Equity as a Technical Skill vs. DEI
In organizations where DEI is being prioritized, anywhere between 35-40% of DEI budgets are earmarked for DEI training. The next highest spend is usually on Employee Resource Groups, or ERGs. But is that an effective use of our resources?
When potential clients approach me asking for DEI training, I ask them three questions:
Why was this need prompted?
What problem are you trying to solve?
What is your intended outcome?
Usually after some probing and pushing the responses to these questions are a mix of:
Some kind of crisis/investigation/scandal hit, and this was a direct request from staff
Some version of “we realize we’re all at different stages of our learning journey and want to level set”
We want to do better/be more inclusive/make sure everyone can be their full self at work
We want everyone to have the same language and knowledge
I don’t know if you’re seeing a trend here - the three questions attempt to pull out pretty practical and tangible challenges, and figure out how the potential client has landed on the solution (DEI training). The people who come to QuakeLab are incredibly smart and well intentioned. However, my industry has done them a decades long disservice by selling them nothing but DEI training to build knowledge, and ERGs to solve very real, very big, challenges.
Let’s take a detour real quick and talk about the kinds of DEI training that is often used:
Unconscious Bias Training: This training seeks to help individuals recognize their own implicit biases that can influence decision-making and interpersonal interactions. It is one of the most common forms of DEI training.
Cultural Competency: Aimed at fostering respect and understanding among employees of diverse backgrounds, this type of training attempts to educate participants about cultural norms, beliefs, and communication styles. It is meant to improve collaboration and reduce misunderstandings across cultural lines.
Inclusive Leadership: Designed for leaders, this training aims to teach inclusive management practices, including equitable task assignments, diverse hiring practices, and effective communication across different groups. The goal is to equip leaders to create a more inclusive environment for all employees.
Microaggressions Training: This type of training aims to educate participants on identifying and responding to microaggressions—subtle, often unintentional discriminatory comments or behaviors that can harm marginalized groups. It aims to reduce these behaviors and raise awareness about their impact on workplace morale and mental health.
Allyship Training: This training prepares individuals, particularly those in privileged positions, to act as allies to marginalized groups by amplifying their voices, advocating for equity, and intervening in instances of discrimination or harassment.
Anti-Harassment and Anti-Discrimination Training: These programs educate employees on laws and workplace policies regarding harassment and discrimination, often including guidelines on how to recognize, prevent, and report such incidents.
Role-Specific Training: Tailored for specific roles like recruiters or managers, this training targets inclusive practices related to hiring, onboarding, performance reviews, and other HR processes in an effort to mitigate bias and improve equity in organizational procedures.
Intermediate and Specialized DEI Training: Organizations may also invest in more in-depth training on specific aspects of diversity, such as disability inclusion, LGBTQ+ rights, and neurodiversity. This type of training often includes modules on allyship, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), and sector-specific DEI practices.
Now, let’s take a little peek into the most pressing challenges facing marginalized people in North America:
Economic inequality and poverty
Health disparities and inequitable access to healthcare
Educational inequality
Housing insecurity and homelessness
Systemic racism and criminal justice disparities
Environmental injustice
Discrimination in employment
For good measure, let’s also break down the biggest challenges facing marginalized people in the workplace:
Bias and discrimination
Wage inequality
Underrepresentation in leadership
Harassment
Stress and burnout
Limited access to professional development
Digital divide and challenges with remote work
We have some good information to work from. We know that the work challenges folks face are data backed, and are connected to the general challenges marginalized people face out in the world. More importantly, we can surmise that these challenges are systemic in nature. This means they are deeply embedded within the structures, policies, and cultural norms of an organization or society. These issues arise not from individual actions alone but from interconnected systems that perpetuate inequalities and reinforce specific outcomes over time.
The most common types of DEI training we rely on make the assumption that information alone will drive change in behaviour and reduce systematic inequalities. These trainings often focus on raising awareness about bias, diversity, and inclusion through informational sessions on topics like unconscious bias, anti-racism, or cultural competency. The goal is to make participants aware of their biases and equip them with knowledge, with the hope that this will lead to behavioural changes.
