So you’ve just found out you’re not an activist: How to turn equity into everyone’s job without losing the plot
Equity as professionalized work is where the abstract ideals of equity meet the pragmatic realities of organizational change. It’s a structured approach to embedding equity within institutions, leveraging methodologies rooted in change management while addressing the specific needs and challenges of each organization. This pillar moves beyond philosophy and activism to establish equity as a measurable, technical discipline.
So how do we actually do this? Embedding equity within an organization requires a structured approach that transforms abstract ideals into actionable strategies. This involves laying a solid foundation through comprehensive planning and then engaging all members of the organization in the implementation process. The following framework elements guide this journey:
Principles of change management
Clarity about what you’re doing and the resources you have to do it
Diagnosing your challenges
Prioritizing, doing, then measuring
Empowering Everyone to Implement Equity
Principles of change management
Change management principles are critical to equity work at the professional level. Equity-driven change must be intentional, iterative, and adaptable. It starts with acknowledging that organizations are complex systems resistant to change. Effective equity work considers these resistances not as obstacles but as realities to navigate. For example, transparency and communication become cornerstones. Organizations must articulate what equity means within their context, explain the rationale behind changes, and engage stakeholders across all levels. Building trust and fostering collaboration are essential to achieving long-lasting impact. Change management is a structured approach that ensures transitions are smooth and effective. It involves preparing the organization, crafting a vision, implementing the change, embedding it into the culture, and reviewing its impact.
Clarity about what you’re doing and the resources you have to do it
One of the most significant barriers to effective equity work is ambiguity. That’s why clearly identifying and articulating the parameters, confines, and resources available is non-negotiable. This means defining the scope of the work: What areas of the organization are being addressed? What does success look like, and within what time frame?
Understanding the resources—financial, human, and temporal—is equally important. Does the organization have the budget to support robust equity interventions? Are there skilled personnel in place to lead and sustain the work? If gaps exist, how will they be addressed? These foundational questions ensure that equity initiatives are grounded in reality rather than aspirational ideas.
For example, let’s say a nonprofit organization sets a goal to increase accessibility in its programs. To achieve this, it allocates funds for facility modifications, invests in assistive technologies, and provides training for staff on inclusive practices. By clearly defining the goal and dedicating resources, the organization creates a roadmap for success.
Diagnosing your challenges
Every organization is unique, with its own culture, structures, and pain points. Professionalized equity work requires a deep dive into these specifics. This involves qualitative and quantitative assessments to identify inequities in policies, practices, and outcomes. Whether it’s understanding why certain employee groups have higher turnover rates, why access to services is unequal, or why funding is distributed inequitably, the goal is to diagnose challenges with precision. This diagnostic phase lays the groundwork for targeted, impactful interventions.
Diagnosing equity-related challenges requires a commitment to data transparency and accountability. Organizations often fail at this stage by either relying too heavily on anecdotal evidence or by gathering data without a plan for meaningful analysis and action. A truly effective diagnostic approach must include both numerical insights (such as pay gaps, promotion rates, hiring demographics) and lived experiences (collected through surveys, interviews, and focus groups). Data alone cannot tell the full story—understanding the "why" behind the numbers is just as crucial as recognizing the numbers themselves.
Another critical part of diagnosing challenges is recognizing systemic patterns rather than isolated incidents. If a company identifies that women and racialized employees are leaving at higher rates than their white male counterparts, the response shouldn’t focus solely on retention strategies—it should investigate the underlying reasons for the departures. Are there disparities in mentorship opportunities? Are promotion pathways unclear or unevenly distributed? By digging deeper, organizations can move beyond knee jerk solutions and address the root causes of inequity.
Prioritizing, doing, then measuring
Once challenges are identified, the next step is to develop a prioritization framework and action plan. Not all problems can be tackled simultaneously, so prioritization is essential. This means weighing factors such as urgency, impact, and feasibility—what changes will yield the most significant results for the most marginalized groups? What interventions can be implemented quickly versus those requiring longer timelines? Without a clear prioritization process, equity efforts risk becoming scattered or stalled by competing demands.
An effective action plan should break down initiatives into short-term wins and long-term structural changes. Some interventions—such as revising hiring practices to remove unnecessary barriers—can be implemented quickly, while others—like overhauling internal pay structures—may require phased, multi-year efforts. Recognizing this distinction allows organizations to build momentum while still addressing deep-rooted systemic issues.
Measurement is often overlooked, but it is crucial for accountability. An action plan must include clear, measurable outcomes and a strategy for tracking progress. Metrics could include shifts in employee retention, improved access to services, or more equitable leadership representation. These measurements shouldn’t just be a one-time assessment—they should be embedded into ongoing evaluations to ensure continuous improvement.
Equity as a Technical Skill: The Key to Implementation
The concept of Equity as a Technical Skill shifts the narrative about who can implement equity work. It posits that you don’t need to be a DEI/EDI/IDEA expert to integrate equity into processes and outcomes. Instead, it provides a natural way for organizations to take all the foundational work—diagnostics, prioritization, and action plans—and operationalize it across departments, leveraging the varied expertise already within the organization.
This approach empowers every team member to contribute to equity work within their specific roles. For instance, an HR manager can redesign hiring practices to reduce bias, while a marketing team can rethink communication strategies to ensure accessibility and representation. The equity lens becomes a shared tool, enabling everyone to address systemic issues as they arise in their workstreams.
While organizations like QuakeLab or internal equity hires play a vital role in laying the groundwork, the long-term implementation and ideation are distributed across the organization. Equity experts act as guides, consultants, and strategic support systems. They focus on high-level planning and course correction, ensuring the broader team has the tools and knowledge to sustain and evolve equity initiatives over time.
By decentralizing equity work, this framework ensures it becomes an ongoing, collaborative effort rather than a siloed responsibility. It fosters a culture where equity isn’t just a task for specialists but a shared accountability integrated into every decision, process, and outcome.
Equity as Professionalized Work and Equity as a Technical Skill are inherently complementary. The former is the foundation, providing the tools to build a realistic and evidence-based plan. It focuses on the diagnostic work—identifying challenges, collecting data, setting parameters, and creating action plans that are feasible given the organization’s resources and constraints. It’s about creating the infrastructure that ensures equity work can be sustained and measured.
Equity as a Technical Skill, on the other hand, is how the interventions designed through professionalized work are brought to life. It democratizes equity work, making it actionable for every individual within the organization. By equipping staff with the knowledge and confidence to embed equity into their daily responsibilities, it ensures that the groundwork laid by equity experts translates into meaningful change across the organization.
Together, these concepts create a cohesive strategy: Professionalized Work establishes the “what” and the “how,” while Equity as a Technical Skill activates the “who.” This synergy ensures that equity work is not only well-planned but also fully integrated, dynamic, and enduring. It turns equity from an aspiration into a shared, collective reality.
