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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Tackle racial bias and discrimination at your company and create a representative and diverse leadership team
In Inclusion Revolution: The Essential Guide to Dismantling Racial Inequity in the Workplace, workplace strategist and C-suite executive Daisy Auger-Domínguez delivers a timely, inspirational, and practical exploration of why mainstream efforts at diversity improvement tend to fail and what you can do today to successfully create a diverse and representative leadership team at your company.
In the book, the author explains her four-step process of reflection, visualization, action, and persistence, and walks you through how to use research-based strategies to promote diversity. This hands-on toolkit for leaders and people professionals will show you how to:
- Achieve the benefits—including higher revenues and more satisfied employees—enjoyed by high-performing, diverse companies
- Fruitfully address the complex and fraught issues of race, power, and exclusion at your firm
- Transform the seemingly intractable problems of racial bias and discrimination into realistically solvable issues you can begin to address immediately
Perfect for managers, directors, executives, entrepreneurs, founders, and other business leaders, Inclusion Revolution is also a must-read for people officers and human resources professionals at companies of any size and in any industry.
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Seitenzahl: 567
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Introduction
What Is Change?
Embrace the Revolution
1 Your Inclusion Ambitions
Get on the Balcony
Your Mindset Matters
Hold Up a Mirror on Bias
Create a Road Map for Change
Your Road Map to Revolution
2 Build the Best Teams, Period
Help Underrepresented Talent Envision Themselves at Your Company
Confronting Privilege in the Hiring Process
Metrics for Hiring Success
Set Bold Goals
Tackling the Fear of Reverse Discrimination
Incentivize Goal Achievement
Your Road Map to Revolution
3 Overhaul Your Recruitment
Stop Using Résumés as Gatekeepers
Stop the Friends and Family Program
Attract Diverse Talent Like You Mean It
Change the Spec
Go Where the Talent Is!
Your Road Map to Revolution
4 Make Better Hiring Decisions
The Right Hire or the White Hire?
Push for More … More Candidates, More Interview Prep, More Accountability
Combat Bias with Consistency
Don’t Interview for “Fit”; Interview for Function, Potential, and Culture Add
Ask Better Interview Questions
Standardize How You Debrief and Decide
Your Road Map to Revolution
5 Nurture a People-First Culture
Lead from the Beginning
Create an Inclusive Onboarding Experience
Facilitate Stronger Connections
Build Empathy Muscles
Raise Your Awareness
Don't Be Afraid to Name It
Your Road Map to Revolution
6 Set Psychological Safety in Motion
Your Words Matter
Foster Speak Up Culture
Thread Allyship
Mitigate Microaggressions
Kick Covering to the Curb
Your Road Map to Revolution
7 Tune into the Whispers and the Screams (and Everything in Between)
Be an Inclusion Truth Seeker
A Sample Discussion Guide
Get Smart with Surveys
Allow for Anonymity and Maintain Multiple Reporting Systems
Act on What You Hear
Repair Damage When It Happens
Your Road Map to Revolution
8 No Talent Left Behind
Step 1: Get to Know Your Team
Step 2: Remove Bias from Performance Evaluations
Step 3: Ensure Transparency in the Goal-Setting and Promotion Process.
Step 4: Create Individual Growth Plans
Step 5: Provide Feedback—Always
Step 6: Pay Fairly
Your Road Map for Revolution
9 Build Support Scaffolding
1. Give Out Decoder Rings
2. Foster Peer Relationships
3. Widen Your Network, Expand Others'
4. Mentorship and Sponsorship
5. External Advisors
Your Road Map to Revolution
10 Get to the Heart of Accountability
Engage the Uncommitted
Goals Are at the Heart of Accountability
Be Accountable to Yourself
Be Accountable to Your Consumers, Users, and Audience, Too
Measure Effectiveness, Always
Accelerate What's Right, Demand Your Leaders Lead
Your Road Map to Revolution
11 Persist
Making Belonging, Equity, and Inclusion Stick
What's Available on the Other Side
Persist When You Make a Mistake (or Are Afraid To!)
Persist When You Face Resistance
Persist When You Feel Fatigued
Persist by Fighting for “Us,” All of Us
Notes
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Bibliography
About the Author
Index
End User License Agreement
Guide
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Begin Reading
Notes
Bibliography
About the Author
Index
End User License Agreement
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INCLUSION Revolution
THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TODismantling Racial Inequity in the Workplace
DAISY AUGER-DOMÍNGUEZ
Copyright © 2024 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permission.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Names: Auger-Domínguez, Daisy, author.
Title: Inclusion revolution : the essential guide to dismantling racial inequity in the workplace / Daisy Auger-Domínguez.
Description: Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., [2024] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2023055159 (print) | LCCN 2023055160 (ebook) | ISBN 9781394259151 (cloth) | ISBN 9781394259175 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781394259168 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Racism in the workplace. | Diversity in the workplace. | Discrimination in employment. | Equality.
Classification: LCC HF5549.5.R23 A94 2024 (print) | LCC HF5549.5.R23 (ebook) | DDC 658.30089—dc23/eng/20231214
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023055159
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023055160
Cover Design: Paul McCarthyCover Image: © Getty Images|MirageC
In memory of my late grandfather, Ramón Arcadio Fernández Domínguez—Te digo adiós para toda la vida, aunque toda la vida siga pensando en ti.
—Poema de la Despedida
To Christopher and Emma, siempre.
Acknowledgments
This book is a love letter to my family. It honors the legacy of my late grand-uncle Rafael Tomás Fernández Domínguez, who played a key role in leading the Dominican Republic Civil War of 1965 and was recognized as a hero by the government in 1999 for his dedication and respect to democratic ideals.
