we're not looking to do DEI like it's always been done
DEI the way
it’s always
been done.
The standard way hasn’t gotten to the heart of the critical variables in the justice equation:
Diversity
Equity
At Jane’s Way, we don’t work with clients. We work with those who are ready to be partners, in every sense of the word, in a collaborative journey to achieve greater justice within their organizations and in the communities they serve.
As partners, we stand ready to support you every step of the way as you dig in and do the hard work to change the needle on DEB for your organization
change the needle On DEB for your organization
It’s time for
Jane's Way
Pathways for Learning, Reflection & Action
Historical literacy
The dominant narrative of race in the United States—the one we hear in school, media, and government—focuses mostly on progress. From enslavement to freedom; from the Civil Rights era to Barack Obama and Kamala Harris.
How then can we process the repetitive cycles of dehumanization, oppression, and violence against Black people and communities? Jane’s Way recognizes fluency in the historical origins, patterns, and repetitions of current racism as required pre-work to more advanced goals of recognizing and addressing unconscious bias and building inclusive environments.
Most DEI engagements start with identifying unconscious bias and then move to strategies for building more inclusive environments; however, Jane’s Way insists that to identify unconscious bias without understanding where it comes from and why it persists leaves dialogue at the surface, rather than activating the personal fire individuals need to commit to goals of equity and belonging — and make them stick. In this session, we seek to close the gap in understanding our national narrative of racial progress as it intersects with the repetitive harm of structural racism and the bodily vulnerability it perpetuates.
We invite organizations to examine Anti-Black racism as an extreme case study for the many forms of othering and oppression that occur all over the globe on the basis of identity markers such as race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression. This session provides a concrete opportunity to better identify the broad tactics of systemic oppression, such as subhumanization, enforced submission, and vilification, so that participants can recognize the ways in which inequity and injustice persist into the present. From that vantage point, we invite participants to begin to engage in deep individual reflection about how their own perceptions and actions, or inactions, may alleviate (or perpetuate) this unbearable status quo.
Authentic Allyship
Building on the shared understanding that teams and leaders gain through building historical literacy, we engage a program of active learning and reflection about the ways in which we can commit to the daily practice of authentic allyship, as individuals, organizations, and communities.
DEB Vision Setting
Having first grounded our DEB pathway in learning and reflection, our participants are poised to move to informed action. Such a foundation yields powerful results as we invite participants to envision the varied possibilities and pathways for infusing DEB throughout their ways of organizational being and doing.
Gauging “What Is”
Jane’s Way meets organizations where they are, empowering them with the tools to draw out and draw upon qualitative and quantitative data on the status quo relating to diversity, equity, belonging and justice within the organization.
Metrics such as representation within and across the organization, pay and benefits among racial and other identity groups, or opportunities and promotions across departments are examples of quantitative data that is vital to carving an informed action pathway to advance DEB. Of equal importance, Jane’s Way maintains, is the qualitative data around DEB.
We rely on Listening Tours as a primary vehicle for surfacing employee’s feelings, thoughts, and lived experiences around race, identity, and difference within the organization and at this particularly fraught historical moment in our nation’s history.
We draw on a curated suite of additional information-gathering modalities that capture the kind of substantive, authentic employee input critical to understanding the truth of organizational culture—and effectively identifying priorities for change.
Equipped with this three-dimensional understanding of “what is,” organizations are empowered to identify strengths and areas in need of honest examination and growth, opportunities to advance DEB, and ways to hold themselves accountable for the changes they want to see.
DEB Consulting
Having invested time, energy, and resources into comprehensive learning and reflection and pathways for informed action, organizations will be primed to intentionally build a different future: one that finally and definitively levels the power structures that have manifested as a result of centuries of systemic racism that inform our organizational frameworks.
Jane’s Way understands that, in such pivotal moments demanding change, organizations need solid ground under their feet to execute the turn.
Having worked with your team to take stock of its current organizational culture—both its strengths and limitations—we guide and support your organization as you:
1. Make a concrete plan
Chart a “roadmap” for translating organizational DEB vision into a strategic action plan for advancing DEB across all levels and channels within the organization to build and maintain diverse, equitable and inclusive work environments, leadership and working teams.
2. Look to those you serve
Extend that vision outward to ideas for projects that advance racial and all forms of justice in the communities the organization serves.
3. Self assess
Manage any changes to internal and outward facing processes, policies, and structures that have emerged in earlier parts of the DEB journey.
Speaking & Panel Engagements
Jane’s Way principals offer a range of keynote, seminar, and other presentations designed to address broad DEB issues affecting organizations and communities and to focus on special topics relevant to industries, sectors, or groups. Sample topics:
- Global Historical Literacy and DEB for the 21st Century
- Historical Literacy and Race in the United States
- Authentic Allyship
- Identity Construction and Organizational DEB Commitments
- What Are Microaggressions and How Can We Do Better?
- Leading for Justice
- How Media Representations Shape Implicit Bias
- Legacies of Enslavement Around the World
- Legacies of Imperialism Around the World
- Transcending the Past: Living Into Our Emergent Future
- Resource Scarcity and Race
- Trust, DEB, and Organizational Excellence
Executive and Emerging DEB Leader Coaching
Jane’s Way stands ready to further support its organizational partners with Leadership/Management Development coaching.
We help selected individuals hone the critical skills to secure buy-in and successful implementation of the breadth and depth of organizational changes in people and processes as they relate to DEB.
These individuals may include C-suite executives and other senior leaders, DEI council leads and human resources professionals, all of whom are critical players in leading the charge to advance DEB within and beyond the organization.
