“Lack of DEI Training” Stanford’s Achilles Heel: A Cautionary Tale for All Organizations

Image three pieces of paper left to right, color photo of Montag Hall, Stanford Bell Tower, pencil sketch of a student with the eyes scribbled out.

On May 31, 2024 the Stanford Daily published the article ‘Not a place of belonging’: discrimination allegations plague Stanford admission office 1. describing the public and harmful  disconnect between Stanford’s DEI philosophy and actionable DEI items. One key component mentioned was Stanford’s continuous lack of DEI training which directly led to the open class action lawsuit in Stanford's near future. This article identifies the common pattern of events or "red flags" that Stanford and countless other organizations experience who lack DEI training and the solutions to proactively stop the progression of negative impacts due to negligent DEI leadership professional development.

Original author Dilan Gohil from the Stanford Daily reported Stanford’s approach to DEI with the admissions office as follows:

1) Concerns about workplace bias racism and bias
2) Ripple effects from officers to candidates
3) Biased advancement opportunities
4) Lack of DEI trainings
5) Concerns raised in lawsuit against Stanford

From a DEI leadership perspective this is a very common and predictable DEI mistake made by many misinformed leaders. In my experience, as a DEI executive leadership coach, I have see the following progression of events which parallel Stanford’s current state of events; 

1) Teams raise inequity concerns
2) Leaders respond with unintentional and harmful DEI actions
3) Organizational accessibility gap widens between dominant group and minority groups
4) Superficial DEI professional development is prescribed
5) Discriminatory lawsuits surface

IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM

Most leaders and organizations already have some form of DEI programming, but lack a set method to systematically create DEI organizational change. Before creating organization wide change, we must first start at the source with the leader. The list below offers insight into common leader behaviors or ‘red flags’ to watch for among organizational leaders who lack DEI training. This is not an exhaustive list, but it captures the most common indicators I look for when assessing client DEI leadership needs. 

Behaviors of dominant group member leaders who lack DEI training include:

• Erasure - ignoring an issue or situation by failing to acknowledge or engage with what occurred
• Minimization - reducing the severity, harm, and/or impacts of a situation
• Dismissal - looking past or brushing aside relevant topics brought up
• Re-centering - redirect conversation to focus on their individual challenges and specific needs, rather than maintaining focus on the original topic or task at hand
• Denial - refusing to recognize and acknowledge their role and take accountability for their actions

Behaviors of minority group leaders who lack DEI training include those mentioned above and three additional behaviors below:

• Policing -  enforcing inequitable standards created by dominant group members on other minority group members
• Internal oppression - when an individual self-monitors their personal thoughts and actions to fit in with the majority
• Assimilation - the adoption of thinking and actions of the dominant group in order to gain access or acceptance

SOLUTION

Be proactive and organizationally invest in robust DEI professional development for decision making leaders and teams. The miseducation and lack of comprehensive DEI professional development falls upon both the individual leaders and their organization. 

The leaders must remove the burden of placing emotional labor on minority groups to educate leaders. This applies to both leaders of dominant and minority groups, even leaders who self-identify as having an intersectional identity as a minority group member can unintentionally end up policing others or embodying internal oppression themselves. When leaders lean on ERGs, student body clubs, or other affinity groups without compensating them financially, pipelining upward mobility opportunities, or allocating other beneficial resources, they are causing harm to the already vulnerable populations (minority groups). This often results in a one sided relationship of tokenization, cultural appropriation, and exploitation of minority groups by leaders. This exponentially worsens for leaders of minority groups who regularly experience organizational push back, burn out, and in the worst case scenario quit or lose their jobs. 

Leaders should request DEI specific professional development to gain the vocabulary, tools, and experience to actively engage with organizational DEI. DEI professional development can be acquired through organizational DEI, HR, or People departments. However, leaders should seek out DEI consultants such as Step Up Step Back who create customized one on one coaching in a safe judgment free space. Every leader possesses a lifetime of experiences and complex identities that influence their individual biases and privileges unique to them. Therefore, each leader needs custom tailored professional development to gain insight and specific tools to address their individual willful ignorance that negatively impacts their direct reports and organizational standards. This supports the foundational principle of equity from DEI to increase accessibility and truly set a leader up for long term professional success. At the end of each customized coaching session, a leader should have gained at minimum new vocabulary, leadership tools, and self efficacy through coaching exercises.