When I sat down to write these acknowledgements, one word kept running through my mind—Ubuntu. Ubuntu is an African concept in which your sense of self is shaped by your relationships with other people. In South Africa, they call Ubuntu: I am because of you. Thank you, Michael Gross, for introducing me to this concept and always reminding our Coro Fellows class of 1998—Lisa Cowan, Zander Grashow, Amy Sweet, Ken Young, Jason Gill, Valerie Santos, Kiran Makam, Yoojin Lee, Saran White, and Alix Saint Amand—about our shared humanity.
I am because of so many amazing humans in my life. It would take writing another book to name all those who have shared their love, wisdom, compassion, and kindness. These are a few who have been especially pivotal on my journey.
Writing a book can be arduous and isolating, but I had Kathleen Harris in my corner every step of the way. Kathleen, you helped me get out of my head, push past my corporate speak, and give life to my stories. I am forever grateful for your heart, talent, wit, and friendship.
I owe a debt of gratitude for my formative learning in social justice, race, intersectionality, and equity to Teresa Amott, John Ernest (“Ernie”) Keen, Linden Lewis, and Walter Stafford.
To Rossana Rosado, Luis Miranda, the late Lisa Quiroz, Fred Terrell, Ella Bell, Roz Hudnell, Freada Kapor, Anita Hill, and Lorraine Cortés-Vásquez, whose sage wisdom and generosity have paved the way for me and countless others.
To the many DEI leaders and practitioners who inspire and teach me every day to be better, do better.
To my sheroes, Yrthya Dinzey-Flores, Tiffany Dufu, Cindy Pace, Diana Cruz Solash, and Helene Yan, whose vision, grit, and friendship always push me to dream bigger.
I was lucky to meet my terrific agent, Johanna Castillo, before the world was forced into quarantine. Your belief in me, my story, and Latinx voices meant everything. That coffee meeting changed my life!
Emi Ikkanda for championing my work and the story I wanted to tell.
To everyone who agreed to be interviewed for this book: Bob Alotta, Emily Best, Aubrey Blanche, Tiffany Dufu, Keesha Jean-Baptiste, Freada Kapor, Lisa Kenny, Lucinda Martínez, Brian O'Kelley, Cindy Pace, Katica Roy, Vanessa Roanhorse, Bird Runningwater, Reshma Saujani, Deepti Sharma, Meghan Stabler, Sherice Torres, Alicin Williamson, Cid Wilson, Jamia Wilson, Kenji Yoshino, and many others whose experiences I drew on.
To the bosses who showed me it was possible to lead with heart and courage: Nicole Johnson, Chee Mee Hu, and Steve Milovich.
To Phil Clark for always being willing to give me golden editorial feedback—bluntly and kindly all at once.
To Bart Oosterveld and Adam Whiteman, my first white male allies.
To my Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Brooklyn Children's Museum, and Robert S. Clark Foundation board partners who are doing the work, every day.
To my VMG work family, for engaging with me in this work and believing that change is possible
To Rha Goddess, who emboldened my sense of what's possible.
To my sister friends, Dominique Jones, Erica González, Elizabeth de Leon, and Katy Romero, for always having my back. Mi hermano del alma, Angel Tirado-Morales, e mi fratello, Antonino D'Ambrosio.
To my childhood friends who first showed me what it means to straddle multiple cultures and identities—Rie Arvesen, Anneke Schalpelhoumann, and Chi Wai (David) So.
To my Bucknell peeps, Chhavi Seth, Rich Shiu, and Natalia Espinal, my first social justice learning partners
To Brandy Baucom, who helped this “island foreigner” navigate the “tough” waters of New Milford HS.
My Auger family, Ric and Joan Auger, Matt and Ursula Auger, Karyn and Josh Banke, and my niece and nephews, Ellie and Aidan Auger, and Jordan and Luke Banke.
I was raised in a nontraditional family setup, and it made all the difference in my life. My dearest grandparents/mami y papi, Ramon Arcadio Fernández Domínguez and Elena Miniño, my father Ramón (Cachito) Domínguez—what a journey we've been on, the best wicked stepmother, Haydee Domínguez, my fierce tia/madres, Maritza Siegel and María Elena Domínguez, the most awesome “little” brothers Sonny Ray and Legend Domínguez, my beloved primos-hermanos Petal Carr, Laksmi, and Visnu González, Natalia Báez, Brisa Siegel, and Melissa Machado, my aunt Josefina Miniño, and my late uncle Papa Molina, whose inimitable talents and courage paved the way for many artistic rebels, mis primos José Antonio y Evangelina Molina, my uncles Michael Siegel and Víctor Báez, and the new generation who fill us with hope, Valentina and Lia.
My husband Christopher Auger-Domínguez, the single best person I know. Thank you for holding me, spoiling me, pushing me, teaching me, nurturing me, and anchoring me. Te amo.
And to Emma Auger-Domínguez, with whom I have been madly, deeply, and intensely in love since the day you were born. I gave you life, and you gave me mine. To witness you becoming who you are—your humor, curiosity, wisdom, and kindness—is pure joy. I love you more.
Introduction
Sitting at a sleek white conference table at Google's equally gleaming Silicon Valley headquarters, surrounded by some of the most credentialed HR executives in the world, a humming laptop in front of me and a free chai latte from one of the ubiquitous Google cafés in my hand … I’d felt as if I'd finally arrived. I was hired specifically into a newly created global diversity recruitment role—a role that was elevated to an executive level to recruit me specifically—with an ambitious charge to “hire the most diverse talent.” As a Dominican Puerto Rican woman in a leadership position at arguably the world's most powerful company, here was my moment to achieve the type of change I'd dreamed of since growing up in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.
