Meditations on Deviating
What’s behind the name “Project Deviate”? In short, it speaks to our belief that when you cultivate an attention to deviation in organizations, you open up new possibilities for working, belonging, and changing. But what does it mean to deviate, and how does that relate to organizational diversity and inclusion work?
For instance, I could say that I deviated from my usual routine this morning; maybe I introduced a new practice into my schedule, made additional space where there wasn’t any before, or even took a different route to work in the morning. Each of these marks a departure from the traditional, from how things might normally go. In fact, deviate can be traced back to the Latin phrase “de via,” meaning to turn away from (“de-”) a particular path or way (“via”).
So deviate suggests that we’re straying from something, but what exactly might that something be? A well-trodden path, routine, common assumption, status quo, business as usual - we call this “the norm” for shorthand. It’s what is familiar to us, the habits that we’re most accustomed to in getting through our day. Start writing down each of the routines you repeat daily starting with when you wake up in the morning, or when you show up to work, and you’ll start to get an idea of just how ubiquitous and powerful norms are. The funny thing is, by and large we don’t even acknowledge that these norms exist, much less shape the way we operate and view the world.
As humans--and organizations--we rely on norms to guide us in our day-to-day decision making in our personal and professional lives. Norms make us feel comfortable. So comfortable in fact that we rarely notice them. That's where we come in. Because norms are often left unexamined, they are also the areas in which we unintentionally default to standards of practice that privilege those in power, and marginalize those not in power. Deviating from the norm involves making these patterns of behavior strange again so we can view them in a new light, and potentially disrupting them to envision new possibilities.
Are you starting to feel uncomfortable yet? While it may seem odd, that discomfort can be part of the point. Leaning into the discomfort means inquiring about what’s at stake for us in our habits and routines, and those of the organization. Some workplace norms may directly benefit us even as they limit ways of being for others. Deviating allows us to get curious about what counts as normal and who or what that normal excludes in any given setting.
Because while norms can be as mundane as how we approach our morning routine, norms like whiteness, heterosexuality, and cisnormativity can also reinforce who has access to power, influence, and voice in an organization, and who doesn’t. In the context of diversity and inclusion work, what counts as normal can serve as a barrier to making organizations more just and equitable. What’s more, what counts as normal in diversity and inclusion work itself can limit the possibility for such efforts to affect sustainable change in an organization.
To address the way procedures, behaviors, and policies protect norms that limit diversity and inclusion efforts, deviating as an organizational practice means noticing more, expanding our awareness, and maintaining a capacity for surprise. Deviating, then, becomes a way of seeing, an intentional practice tuned in to norms and who or what they exclude, and a generative process of imagining work differently.
We’ll use this blog as a space to stay curious about what it means to deviate when it comes to diversity and inclusion work in organizations. We hope you’ll keep coming back to share in the curiosity. Deviating is more fun as a team sport.
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
