Nearing the close of 2022, Jonathan, the CEO of his company, sat in the annual budget review and projection meeting. One slide in particular caught his attention: “Over $500,000 donated to the End Food Instability initiative.” Immediately, his mind began to race with possibilities. The company had faced criticism from employees that year for not doing enough to support the local community; why not counter that narrative by sharing this number internally—and externally, for that matter? Jonathan took a photo of the slide and texted it to the head of communications.

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Recently, after giving a talk for our book Did That Just Happen?!, we received a LinkedIn message from an attendee who was running up against a familiar roadblock. “Despite tons of advertising and outreach across our networks, our attempts to hire more people of color, queer employees, and neurodiverse people have failed,” she wrote. “We hoped a diverse team would build exponentially, but when we do manage to attract diverse talent, we can’t seem to keep them for very long. Do you have any suggestions for how to hire more diverse employees when our current pool is limited?”

We do. And it starts with a story about fish.

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Last month, while giving a diversity-focused book talk at a Fortune 500 company’s headquarters in Washington, DC, we received a question that was all too familiar to us.

We had reached the Q&A section of the talk when an employee named Marissa, who identified herself as the chair of the company’s diversity committee, stood and said: “All of these diversity-related recruitment and collaboration suggestions sound great, and we are committed to integrating them into our practices. However, you’ll notice that despite being a massive company, there are only 15 of us at this book talk. That’s how it always is.”…

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Pause for a moment to consider what comes to mind when you hear someone say “the holiday season”: Perhaps a Menorah? The communal feast of Karamu? A Christmas tree? A time when others celebrate and you do not? November is now in the rearview, but it’s never too late to reflect back and consider—did you wish all colleagues a “Happy Thanksgiving?” Everyone celebrates Thanksgiving…right?

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Here’s a scenario we’ve come across in our work in the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) space: Kim, the CEO of a small business, has made DEI a priority since founding her company in 2015. She’s proud of her team’s diversity and is seen as a DEI leader among her peers, often providing guidance to other business owners in her circle. But despite regularly asking her board and employees for ideas on how to improve the company’s DEI efforts, she struggles with the feeling that she isn’t getting the direct feedback she needs to improve.

Kim, the well-intentioned, successful CEO, will probably never feel like she’s addressed all her DEI growth areas. That’s not a bad thing. In fact, it’s one of the core tenets of cultural humility, a mindset that frames DEI work as a lifelong personal and organizational learning process. Here are a few steps to effectively solicit the feedback that enables that learning…

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