My team's mission was to build a workforce that better represented our world and users by increasing the hiring rates of female, Black, and Latinx Googlers. We enthusiastically set out to redesign how to find, cultivate and convert a robust and steady stream of female, Black, and Latinx candidates. We based our recommendations on detailed analysis of the experience of Black and Latinx software engineers. These included solutions for reducing bias in job descriptions and the interview process and expanding our talent markets beyond traditional target schools and companies largely lacking in racial and ethnic representation.
Minutes before I unveiled my biggest, boldest diversity hiring initiative yet, I paused to think about the experiences, experiments, wins, and losses that led me to this moment. This has been my life's work for nearly two decades. I was ready for this. But what happened next shattered my natural optimism. Our plan was quickly thwarted when the big bets we presented—such as expanding our offices in communities rich in Black and Latinx talent—were perceived as impractical and unimaginative. This was 2016, and upper management wasn't ready to take bold action.
I was presenting to a room of mostly white men and women. The team leader, who was of Indian descent, and my own manager, a white man, dominated the conversation, and clearly signaled to the rest of the team whose opinion mattered. After what seemed like hours of an intellectual debate over the root cause of our inability to hire more Black and Hispanic software engineers at scale, dismissing the changes I was proposing as not scalable or tractable enough, I nearly lost my mind when I was asked, “What's the root cause?” for what seemed like the millionth time and finally blurted out, “RACISM … The root cause is racism. Our recruitment process was designed with a racist lens, and we need to reexamine and rebuild every stage of the hiring journey with an anti-racist lens in order to achieve different outcomes.”
The room went qui-eeeet. The discomfort was palpable. It was the truth that no one wanted to hear. But it was the truth. Up until that moment, I didn't dare to speak my whole truth because I was afraid of being misjudged or penalized, like many underrepresented and marginalized employees feel every day, regardless of their place in the pecking order. I shared the truth that causes even good people to become defensive and dismissive. And they did.
Many well-intended and brilliant Googlers before me had designed a highly efficient recruitment process to hire the brightest minds. Many also had advocated for changes to enhance the company's overall people systems and culture. While the company doubled in size and saw increases in hiring and representation for women globally, and Black and Latinx employees in the US, turnover rates for underrepresented employees of color remained just as high, if not higher. Clearly, the culture at Google needed to change if the company wanted to retain gender- and racially diverse talent. But the tolerance for behavioral and operational change is low, even in organizations that brazenly set out to “change the world.”
During a brainstorming session that we coined “reimagining the hiring process,” a group of experienced engineers, staffing team members, analysts, and other colleagues came together to share and reconsider their long-held innovative ideas. Despite many of these ideas being discussed or experimented with for years, few executives were open to truly listening or acknowledging the underlying reasons why our current practices had barely moved the needle in achieving compositional diversity. And suppose you're one of a handful of employees with limited seniority daring to propose changes that could potentially incur significant financial costs and discomfort for white executives. Under such circumstances, gaining leadership's attention, let alone their commitment to action, is intellectually and emotionally arduous.
This resistance is even more challenging when confronted with the adversities of an economic downturn, political turmoil, and social instability. As we've seen repeatedly, the easiest path is ignorance or resistance during such moments of uncertainty and upheaval. However, I urge you to rise above the challenges and push for change.
One place we can all start is taking a close look at our workplaces.
Everyone has a relationship to work. It is how we get paid and are able to put food in our children's bellies. Work is where we spend the majority of our days outside of the time spent with our families and loved ones. Over the years, I've worked for managers and leaders who emboldened my sense of what's possible. They went beyond saying, “I want you to be successful” to “I am going to ensure that you are successful.” They said: “I see you. I value you. You matter. You make a difference.” You can never hear “I believe in you” too often. But I've also had managers and peers who have set up roadblocks for my success and questioned my value on a daily basis. Even as I fought to bring more seats to the table, I have had to fight to earn and keep my own while watching white colleagues face far fewer hurdles.
Inequity in the workplace is a problem you can solve. I want you to be the people manager who shines a light on others, not the one who dims it. The leader who uses their power to combat stigma, promote accountability, and acknowledge the shared humanity within their teams; the leader who embraces allyship, minimizes implicit bias, dismantles systemic exclusion, and fosters healthy and meaningful connections among your employees; the leader who creates platforms for nuanced discussions about identity, power, and restorative justice; the leader who models and shows the power of recognizing our commonality.
Despite the progress made since the summer of 2020, when corporate America and the philanthropic sector pledged substantial financial resources to combat racial injustice and address historical harm inflicted on Black people, the United States is now witnessing a resurgence of efforts aimed at undermining the rights, opportunities, and freedoms of historically underrepresented communities. While there are many progressive measures such as appointing chief diversity officers; implementing anti-racism and belonging training; hosting listening series and educational forums; providing talking points, guides, and other resources; diversifying talent pools; and establishing supplier diversity programs, many of these advancements have regressed. Book-banning attempts to erase our history, disproportionate voting restrictions targeting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) individuals, legislation diminishing hard fought-for LGBTQIA+ rights and women's bodily autonomy—especially women of color—and outlawing of affirmative action in public colleges and universities by the Supreme Court, coupled with the reversal of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across various organizations, pose significant challenges. These circumstances are a powerful reminder that the ongoing work for equality across every sector requires unwavering vigilance. In the face of these obstacles, how can we seize these cyclical moments as opportunities rather than succumbing to threats?
