September 2, 2020
By Carmen Morris, Forbes
Lots of organizations are looking to revise strategic focus on the race inclusion agenda. Over the last few months, spurred by the global protests around racism, organisations are taking tentative steps to build strategies to enable racial inclusion. Whilst this is encouraging, there are several mistakes that leadership should avoid at all costs, that will help to produce both an authentic, and fit for purpose program of work.
Progress will come, but it is not a fast process. Inevitably, there will be hard, deep work, to be undertaken to address systemic problems. Organisational systems need a reboot and many have started along the journey of addressing systemic racism. Operational systems and functions that help to embed inequalities, need repurposing, and listening and learning from diverse employee groups, and others, around the imperatives of how to build projects that support inclusion, is key.
In the past, dominant narratives have rarely been accurate around race, and window dressing cannot help to address systemic racism. Leadership must be proactive in developing transparent and inclusive agendas around diversity.
Now, in an age where race and ethnicity is a key focus of discussion, particularly when it comes to institutional systems and organizational behaviours, narratives and paradigms around race inclusion agendas, must now adapt. There are 6 critical mistakes that can quickly undermine your diversity and inclusion program.