As more people in the United States are vaccinated and cities open up again to resume “business as usual,” so are organizations as they focus on preparing for in-person interactions again. Unfortunately, the racial reckoning that many hoped would come has not. If anything, we continue to see the same racial and social injustices happening in our public domain, communities, and places of work. If you’re feeling the slow simmer or burnout of DEI efforts at your organization, here are some tips to help your team reset for the second half of the year.

Now more than ever, I see how crucial it is for us to intentionally build spaces that center people and their well-being. We need to move beyond reactionary words and promises and begin building trust and relationship with one another. The easiest way to do that is to allocate time and resources towards it now, and not when there is another tragedy or public outcry. There is a lot about the pandemic and social injustices that we cannot change immediately, but for now, we can create communities of collective care to support one another to at least get through them.

When tackling complex transformative changes, it can feel overwhelming and insurmountable. Over the years, our personal and professional experiences have unearthed patterns in what it looks like to engage in the long-term work of creating something new, whether in oneself, a group, or an organization. By taking manageable steps and visualizing how it can look holistically, we can better assess our progress, manage our expectations, and dream radically. We use this approach for all our engagements and hope that it helps you in thinking about your own transformative change.