Consulting

DEIA that holds up when the questions get hard.

By Michael Bach · DEIA strategist

Strategy, education, and embedded leadership for organizations that need the work to show real results. Twenty years in. More than 500 engagements. Four continents, and counting. We start with a real conversation to understand what you're actually trying to achieve.

Start a conversation See the three pathways

Before you inquire

Am I the right consultant for you?

This isn't meant to be a sorting exercise. But the truth is I'm not going to be the perfect consultant for every client. One of these columns describes the organization I can actually help. The other describes the conversation that is going to waste both our time. Better to know now than five emails in.

A fit for

Organizations that actually want to do the work.

You have a real person in the senior leadership team who owns this and wants it to go well, not just someone with the file dropped on their desk.
You are open to hearing what is actually happening in your organization, even the parts that are uncomfortable.
You want this to make a measurable difference, and you are willing to look at the numbers honestly afterwards.
You are thinking about this in years, not weeks. Real change takes time, and I would rather tell you that up front.
You are open to being told when something is not working, or when an idea you love is not the right one.
You want a partner, not a vendor. Someone who will tell you the truth and stick around to help you act on it.

Probably not a fit for

When the timing or the goal does not match.

You need something done by next Friday because of something that happened last week. I will help you think through the moment, but a real engagement is not a fire drill.
You are looking for a one-off training session and the assumption that the topic is then handled. It usually is not.
You have already decided what the answer is and you are looking for someone to agree with you. That is not the kind of work I do well.
You want a polished report that says everything is fine. If everything were fine, you would not be looking for help.
You are price-shopping on hours and outcome is secondary. There are good consultants who work that way. I am not one of them.
You want me to put my name on work I would not stand behind. I will say no, kindly, and we both move on.

How the work is structured

Three pathways into the practice.

Most of the work I do falls into one of these three. Some engagements blend two of them. The first conversation is where we figure out which shape fits what you are actually trying to do.

01 · Strategic advisory

Strategic Advisory

CEO · CHRO · Board

I work directly with whoever owns this inside your organization, usually a senior leader or a board sponsor, on the strategy itself. What you should be focused on. What can wait. What needs to stop. How you will know whether any of it is actually working. The goal is a strategy that holds together because it is built on what is real in your organization, not on what sounds good on a slide.

A typical engagement starts with a read of where the organization actually is, conversations with the people who would have to live with the strategy, a bunch of data collection, and a written document that names the trade-offs honestly. Most include a measurement framework, because if you cannot tell what changed, you cannot tell what worked. A lot of these engagements roll into ongoing advisory through the first year, because the strategy is the easy part and living with it is the hard part.

Typical duration: Three months to a year, often longer
Often useful when: A new senior leader is taking ownership of the work, or the organization is at an inflection point and needs to think it through properly
How it is billed: By the hour, or a monthly retainer if the work is ongoing
What you end up with: A written strategy, a measurement framework, and ongoing access to me as questions come up

Discuss an advisory engagement →

02 · Education & programs

Education & Programs

All-staff · Manager · Executive

Custom-built education on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, designed to help people understand their role in creating more inclusive workplaces. Frameworks come from a whole lot of research and twenty years of running these conversations in real rooms. The structure comes from your organization, your sector, and your people. It is not a stock deck with your logo on it.

Programs run anywhere from a single session for an executive team, to a multi-session series for managers, to a year-long cohort for ERG leaders, to a foundational primer rolled out across a whole organization. I also offer one-to-one coaching for senior leaders trying to understand their role in the change, and DEIA practitioners carrying this work personally, which honestly is most of them. Every program includes some way of measuring whether it actually changed anything, because otherwise we are all just making each other feel better. If you are looking for a single keynote rather than a program, those live on the Talks page.

