What to Ground In When the Ground Shifts: Holding Integrity and Strategy in Uncertain Times
(original posted January 2025)I recently wrote a version of this letter to a client who came to me with a list of questions and concerns about how to move in and through this moment. Since then several clients and colleagues have voiced the same fears and concerns, and I wanted to share my perspective. While it is certainly not the only way to move forward, it is, I believe, a strategic option for many.
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Dear friends,
At this moment, many of the values-aligned organizations I work with are grappling with the tension between their commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the realities of a rapidly shifting legal and political landscape. It’s a complicated, high-stakes time—one that calls for strategy, clarity, and care.
Each organization must decide for itself how to respond. Some responses will be bold and public, others quiet and inward-facing. Some may feel like pauses; others, like pivots—and some like recommitments, digging deeper into core values even as the landscape changes. Whatever approach you choose—individually or organizationally—I trust you’re doing so with intention and integrity. And I believe that all of those choices, taken together, will help pave the way forward.
One of my favorite reminders from my father, when I’ve had hard choices to make, is a simple: “Lo que hagas, va a estar bien”—“What you choose is going to be the right thing.” He never tells me what to do, and often, I suspect, he doesn’t know either. But what he’s really saying is: I trust you to act with care and integrity—and to handle whatever follows. Even if it’s hard. Even if it doesn’t go as planned. That trust has carried me through more moments than I can count.
For many of my clients, this moment feels especially heavy. Some are choosing to take a step back from DEI-focused work in its current form—whether out of caution, strategy, or necessity—and have asked me, “What should we do?”
Like my dad, I can’t tell anyone exactly what to do. But for those navigating this path, here’s what I’m recommending you keep at the forefront right now:
1. Get Clear on Your Position in the Landscape
Every organization needs to assess where it is best positioned to have impact given the current reality. For some, that may mean continuing to push boundaries. For others, it may mean adapting how they show up so they can weather the storm and stay in the game. There’s no one right path—there’s only your right path, aligned with your values and long-term goals.
2. Distinguish Between Real Risk and Perceived Threat
This moment invites discernment. What is the actual legal requirement or risk, and what is fear-driven interpretation? We don’t want to fight shadows, but we also don’t want to ignore the very real monster in the room. The goal is to stay safe without unnecessarily retreating from our deeper commitments.
3. Strategically Concede—Strategically Resist
We may have to concede certain language or public-facing framing for now. That’s not the same as conceding your mission. Let’s differentiate between what must be paused or reworded, and what remains core to how your organization leads and operates. In this moment:
Concede what’s legitimately been lost—but no more.
Resist in ways that don’t cost you more than you can afford to lose.
4. Use This Time to Build Internal Strength
If external visibility around DEI needs to pause, this is the moment to go inward and invest in your foundation. Over the last decade, many organizations have made bold public commitments but haven’t yet done the internal work to fully live those values day to day. This is the time to focus on what’s within your control—your people, your systems, and your culture.
Here’s where to start:
Clarify Your Values and Culture Goals:
What does it actually look like to live your values in practice—not just in a statement, but in decisions, relationships, and daily operations? This is about aligning what you say you stand for with how your organization behaves at every level: personally, interpersonally, institutionally, and culturally.
Strengthen Leadership from the Inside Out:
This moment calls for calm, clear, values-driven leadership—across your organization, not just at the top. Support your team in growing the skills to navigate uncertainty: emotional intelligence, honest communication, shared ownership, and the ability to give and receive feedback well.
Build Habits and Systems that Reinforce Your Values:
If values aren’t baked into how people are hired, supported, recognized, and held accountable, they won’t stick. Use this time to assess the systems, habits, and cultural signals that shape your organization from the inside. Strengthen the ones that align with your vision, and shift the ones that don’t.
5. Lay Breadcrumbs for the Future
Whatever choices you make now, communicate them clearly—both internally and externally—as strategic, temporary responses. Your team needs to hear that you're not abandoning your values, but adapting to protect your people and your mission.
For those who need to pause outward-facing DEI efforts, that’s okay. But we are not going backward. Instead, this is an opportunity to build the scaffolding that makes long-term culture change sustainable.
Here’s the quiet blessing in this moment: we now have space to deepen the people-centered work that often gets overshadowed when the focus is solely on systems. We can move from performative gestures to powerful internal practice. That means shifting from the institutional (where we may have less agency right now) to the personal and interpersonal (where our power is real and immediate). This is the work of helping people navigate emotion, lead through challenge, and build the kind of trust and skill that makes long-term equity work possible.
And we trust that many individuals and organizations will still be advancing change on the outside—through mutual aid, protest, legislative advocacy, or wherever our energy is called and capacity can hold. We will need all of it, and in force. But your organization's response can be to double down by tending to people and relationships—so that when the storm clears, we’re stronger, more connected, and more equipped to build the systems this moment demands.
These are the breadcrumbs we leave. And far from being crumbs, they can be the nourishment that sustains us now—and sets us up for what’s next.
See you on the other side!
Ariana
Ariana Gil Nafarrate is a leadership coach and culture strategist helping teams work better—together. Drawing on years of experience in mission-driven leadership, she supports organizations of all sizes in aligning values with action and building leaderfull* teams that thrive.
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*https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariana-gil/*
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