From an organizational perspective, organizations would cease to exist without their employees, teams, and leaders. Therefore, it is in the organization's best interest to invest in DEI rather than remain superficial with performative DEI practices (inspiration porn guest speakers, single contact DEI trainings, exclusively ethics informed DEI consultants) or cut DEI altogether. During the last five months, I have been in contact with current and former DEI professionals from top tech companies such as Google, Meta, Airbus, Strava, etc. who all share the same series of DEI events occurring at Stanford. The tech industry is not an isolated case of mass layoffs due to organizational financial hardships. In this all too common scenario, organizations are being required to “do more with less” and as a result DEI is the first to be cut.

In reality, dismantling organizational DEI is the worst possible decision for organizations to make in times of crisis. Leaders who choose to cut DEI programs and staff are sabotaging their organizational success. When DEI’s three core principles are effectively applied to organizational work DEI fortifies organizational longevity.

• DEI protects the needs of the people who are the heart and soul of the organization, the cookie cutter generalist approach of HR,  fails to meet the unique needs and uncompromising standards of the growing workforce of Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers 2. 
• DEI is long term and sustainable problem solving, it is the proactive approach to mitigate public scandal, discriminatory practices, and retain top talent that could leave your organization for your competitors.
• DEI continues to grow as the diversity of the USA workforce population 3 only increases and organizations increasingly need leaders who can meet those diverse needs.
  - 50.4% female
  - 43.6% people of global majority (people of color) and mixed race
  - 11.5% live in poverty
  - 10.9% less than high school education
  - 8.9% with disability under 65 years of age
• DEI improves productivity, quality of work, and professional competitive edge when implemented effectively with experienced and qualified DEI professionals

It is in an organization’s best interest to invest money, time, and personnel (full time DEI exclusive staff) to reap the benefits of a high return of investment. Organizations that think they are currently experiencing pressure in the current economy, especially cannot afford to add discriminatory lawsuits and public scandal to their ever shrinking plate of organizational commitments. DEI is a long term investment in the organizational profit and legacy. 

TAKEAWAYS

Stanford is not an outlier case, unfortunately they are on trend with many others well established organizations that mean well but struggle to successfully implement organizational DEI. The disconnect between DEI in theory and DEI in practice leaves a massive space for error due to DEI misinterpretation due to a lack of DEI training. This is why many perceive DEI to be dead or a pointless ‘woke’ agenda. 

To prevent this from happening to you or your organizational leaders remember the following:

Assess

• Watch for behaviors of both dominant/minority leaders to identify a lack DEI training
• Assess what type of DEI consultant would work best with your unique leadership style and needs (one on one coaching, targeted group training, allyship guest speaking, etc.)

Solution

• Quantify DEI needs from a both a leadership and organizational perspective
• Vet well qualified DEI professionals (professional, academic, and personal experience)
• Hire DEI professionals to have the tools, knowledge, and experience to have the hard leadership conversations and remove the burden and retaliation risk from in house HR/People staff

I am not condemning Stanford as a place full of horrible hate filled discriminating people. In reality, Stanford is a well established institution based on traditions created by a small group of very privileged people (White heterosexual financially stable able bodied cis men). Those traditions continue to be in effect despite massive change and advancements of human civil rights, rendering them irrelevant and outdated practices. If Stanford and other well established organizations want to continue to be professionally competitive, relevant, and desirable they must actively pursue and invest in robust DEI professional development. 

Gohil’s article supported by the brave testimonies of Latif Legend, Alice, Peyton, and the anonymous staff should be considered a very gracious invitation and call to action for Stanford as an organization to make their wrongs right by implementing long term organizational DEI change. This is a public plea to call Stanford’s leaders in, rather than calling them out, to address a long overdue broken system. Had these courageous individuals not spoken up publically, Stanford would have had no accountability to make long overdue changes to increase academic and professional accessibility. If Stanford is able to join the DEI conversation by adopting comprehensive DEI training and programing, their leaders could become trendsetters and history makers not just for academic institutions. Stanford has been presented with the opportunity to exemplify institutional success and equitable allyship for all organizational leaders seeking to incorporate DEI into their legacy for future generations. 

Visit https://www.susbdei.com/ to learn more about DEI leadership coaching!

 
References

1. Gohil, Dilan (2024, May 31). ‘Not a place of belonging’: discrimination allegations plague Stanford admission office. Stanford Daily. https://stanforddaily.com/2024/05/31/not-a-place-of-belonging-discrimination-allegations-plague-stanford-admissions-office/. 

2. Waldman Emma (2021). How To Manage a Multi-Generational Team. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2021/08/how-to-manage-a-multi-generational-team. 

3. United States Census Bureau (2023). U.S. Census Bureau Quickfacts. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/