Operationalizing Justice: A Checklist for Change

Over the last five months, we’ve delved deep into what operationalizing justice actually looks like, answering the question we so often get as people struggle to turn thoughts and ideas into action: “This sounds good, but how do we do it?” 

If you haven’t already, spend some time revisiting the articles in the series. There’s nuance and depth to each of them that is crucial to understanding the why behind the changes we’re recommending. 

For those who are ready to move into facilitating and leading change, we have put together a checklist of actions to consult as you work to center and operationalize justice across organizations. These are concrete things you can beginning doing, or at least working toward, now. We have sequenced the areas as a recommended progression, but each person and organization is different, so feel free to find the starting place that makes sense for you.

We put together a checklist of actions to consult as you work to center and operationalize justice across organizations. These are concrete things you can begin doing, or at least working toward, now. Click To Tweet

Keep in mind that while these actions are split into discrete areas for convenience, each of them is related to and contingent upon the others. For example, it is nearly impossible to create a welcoming, inclusive workplace culture without first addressing and repairing harm or ensuring the health and wellness of your Black and Brown employees. Likewise, a leader’s personal commitment to their own growth and education will be meaningless at any significant scale without accompanying changes to policies and practices.

Understand, too, that many of these don’t fall neatly into any one category—again underscoring their interrelatedness—but instead intersect with two or more areas. To illustrate: truly repairing harm involves providing for and supporting Black and Brown employees’ health and wellness in ways that may differ from your white employees. 

Simply put: each area necessitates attention, and none will result in long-term success if addressed in a silo.

  

Individual Action and Allyship 

• Leverage your power and speak up to hold people accountable when you hear harmful comments — whether on social media, at work, or around the dinner table: 
  • R: Redirect the interaction immediately to prevent further harm from occurring   
  • A: Ask probing questions to create the cognitive dissonance necessary for a recognition of statements or actions as problematic   
  • V: Clarify your values, especially when you can refer to a group’s preexisting set of agreed-upon values    
  • E: Emphasize your feelings to alert the aggressor to the harm caused to you and potentially others   
  • N: Suggest next steps for the aggressor to take to apologize, correct and change behavior in the future  
• Support marginalized creators on social media by amplifying and resharing their content 
• Take responsibility for your own learning and cultural competence  
• Make right on your wrongs and take deliberate action to repair harm 

 

Repairing Harm 

In recognition of racialized generational cycles of wealth and poverty, and unequal access to education: 

• Fund student loan repayment or childcare expenses for Black/IPOC employees. 
• Invest in organizational initiatives that support formerly incarcerated and returning citizens who are re-entering the workplace or building their own businesses. 
• Make reparations a reality: Repair harm through your internal and external DEI strategy.
• Provide alternate forms of compensation, like market shares in your company, to Black/IPOC employees. 
• Revise your compensation, hiring and promotion structures to address ways your organization may be contributing to the racial wealth gap. 

In recognition of the impact of unequal access to healthcare and disproportionate stress on health outcomes for BIPOC: 

• Increase access to health insurance benefits for Black/IPOC employees.  
• Offer additional paid time off to Black/IPOC employees.  
• Pay justice or equity ‘bonuses’ to Black/IPOC employees who engage in or lead DEI work in addition to their job responsibilities.  

  

Workplace Culture 

• Model authenticity and vulnerability. 
• Recognize the limitation of your own lens. 
• Choose curiosity over defensiveness:  
  • Validate feelings  
  • Probe for more details 
  • Ask for suggestions and recommendations 
• Interrogate organizational systems through an equity lens. 
• Offer extra resources and support for employees with joint families (i.e., living with elderly).
• Seek out the perspective of those who have been most impacted by racism and white supremacy in my organization’s context. 
• Use equity-centered processes to rebuild policies, procedures and structures. 
• Use restorative dialogue to increase interpersonal accountability. 

  

DEIJ: Doing the Work 

• Consider differentiating learner audiences for professional development opportunities related to antiracism.
• Do not assume you know what BIPOC folks in your organization need. Instead, center those most impacted and ask them directly. Ensure that those most impacted have the option to be a part of the inquiry, design and feedback processes in building and evolving a strategy. 
• Engage a DEIJ partner to design an equity- and justice-centered process for defining your broader DEI strategy.  
• Engage in dialogue with community leaders to identify ways to offer time and resources to underserved communities as part of an external DEI strategy.
• Consult local indigenous leaders regarding best practices for environmental conservation.
• Enlist dominant group individuals like white people and men in DEI work, rather than counting on those who hold marginalized identities to do the work alone. 
• Incorporate music and other performing arts in your DEI learning and development programs. 
• Offer choices to those personally impacted by racism to opt out of potentially triggering content.
• Involve a DEIJ partner in developing communications, sharing commitments and developing processes for ongoing transparency. 
• Require a DEIJ partner take a trauma-informed approach to training and learning experiences. 
• Respect BIPOC employees’ time and boundaries. 

