How do the Recent Presidential Executive Orders Impact Your DEI Goals?
DEI leaders like you and me find ourselves living in times of uncertainty. This uncertainty offers an unprecedented opportunity to reimagine work, and a chance to build something better – a culture that works for all of us.
Since January 20th, our vision of building a belonging workplace culture got a boost from several Presidential Executive Orders that will have lasting impacts for our DEI goals. Some of the most significant include:
Advancing Racial Equity – This EO acknowledges the systemic racism embedded in laws, policies, and systems, offers methods to assess inequities and remove barriers, provides resources to and engagement with underserved communities, revokes the previous administration’s EO banning DEI trainings for federal employees/contractors, and collects disaggregated data to benchmark progress.
Prohibiting LGBTQ+ Discrimination – This EO establishes a LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination policy in accordance with the Constitution, Civil Rights laws, and the Bostock vs. Clayton County Supreme Court ruling, acknowledges the compounding impacts of discrimination based on LGBTQ+ identity, race, disability, etc., and directs agencies to enforce these protections in the areas of education, housing, healthcare, and credit.
Equitably Responding to the Pandemic – This EO acknowledges the current health and social inequities in the United States, addresses the impact of the pandemic on underserved communities, and establishing a task force to collect data, coordinates with local agencies to ensure equitable distribution of resources, and provides recommendations to prevent future health inequities.
Reforming Immigration Policy – Affirms the value and dignity of all families and communities, resets policies and practices for enforcing civil immigration laws, revokes the previous administration’s Executive Order that disqualified sanctuary cities from receiving federal grants, and creates a dedicated office to collect and publish immigrant crime data.
To help process these Executive Orders and their potential impact on your DEI goals, consider answering some of these reflection questions:
When you read these Executive Orders, what’s now possible when it comes to advancing your workplace’s DEI goals?
What new ideas did you gain after reading through these Executive Order’s that will enhance your existing DEI goals?
Do you believe your organization’s DEI goals can help create the space to begin healing the growing divisions in our culture?
In February, the Belonging Membership Community gathered to discuss these questions and more. If you’re looking for a community where you can explore relevant topics like these, consider enrolling.
If you’re not quite ready to make a monthly commitment, consider joining the 30 Day Belonging at Work Challenge. This challenge is a great opportunity to more fully explore my best-selling book, Belonging at Work.
Thanks for growing the #BelongingMovement!
