Diversity and Inclusion Matters

Conclusion

Obama out.

—President Barack Obama, from his final White House Correspondents' Dinner speech

“Obama out.” Just thinking about these two words above puts me in a good mood, and I hope reading them did the same for you. (Most importantly, I can say I quoted President Barack Obama in my book.) Life is full of small wins. You should take every one.

This book is about the lessons I learned over a 25-year career as a diversity, equity, and inclusion practitioner. Over the last 25 years, what has changed? What have we learned? Sometimes I am not sure what has changed. In 1991, the first year into the start of my career, we did diversity training as a response to police brutality and what happened to Rodney King. Now, 25 years later, we are talking police brutality and what happened to George Floyd. I would like to think between then and now, a lesson has been learned.

If you get nothing else from this book, let it be that DE&I training cannot be done as a response to a single episode. It must be done as a response to a series of connected events. We are making systemic change.

Over the course of my career, I have realized that you should take every small win. Some DE&I programs move more slowly than others, but there are always small wins along the way. Why do DE&I programs move so slowly? Because they look like the problem we are trying to fix. Change takes time, and cultures move slowly. Hopefully the tips and CAPE process from this book will prove helpful to you.