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Our Approach

When engaging in DEI, even when doing so with passion and curiosity, the work can feel confusing, directionless, haphazard, and dreadfully daunting. After all, DEI work fundamentally centers around each of our unique human conditions, which purposefully invites what can feel like messiness.

 

In our studies and our practice, we have explored, applied, and refined a collection of frameworks that sequence and structuralize the otherwise amorphous work of DEI. For our peers, our leaders, and our mentees alike, these frameworks have transformed DEI-oriented intentions and values into tangible realities. We apply these frameworks in all contexts, from one-on-one coaching, to small-team workshops, to community-wide trainings.

Transform yourself to transform the world.
—Grace Lee Boggs

Backward Design

Aaron Barlin's custom-made Emergent Change backward design graphic

The approach is considered "backward" because the "end" is determined before envisioning the "start": by envisioning where we want to be and then identifying where we currently are, we take efficient, purposeful, and quantifiable steps forward.

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While "backward design" was originally developed as an approach to curriculum building (which is certainly helpful in the teaching and learning context that is DEI consulting and conflict mediation), backward design renders any project plan fundamentally goal-oriented, timely, objective, and reflective. Everything we do is centered around and in methodical service of our clients' unique needs.

Emergent Change's sample standards framework by Aaron Barlin

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Click the image for a sample of a "standards framework." Each of our clients receives their own standards framework, which we craft and tailor according to your team's inherently complex and unique needs and goals.

 

From there, your standards framework is the basis from which we backward design your holistic strategic plan, into which more nuanced program roadmaps are integrated. This ensures that your entire team is synchronously planning and working towards shared and specific objectives.

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Methodology

Our approach does not include...

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  • Unreflective meetings

  • Long lectures

  • Hundreds of presentation slides

  • Impersonal and rote video modules

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  • Superficial and ingenuine discussion

  • Basic, unstimulating questions

  • Triggering skits without reflection or practice

  • Activities that are disconnected from goals

Our approach includes...

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  • Opening and closing circle dialogues that establish shared goals and takeaways

  • Jigsaw groups and presentations (when we otherwise would offer direct instruction)

  • Purposeful, real-world videos and debriefs that practice application of skills

  • Experiential learning activities: active engagement for active recall

  • Journaling sessions for independent reflection, slowing and deepening thinking

  • Role-plays for low-risk experiment with different approaches to real-life scenarios 

DEI should not be boring, cheesy, or rote.
Changing the patterns of history is meaningful magic.

Core Frameworks

Explore our bedrock, tried-and-true toolkit of guiding principles and methodologies,
rooted in education and psychology, that drives our nuanced approach to DEI strategy and coaching.

DEI to belonging Venn diagram by Emergent Change's Aaron Barlin and Maris Harmon

DEI for Belonging (DEI-B)

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are all independently important, but what are they all for? What ultimately synthesizes them? Ideally, when communities comprise members with different identities, treat members fairly and equitably according to those identities, and meaningfully include the diversity of their members in relationship-building and decision-making, all members will enjoy a genuine sense of belonginga shared sense of loving and forward-moving power.

Aaron Barlin's original social justice domains graphic for Emergent Change

Social Justice Domains

If DEI-B is the means by which individuals become loving and powerful communities, social justice is the means by which those communities act on themselves and the world in the name of change. Often, we prematurely expect ourselves and others to act and change the world. But how are we to act and change without a sense of justice? How can we have a fuller sense of justice without a sense of people's different experiences? How can we have a fuller sense of people's different experiences without a strong sense of our own? The social justice domains help scaffold us into changemakers.

Scaffolding ("Gradual Release Method")

In educational contexts, scaffolding refers to the "gradual release of responsibility" model, where a teacher gradually transitions the responsibility for a task to the learner. Scaffolding in DEI work involves an initial phase of guided instruction, moving through joint responsibility between the consultant and client, and culminating in the client taking full ownership of DEI initiatives. The goal is to build self-sufficiency at a strategic pace, enabling clients to sustain and evolve their DEI efforts long after the consultancy period ends. 

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Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Originally conceptualized by psychologist Lev Vygotsky, the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) describes the sweet spot between what individuals can do unaided and what they can accomplish with help. In the context of DEI consulting, the ZPD serves as a dynamic space for co-creating solutions that are neither too easy nor too challenging for an organization. The focus is on identifying the "next steps" that a team or community can realistically achieve with the right level of support and expertise. When clients are guided to operate within their ZPD, they are more likely to internalize DEI best practices, apply them meaningfully, and progressively extend their capabilities.

Aaron Barlin's custom pyramid of action graphic for Emergent Change

Pyramid of Action

When we and our team are ready to build a movement of changemaking and action outward, the Pyramid of Action guides the work of inspiring others to join us. Rallying cries like "join the team!", "donate!", or even "vote!" can do little to move people to action without proper preparation. After all, how can people act if they don’t care? How can people care if they don’t understand? When we struggle to mobilize people around a cause, the Pyramid of Action can help identify what "education" or "agitation" may still be needed.

Aaron Barlin and Maris Harmon's use of CASEL's SEL wheel for Emergent Change

Social and Emotional Learning Competencies

After decades of psychological and educational research, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) identified 5 core SEL competencies (last updated in 2020). These skills apply to children and adults alike, for SEL is a lifelong journey. It is critical to account for the stages of SEL development when assessing and engaging in the work of DEI and social justice—work that is intrinsically social and emotional.

Emergent Change's culture change bell curve by Aaron Barlin and Maris Harmon

Bell Curve of Culture Change

Because changing culture moves at an inherent, glacially slow pace, it can be difficult to assess progress and determine next steps. The Bell Curve of Culture Change breaks this glacial work into stages, while also guiding lead changemakers to identify early on who in their community are "ambassadors" of change. Intentionally empowering and collaborating with these "innovators" and "early adopters" can build the mile-deep relationships necessary for the tectonic shift that is culture change.

Emergent Change's MTSS diagram by Aaron Barlin and Maris Harmon

Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)

Although MTSS is a framework born and predominantly used in school settings, MTSS can be applied to any team and community trying to achieve shared objectives, where members inevitably display wide ranges of readiness levels and subsequent need for differentiated support. In the context of developing shared DEI and social justice skills and lenses, applying MTSS can help determine:

  • what ongoing support and universal experiences everyone should have,

  • what intensive support should look like for those who need an extra helping hand reaching goals, and

  • what higher-readiness opportunities should look like for those already well practiced and versed in DEI and social justice.

How can you and your team use these approaches?
Schedule a chat to explore how they apply to you. 
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