Rewriting the DEI Playbook for 2025: 7 Game-Changing Strategies to Reclaim Momentum
The 2024 year has been a tough one for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across all industries. Growing resistance, political pushback, and organizational overcorrection have left many wondering: Is this the end of DEI as we know it? Not even close, but the work has to evolve. In today’s post, I offer up a DEI Playbook for 2025. It is my hope that stakeholders can use the recommended strategies to navigate headwinds, drive measurable impact, and reestablish or fortify DEI as a core force for organizational success and social innovation.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work has become one of the most polarizing and contested topics of 2024 due to growing resistance and relentless scrutiny. I find this interesting because, on the one hand, we have witnessed the positive and transformative impact of intentional diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies on organizations and communities. So we know it works. However, we have also watched this work become increasingly antagonized and successfully suppressed across various industries to the point where individuals have questioned its effectiveness or made claims that “DEI is dead.” As the latter continues to amplify, numerous organizations have bowed to anti-DEI pressures through various overcorrection measures ranging from scrubbing their websites and documents of any semblance of DEI work to outright eliminating entire roles and divisions dedicated to strategically advancing and sustaining DEI efforts. These overcorrections pose serious challenges, but they also present opportunities to reflect, innovate, and create a more sustainable approach.
As we head into 2025, this moment is critical for all DEI stakeholders to reflect, refresh themselves, and come prepared to rebuild momentum, recover from setbacks, and drive meaningful change. If this is where you are, here are seven strategies to help evolve, advance, and sustain the work while moving forward.
Will Ferrell as "Ron Burgundy" in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
1. Unify Through Cross-Industry Collaboration
Collaboration is one of the most effective ways to safeguard and advance DEI. Organizations can pool resources, share best practices, and create a unified front against anti-DEI efforts by partnering with other industries.
How to Get Started:
Host Cross-Industry Roundtables: Bring together DEI practitioners, leaders, and stakeholders from different industries—tech, healthcare, education, manufacturing, and beyond—to share challenges, successes, and strategies.
Standardize Benchmarks and Shared Standards: Work with peers across industries to create shared DEI benchmarks that demonstrate measurable impact, such as workforce diversity, pay equity or supplier inclusion rates. We are long overdue in developing and adopting shared cross-industry metrics.
Establish Cross-Industry Coalitions: Join or form industry-specific DEI coalitions and bridge them to amplify influence and collectively advocate for inclusive policies.
Co-Brand Initiatives: Launch joint campaigns or programs that highlight the universal value of DEI, such as an industry-wide commitment to supplier diversity or inclusive leadership training.
Share Success and Resilience Stories: Highlight cross-industry success cases that show the tangible benefits of DEI, such as innovation, market expansion, global competitiveness, and customer satisfaction.
2. Broaden DEI and Its Integration as a Core Organizational Success Strategy
DEI must continue to move beyond standalone initiatives and HR functions to reflect its intersectional nature across organizations. I provide four(4) dimensions of practice that can serve as a framework for organizations in meeting business goals, ensuring long-term humanity-centered belonging, and remaining agile and true to their mission and vision. The goal is to intentionally reflect equity and inclusion as business imperatives rather than optional responses to challenges or superficial add-ons.
Recommended Tactical Approaches:
Tie DEI to KPIs: Make DEI outcomes part of leadership performance reviews, ensuring that equity goals are as critical as financial targets.
Align with Corporate and Social Responsibility: Explicitly implement and highlight company strategies that benefit society, communities, and the environment in ways that are inclusive, equitable, and reflective of diverse perspectives.
Conduct Equity Audits and Leadership 360 Reviews: Regularly assess pay, promotions, culture, and performance metrics to identify disparities and organizational trends. Use this data to create, articulate, and advance actionable plans.
3. Expand the Focus on Data and Metrics
Data is a powerful tool to counter misinformation, measure progress, and demonstrate the value of DEI. However, it’s critical to move beyond surface-level metrics and focus on outcomes that highlight deeply rooted issues and process metrics and can accurately pinpoint high-impact practices/results, barriers, or areas prime for growth in optimizing organizational success. You’ll not only be able to strengthen the case for DEI but also remain equipped to anticipate and address challenges proactively.
Suggested Action Steps:
Track Intersectional Metrics: Monitor retention, promotion, and engagement rates across demographic groups to uncover inequities and address systemic barriers.
Link DEI to Business Outcomes: Show how diverse teams drive innovation, improve customer satisfaction, and enhance employee performance.
Publish Transparency Reports: Share equity audit results and progress updates to build trust and accountability with stakeholders.