Revolutionizing workplaces goes beyond superficial one-and-done approaches that provide temporary comfort to those content with maintaining the status quo. The evolving world of work requires managers and leaders to adapt and transform their approaches. This includes reimagining how work is done, reevaluating the environments in which work occurs, and reconsidering the individuals prioritized, accommodated, and harmed in these spaces. This transformative journey must align with the dynamic changes in work relationships, practices, and expectations.
Employees now hold employers accountable to higher fairness, vision, courage, safety, purpose, and autonomy standards. The nature of their work, creation, and contribution has shifted, requiring new, radical, inclusive approaches to leadership and management. This calls for a fundamental change in mindset, approach, and practice.
Good intentions can fall short. Merely ticking off the checkboxes and appearing to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion doesn't exempt companies from making decisions that inflict massive harm on marginalized communities. Moreover, as companies face resistance and criticism of their DEI efforts from right-wing groups and a decline in executive support for DEI initiatives, leaders and managers must grapple with the shifting agency within their workforces. Workers everywhere, especially those from Black and Brown communities, are voicing their collective sentiment: “We've had enough. We demand real and substantive change. And we're keeping score.”
Quick-fix attempts are often short-lived, wasted efforts like one-off diversity training and conversation series. Those executing these well-intentioned solutions must discuss the underlying reasons—the why—and be prepared to take action based on the sometimes uncomfortable truths to achieve substantial and meaningful progress.
The urgency is clear but the road map is not.
The “diversity” problem many are trying to solve is addressing racial and gender imbalances, harm in the workplace, and, most fundamentally, power imbalances. It affects what products, services, and content companies create, who they are designed to serve, and who benefits. It elicits the question: What can be done to dismantle centuries of discrimination and anti-Blackness globally? And how can more fair workplaces be achieved? The starting point is a recognition of their own deep, long-standing, and systemic racial inequities. This should prompt reflections about how they need to change to achieve a fairer and healthier future for all, with many taking action to become the companies where we all want to work. This should be the time for institutions to tip toward fairness and belonging finally and put an end to systemic racism and other “isms.” However, it is important to acknowledge that resistance and backlash are real challenges in this pursuit.
Diverse hiring sprees and solely focusing on listening and learning alone won't change organizational behavior, systems, and cultures perpetuating inequity and exclusion. Why? Because we cannot hire our way out of exclusive hiring practices, just as we cannot rely solely on listening to transform deep-seated organizational issues. Instead of filling the void with short-lived promises, organizations must confront the root causes of racial inequity and address the opacity of institutional practices. And let's not forget people are no longer satisfied with empty promises and don't want to associate themselves with brands that underdeliver on their promises. They seek tangible evidence of progress—receipts, concrete results, not mere “diversity theater.”
Merely striving for diverse representation in the workplace is not enough to ensure that all employees feel a sense of inclusion, equal value, and both physical and psychological safety. Instead of making fleeting promises, we must approach this endeavor with empathy and determination, delving into the root causes of racial inequity throughout the entire employee lifecycle—from recruitment and onboarding to development, retention and, offboarding. We must establish inclusive values and clear behavioral expectations, challenging the status quo—“the way things have always been done”—and embracing transparency in tracking our progress toward our goals. In other words, we need a fundamental shift in organizational thinking, culture, norms, processes, and practices.
An entrenched culture like the one I experienced at Google, and that exists at many other organizations, can be masked by a company's strong financial performance or brand. A company can appear from the outside to be forward-thinking and progressive, while its internal culture quietly erodes the morale, well-being, and professional advancement of BIPOC employees, as well as the effectiveness of its DEI programs.
Organizations frequently find themselves trapped in one or more of these pitfalls:
Uninformed leadership teams taking charge of DEI decisions, disregarding the expertise of DEI professionals, and witnessing the continuous turnover of highly competent BIPOC talent.
Misdiagnosing “diversity and culture problems” as separate problems, failing to recognize them as ultimately stemming from leadership and management deficiencies.
A misguided emphasis on “quick wins” without the necessary financial resources (read: budget) and support from leadership (such as speaker series, or “Rooney rules,” which are practices borrowed from American football (NFL) that require teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching and senior football positions, with the goal of promoting diversity and equal opportunity in hiring) resulting in efforts, and valuable time and energy, directed toward solving the wrong challenges.
Manager incompetence or resistance when it comes to engaging in difficult conversations related to racial or gender disparities.
The obstacles to fostering diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces are often glaringly evident—characterized by insidious exclusionary cultures infused with bias, power struggles, prejudice, bullying, discrimination, and harassment. Additionally, there is an increasing shortage of experienced modern leaders and managers and misaligned human resource programs. Instead of addressing the root causes of these issues, organizations continue to blame the lack of representative diversity on a supposed “supply issue.” They ignore the influence of subjective hiring practices (“Hey, this kid played lacrosse at Dartmouth, and he interned at Goldman, he knows how to compete … ”), as well as flawed performance and pay processes, not to mention toxic behavioral norms. Most disheartening, they are reluctant to hold leaders and managers accountable for their lack of competence, toxic behaviors, and inadequate actions.
How do we reduce the structural inequities that limit people's access and potential, and what would it take to change? These have been central questions throughout my career. Inspired by historian Ibram X. Kendi's work and pioneering scholars Walter Stafford, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Dr. Ella Bell, and Anita Hill, I believe that eliminating racism requires challenging it before and when it appears. White supremacy not only influences who gets hired, included, and promoted in an organization, but it also influences what we think of as normal and acceptable, whether we are white or not. Instead of working toward populating organizations with more racial representation—a common aim of DEI practices—we should address and dismantle the root causes of how racism systematically advantages white workers and disadvantages BIPOC workers.
