Equity

What would it take to create a workplace—or even a society—where everyone genuinely thrives? This question sits at the heart of Minal Bopaiah’s Equity: How to Design Organizations Where Everyone Thrives. Bopaiah argues that equity isn’t just about fairness or empathy—it’s about intentionally designing systems that work for everyone, not just for those historically at the center of power. Her central contention is that inequity isn’t accidental; it was designed. And if it was designed, it can be redesigned.

Most people assume inclusion means “being nice” or about helping people feel welcome. But Bopaiah flips this idea on its head: inclusion without equity is “toothless.” Equity is what makes inclusion real. When systems themselves are designed to promote fairness—through policy, behavior, and culture—then inclusion becomes a lived experience. In other words, she’s not asking us to change hearts alone; she’s asking us to change structures.

Why Systems Matter

Bopaiah opens the book with her parents’ immigration story, revealing how systemic design shaped both their hardships and opportunities. Her parents, doctors from India, benefitted from socialized education in India—an advantage that the U.S. system didn’t provide its own citizens because education is funded by local property taxes. This design extracts talent from other nations while limiting opportunity at home. Here, Bopaiah shows readers how systems can create or restrict success, depending on who they serve. It’s not just about effort or intelligence—it’s about who the system is designed to favor.

She uses this story to highlight how inequity in education or opportunity stems from systemic design choices, not moral failings. Just as design has been used for oppression—whether through colonial hierarchies, racial categorization, or exclusionary workplace norms—it can be redesigned to support justice, fairness, and opportunity.

Equity vs. Equality

A key distinction in the book is between equality and equity. Equality gives everyone the same thing; equity gives each person what they need to thrive. The famous Robert Wood Johnson Foundation illustration she cites—where people of different heights watch a baseball game from behind a fence—shows that giving everyone the same box to stand on (equality) still leaves shorter people unable to see. Equity, however, adjusts the system so all can watch comfortably. It's a powerful metaphor for workplaces and policies that seek uniformity instead of fairness.

“In an equitable society, all people have full and unbiased access to livelihood, education, and participation in community,” Bopaiah writes. Fairness, not sameness, should drive our design choices.

Three Preconditions for Equity

Equity requires three preconditions in any organizational system: (1) valuing differences, rather than minimizing or fearing them; (2) seeing the systems and how they shape opportunity; and (3) ensuring people with power use that power to create opportunity for others. These are not just moral principles—they’re design conditions. Without them, attempts at inclusion fail.

The rest of the book walks readers through how to achieve these preconditions. Chapter 1 explores how bias is embedded into every system, from laws to organizational policies. Chapter 2 introduces human-centered design (HCD) as a method to redesign those systems equitably. Chapter 3 focuses on leadership—how people with power can learn to value difference and rewrite their “story of success” to acknowledge the system that helped them. Chapter 4, 5, and 6 expand the scope: from implementing observable behaviors and communications strategies that “nudge” inclusivity, to designing equitable media and marketing practices that reshape culture itself.

From Empathy to Design

A defining idea is that well-intentioned empathy or awareness isn’t scalable. It’s not enough to ask every employee to become an “equity expert.” The real challenge is designing systems that make equitable behavior easy and automatic. For instance, in a fire department example, instead of lengthy diversity trainings, a simple rule—asking people for their pronouns—can institutionalize inclusive norms far more effectively. Equity, she shows, is about changing defaults, not just changing hearts.

This approach echoes thinkers like Antionette Carroll (TED’s “Designing for a More Equitable World”), who argue that oppression is a design problem that can be solved through intentional redesign. Bopaiah builds on that by merging human-centered design with behavioral science, showing leaders how to anchor empathy, power awareness, and communication in structural change. (In spirit, it aligns with concepts in Switch by Chip and Dan Heath, which emphasizes shaping behavior by changing context rather than motivation alone.)