However, evidence suggests that awareness-based training has limited impact on systemic issues. Studies show that while such training can increase short-term awareness, it doesn’t typically lead to sustained behavioral or systemic changes without being paired with structural reforms or policies. That’s just not how human brains work: information in -> long term change out. Just because you know smoking is bad for you, doesn’t mean you’ll stop, just because you know you’re too full for that last slice of pizza, doesn’t mean you won’t eat it anyway.
Ok this next one is going to hurt your feelings because we all LOVE Employee Resource Groups (ERGs).
ERGs are meant to create a community for marginalized people in an organization while also giving them opportunities to advocate for and make change (power in numbers and all that). Sometimes, especially in tech, ERGs become informal testing grounds that flag identity specific problems with products before they’re released into the wild. The working assumption on the success of ERGs are:
The main issue marginalized people face is that they are lonely and have no one to talk to about their identity at work;
Marginalized people are the only legitimate architects of equity, thus they need to get together to advocate and make change. The only expertise required is lived experience.
Most importantly, the work they are expected to do (or community they are building) is separate from their actual paid work. Maybe the compensation is the friends they make along the way?
Let’s also take a moment to reflect on the fact that ERGs exist to some extent, to raise awareness of the challenges marginalized people face at work. This brings us back to that wonderful (false) assumption that information alone will drive change in behaviour and reduce systematic inequalities.
Sorry, we’re taking another detour.
In the mid-19th century, Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician, observed alarmingly high maternal mortality rates in hospitals compared to home births. Through meticulous observation, he concluded that the lack of handwashing among doctors and medical students was a key factor in these fatalities. When he implemented a handwashing protocol in his clinic, the rates of infection and death dramatically decreased. Despite this success, his findings were ridiculed by the medical community, leading to his eventual isolation and mental breakdown. Semmelweis died in obscurity, largely dismissed by his peers, suffering from the very rejection that had driven him to madness. After the germ theory of disease was established, Semmelweis's insights were finally acknowledged and adopted. His emphasis on hygiene laid the groundwork for modern infection control practices in healthcare settings. Today, he is remembered as the "father of infection control.”
Sometimes, advocating for the move away from DEI training and other behaviour and knowledge based intervention for equity, feels a little bit like trying to convince doctors to wash their hands in the early 19th century. The hesitance is based on a few of things:
The fear of accepting that all the money, time and resources spent of these strategies might have not actually been well spent;
The fear that you were incorrect and will face backlash from those who were already skeptical of this work;
That a shift away from these interventions will be a negative reflection of your ability to be a competent, well informed, decision maker in your place of work and profession writ large.
We are all human, and every day we hope to beat the instinct for ego to trump reason and progress. Historically, one of humanity's greatest assets is the ability to act on new information for better outcomes, even if it takes us a second.
DEI training and ERGs have thrived because they tap into our desire to quickly and easily solve really overwhelming and deeply upsetting problems that have been put in front of us. We are told that women, racialized people, and disabled people have a higher risk of experiencing poverty because we don’t pay them equally. We learn that Black women are getting sicker and sicker because of the stress of racism and sexism they face out in the world and at work. All of these things hurt so much to know, and we want a way to undo it, make the pain go away. So we google and learn that all we need to do is form clubs at work and learn new things in a three hour session, and everything will be ok. It’s not malicious, we just want the bad thing to stop as quickly as possible.
If you’ve gotten this far it means you now have new information, and you can course correct.
What we propose at QuakeLab, is a little more difficult, takes a little more time, and is probably not perfect: Equity as a Technical Skill.
Equity as a Technical Skill is the intentional and data driven approach to embedding equity into every stage of building and implementation.
It starts with using data that has been broken down by detailed sub-categories (or disaggregated data). This data highlights disparities on the basis of race, gender, ability, and other identity markers. This data also allows us to see where gaps exist and identify who’s being left out of the conversation.
Next, it means recognizing that nothing is neutral. Everything you do is shaped by societal and historical factors. Building technical expertise needs to include incorporating this contextual awareness into everything.