We have all witnessed acts of passive racism. When I entered the workplace, I watched talented women and BIPOC employees be sidelined, marginalized, and silenced. These experiences led me to spend the past two decades designing and executing DEI strategies across large, global companies, and in more recent years also at start-ups and nonprofit institutions. I worked at companies known and revered such as Google, Disney, and Viacom, companies at which we got some things right and got some things wrong. This has been my journey, but I can guess that many of you reading this right now have experienced something similar in your own lives and careers.
My commitment to creating workplaces that work for everyone comes from a personal place. I know firsthand how companies and organizations are strengthened when they make their cultures more inclusive and equitable, and I know why that shift is hard.
The greatest gifts my family gave to me, at the expense of their own comfort, were the educational tools to access and navigate a wide range of professional environments, including spaces not designed for people like me. I have been sought after and hired at some of the most admired companies because I've learned how to navigate predominantly white spaces. But that doesn't mean that I have always felt welcomed and valued. The real shame is that it has been up to me—and others like me—to neutralize passive, and sometimes outright, racism and construct our own personal safety nets (employee resource groups, private “catch-ups,” etc.). Now it's time for everyone to step in.
What Is Change?
To create fair and inclusive workplaces, we must understand and break free from hidden power structures and toxic workplace cultures and commit to changes in management practices such as hiring, compensation, benefits, and performance management. While we each have a role to play, I want to be clear that the onus is on the privileged white male leader and manager to address the varied sources of inequalities that exist for marginalized people at work. Throughout this book, I'll offer tangible advice to dismantle exclusive practices throughout the employee lifecycle. You have to put in the work if you believe this is important to you, your teams, and your organizations. I will show you how to do this work step-by-step.
Real revolutions are the ones no one sees coming. But in the case of the ongoing struggle for racial justice, the signs have been evident for all to see. The United States carries a complex history scarred by slavery and racial segregation that has long fueled racist ideologies. We have witnessed and personally experienced the repetitive cycles of action and inaction. It is no shock that those most affected by racial hierarchies are raising their voices and demanding fairness. White supremacy has insidiously embedded itself within our institutions and systems, permeating every facet of our lives, from everyday interactions to overarching systems and structures. Media messaging often perpetuates the protection of white Americans while inflicting harm upon BIPOC communities. In other words, we unwittingly absorb racism, internalizing its effects. However, understanding the underlying causes of our biases spurs us to question our ingrained beliefs and drive meaningful change. It is no longer an option for any of us to remain passive.
Throughout my career, I've contributed my voice, experience, and bits of my soul to solve complex issues of workplace culture, identity, access, opportunity, and power from the inside. Many of my fellow DEI leaders and practitioners have also been at this for a long time, frustrated, and burned out. Yet I am more hopeful than ever. Why?
Because of you.
I'm writing this book for you, the white or BIPOC manager, the leader who recognizes that DEI is necessary for your teams; the leader who wants to dismantle old systems in your workplace from the inside out and build bridges and connections; you, the manager sandwiched between the C-suite and entry-level workers, who may feel that you don't have the power and influence to effect change. I have been there. And I am here to tell you that you do have the power.
This book is for you, who are often given mandates instead of time, support, and resources; you, who often feel unable to move forward because you lack answers to your questions about purpose, values, and process; you, who want to ensure that everyone who works with you feels better after an interaction with you, not diminished and depleted; you, who want to clear the pathway for success for everyone on your team.
So what's in it for you? Think of this book as a how-to manual for building a more inclusive company or organization. If you've picked up this book because you're either anxious about this work, worried about the backlash, or dismayed with the lack of progress, this book will share stories to ground and inspire you. If you want to support this work indirectly or take it on as part of your responsibility, this book offers tools and resources to help you do that. And if you've picked up this book even though you doubt this work is worthwhile or valuable, well, enjoy!
We all interact in workplaces and have a million opportunities to influence change. Fostering fair, respectful, and inclusive workplaces requires dedicated effort. Despite overwhelming demands and challenging decisions, we hold more agency and influence over reimagining our work environments than we might initially perceive.
Throughout this book, I will expose the hidden trip wires, failures, secrets, and missteps that impede inclusive management practices. Through intentional examination, I will share policies, practices, and ideas that anyone can implement to chip away at bias, challenge prevailing norms and behaviors, and transform outdated processes and systems. I will shed light on the experiences shared by thought leaders and marginalized workers who navigate those trip wires daily, sharing a path toward creating workplaces that embrace and uplift the diverse individuals who form the heartbeat of organizations. Moreover, I will share my personal stories, drawing from my journey where I have found myself on both sides of the equation and how I have grown and learned from my mistakes. You'll need to identify the interventions most relevant to your unique culture and business and approach their execution with unwavering dedication and discipline.
While you may not hold the authority to reprimand leadership misconduct or single-handedly replace your company's leadership, there are significant steps that managers and leaders, both white and BIPOC, can take today to cultivate diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces and organizations that thrive both commercially and culturally. This book serves as a guide for action, intended for courageous people to pursue equity within their organizations and confront the pervasive whiteness at work. It is a resource for those grappling with the challenges of moving past the trending hashtags, navigating political landmines, and addressing the pervasive blind spots that hinder lasting change. The insights shared within these pages are designed to help you effectively recruit, hire, engage, retain, and grow diverse talent, ultimately building a truly inclusive workplace where every employee can thrive.
