BUILDING A RACE EQUITY CULTURE

Month 18 Challenge

Every day in the workplace, individuals face challenges being their authentic selves. As leaders and colleagues, we each have a role to play in creating inclusive workspaces. Diverse perspectives enrich our workplaces, and studies are showing that involving diverse voices improves performance, problem solving and decision making. Yet, people of color and women are underrepresented in C-Suite, upper management, and Board roles compared to their representation in the overall working population. The culture of an organization provides insight into the racial dynamics and racial equity/parity within the organization. This week we will focus on how you can create a race equity culture at work.

Please choose two or more of the below activities to complete:

ACTIVITY 1

Read the 2-pager Building a Race Equity Culture in the Social Sector or download the full report entitled Awake to Woke to Work: Building a Race Equity Culture. Focus on the explanation of dominant culture in the context of building a race equity culture, found in the two-page executive summary on pages 2-3. Explore ways you can help build a race equity culture in your organization, neighborhood, and/or community.

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ACTIVITY 2

Listen to this podcast featuring Harvard Business Review co-hosts Alison Beard and Dan McGinn responding to some common challenges faced by businesses in promoting diversity and inclusion in their workplace (transcript included). Explore ways to help support your organizational leadership to promote diversity and inclusion.

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ACTIVITY 3

Get comfortable with words and language to engage in more inclusive and respectful dialogue — learn from Racial Equity Tools’ new Glossary of Racial Equity Terms. Examine which terms youmay have been using that need to be replaced with more appropriate racial equity terms.

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ACTIVITY 4

Take courage by knowing you are not alone, watch this 3-minute video shedding light on common struggles people face bringing their authentic selves to the workplace. Reflect on struggles your colleagues (family or friend group) may be facing in bringing their authentic selves into space with you. Explore ways you contribute to this phenomenon.

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