On June 17th 2020, we posted about our intentions around diversity and inclusion. In the spirit of accountability and transparency, we are providing updates on our progress. Updates to the original post are in bold (updates as of 7/30/2020 & 9/4/20 & 3/24/21 & 12/15/21).

Yazdani Consulting and Facilitation is committed to supporting diverse and inclusive workplaces, teams and professional networks.

In response to the protests over George Floyd’s murder, and in support of those fighting against systematic racism, I promised to examine my own assumptions, and to look for and speak up about prejudice and bias in my projects, teams, networks and communities.

To keep that promise and take action to support diversity and inclusion, I’m committed to:

• Seeking out diversity and inclusion resources and education and the support of diversity and inclusion experts.

  • Jami has done a variety of trainings and reading, but there is more to do. So far, Mary-Frances Winters’ We Can’t Talk about That at Work!: How to Talk about Race, Religion, Politics, and Other Polarizing Topics has been most transformative.

• Critically examining existing vendor relationships and prioritizing historically underutilized businesses when selecting new vendors.

  • Jami examined our existing vendor relationships only to find a list of major corporations (mostly in technology). We have started to use more technology from smaller companies, but this remains an issue for us.

• Reconsidering partner and referral relationships, including maintaining and sharing a list of contacts doing diversity and inclusion work.

  • Jami is continuing to build our list of contacts and partners, and is being more critical of our referrals.

• Critically examining my professional networks, including advocating for diversity and inclusion in the membership, leadership, decision making and procedures of my professional organizations, and increasing my involvement with professional organizations dedicated to diversity and inclusion issues.

  • Jami has examined her professional networks and was part of some initiatives to support inclusion in a primary network. She is still working towards increased involvement.

• Researching diversity and inclusion issues in relation to marketing and branding, and critically examining and improving my content.

  • Initial research in marketing and branding has been done, and we continue to work to improve our new content.

• Reconsidering my approaches to providing core services, including researching diversity and inclusion issues in relation to these services.

  • Jami critically examined our training materials and has focused her research and education on inclusive approaches to considering our project management and planning services and training. She has been including discussions of the positive and important impacts of inclusion in our trainings.

• Reconsidering internal systems, processes and procedures, including researching diversity and inclusion as it applies to client relationship management.

  • Jami considered our internal systems, processes, and procedures, and considered diversity and inclusion in developing new client relationship management approaches.