Diversity and inclusion isn't just a category of learning and development. It's an approach to education and an ethos that can be embedded into every aspect of a company. This is the message in a new work by author Maria Morukian.
Speaking with HR Dive, Morukian, the author of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Trainers: Fostering DEI in the Workplace, noted that even seasoned educators aren't automatically equipped to facilitate these kinds of uncomfortable but necessary conversations. "Especially when we're talking about things like power and privilege, social injustice, systemic oppression based on race, gender identity, sexual orientation, political ideology, and so on and so forth."
Morukian, president of MSM Global Consulting and a professor at American University's School of International Service, wrote DEI for Trainers to aid corporate educators in "embedding DEI into the broader organizational fabric." With this book, Morukian strives to facilitate "meaningful DEI training" that goes beyond traditional HR training with focus on best practices for diverse hiring and retention techniques for underrepresented talent.
While the book is "geared broadly toward anyone in the training and talent development field," she said, it's also written for a secondary audience: the accidental trainers. "In the last couple of years, we've seen an increase in attention and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. There are a lot of people who feel really passionate, who want to advocate for change in their organizations — or people who are being taught to lead efforts to foster that change — but they're not the trainers," she explained.
Morukian shared more about her zeal for education, best practices for addressing DEI pain points and ways to show up for employees during Black History Month.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
HR DIVE: What experiences led you to champion DEI education for trainers?
MARIA MORUKIAN: I attribute a lot of this to my experience growing up in a bicultural immigrant family, where I was surrounded, from birth, with this awareness of identity differences. Also, my parents were teachers. So pretty much, my entire life was centered around education and learning and being curious and questioning.
That led me to forge my career in understanding the human side of organizations — focusing on organizational culture, on behavior. I was really interested in exploring how our individual or group identities play such a critical role in how people show up at work, how those unique experiences differ based on our identities and how we can learn to communicate respect to people across our differences: because that can sometimes make or break organizations' success and sustainability.
Professionally, I had incredible mentors when I started my career in this work. They taught me really just the intricacies of facilitation and, in particular, facilitation around DEI. They instilled in me the importance of doing my own work as a DEI practitioner.
I had to turn the mirror up to myself. I had to explore my own areas of societal privilege, those implicit narratives that I held about myself and about others. [My mentors] gave me a safe space to be challenged about my privilege [and] to share my stories of feeling targeted or disadvantaged. They allowed me to go through that sort of inevitable continuum of learning, where I got to experience feeling defensive when I was called out for my biased behaviors.
I got to learn and appreciate that feedback, and actually be grateful for it. Because it meant that these people — that I really respected and admired — trusted me and believed in me enough to know that I could learn from that feedback and do better.
I want to pay that forward. I want to help others who aspire to do this work to have that same space to learn and explore and question others and be questioned. Because that allows all of us to have these really meaningful experiences, where we learn more about ourselves, where we learn more about others.
Considering how you took a mirror to yourself, examined your biases and your privilege, and then used that discomfort for something good, what are some best practices in holding corporate leaders accountable to prioritizing DEI?
I mean, I think that nailed it right there: we have to hold corporate leaders accountable. Otherwise, we don't see change, especially not in a sustained way. It really starts with people in positions of power and authority — executives, board members — doing their own work, just as I was talking about. This type of work cannot be foisted onto the shoulders of HR or that diversity office, which is often a diversity office of one.
Leaders hold the authority. They have access to resources. They have the responsibility to the communities they serve and their shareholders. They have to see this as an imperative for their organization's mission.
Increasingly, what we're seeing in the data is that companies that don't prioritize DEI — that don't have representation of diversity in terms of gender, race and ethnicity in their top ranks — those organizations are ranking lower in terms of employee engagement and retention, but also in terms of financial performance… Leaders, at this point, can't afford not to take this seriously.
But they need to feel that at the emotional level, not just at the business case level. It has to be something that [leaders] feel a sense of connection to, a sense of ownership around, and that they can communicate that sense of importance and urgency to others.
They don't necessarily have to be the ones operationalizing it — that needs to be a collective effort — but they have to provide the vision and the resources and the support to make it happen.
It's an interesting perspective that effective DEI should be motivated by both its business case and emotion and that these things work in tandem.
It's both. I always say to organizational leaders, there's three key elements to this:
First and foremost, you have to assess the current state [of DEI at your company] and have honest, forthright, transparent conversations. We have to be transparent about what's working, what's not working, and where we have the most challenges or room for growth.
Then, we have to be the first to volunteer for that training and development. [Leaders] have to demonstrate the willingness and really model that inclusive equitable behavior.
We have to establish metrics for organizational performance, but also individual performance. It's not necessarily the first thing that I recommend. But I think at some point, you do need to build in expectations that if you are going to be in a position of authority at this organization — if you're going to be a leader driving this organization forward — then there are very specific expectations about how you will uphold DEI values and foster that change.
By "specific expectations" about upholding values, are you referring to corporate leaders attending the DEI trainings so every employee is on the same page, at every level of the organization, or something else?
It's more than that. It's driving the change. It's having specific strategies in place that are aligned with those pain points that are present in the current state.
[For example,] in some cases, all of the racial or gender diversity that we see in an organization is mainly in certain job functions or areas. So we need to look at representation across the organization; we need to provide more opportunities for career paths for people who are not being represented and actually follow through on those opportunities.
[In other cases, the pain points are] around engagement and that sense of belonging. How are you looking at grievances or complaints around people feeling like they are in a hostile work environment or [that] they're being treated differently?
Leaders [need] to say, "That is unacceptable behavior. I need to make sure that I'm holding myself and others accountable for behaviors that ensure people feel respected and valued."
Leaders hold the authority. They have access to resources. They have the responsibility to the communities they serve and their shareholders. They have to see this as an imperative for their organization's mission.
Maria Morukian
MSM Global Consulting president and a professor at American University's School of International Service
It goes to things like innovation, where ideas come from; who has input into decisions; who has a seat at the table when it comes to deciding structural changes or policy or practice changes.
Given the timing of this interview, what is your perspective on meaningful ways companies can honor Black History Month? What are you noticing in your client companies that seems on the right track?
It's such a great question. I think what we've seen over the last couple of years is a growing recognition that we have to go beyond beautifully crafted statements. Although, that is important, right? Being very explicit about where we stand on these issues is important, but it needs to be more than that. We have to see actions being taken.
Some of the things that I've seen with clients that I'm working with is providing engaging conversations that highlight our collective history around race in a very courageous way. Usually once a month, [one of my clients] hosts an event where they'll either watch a documentary or read an article that brings people together, to talk about some of these issues from a storytelling vantage point.
That's really helpful because they do it in a way where people feel they can have human conversations about this — without feeling that somebody is going to say or do the wrong thing. It's focusing on building knowledge and awareness. But also, having some sort of a call to action is really powerful.
Some of the organizations I've worked with actually started giving opportunities for employees to take time off. [These days center] on personal development and learning, or volunteerism or advocacy around racial equity. That means supervisors have to say, "If you're taking this time off, that time is yours. You're not answering emails. You're not being asked to come to meetings. That is your time to do this work and to feel like you're contributing."
I have clients that have committed themselves to hosting regular events, fostering initiatives and building internal organizational communities — not just around DEI [but] offered with a specific focus on racial equity,
It's taking it to this level of inviting people to be a part of this solution strategy process — rather than feeling like it is one month where we have a newsletter and maybe we share some quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr.
We can't end this every February 28 or 29th.
