's actions. So keeping these conversations going is really important. More things than before can happen now.” They're not training despite the rollback. They're training because of it. 

“Timeless and timely”
Jennifer Maraña is an independent DEI consultant and trainer based in Baltimore. She's been using Ouch! That Stereotype Hurts and tells me it's been a lifesaver. Although her DEI consulting income has gone down, she's branched into life coaching and yoga to bridge wellness with diversity work. 

She's still getting called back by organizations asking her to train new employees because the existing staff already went through the Ouch training and want more people to have those skills.  

"Unfortunately, I see that some people feel emboldened to say hurtful things, like they have license because of what they hear everyday in the news and on social media. But people are still seeking tools to speak up with respect, yes, now more than ever.”

She told me the pendulum is swinging back. She's not waiting for it. She's getting ready. "We need to be ready with additional and different tools. Because it's happening.” You can find Jennifer here.  

What this means for all of us  
The legal landscape hasn't changed. DEI training is still legal. The risk of not training is still real. Complaints become investigations. Investigations become terminations. Terminations become lawsuits.

But that's not actually why these four kept going. They kept going because the people in their care still need the tools. Because we are all conditioned to reach for shortcuts, assumptions, and stereotypes. Because everyone needs language to respond when something harmful is said in the room.

One trainer said it plainly: new hires deserve the same foundation as everyone else. Not as a perk. As a baseline. And Jennifer shared a moment that stayed with me. A panelist at her daughter's middle school cultural celebration told the room that for the first time in years she felt safe to speak her language and celebrate her culture freely. That space existed because someone built it intentionally. 

That's what this work does. The work didn't stop. For some organizations it stayed visible. For others it moved inward, but it didn't stop.

I'd love to hear your story
You are not alone in this. If you're navigating this work right now, in any form, I want to hear about it. Send me an email or book 20 minutes with me. No agenda. Just conversation. Shared stories build community and community is exactly what this moment requires.

What you can do right now
If you're still doing this work, say so. To your peers. To your networks. To your leadership.If someone in your circle needs to hear that they're not alone, forward this email. If you want to preview any of the training resources mentioned here, reply and I'll set you up directly. No pressure. Just access. Defeating Unconscious Bias. Ouch! That Stereotype Hurts. Ouch! Your Silence Hurts. Unconscious Bias: Real Stories.

The room is still full. You just have to keep showing up to it.

With appreciation and respect, 
Joel 

Contact me to talk about your DEI training (whatever you call it). We have some great courses on communication skills. 

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