Change means creating a fervent sense of belonging for everyone, no matter your background, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, religious beliefs, physical ability, or any other identity. Everyone is welcome to this inclusion revolution, and the invitation explicitly states to show up as you.
I've encountered many leaders eager for actionable frameworks and advice to create more inclusive cultures. But again and again, I find one thing plaguing their attempts: fear. They are utterly terrified about messing up and saying the wrong thing to all their stakeholders—employees, board members, funders, clients, customers, or the wider public via social media. They have fear of losing their jobs, livelihoods, and ability to provide for their families—they're paralyzed into inaction. In today's workplace, there is a heightened fear of being “cancelled.” Managers, leaders, and CEOs are acutely aware that their companies, personal reputations, and share prices are one social media cycle away from ruination. Acknowledging and addressing the blockages created by these fears is vital for creating more inclusive environments.
There is a very special energy in organizations where fear doesn't exist; when people feel seen, heard, and valued; when they feel that they can engage, perform, and contribute without judgment and retaliation. It keeps workplaces from feeling dark and heavy. It keeps the mistrust out of the air. It keeps employees from leaving the organization or, worse, sustaining repeated trauma to survive financially. It breeds the highest levels of creativity, innovation, and collaboration. That is the workplace I want for you!
Over the years I have tested and developed different models for dismantling inequities across many organizations and industries. I have seen what works and what doesn't. I've learned that best practices and research are starting points, that there are no silver bullets or shortcuts, but you have to start somewhere. The model I present in this book is intended to help you on your journey toward organizational culture change, and it's rooted in four steps:
Reflect: Get clear on your truth and the truths of your coworkers—the variations in your points of view, feelings and identities, your motivations, and how these affect your teams and organizations. Why are you enthusiastic or hesitant? What is possible?
Vision: Use your knowledge of the organization's climate and systemic and structural barriers to build a way forward. What does DEI look like when it is no longer a challenge or a problem to be solved? This is where you frame the work ahead for yourself and others.
Act: Approach this work from a place of ideas and values and from a place of pure pragmatism—fixing one part of a broken system at a time. Create your own best practice learning lab through rigorous testing and iteration, and define the role you want to play. This is where you invite engagement and collaboration.
Persist: Discomfort and shame are a common response when we realize that we have fallen short of our personal expectations. You should feel uneasy when you learn about the times that you or your organization have let employees down. Lean on courage and fortitude to stay the course, respond proactively, track progress, and celebrate your wins. Make small tweaks over time—you need to see what sticks.
Your approach has to be specific, tangible, and responsive to your unique workplace barriers. I believe this model can be cultivated in every company and organization. Use it as your guide on your own journey.
If this sounds intimidating, don't worry. Small, repeatable, and consistent actions can deliver the most lasting impact. I'll show you how to come at it with a compassionate, realistic, and accessible approach. Your goal is not to change your entire organization overnight; it's to make a plan that reflects your values and aspirations. It's to increase the capacity of others to do good.
Embrace the Revolution
I want to inspire new levels of ownership, to strengthen our collective capacity to drive change, recognize the pitfalls, and keep going. This is about how we as a people can learn to work together. That has always been the revolution. At a fundamental level, it's about how we learn to work together and how we drive change, together. This is not about a culture by default but instead about building a culture with deep intention and action. What does it look like? It is work that feels purposeful, effortless (despite the “work” you do), productive, and yes, joyful.
What works, what has proven to work for generations before us, is millions of people acting in millions of different ways and across millions of moments. To dismantle inequity in the workplace, we must translate good intentions into powerful and sustained actions and generate better decisions, better strategy, better conversations and debate, better risk and performance management, better investments, and better career and business outcomes.
The model for achieving the workplace change I'm presenting is a revolutionary but incremental approach within our reach. It does not require us to tear down the existing structure and create something from scratch. It is meant to increase our capacity for driving change. The building steps of this model are incremental enough that everyone can do it, including you, regardless of your position, education, or influence.
Inclusion revolution is not a blueprint for check-the-box diversity training; it's not a prescription to being politically correct in the workplace. This is a book of action for those who are willing to confront the pervasive inequities at work. Let's raise the bar by fighting back against the attacks on building equitable workplaces, the lack of sustained attention and effort coupled with fatigue and inertia that comes from years of trying to get DEI right. Let's turn goodwill and intent into real results. And let's build change that lasts, because through the best teams, and the broadest client/customer/investor/audience reach, companies can build a stronger future.
Welcome to the inclusion revolution!
1Your Inclusion Ambitions
There's a famous story about President John F. Kennedy visiting the NASA space center in 1962. Kennedy noticed a man carrying a broom, and when the president introduced himself, he asked the man what his job was. The employee, a janitor, responded, “Well, Mr. President, I'm helping to put a man on the moon.” Achieving that sense of shared purpose is a foundation for true and lasting inclusion and belonging in the workplace.
Right now, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is our moon landing, and to make this mission successful we need everyone, from interns to executives, to contribute to creating a culture of belonging. Imagine that you have the ability to make work easier for all kinds of people in your organization, to allow them to use their skills and thoughtfulness for innovation and problem solving. Imagine that you can create a sense of psychological safety where everyone feels confident and comfortable to take risks, make mistakes, contribute opinions, and be candid about what they are up against. Managers have this power. You have this power. It starts with making a visible commitment to inclusion and belonging across your teams because work cultures are not all created equal.
