Elevating Equity

Program Overview

Elevating Equity is not a traditional diversity, equity, and inclusion program. Instead, this is a Program centered on effective actions that drive real, measurable change. Addressing our organizations’ systemic inequalities is a challenge that taps into the very core of our most essential responsibility as managers: to take care of our people. This challenge also poses the opportunity for us to lead one of the most important strategic business initiatives of the decade as we grapple with the complexities of creating organizations that actively foster cultures of innovation and resilience.

This Program is built to equip you to meet that challenge. It can either accompany existing DEI training or kickstart an organization’s foundational strategy by giving managers and leaders practical tools to immediately begin making a difference. The Program is designed to push the envelope when it comes to reshaping our approach to DEI, while also elevating the role of managers and leaders in making our organizations more equitable and just in the communities we serve.

It is built for a global audience, and the tools, challenges, and discussions are meant to help you think through the many layers of diversity and inequity in your specific region or organization. It features a combination of global leadership stories, diverse perspectives, and valuable insights—all designed to evoke conversations around the complexity of this work and how we can continue to evolve our practice.

Field Manuals

The Elevating Equity Program is made up of five Field Manuals (our version of an online module). Each one contains a variety of types of content and social exercises culminating in a mini-project, reflection, or debate. Each Field Manual will take you between 30–45 minutes to complete, but you can jump on and off at your own pace, as often as you’d like. The deeper learning happens in the discussions with your fellow learners, so be sure to check in on the conversations regularly.

• The DEI Imperative

  In the past few decades, we’ve learned just how essential diversity, equity, and inclusion are to a strong organization. If they were ever nice-to-haves, they’re absolutely essential now. But understanding how they drive our collective success is only the beginning. This Field Manual unpacks the role of DEI efforts in organizations and looks at how managers and team leaders are instrumental to making real progress.

• Redesigning the System

  Creating an environment that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive depends on our ability to recognize, navigate, and transform the systems in which we live and work. This Field Manual explores the insights we can discover and the impact we can have when we learn to think in systems, and how seeing the big picture shows us how to take small, meaningful steps.

• The Power of Diversity

  DEI can’t just be HR’s job. To make lasting changes that impact the business and everyone inside of it, understanding and action around DEI issues must be integrated into every aspect of how we work. It’s up to every person in the organization, especially those of us who are managers and leaders. This Field Manual tackles our unique role in this effort, particularly around diversity, and why we are essential to its success.

• The Challenge of Equity

  When it comes to addressing questions of equity, we often have multiple areas where we can make change. We can focus on addressing underlying issues of inequity within our teams. And we can apply an equity lens to our work in the wider world, seeking out ways to make change in the spheres of influence in which we operate.

• The Urgency of Inclusion

  Working to build a diverse team doesn’t count for much if we’re not actively fostering a genuine sense of inclusion and belonging, too. As managers, we are the gatekeepers of our team’s culture, and it’s up to us to lead the way. This Field Manual explores the practical work of building a sense of belonging and responding to our team’s needs in real time.