343: Why One-Off DEI Training Backfires with Lily Zheng

In this Workday Playdate, Erin sits down with Lily Zheng to unpack why traditional DEI efforts keep falling flat. Lily and Erin discuss what leaders can do instead to create workplaces that are actually fair, inclusive, and built to last.

If you’ve ever wondered why diversity trainings, performative culture initiatives, and “quick fix” belonging strategies rarely create real change, this episode is your invitation to rethink workplace equity through a practical, people-first lens.

Inside This Episode:

• Why DEI Efforts Keep Missing the Mark: Despite decades of workplace initiatives, discrimination rates remain shockingly high, and many solutions are still surface-level.
• The FAIR Framework Changes the Conversation: Lily shares a practical, problem-solving approach to building inclusion that focuses on fixing real workplace barriers.
• Belonging Is Measurable: Learn how employee experience connects directly to retention, engagement, performance, and long-term business success.
• Middle Managers Have More Power Than They Think: Practical ways to influence leadership, advocate for change, and create safer workplaces from any level.
• Human-Centered Leadership Creates Lasting Change: Why authentic leadership, psychological safety, and consistent action outperform performative workplace culture efforts every time.

What to Do Now:

1. Audit Your Workplace Culture: Ask whether your organization is solving real employee problems or simply signaling values externally.
2. Translate Human Issues Into Business Metrics: Use turnover, burnout, retention, and engagement data to advocate for meaningful workplace change.
3. Create One Honest Conversation This Week: Invite feedback without defensiveness and focus on listening before fixing.

Your Freebie

What’s your leadership style and next business move? Find out by taking a fun little quiz here.

And thank you to our sponsors Intuit Quickbooks Payroll.

To learn more visit:   https://quickbooks.intuit.com/workforce/

About the Guest:

Lily Zheng is a DEI strategist, consultant, speaker, and the author of Fixing Fairness: A Framework for Equity and Organizational Change. Lily works with organizations to move beyond performative diversity efforts and build measurable, sustainable systems for fairness, inclusion, and accountability. Their work focuses on practical, problem-solving approaches that help leaders create healthier workplace cultures rooted in trust, transparency, and real human impact.

Connect with Lily Zheng

• Lily’s LinkedIn
• Lily’s website
• Lily’s book Fixing Fairness: 4 Tenets to Transform Diversity Backlash into Progress for All

Connect with Erin Diehl x improve it!

• Leadership Playground online membership community
• Erin’s website
• Erin’s Instagram
• Erin’s TikTok
• Erin’s LinkedIn
• improve it!’s website
• improve it!’s Instagram

For more information on improve it! visit www.learntoimproveit.com.