Beyond DEI: The Practical Fairness Framework for Creating Inclusive Workplaces That Actually Work with Lily Zheng

Discover Lily Zheng's fairness framework for creating inclusive workplaces that solve real business problems. Move beyond performative DEI initiatives to meaningful change that resonates across political spectrums.
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In this episode, Lily Zheng, author of "Fixing Fairness: 4 Tenets to Transform Diversity Backlash into Progress for All," reveals why traditional DEI initiatives fail and how reframing the work around fairness creates sustainable inclusion. Learn the atomic unit of change, how to solve specific business problems instead of signaling commitment, and practical strategies for building trust through leadership behavior, even when your team doesn't reflect your workforce demographics.

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Why Fairness Is the New Foundation for Workplace Inclusion in 2026

In today's complex workplace landscape, many leaders find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. They want to create inclusive environments that work for everyone, yet they're navigating a politically charged environment where diversity initiatives have become controversial. The term "DEI" has become so politicized that many organizations have quietly dropped it from their communications. This creates a real dilemma, how can leaders continue making meaningful progress on inclusion without triggering backlash or appearing to take sides in cultural debates?

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The answer might surprise you. As Lily Zheng, author of Fixing Fairness: 4 Tenets to Transform Diversity Backlash into Progress for All, explains, the solution isn't to abandon this critical work but to reframe it around the universal concept of fairness. In our conversation, Lily shared how they developed this approach after realizing that the terminology had become a barrier to meaningful change. "When you say things like 'we need to create equity,' they don't know what you're talking about [...] 'We're trying to make things fair.' And then they say, 'why didn't you lead with that? Because I can get behind that.'"

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This shift from DEI to fairness is a fundamental transformation of how we approach workplace inclusion. By focusing on fairness as the central principle, organizations can create initiatives that solve real business problems rather than becoming disconnected vanity projects that get cut when budgets tighten. The key insight here is that meaningful inclusion work must be directly tied to business outcomes to survive and thrive.

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The Problem With Traditional DEI Initiatives (And How to Fix It)

Most organizations approach diversity, equity, and inclusion work through the lens of what they care about, fairness, equality, inclusion, and then design programs that manifest those values. They might host speaker series, create mentorship programs, or celebrate heritage months. While these initiatives often come from a good place, they've consistently failed to move the needle on meaningful outcomes. As Lily explained:

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"Upwards of 90% of leaders that I work with, what they do is they start from a place of what they care about, fairness, equality, inclusion, and then they design a program that manifests their values. So they say like, we're going to bring in speakers. We're going to create mentorship. We're going to engage employees around Heritage Month or something. And these programs are always coming from a good place. But there's a reason why 30 plus years of this approach to DEI hasn't necessarily moved the needle."

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The critical flaw in this approach is that these initiatives are disconnected from actual problem-solving. Too many leaders ask themselves "What matters and how can I show that?" instead of "What problems do I have and how can I fix that?" The shift from signaling commitment to solving problems is how you design a diversity initiative that actually works.

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If you identify that you're losing people in your promotions process, particularly women, people of color, or disabled employees, you can solve that problem with a targeted initiative to create a more fair process for everybody. This is more than DEI work, it's good leadership. And that's how you actually institutionalize programs that work.

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When you design initiatives that are disconnected from how the business operates, they become easy targets for budget cuts when challenges arise. As Lily noted, "If instead you've designed something that fundamentally bolsters your talent pipeline, that ensures fairness in decision-making, that enables employee retention and prevents turnover, the second end executive is just like, hey, maybe we should cut the program that's enabling employee retention. Everyone's going to laugh them out of the room."

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The Fairness Framework: Moving Beyond Performative Initiatives

Lily's framework centers on four key components: fairness, access, inclusion, and representation (FAIR). But what makes this approach different from previous diversity frameworks is its focus on practical implementation rather than theoretical concepts.

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The first component, fairness, is the central defining principle behind this work. As Lily explained, "Fairness as a concept is the central defining principle behind this work." When you frame initiatives around fairness, they resonate across the political spectrum because everyone understands what fairness means, even if they disagree on specifics.