Some people experience the workplace as it should be: challenging—it is “work” after all—and rewarding, if you're lucky. For others, that same workplace can consist of daily acts of microaggressions, gender violence, systemic racism, and discrimination, and the nagging feeling that you're going crazy as you try to get through each day. Underrepresented employees across many workplaces feel that their ideas and experiences are routinely dismissed. These feelings of exclusion are among the primary reasons there is a revolving door of talent for employees of color. Over and over, outstanding people are hired for their magic—and then that magic is sucked dry when they are excluded for not fitting in in the majority culture. And when that happens, they underperform, quit, or get pushed out. Those are the circumstances for so many, and that's what I want to change. If you're reading this book, you do, too.
This book is full of actions, practices, and policies that will help you transform your organizations to be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. But before you roll up your sleeves and start to act, I have found that reflection before action is the most effective path toward creating a culture of belonging. This first chapter is an essential moment of truth that will encourage you to act with intention.
We first need to clear the air and be honest with ourselves, and our colleagues, about why corporate America is so white. White people have enjoyed decades of advantages in professional workplaces, mostly through the systemic segregation of neighborhoods, schools, and social and professional networks, resulting often in white people only moving through all-white spaces, having all-white friend circles, and all-white colleagues. This chapter is about being willing to interrogate why and to understand how ill-prepared everyone is, white and BIPOC managers alike, to discuss the true root causes of this fact in a constructive way.
“What's one thing you like about being white?” That's the question writer, scholar, and TV host Dr. Marc Lamont Hill (2021) asked his guest, a conservative activist, in a discussion on race theory. The guest didn't respond, deflecting the question. Still, if every white person took a moment to stop and consider their answer, you could begin to understand why it's essential to confront racial inequity in workplaces.
I'm hopeful because I believe more and more managers are beginning to understand that they must first create a psychologically safe environment where their team members feel encouraged to be themselves and speak up at work, a sense of connection to their work and their peers, and that they have a fair chance to succeed. When you understand this and why it's necessary to create a culture of belonging, why these actions will work, what challenges they are helping solve, and how they will benefit everyone, you will become a stronger champion, a better ally, and an enviable leader.
Get on the Balcony
Goals are necessary, and milestones are measurable, but the real transformation comes when you align them with the spirit of why it's important to hire, retain, and engage a diverse workforce. This requires you to recognize the biases and practices that have kept you from making progress and then designing changes to mitigate bias and microaggressions. That's when the work of creating a fair, equitable, and inclusive organization gets clear.
Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky (2017) coined the leadership skill “getting off the dance floor and going to the balcony” in their book Leadership on the Line. They describe getting on the balcony as the practice of gaining a clearer perspective on the bigger picture by distancing yourself from the action. That is, asking, “What's really going on here?” The operational pressures of DEI work, such as needing to show nearly immediate results in workforce representation, often mean that those tasked with achieving a company's DEI aspirations must rely on quick-fix approaches that do not address the root cause of racial disparities in their organizations. They are pushed and pulled by events, people, and complex and often conflicting agendas. This often leads to misdiagnosed problems and well-known yet inadequate stand-alone solutions, such as diverse candidate slates, employee resource groups, culturally immersive programs, and unconscious bias training, and ultimately you're back on the dance floor.
When you're feeling lost or stuck, bring it back to the why: define it, and then refine and redefine the opportunities. Get clear on how DEI will contribute to your mission and performance, how you can solve smaller gaps before they turn into hard-to-manage ones, and what you will do to make your insights a reality for your business.
Getting on the balcony as both an observer and a participant takes discipline, courage, and a willingness to stay the course. Allow yourself the time to think, reflect, and observe the patterns of behaviors, norms, actions, and inactions to understand what is or might get in the way of dismantling inequity in your workplace. The best leaders, managers, and individual contributors learn how to move gracefully between the balcony and the dance floor. Try this exercise to help you get on the balcony:
Define what you're trying to solve for and why:
What motivates me to build a diverse workforce and inclusive culture?
What makes me nervous or confused?
What gets in our way as an organization, a team?
What am I missing or have been unwilling to see?
What can we accomplish that we have not thought of yet?
What's working, and what can we share with/borrow from others?
How do we bring others along?
Then get back on the dance floor to make interventions based on what you've gathered. Try building an opportunity statement:
Creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace at ________ is critical because _____________.
As a(n) (individual contributor, team leader, senior executive) at __________, I will ______ and ______ and _____in the next 6 to 12 months.
You can move back and forth, dynamically and collaboratively. When employees clamor for public statements, ask them to challenge their assumptions about how and where work gets done and the behavioral norms and expectations across teams. When executives are eager to jump into action, encourage them to pause, before jumping to action, to listen to what their team members need, to build solutions based on the insights they gather, and to show evidence of care even when they don't know what to say.
Center on what you want to achieve. Performative action won't do. You must answer that core question: Why do I want to do this? Followed by, Where do I want to enter this work? If your answer is: “I want to avoid being cancelled” or “I'm told it's important,” you will not make the right choices or investments. Achieving a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace is not a box to check off. A common answer is that it's the right thing to do, but achieving an inclusive workplace is not just about ethics and morality.
“The work has to start with an internal focus before it turns to an external focus,” Freada Klein Kapor said to me in a conversation on October 15, 2020. Freada is founding partner at Kapor Capital, a venture capitalist, social policy researcher, and philanthropist, who has advocated for diversity and inclusion in tech since the 1980s. She adds, “While there might be a well-meaning leader in every organization, I think right now that the motivation is not to be the last one standing who doesn't have a Black partner or a Black manager” (Kapor 2020).