Building Equity as a Technical Skill also requires you to be iterative—constantly refining and improving for excellence. When we identify gaps or disparities, we course-correct. We don’t just create once and move on; we keep testing and adjusting to make sure our solutions work for everyone, particularly those who are often marginalized.
Finally, having this technical skill means building sustainably. It can’t just rely on one person or one team to carry the torch. The goal is to embed equity into systems and structures so that the work continues long after we’ve all moved on.
Equity as a technical skill emphasizes that equity is not just a value or aspiration but a tangible, practical, and necessary expertise for professionals across industries.
This approach asks you to refine the work you already do (HR, software engineer, architect, paralegal etc.). It asks you to be better at your job by embedding an equity lens in the assessment and execution of everything you do. It demands you seek information about who has benefited and who has been marginalized by the way you do what you do. Then it requires you to make tangible change not just for you alone, but codify the change to ensure it has longevity.
This approach is also going to take a little more than a few hours. It requires you to approach the challenges you face with a level of rigor and strategy that you have already employed in other aspects of your organization. Here's what that might look like:
Do we have enough data to clearly identify our most pressing challenges? If not, you can go one of two ways depending on the availability of resources: complete a data collection exercise (we call that an audit), or use existing generic data and research to give you a decent starting point. This step is valuable for exploring internal challenges (think the benefactors are the business and staff).
Articulate what you do (products, service, etc). Do you have enough data to clearly identify the equity challenges that emerge as a result of your process and outputs (how you do what you do, and the end product)? Once again, depending on resources you can take up a data and research exercise or you can temporarily depend on existing data. Some industries have a wealth of research to learn on! This step is most relevant in exploring external challenges. The benefactors here are once again the business (better products and services) and their users (clients, customers, etc).
Once you've articulated the challenges, identify the systems and structures where these challenges live and are governed. Eg. HR policies, product design process, finance and compensation policies, etc.
Then start the process of identifying what will be tackled, in which order, by who, what the intended outcomes are, and what your metrics and accountability strategies are.
Finally, iterate. This will require data collection, measurement and analysis to continually assess the challenge, how it has changed and what needs to be adjusted as new information emerges.
In terms of timelines and resources, DEI training and ERGs are definitely the path of least resistance. But the word ‘path’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting because you won’t be going very far.
Investing in Equity as a Technical Skill on the other hand, builds a robust foundation for sustained, measurable change, setting companies apart as industry leaders. Unlike traditional DEI methods, which focus on awareness or supplementary programs, this approach embeds equity directly into hiring, decision-making, and product development processes, ensuring excellent practices at every level. This resonates particularly with Millennials and Gen Z, who seek employers with a proven commitment to meaningful equity work, making it a key strategy for attracting top talent.
By making equity part of core operations, companies enhance product and service excellence, expanding their reach to serve a broader clientele and meet diverse customer needs. This not only drives innovation but also establishes a reputation for quality, as equitable design often results in safer, more accessible products. Ultimately, Equity As a Technical skill attracts top talent, improves product effectiveness, and strengthens brand loyalty, all while positioning the company as a leader in a competitive market.
While DEI training and Employee Resource Groups are often seen as quick fixes for systemic issues, they are limited in their ability to drive lasting change. At QuakeLab, we advocate for a more nuanced and data-driven approach: Equity as a Technical Skill. This approach doesn’t just treat equity as an aspiration; it embeds it into every layer of an organization, ensuring that equity is woven into processes, decision-making, and outcomes from the start.
Shifting to this model is no easy feat. It requires commitment, resources, and a long-term strategy, but the rewards are significant. Organizations that adopt Equity as a Technical Skill not only improve their internal culture but also build products, services, and systems that serve everyone—especially those who have historically been marginalized.
If you’re ready to take equity beyond awareness and make it a core skill in your organization, let’s talk. Together, we can build solutions that last, not just for today but for the future. It’s time to turn good intentions into measurable, sustainable action.
Roll up your sleeves and give us a call - we’ve got a lot of work to do. hello@quakelab.ca