Typical duration: A single session, all the way through to a full year
Often useful for: All-staff DEIA primers, manager development, ERG leader cohorts, board education, executive coaching
How it is billed: Fixed fee per program, scoped to the room and the work
What you end up with: A custom curriculum, the sessions themselves, measurement, and resources people can keep using after

Scope a program →

03 · Embedded fractional

Embedded Fractional

Interim CDO · CDO backstop

Sometimes you need a senior person inside the organization for a while, but not forever. A few days a month, in the leadership meetings, in the board prep, in the harder conversations. Useful when the chief diversity officer role is open and the work cannot wait. Useful when you have a CDO who could use a more senior person to think alongside. Useful, occasionally, when a board genuinely needs to hear something from someone whose paycheque does not depend on telling them what they want to hear. Useful if you don't have a senior leader driving the DEIA agenda at all.

It sits somewhere between an advisor and a member of the team. I am part of the work for as long as the engagement runs. Honest in private, aligned in public, accountable to whoever brought me in. The whole point is for the organization to outgrow needing me, and the best engagements end exactly that way.

Typical duration: Six to eighteen months, sometimes longer
Often useful when: You are between CDOs, scaling fast, in a regulated industry, or simply need a steadier hand for a season
How it is billed: Monthly retainer, with a defined number of days per month
What you end up with: Senior capacity for the duration, a real transition plan, and an organization that can carry the work on its own afterward

Explore a fractional arrangement →

How it usually starts

A real conversation, first.

I am genuinely particular about how engagements start, because the start sets up everything that comes after. The short version: we talk, we figure out if this is right, and if it is, you get a written scope within a couple of days. Whichever you choose, you have options at every step.

Step 01
You get in touch

Tell me what is actually going on, in your own words. I usually get back within a couple of business days to set up a real conversation, about forty-five minutes, no charge, no obligation.
Step 02
We talk it through

We spend the time understanding what you are trying to do and whether I am the right person to help. If I am not, I will tell you honestly and, where I can, point you toward someone who is. Saying that out loud is part of the work.
Step 03
A written scope

If we both think it is a fit, you get a written scope within a few days. What the work is, what you will end up with, how long it takes, who you will need on your side, and what it costs. Written so the people on your team who have to say yes to it actually can.
Step 04
We get to work

Once the scope is agreed, we get going. Regular check-ins, written updates, honest conversations when something needs to change. The same straightforward way of working from the first day through the last.

A bit of background

Twenty years in, and still learning.

I have been doing this work for two decades, on four continents, across pretty much every kind of organization you can name. Client names mostly stay private, which is the way most of them prefer it. The work itself speaks more than the logos would anyway.

20+

years working on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility with organizations of every size.

500+

engagements across strategy, education, and time spent embedded inside organizations.

continents of client work, with audiences and learners in dozens of countries beyond that.

best-selling and award-winning books, plus a Cornell post-graduate certificate and the CCDP/AP designation.

Frequently asked

Who do you usually work with?

Senior leadership teams, boards, chief people officers, chief diversity officers, and the senior practitioners reporting into them. The work tends to land best when whoever brought me in has real authority and a real intention to do something with what we figure out together.

What kinds of engagements do you take on?

A pretty wide range, honestly. Strategy work, program audits, board education, executive coaching, ERG design, measurement work, and the occasional situation that does not fit a neat label: an organization absorbing another one, something that just happened that needs careful handling, a regulator that wants answers. Engagements run from a single day to a multi-year arrangement.

Is this just training?

Sometimes, but rarely on its own. Most of what I do is figuring out where an organization actually is, where it wants to get to, and what it would honestly take to get there. Training is one of the tools that shows up inside that, but it is almost never the whole answer.

What does an engagement cost?

It depends, because engagements really do vary. Most work is priced by the hours involved, scoped to what we are actually doing together. The first conversation gets us to a rough shape, and a written proposal follows. I am happy to talk plainly about budget early so we are not wasting anyone's time.

Can you work under an NDA?

Yes, and a lot of the work does happen that way, especially at the board and executive level. Mutual non-disclosure is routine and I expect it. If the situation is sensitive, that is often part of why someone brought me in.

Tell me what is actually going on.

About forty-five minutes, in your own words, no obligation on either side. By the end of it we will both have a clearer sense of whether this is the right way to spend your next few months.

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