Think about your vision; write down your mission; get grounded in your motivation so that you can better define your role in the inclusion revolution. Let's start by acknowledging that we all have a lot on our plates, and that training, research, and resources should help lighten our loads as we explore new ways to be at work. So think about leaning into this work as a lifelong learning process to become a better leader and colleague. Don't conflate perfection with your commitment to build a more inclusive and equitable organization. It's a classic growth mindset, and having one is vital on this journey. “I'm not an inclusive leader … yet,” is what an elementary school teacher would emphasize; that's what I want you to remember, too.
If you're not yet sure of your why, know this: When we improve belonging and inclusion at work, success follows. Belonging improves retention: 42% of employees who feel that they are able to bring their whole selves to work are less likely to plan on leaving for another job within a year. That's because, as data from Culture Amp confirms, people who feel they belong perform better, become more willing to challenge themselves, and are more confident and resilient. The positive stats keep on coming: workplaces with inclusive cultures are six times more likely to innovate and weather market change, and workplace engagement (an additional indicator of belonging) is closely correlated with increased productivity, profit, and innovation, as well as decreased employee turnover (Culture Amp n.d.). Harvard Business Review attempted to quantify this impact, stating that increased job performance, reduced turnover, and fewer sick days for a 10,000-person company would result in annual savings of more than $52 million (Carr et al. 2019).
That's $52 million in savings just to help someone feel comfortable and safe in their place of work. The message is loud and clear: diversity and inclusion will bring profits and innovation. But it's still not breaking through.
Doing good and doing well are not mutually exclusive. You should frame the value proposition of nurturing a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace as both the right and smart thing to do. You should aim to be the company that everyone else wants to emulate, the one receiving awards for the best workplace because your employees can share ideas openly, explore disagreements, and talk through tensions as a team, not because you had the greatest number of press stories. People feeling included, connected, and embracing belonging is not just a nice thing to do. It's necessary to heal the harm across workplaces, and it's a critical role of leaders who wish to build innovative and agile teams. It's essential to understand your motivations, aspirations, and privilege as a manager or coworker to eliminate disparities and inequities. This drives empathy, understanding, and, in the end, improved innovation, experimentation, and productivity. You reflect. You think and then act. Being at the forefront of this revolution will make you a better, more in-demand leader.
Your Mindset Matters
This work is hard, complex, and triggering. It fundamentally requires you to acknowledge your personal blind spots and your organization's cultural and systemic sore spots. You're going to have to confront deep-seated beliefs and unconscious habits, including guilt and shame, common obstacles to change. You're going to have to explore your identity and privilege in relation to others and ask for feedback you may not want to hear. You're going to have to build new muscles, including the capacity to interpret new information; to sit in ambiguity, conflict, and discomfort; and to determine what's possible when you witness workplace inequities. You're going to have to act on the new knowledge you gain and embrace and admit your fears about what change means for you. You're going to have to come face-to-face with the moments when you have been complicit by looking away or letting something slide. I know that may feel like a lot, but when you open your mind and heart to the possibility of making a difference in someone's life, the future looks bright.
“In any given moment, we have two options: step forward into growth or step backward into safety,” said psychologist Abraham Maslow, the architect of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Safety looks like short-term policies and public campaigns; growth is working toward finding the best solution, not the fastest one. Instead of clinging to what we can or can't control, or a fear that we will be dismissed for trying to be helpful, we can meet this overwhelmingly complex DEI work with curiosity, openness, and a willingness to adapt and build resilience and agility. I invite you to think more expansively and imaginatively about your role as a leader and individual contributor, whether conscious or unconscious, in creating feelings of exclusion or inclusion.
We all have the capacity to lead and collaborate fairly and with compassion. Whether you're a DEI professional or a leader, ally, or accomplice trying to cultivate a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace culture, here's how you can get in the right mindset:
Embrace courage.
Know you're going to make mistakes along the way. Don't let the fear of putting your foot in your mouth keep you silent. Don't let it set you back—learn from your gaffes or things you might have not done right in the past, and make a promise to yourself to do better next time.
Tame your defensiveness.
Defensiveness is a natural by-product of feeling uncomfortable and questioning your privilege or your habits. Sit with those emotions, ask yourself what you are trying to protect and why, and watch for any tendencies to make excuses, deny facts, or blame others.
Be transparent.
If you don't know an answer, or are genuine about your desire to do better, say so. Transparency and vulnerability build trust, which is an essential tool in this work. Be frank about what you do not know, what you wonder about, what scares you, and what blind spots you are working on.
Own your power.
Know that you can make a difference and that it will take time to radically transform your organization—it's worth it. While it's crucial that your CEO and senior executives drive change from the top, a survey from BCG analytics found that 80% of a company's workforce is mid-level managers who influence most day-to-day decisions and culture building. Whether a manager or an individual contributor, you can be a leader for change.
Think like a beginner.
A beginner's mindset stems from a concept in Zen Buddhism called Shoshin: “Having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would.” It's crucial to have an open mind and a growth mindset that enables you to be willing to experiment, seek feedback, and admit your fears and mistakes.
An important first step is to put your mind in an inquisitive, reflective state. Be ready to ask why; go deeper, question norms, assumptions, policies, and procedures. Question everything—even what I write here! Observe yourself and look for blind spots. Challenge my assumptions and yours at every step. Brain scientists have shown us that a remarkable number of things you do every day operate outside of your awareness—how you engage with the people around you; the way you conduct yourself in a meeting; the candidates you select for jobs; and even where, what, and with whom you eat. You do them automatically. You do them by habit. This is implicit bias, and you do it because your brain creates biased shortcuts to help you make decisions quickly.