Equity as a Virtue

Near the end of her introduction, Bopaiah elevates equity from strategy to moral practice. “Amid unfairness and heartbreak,” she writes, “the greatest expression of our humanity is the creation of fairness.” Designing equitable organizations isn’t just practical—it’s spiritual. Equity becomes an antidote to despair, grief, and revenge. It allows us to transform suffering into shared compassion and creativity.

Ultimately, Bopaiah invites every leader, designer, and citizen to become a co-designer of fairness—to see systems as artifacts we can reshape and to embrace interdependence as our strength. Her message is both pragmatic and profound: the world we live in was designed—so let’s design better.

Bopaiah begins by showing that bias is not just personal—it’s systemic. Our institutions, policies, and everyday practices carry what Harvard psychologist Mahzarin Banaji calls “the thumbprint of culture on our brain.” Bias, she explains, is simply pattern recognition gone wrong. It helps us apply knowledge quickly (like stopping at a red light) but can harm when based on stereotypes or bad data. The danger arises when power backs bias: when systems amplify prejudice into oppression.

Designing Systems for Some

Most American systems were designed for a “default human”—White, male, straight, able-bodied, and middle-class. Everyone else becomes the “other.” She offers examples of how design itself evolved to maintain privilege: through laws enforcing Indigenous “blood quantum” to erase identity, the “one-drop rule” that expanded enslavement, and the Thirteenth Amendment’s loophole that permitted slavery via criminality. These historical “design iterations” reveal how the system continuously reengineered inequality to benefit one group.

“Racism is a well-designed phenomenon,” Bopaiah notes, echoing designer Lauren Williams, “so invisible and adaptive that its operations are presumed fact.”

How “Bootstraps” Myth Blocks Equity

The myth of rugged individualism—that we succeed entirely through personal effort—reinforces these inequities. Bopaiah critiques products like the Moneythink app, which taught low-income teens to budget for college without addressing wealth gaps or racist lending practices. This “design for individuals” literally blames victims, perpetuating the bootstraps delusion instead of fixing the system. (Comparable insights appear in Matthew Desmond’s essays from The 1619 Project on capitalism’s roots in slavery.)

Invisible Bias in Modern Life

Even everyday policies can encode bias. Bopaiah describes trying to add her brother to her health insurance—impossible unless he was deemed a “dependent.” Yet a spouse, even a highly paid one, could be added freely. This reveals how cultural assumptions about family prioritize romantic partnership over kinship, creating inequities invisible to those who fit the “norm.”

Through these examples, she shows why we must “see systems.” Equity begins with awareness that the playing field itself is tilted—and that redesigning those rules changes outcomes more effectively than moral pleas or training alone.

Designing Organizations That Work for All

The chapter concludes with a pragmatic path forward: organizations can achieve scalable equity through a sequential “theory of change.” It starts with engaged leadership, defines equitable outcomes, and then redesigns structural processes to support inclusive behaviors—like asking employees their cultural holiday preferences instead of assuming Christmas breaks suit all. These micro-interventions create frictionless fairness. Her message rings clear: stop demanding everyone become DEI scholars; instead, design systems that make doing the right thing the easy thing.

Equity, then, is not just policy—it’s architecture. Every law, program, and workplace rule has design embedded in it. By examining who those designs were built for, you begin the process of building a system that works for everyone.

To change inequitable systems, Bopaiah applies Human-Centered Design (HCD), a process that starts with understanding human needs before creating solutions. But she reinvents HCD for the social justice era: empathy must be paired with systemic awareness. The story of Rajan Patel’s Embrace infant warmer—a low-cost alternative to hospital incubators in India—illustrates equitable design at work. Instead of importing Western models, Patel’s team listened to mothers, nurses, and families. Their design met needs specific to Indian contexts—low power availability, home births, and emotional comfort—ultimately saving over 300,000 infants.

Empathize Without Assumption

Empathy, Bopaiah warns, is often misunderstood. Designers (especially privileged ones) tend to assume they can “imagine” someone else’s experience. She draws on behavioral scientist Nicholas Epley’s distinction between perspective-taking and perspective-gathering. True empathy comes from asking and listening, not projecting our imagination onto others. For instance, when the Pentagon surveyed 150,000 soldiers before repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” they discovered most feared no disruption—data that changed national policy. Asking people directly produces truth, not stereotypes.