4. Prepare for More Political and Social Pushback
Anti-DEI sentiment is likely to continue growing in 2025, making it essential to anticipate resistance and have strategies to navigate these headwinds. Data storytelling will help, but you’ll also need to build capacity among stakeholders to adequately advocate and defend the work in their spheres of influence.
What Can You Do:
Develop Political Literacy: Educate and train ALL stakeholders on how to understand legislative trends and navigate politically charged environments. Collaborate with legal and public affairs teams to ensure alignment on messaging.
Reframe the Narrative: Emphasize DEI’s role as a driver of organizational culture, workforce, marketplace, and societal innovation and success rather than framing it solely as a moral imperative or reactionary measure.
Engage Stakeholders: Build coalitions of employees, customers, and community partners who can not only advocate for DEI as a shared value but put up their resources and financial and social capital in support. This is what we call transitioning from ally to co-conspirator.
5. Leverage Behavioral Science for Cultural Change
Resistance to DEI often stems from fear of change, power dominance, or misinformation. Behavioral science offers insights into addressing these barriers and building organizational buy-in that extends beyond traditional implicit bias training.
Some Innovative and Impactful Practices:
Apply Nudge Theory and Cognitive Load Reduction Strategies: Normalize DEI behaviors by implementing small, incremental changes, such as default pronoun options in systems or inclusive language in communications. Simplify information to make it easier to understand.
Leverage Cognitive Reframing in Storytelling: Share testimonials from employees and leaders who’ve experienced the benefits of DEI. Think of stories that humanize the work, align with people’s values, and foster emotional connection. This is essential when one considers how discussions on power, oppression, and privilege are traumatic confrontations for all parties.
Reframe Risk (Loss Aversion): Highlight the risks of neglecting DEI, such as losing talent, falling behind competitors, cost of discrimination lawsuits, or damaging reputation.
6. Create Accountability Across the Field
One of the greatest challenges in DEI is the lack of standardization, which allows inconsistent practices, unchecked charlatan cash-grab consultants, chaos agents, and uninformed practitioners who dilute impact through inferior practices. It has to be said. In the words of Jay-Z, "It's not a diss song. It's just a real song." I'm not trying to start a fight, but my point is this. By establishing clear standards, frameworks, and perhaps even a little bit of gatekeeping, the field can evolve into a more cohesive, scalable, impactful, and credible practice to meet workforce, organizational culture, marketplace, and societal challenges.
Possible Action Steps:
Create Certification Programs: Develop standardized certifications for DEI practitioners to ensure quality and consistency, including cross-collaboration input among academia, industry, and government practitioners and scholars.
Establish Common Global Frameworks: Use tools like the Global Reporting Initiative to align DEI metrics and goals across organizations.
Advance Research: Partner with academic institutions and rigorously non-partisan think tanks to study the long-term impacts of DEI initiatives, leveraging peer-reviewed research and industry best practices.
7. Lead Boldly and Unapologetically
Finally, advancing DEI in 2025 requires courageous and strategic leadership. Organizations must refuse to back down in the face of resistance and instead double down on their commitment to equity. The youth call this “Standing on business."
Lasting Suggestions:
Communicate and Reinforce a Clear Vision: Consistently articulate the organization’s commitment to DEI as a win-win for all in organizational culture, workforce, marketplace, and the broader society.
Invest in Leadership Development at All Levels: Equip leaders and teams with the tools to navigate complex DEI challenges and inspire others to follow.
Celebrate Wins: Regularly highlight progress and successes to maintain momentum and build morale. It also establishes a professional standard and expectations for company culture.
Oh, and before I put a bow on this piece, I’d like to say, “Thank you.” Thank you for reading and riding along with me in my mission of empowering organizations to lead inclusively and thrive in a diverse, interconnected world. I hope my insights have been helpful. If I can be of any additional assistance, do not hesitate to reach out. Looking ahead, I expect 2025 to be the year we continue to unite and tap into our greatest potential to redefine what’s possible in advancing equity and inclusion. I believe this is the pathway to equality and reaffirming our commitment to humanitarian principles. Until then, wishing you more love and joy than your heart and hands can hold. See you in the new year! ✌🏾+ 🫶🏾
Thanks again for reading. I’d love to hear your thoughts about this article. Did I miss anything? Do you have personal experiences or observations to add? Let me know!
Footnotes is a newsletter dedicated to exploring trends in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, while also serving as a platform for me to re-engage with writing and stimulating meaningful conversations in this field. Your participation is greatly appreciated. Please note that the views and opinions expressed in these communications are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect those of any affiliated entities. Thank you for joining the discussion.
