The Jagged Journey: How to Identify Your Organization's Racial Equity Stage

Identifying where your organization stands in its journey toward racial equity is important for setting realistic expectations and making progress. Based on my experience, each stage of growth comes with its own set of opportunities and challenges.

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Understanding your organization’s stage is important for determining what actions to take and how to move it forward to the next phase. But how do you know your organization’s racial equity stage? Sometimes, it’s hard to clearly define racial equity stages because each organization’s journey is so different. Those differences are influenced by sector, the type of work an organization does, mission, staffing, and resources — to name a few. 

Two frameworks that I find helpful

I love a good framework because they often help explain what I may be seeing unfold but cannot quite explain.

Here is the first framework: Awake to Woke to Work by Equity in the Center. Often, I use Awake to help organizational leaders understand two fundamental truths:

1. Every person has a role in creating an equitable workplace.

2. Building an equity culture takes work.

I use the “Getting Started” steps on page 3 of Awake with organizations that are just beginning their journey. When organizations are in that new space, it is important to help them exercise agency with concrete steps for getting started. 

Here is the second framework:  Six Phases of Racial Equity Practice, by Core Food Systems, dR Works. I use the Six Phases in the day-to-day of my work. In my experience, organizations move through these stages often during their change journey. Once you know what you are looking for, the stage is easy to spot. The stages are:

1. Familiar Dysfunction

2. Explicit Commitment to Race Equity

3. Culture Shift/Not Knowing

4. Relational Trust

5. Equity Goals Clarified

6. ​Equity Practice

An action you can take right now

Take a look at the Six Phases and see if you can find where your organization is in its equity journey. Having a clear understanding of where you are and where you can expect to go can help you anticipate the next place in the journey and the necessary strategies. 

The most non-linear journey
I believe that movement between stages can occur by time or by action. In my practice, I see four phases --

Phase 1: The Beginning [first 6 months]

Phase 2: Digging In [6 months+]

Phase 3: When Do We Get There? [an intermediate digging in step]

Phase 4: Advanced [Not about time, more about actions].

Identifying an organization’s particular stage of growth can be tricky. For example, you can be two years into the work and still be at "the beginning" in terms of actions.

Here is a graphic that illustrates the journey that I am describing.

An organization’s racial equity journey is not a straight line. It is jagged and defined by its bumps and bends, straightaways and sharp turns, fits, and starts.

Here is a bit more detail:

Phase 1: The Beginning [first 6 months] — Maybe you've started with a project funded by a grant. Perhaps your organization has created spaces for shared learning, mostly lunch and learns, or with company employee resource groups (ERGS). Likely, your organization has a few staff of color who have a sharp racial analysis. Organizations of every type lean heavily on those who have an analysis to push projects forward. Conversations between staff may sometimes become heated because there is a clear realization that people have different analyses of how the world works. Many organizations, at this point, decide to bring in a consultant.

Phase 2: Digging In [6 months+] — Your organization has just hired a consultant. It’s an exciting time (for some). Others inside your organization are skeptical, particularly staff who have been with the organization longer. You are working on a shared language. You have hired a few more staff of color. Change in external products focuses mostly on words and how those products are messaged.

Phase 3: When Do We Get There? [Intermediate digging in step] — Your organization has developed an analytic framework with a racial perspective. You have developed an internal language. External communications have shifted. Your expressed commitment to equity is clear. You have reached a bend in the road where it’s time to take a deeper look at internal practices. Some organizations never progress beyond this point because the internal systems work is too hard. They don’t know how to shift or what to do. You are stuck.

Phase 4: Advanced [Not about time, more about actions] — This step includes everything in the prior digging-in step. Organizations have reviewed policies and practices and adjusted and acted by using them equitably. Organizational leaders do their own work to build their knowledge base, emphasizing leading equitably. You are no longer dependent on hiring to create equity. Internal racial equity commitments show up in the way the organization interfaces with the community and with partners. You consistently examine your practices for self-accountability to identify blind spots. Adjustments are made quickly. In my practice, I see very few organizations in the advanced space. Even when organizations think they are advanced, that is often not reflected in the practice or in the staff experience. 

Executive Directors, what racial equity stage would you put your organization in? Although it can be hard to pinpoint, using this approach can be helpful in your planning.

Other resources:

Awake to Woke to Woke, Equity in the Center
Six Phases of Racial Equity Practice, Core Food Systems based on the work of dR Works