  

Policies and Practices 

Procurement 

• Create risk assessments based on the type of work to be performed, omitting questions that are not applicable to the vendor type or work so as not to over-burden smaller organizations. 
• Develop policies that recognize that one size does not fit all and that allow for flexibility. 
• Eliminate contractual language that attempts to take ownership of others’ intellectual property, especially without paying for it in perpetuity. 
• Intentionally engage with BIPOC-owned and led firms, both large and small. 
• Reconsider the RFP process by engaging in a co-designing, partnership model earlier in the process; pay the supplier for their time during this stage. 
• Set payment terms that are reasonable and fair for both you and the firm you’ve hired 

 

Hiring and Recruitment 

• Collect and embed qualitative data and metrics as part of company performance measurements. 
• Create open-ended, descriptive performance reviews instead of relying on quantitative measures.  
• Embed awareness and understanding of systems of oppression into the hiring process, providing this language upfront to new and potential employees. 
• Ensure representational diversity (as a beginning, not an end). Hire women and people of color to tech roles and others where they may be historically underrepresented. 
• Reconsider how you define “professionalism” and the way in which white supremacy has influenced individuals’ and organizations’ understanding of it 
• Rework dress codes by giving thought to the cultural-specific styles of dress that are most likely to be targeted by dress codes and make changes that mitigate any potential harm. 
• Write clear job descriptions with skills and qualifications that are core to the job function itself, rather than including inflated or unnecessary requirements, such as arbitrary years of experience. 

  

Performance and Promotion 

• Create clear leadership succession policies that include goals for diversity. 
• Incorporate DEIJ competencies like anti-racism in performance measures and job descriptions to set the expectation that being actively anti-racist is a shared responsibility, especially for folks with privilege and power. 
• Interrogate employee rating and evaluation policies for inherent biases and make necessary adjustments.  
• Offer full-team performance rewards instead of individual employee awards.  
• Provide mentorship opportunities for BIPOC leaders and emerging leaders to engage in meaningful relationships across job levels. 
• Put the company’s DEIJ efforts front and center when discussing the organization’s offerings with a prospective employee. 

  

Health and Wellness 

• Build consensus by surveying employees and asking health equity questions. 
• Create a parental “sabbatical” — a longer term (6 months or more) time off plus funds for early childhood development or parental career development.  
• Institute mandatory PTO to ensure employees feel valued and well-rested.  
• In times of crisis, respond swiftly but intentionally. Shut down your team’s work for the “day-after” a traumatic event. 
• Offer alternative healing services and BIPOC mental health professionals as part of your health and wellness benefits. Offer higher base pay in lieu of wellness benefits. 

  

Leadership 

Personal Commitments 

• Act. Identify tangible steps that you can take immediately.  
• Amplify the voices and needs of Black and Brown people in your organization. 
• Don’t give up; stay dedicated even when encountering challenges and roadblocks. 
• Get ready to make mistakes. To recover from inevitable missteps in DEI work: own your mistakes, recognize the difference between intent and impact, and ask for grace and forgiveness. 
• Hold yourself accountable to the people who you are serving.
• Humble yourself. Engage in deep self-reflection about your own competency and embrace the opportunity to grow. 
• Know you (leader) are responsible and accountable for creating and sustaining equity and justice. 
• Listen and learn. Extending empathy and compassion to intentionally build trust is crucial.

  

Organizational Commitments 

• Create policies that value and reward diversity, equity, inclusion and justice work.  
• Understand how your data is being handled.  
• Integrate DEI into your Business Strategy.  
• Accept resistance, conflict and discomfort as requisite to progress. 
• Prioritize and allocate ample resources to sustain this work.  
• Recognize that systemic inequity, injustice and exclusion are real and exist everywhere. Institutionalize opt-in spaces for listening and discussion on a regular basis. 
• Shift resources, priorities and strategies in a way that addresses lived experiences.