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The second component, access, addresses how people gain opportunities within organizations. Rather than focusing solely on representation metrics, this component examines the systems that determine who gets access to leadership roles, high-impact projects, and career advancement opportunities.

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The third component, inclusion, goes beyond surface-level belonging to focus on how people experience the workplace. This includes both the formal structures and informal dynamics that shape whether people feel valued and heard.

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The fourth component, representation, takes a nuanced approach that moves beyond simple demographic metrics. As Lily explained: "We can change the processes to become more fair, but what do we do with our status quo? The solution in the book is we need to expand our understanding of representation to go beyond just demographic box checking to one of the core competencies that I think every leadership team needs to have, which is the ability to build trust among a wide range of different audiences."

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This approach recognizes that representation is about building trust through consistent behavior. As Lily noted, "Even if our leadership team is entirely made of white dudes, we can still expect that that leadership team [will] be able to build trust among women, among people of color, among people different than themselves, and that they have to show this in their behavior."

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Beyond the FAIR acronym, Lily emphasizes that the real engine of the framework is its four core tenets: outcomes over intentions, systems over self-help, coalitions over cliques, and win-win over zero-sum. As Lily noted, "The new acronym, I think, is the start, but it's the tenets. It's the tenets of outcomes, systems, coalitions, and win-win [...] that I think really take us from our status quo into something that we really have deeply needed for a while, and that makes the shift more than just a rebrand, but actually a fundamental transformation of how it is we go about this work."

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Practical Strategies for Implementing the Fairness Framework

Implementing the fairness framework requires moving beyond theoretical concepts to practical action. Here are three evidence-based strategies you can implement immediately:

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1. Identify the specific problems you're solving

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Rather than starting with a generic diversity initiative, begin by identifying the specific business problems you're trying to solve. Are you losing talent in the promotions process? Is there a lack of psychological safety in meetings? Are certain groups underrepresented in high-impact projects?

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2. Create targeted initiatives that solve specific problems

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Once you've identified the specific problems, design initiatives that directly address those issues. For example, if you're losing women in the promotions process, implement structured interview processes that reduce bias and ensure consistent evaluation criteria.

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3. Focus on behavior change as the atomic unit of change

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Lily's most powerful insight is that all meaningful change boils down to behavior change. As they explained, "Every single initiative and program and strategy, they boil down to behavior change. You either want to create a new behavior that isn't happening or change a behavior that is happening that shouldn't."

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To implement this insight:

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  • Identify one behavior that needs to happen that isn't happening (e.g., leaders consistently seeking feedback from diverse team members)
  • Identify one behavior that is happening that shouldn't (e.g., leaders interrupting women in meetings)
  • Design specific interventions to change these behaviors
  • Measure progress through observable outcomes

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The Future of Workplace Inclusion: Beyond DEI to Fairness

By moving beyond the politicized terminology of DEI to the universal concept of fairness, organizations can create initiatives that resonate across political spectrums while delivering real business value.

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This approach doesn't require leaders to abandon their values, it simply reframes how they express and implement them. As Lily noted, "We need to be communicating just as strongly as we're acting and to make it very clear that there are only really two visions for how this work goes forward. Either we treat people as costs to be cut or resources to be exploited, or we treat people as assets to be invested in and as valuable members of our community that we ought to build for."

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The fairness framework provides a practical roadmap for leaders who want to create workplaces where everyone can thrive. It moves us beyond performative initiatives to meaningful change that solves real business problems. And in doing so, it creates a foundation for sustainable inclusion that can withstand political headwinds.

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The work is about changing the behaviors that create inclusive workplaces. As Lily concluded, "You can each start doing that right now, you don't need a fancy framework. You don't need a slide deck. You just need the wherewithal to identify one load-bearing behavior that you want to change and then to start pulling on levers and experimenting to change it."

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Ready to Fix Fairness in the Workplace?

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Did you like this article on Fixing Fairness in the Workplace? Does it help you become a better leader? Then check out these articles to help hone those skills even further:

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Craig Dowden

CEO
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