Define and Diagnose

Inspired by Chip and Dan Heath’s Switch, Bopaiah adds a new step to traditional design thinking: diagnosing obstacles. Behavior change requires motivation, direction, and reduced cognitive load. For example, when NPR sought to diversify voices on air, the issue wasn’t motivation—everyone agreed. It was bandwidth and unclear guidance. By giving simple tracking tools and processes, NPR enabled sustainable improvement. Equity thrives when the “path” is shaped to be easy.

Ideate, Prototype, Test—With Power Awareness

Bopaiah runs through HCD’s phases—brainstorming (“ideate”), prototyping, and testing—but with vital additions. Ideas must be evaluated transparently and inclusively, using decision matrices instead of gut instincts. Testing should manage power dynamics so feedback can flow safely from marginalized voices. She shares a sobering example from Dent Education, where Black teens testing a design were treated with mistrust by a passerby—a reminder that even creative spaces are influenced by racialized power.

Inclusive Power

Dacher Keltner’s definition of power—“the ability to make a difference in the world”—guides this section. Power in design can liberate or oppress. Cyndi Suarez’s The Power Manual distinguishes “supremacist power,” which extracts more than one’s share, from “liberatory power,” which honors interdependence and creates conditions where all can thrive. Bopaiah encourages designers and leaders to act as power brokers who use influence to redesign systems instead of denying their privilege. She lists seven behaviors of inclusive leaders—empowerment, fairness, respect, conflict competence, approachability, discretion, and judiciousness—that form the behavioral embodiment of equitable power.

In short, human-centered design becomes humanity-centered design when it values difference, listens deeply, and uses power conscientiously. Equity can’t be achieved by imagination—it must be cocreated with those who live the reality.

Designing equitable organizations starts with leadership that’s self-aware and courageous. Bopaiah asserts that engaged leaders must learn to value difference, see systems, and rewrite their story of success. Only then can they use their power to design fairer structures. She introduces frameworks for developing an intercultural mindset and recognizing privilege through tools like the Group Identity Wheel by Sukari Pinnock-Fitts and Amber Mayes.

Valuing Difference

Human instinct fears difference; our brains treat it as threat. Drawing on Cyndi Suarez’s research, Bopaiah contrasts the supremacist approach—ignoring or separating from difference—with the liberatory approach, which views difference as strength. Using Milton Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, she maps how people move from monocultural mindsets (“we are all the same”) to intercultural ones that accept and adapt. When leaders see difference not as disruption but as diversity of ideas, they become more innovative and resilient.

System Sight and Identity

Valuing difference leads to “system sight”—the ability to understand one’s relationship to systems of privilege and marginalization. Using the Group Identity Wheel, leaders assess whether their identities—race, gender, age, or ability—are historically marginalized or centered. Bopaiah shares her own self-assessment: as a cisgender, straight Indian woman, she holds privilege in some areas (education, intelligence stereotype) yet faces marginalization in others (ethnic minority and regional bias). The exercise helps leaders practice humility, empathy, and accountability.

Rewriting Your Story of Success

Perhaps the book’s most transformative idea: leaders must publicly acknowledge the systems that supported their success. Bopaiah challenges the “self-made” myth by sharing her own story—her company Brevity & Wit only succeeded because marriage granted her health insurance and financial buffer. Owning this truth doesn’t diminish achievement; it humanizes it. When leaders disclose how privilege shaped their journeys, they unmask the system and make space for others’ stories.

An Example: Evans Consulting

Evans Consulting illustrates engaged leadership in practice. During the racial reckoning following George Floyd’s murder, its leaders Jack Moore and Bob Etris—two White men—committed weekly time to IDEA work. Instead of issuing performative statements, they listened, set salary floors for equity, created a DEIA council, and shared their own reflections of privilege and fear with staff. Their transparency turned discomfort into trust. Bopaiah’s advice for similar leaders: “Be like Jack and Bob—brave, vulnerable, and willing to act before conditions are perfect.”

