Inclusion is the achievement of a felt environment that stakeholder populations trust as respectful and accountable. Even if we do DEI work each and every day, it’s wishful thinking to believe that the trajectory of the world will take us automatically toward equity and that all we have to do is ride the current to get there eventually. There is no such thing. If we achieve DEI, it is because all of us have put in the thoughtful, intentional effort to do our best and do things right. Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum says it well when she uses the metaphor of a moving airport walkway, or a conveyor belt, to describe racism; I believe the metaphor applies effectively to other systemic inequities, too. But Lily, our company has a racial justice commitment”—racial justice outcomes are more important than statements of commitment. To help, we’ve gathered some of the best books about this topic, written by authors who combine lived experience with DEIB expertise. Our list will help you build your understanding of inclusion —while helping you learn how to avoid personal bias and lead with allyship. Given the recent waves of criticism against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives in the public sphere, what does the future hold for DEI in the workplace?

Why it’s a must-read: We’re all biased, but when we identify and understand our biases, we can overcome them. This book has more than 30 tools to help you recognize and move past your own biases. That includes a list of ways to identify and reframe your unconscious thoughts. Hope for a better future is important. We need to see the DEI industry and DEI work in general as an endlessly improving discipline with room to grow that has meaningfully achieved change. Much of this progress was not achieved in isolation but instead in collaboration with and supporting social movements, activists, and advocates who unapologetically work toward a better world. At the same time, our actions have consequences, and we bear an enormous responsibility toward all marginalized groups to ensure our work moves the needle in the right direction and mitigates unforeseen negative consequences.

Move too slowly? You’ll be facing the right direction, but an onlooker will still see you going the wrong way. You’ll be earnestly, vigorously, and even haughtily moonwalking toward inequity. Using their signature decisive and direct voice, Lily Zheng delivers an accountability-centered and immediately actionable road map to building a more equitable and inclusive modern workplace." One of the brightest minds in DEI work today brings us a ‘how-to’ for inclusive leaders. You’ll be amazed at how Zheng’s straight talk and clear thinking are so deeply grounded in research. You should ‘book club’ this one in your business; it offers the path for avoiding ‘performative allyship.’”

Recently, for example, a colleague with no previous exposure to corporate DEI shared with me a story of sitting through a mandatory DEI training, led by a person who was not White, in which the facilitator referred to different racial groups as “Negroids, Caucasoids, and Mongoloids” before listing a long list of racial stereotypes to the unwitting audience. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing—a racial classification system developed in the 1780s still deployed in 2021. The training deeply confused and upset the audience. “What is wrong with DEI practitioners?” demanded my colleague afterward, and all I could do was shake my head and apologize on behalf of a person I had never met. What is wrong with DEI practitioners? Zheng starts by answering the first question through defining measurable outcomes for diversity, equity and inclusion, as we can’t achieve greater impact without being specific about what we are trying to build. Their choices: Why it’s a must-read: This book aims to help executives create DEI 2.0 and build cultures of belonging. “Leading Below the Surface” gathers true stories, tips and strategies for applying this leadership style. Wilkins shows the importance of starting with self-improvement and self-awareness. You’ll also learn how to practice empathy and create psychological safety for your team.A must-read guide for how to advocate for change at work and in the broader world. Lily Zheng's insights on the various roles that changemakers take on, combined with their deep analysis of the history of the field, will make DEI Deconstructed a critical desk reference for all of us seeking to build the better world we imagine." In all, this a great beginners guide to DEI. However, it doesn’t push the needle enough to be considered the innovative and provocative work of a DEI change maker (and maybe Lily didn’t want it to be and that’s totally ok). Chapter 3: To What End? will help you understand the evolution of DEI as an industry and how the goalposts of this work leading up to the present day have shifted over time. You’ll learn how DEI became what it is today, the origin of modern-day staples like the business case for diversity, and how accountability, the holy grail of DEI work, has remained conspicuously watered-down, weakened, or absent over time. You’ll learn just what it takes to stop history from repeating itself and the challenges that practitioners at the forefront of this work are laboring to solve. How can I be sure that any of this stuff will work? How can I make sure my company does this right? What am I supposed to know if I want to engage with this? and What is my role in this work? I’ll say this up front: this book is not a deep dive into critical race theory, organizational sociology, or change management, though all these and more will inform the content you’ll be reading. This is on purpose—I’ve aimed to provide a well-rounded, interdisciplinary, and comprehensive foundation that can enable any thoughtful newcomer to do effective DEI work. In my experience, you don’t need to be a subject matter expert to be an effective change-maker. You just need to have enough of a knowledge base to begin gaining experience and refining your impact.

Content aside, the logistical deployment of DEI training is often one-time and too short in length to create any sort of lasting impact: for example, many iterations of allyship training aim to increase bystander intervention, 5 but effective bystander intervention training often takes five hours or more, 6 while allyship training can often be even as short as an hour. One training devolved into name-calling and profoundly unproductive conflict when one workshop participant called another a “White supremacist bigot” to his face, that participant told the first participant that they would “burn in hell” for being LGBTQ+, and the facilitator did nothing as the session erupted into chaos. In low-trust environments, Zheng’s advice is to get to a medium-trust environment by having leaders apologize for what has gone wrong, and cede power to the advocates; nobody trusts the leaders enough to follow them, so the way to move forward is to empower others that have earned that trust. But that's a quibble. This is probably a good resource for human resources/leadership/etc. who really do want to engage with DEI but perhaps don't know where to start or want to take it beyond 101, etc. That said, this should not be the only resource but may be another useful tool in the toolkit.

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For years, I sought out answers to these questions, and what I saw indicated that dubiously effective or even blatantly harmful practices were entrenched into widespread understandings of what “the work” looked like—including my own. As I’ll explore shortly, the “gold standard” of DEI work and interventions was too often just fool’s gold: shiny, exciting, but ultimately disappointing and of little value. I’ll share why this is the case and how to identify these “fool’s gold standards” so we can build an understanding of how those of us intent on effective work can do better. (Fool’s) Gold Standards Women of color deserve truly equitable workplaces where our success and well-being is centered. Lily Zheng's DEI Deconstructed is a compelling must-read for leaders who want to stay accountable, make change, and create better workplaces for us all." I make it a point not to talk down to the folks in my practice, and readers of this book are no different: you are grown adults with the ability to think and engage critically with content, and I’ll treat you like that. Whatever experience and expectations you bring to the table, keep in mind that practicing these skills as you read the book will enhance your experience: