Why Lived Experience Alone Won’t Fix Inclusion

Lived experience dominates DEI conversations. It’s treated as the most important factor in discussions about race, gender, and inclusion.

But there’s a problem.

Key Topics Covered in This Episode:

1. Your lived experience comes at a cost.
2. Lived experience is important—but it needs balance.
3. Lived experience needs structure to be useful.

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Key Takeaways from This Episode:

1. Anecdotes can mislead, but patterns create evidence.
   
   • "Same information. Different lived experiences. Different conclusions—because lived experience is subjective."
2. A successful DEI strategy is built on structure, not emotion.
   
   • "An inclusion program that failed—because it wasn’t built on evidence."
3. Stories become useful when placed within a rigorous framework.
   
   • "We don’t dismiss lived experience—but we combine it with evidence from three other sources."

Additional Resources

Dr. Jonathan’s PhD Thesis: "Crafting an identity: an examination of the lived experiences of minority racial and ethnic individuals in the workplace"