Equitable leadership, she concludes, is not about charisma or authority; it’s about curiosity, accountability, and the courage to see oneself in the system. Leaders must lead with humanity, not heroism.

Once leaders are engaged, Bopaiah shows how to bridge equity theory into daily organizational practice. The goal isn’t abstract commitment—it’s observable behaviors that achieve measurable outcomes. She uses her collaboration with National Public Radio (NPR) to demonstrate how to define, reinforce, and sustain equitable behaviors.

Defining Equitable Outcomes

At NPR, the aim was to diversify voices on air. The measurable goal: restore source diversity to prior benchmarks—about 27 percent people of color. The bridge was a simple observable behavior: every journalist must track the demographics of sources. By aligning everyday tasks with equity goals, NPR made fairness operational, not ideological.

Reinforcing Through Systems

Organizations often undermine equity by rewarding behaviors that contradict inclusion. NPR found that deadlines were prized above diversity, discouraging reporters from finding new voices. To fix this, leaders amended performance metrics to value tracking and inclusion, not just speed. Equitable outcomes are impossible if systems reward inequitable behaviors.

The Power of Nudging

Rather than forcing compliance, Bopaiah favors “nudges”—designing environments where fairness feels intuitive. Examples include auto-adding pronouns to video names or defaulting new employees into unconscious bias trainings with an opt-out option. These “invisible” nudges preserve choice while normalizing equity. She contrasts them with failed “novelty” designs like Sweden’s Piano Stairs or Africa’s PlayPump—creative but unsustainable because they ignored users’ lived realities.

Ethical Technology

The final section tackles tech equity. Algorithms and interfaces carry unseen bias—what UX expert Harry Brignull called “dark patterns” (Bopaiah renames them “unethical patterns”). Whether hiding unsubscribe links or making account deletion labyrinthine, such systems steal user freedom. She also warns that bias creeps into AI hiring tools that replicate past inequalities, such as preferring candidates resembling previously promoted White men. The solution? Apply anticolonial frameworks and “bias bounties” that reward identifying algorithmic discrimination.

Equity at scale depends on invisible design: systems that reward inclusion automatically and technology that empowers, not exploits. When equity becomes embedded—not announced—it endures.

Communication, Bopaiah argues, is the oxygen of change. To scale IDEA across organizations, you must communicate equity with clarity and empathy. Drawing from psychology and anthropology, she introduces behavior change communications—a method used in public health to shift behaviors sustainably.

Framing for Shared Values

The FrameWorks Institute’s research on race shows why framing matters. Three narratives often block equity: (1) progress/personalization (“racism is over”), (2) rugged individualism (“hard work fixes all”), and (3) separate fates (“that’s not my problem”). To counter these, leaders should frame messages around shared values: ingenuity, opportunity for all, and interdependence. Martin Luther King Jr.’s line—“we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality”—embodies this frame beautifully.

Explaining the “How”

She warns against activist slogans that state truths without context—“racism is systemic” or “White privilege exists.” Without explaining how, audiences turn defensive. Clarity and causality are essential. For example, inequitable work hours stem from 1950s roles designed for men with stay-at-home wives. Making the system visible transforms judgment into understanding.

Targeted Messaging

Using Spitfire Strategies’ Smart Chart, Bopaiah builds a message template: start with shared values, identify barriers, explain the why-how-what, and end with a clear ask. In Howard County, Maryland, she helped the Horizon Foundation reframe health disparities around a community’s pride in “being the best.” Instead of confronting leaders with guilt, the campaign invited them to improve systemic fairness to preserve their excellence. The message worked because it united, not divided.

Nonpartisan, Not Neutral

For institutions wary of politics, she distinguishes nonpartisanship from neutrality. IDEA is not partisan—it’s democratic. Neutrality, as Elie Wiesel warned, “helps the oppressor.” Nonpartisan organizations can still stand against dehumanization without endorsing parties. Courage, not caution, drives equitable communication.

In Bopaiah’s view, strong IDEA messaging makes people feel seen and informed, not shamed. Talk about equity like you talk about innovation—optimistic, specific, and shared across differences.

Media, Bopaiah writes, are the inkpad of culture—where biases are printed into minds. From children’s shows to corporate campaigns, content designers shape what people think about. Equity requires examining representation, voice, and ethics in media production and marketing.

Representation Matters

Her viral example of Mexican actor Diego Luna’s accent in Rogue One shows representation’s emotional power. When viewers hear heroes who sound like them, it affirms identity and belonging. Despite progress, the Geena Davis Institute finds that most leads are still White and heteronormative, while men in film rarely display full emotional ranges—a design flaw that stifles empathy itself.

The REACH Equity Content Screen

To guide creators, Bopaiah presents Vu Le’s REACH model—five lenses: Representation, Experience, Accessibility, Compensation, and Harm Reduction. Each asks crucial questions: Are diverse identities fairly depicted? Are appropriate voices leading stories? Can everyone access the content? Are contributors paid equitably? Could the message unintentionally harm or stigmatize?

Accessibility and Inclusion by Design

Accessibility is an equity imperative, not optional tech hygiene. From web contrast standards to captioning and alt-text for images, small design choices expand inclusion. “Disability drives innovation,” says Elise Roy, echoing Bopaiah’s ethos: designing for the margins creates universal benefit. She also extends accessibility to culture—reminding designers that global audiences navigate different internet realities, bandwidths, and languages.

Ethical Creation and Harm Reduction

Equity means crediting and compensating marginalized contributors. At Molly of Denali, all Native characters were voiced by Indigenous actors, and fans were asked not to mimic cultural dress. Similarly, nonprofits should pay beneficiaries for their stories. Brevity & Wit even recommends giving photo subjects the right to revoke permission later, protecting people who might face future threats. These policies make dignity part of the design.

In essence, equitable media design transforms representation into responsibility. What we publish and broadcast doesn’t just reflect the world—it builds it.

The book closes with a powerful vision: equity as collective creation. From employee walkouts to CEOs pledging for diversity, people are awakening to interdependence. But Bopaiah warns that performative activism and “shiny object” causes won’t last. Equity must anchor democracy itself.

Individual Power

Anyone can cocreate equity by joining intersectional movements, advocating within their workplace, and pushing for systemic—not just symbolic—change. Employees should balance purpose with pragmatism: protest when necessary, but also align change with organizational sustainability. Insolvency, she argues, doesn’t advance justice. Midlevel professionals can use industry networks and trade groups to champion IDEA reforms sector-wide.

Organizational Power

Corporations and nonprofits must move beyond brand virtue signaling. Authenticity and courage build trust. She cites Rebecca Henderson of Harvard Business School, who reminds leaders that capitalism and democracy are not synonyms—authoritarian capitalism thrives globally. To save democracy, businesses must fight for four pillars: impartial justice, fair prices reflecting true costs, real competition, and freedom of opportunity. Capitalism should serve democracy, not consume it.

Reimagining Philanthropy

Equity also demands rethinking nonprofits and philanthropy. Edgar Villanueva’s call for reparations and wealth redistribution through higher taxes exemplifies what real systems change might look like. Foundations holding vast assets must address the inequities they perpetuate, not just fund projects that make donors feel virtuous. Paying more taxes, Bopaiah asserts, is the most democratic act of generosity.

The Human Need for Fairness

Ultimately, equity fulfills a deep human need—to transform pain into progress. “Every artifact in our world,” she writes, “was designed by someone no greater than you.” That’s her closing challenge: see everything around you—your company, community, media, systems—as designable. Don’t wait for perfection; begin. Each act of fair design becomes a drop in the tsunami of justice.

Equity is not a policy—it’s a practice of imagination, empathy, and courage. Designing a world where everyone thrives is not just possible; it’s our shared destiny.