Systemic and Cultural Change to Achieve Equity is Hard

Systemic and cultural change is hard. Especially when it involves efforts to achieve equity. It needs to be more than just platitudes and socially conscious statements and hashtags in response to peer and public pressure. It takes hard work. It takes commitment. And it requires a willingness to have difficult conversations, to be honest with yourself, and to be vulnerable and not defensive. 

If you've ever asked your kids to vacuum, you're familiar with the tendency to just run the vacuum over the main high traffic strip and ignore the edges and the corners. To not move furniture and cords aside to get to where the cobwebs and real dust might be.

I've been involved in various capacities with several organizations over the years that have fallen into this trap. I've been involved with organizations that have spoken of a commitment to youth engagement, with no one on the board, working group, or executive team that's proposing the strategy, who was under the age of 40. I've been a part of organizations that have spoken of the need for gender equity while having not a single female member of the leadership team, and while encouraging an environment of sexism to foster and grow. I've been a member of an organization that has developed and championed a Francophone engagement strategy, while refusing to do any real consultation with its Francophone customers. I've been a part of organizations that have put on prestigious fundraising events to raise money for marginalized groups, whose members aren't ever invited to these events other than the one or two exceptional ones who are paraded on stage, presented with awards and invited to say a few heartfelt words to make the patrons feel good about themselves. The patrons of these events happily write cheques for these marginalized people, but most never engage with or associate with them in any meaningful way.

For systemic cultural change to occur within your organization, those in positions of privilege, who are part of what constitutes the default or 'normal,' need to recognize and acknowledge their privilege and use it to provide a voice for those who aren't. 

Empathy is one of the most challenging human characteristics, because it requires the ability to refrain from seeing the world only through your lens or world view. Personal privilege and implicit bias are extremely difficult to recognize, and even more difficult to acknowledge, for the same reason that fish never discover water. It surrounds you 24/7, so you simply breathe it in without even noticing it. The only time you notice it, is usually if it's taken away, like when a fish is taken out of water. It's a shock to your system and you feel extremely uncomfortable and disoriented. Thus to people who are used to privilege, calls for equality often feel like oppression.

Hence, you frequently hear men push back against calls for gender equity and to #MeToo with accusations that "men are under attack" and "men aren't allowed to do anything anymore" (as if being prohibited from sexually harassing staff is oppression). Or we hear as an impassioned response to calls for racial equity, nativist mantras such as: 'Make America Great Again' and 'Brexit,' or the misguided but oft heard accusation of 'reverse racism.'

I've actually heard accomplished white male executives express discomfort at being in meetings where they are the minority, where for example, they are in a room full of mostly female decision makers. They speak of feeling "ganged up on" and complain that their voice and opinions were being silenced or ignored at critical times. Or where they are in a room where the majority of decision makers are people of colour, because it's jarringly different from what they are used to as the norm. So try to imagine how it feels every single day for women and people of colour in senior positions in most organizations, to always be in the minority and to feel that their voice and perspective is too easily silenced and ignored as irrelevant. Who have to constantly police their tone and stifle their objections for fear of making those in positions of power and privilege feel uncomfortable. Or imagine being a very young executive whose views are silenced because those around the table feel she/he isn't experienced enough to have a valid point of view.

Many men vociferously protested newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's commitment to appoint a 50% female Cabinet as being 'discriminatory;' and 'not being based on merit.' Yet none of these same people had a problem with the majority white male cabinets Canada has had for decades. Are you seriously suggesting that every one of these men were appointed purely because of merit? None of these people protest when they enter Board rooms and are part of executive meetings with mostly straight white male participants. We will have achieved equity when deliberately insulated environments like that make everyone uncomfortable.

It is important to recognize our own privilege. Studies show that candidates with White Anglo Saxon Protestant sounding names have a 40% greater chance of getting called for an interview than candidates with names categorized as Asian or Black sounding. This despite having the exact same skills and qualifications. Much of this filtering is due to implicit bias under the guise of the nebulous concept labelled 'fit.' Studies show that women are paid significantly less than men for doing the exact same job while having the exact same qualifications. Black Canadians and Americans are paid almost 20% less than their white counterparts who have the exact same qualifications and education. And the pay gap actually increases the higher they go. Research studies conducted in Milwaukee and New York in 2001 and 2004 showed that a white candidate with a criminal record has the same chance of getting a job as a black candidate with no criminal record. These are not coincidences. 

Women and especially people of colour, are criminally underrepresented on the Boards and executive teams of top Canadian companies. It would be easy to dismiss this reality as being due to a lack of qualified candidates. But study after study shows this is not the case. Most senior Board recruitment is done by referrals from existing Board members. So if you have a mostly homogeneous board, their referrals are likely to be others who fit the same profile, who frequent the same circles and the same golf and country clubs. A US study reveals that 70% of white Americans have an all white social network. A recent study reveals that none of Canada's leading banks and financial institutions has a black Board member. Not one. This isn't because of lack of qualified candidates, it's because of lack of opportunities and people not willing to look beyond their comfort zone.

Similarly, most C Suite and Executive Recruitment is also done within a very closed circle and based on referrals. Recruiting firms also don't generally have a deep pool of candidates whose profiles don't fit the status quo. Many recruiters are also reticent about sending candidates who don't fit the status quo, for fear they will be rejected based on 'fit.'

When individuals of colour and those from marginalized groups: LGBTQ, differently abled, women, etc. make it to the top of the pyramid, their presence is often used to discount the existence of systemic discrimination and implicit bias. i.e. "if she/he made it everybody can if they just work hard." This belies the fact that for instance, there were highly accomplished black doctors, scientists, lawyers and politicians in the US even at the height of horrific Jim Crow discrimination. I often use the analogy that if you placed Jamaican sprinters Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake in their primes one or two metres behind everyone else at the start of most 100 metre races, they would both still likely finish first and second. Their excellence in winning the race doesn't negate the fact that they had to overcome a significant obstacle that no one else did.

The election of Barack Obama as US President has often been hailed as sign of progress by the African American community. But that is misguided and actually an insult to the African American community. It implies that Barack Obama is the first African American who was ever qualified to be President, when in fact there have been African Americans more than qualified to be US President for centuries. Obama was just the first one ever given the opportunity. Similarly, women receiving the right to vote is viewed as a sign of progress by women, when the real fundamental change was actually to men's archaic mindset which previously denied women the right to vote.

Consider also the blind spot of this year's grand celebrations of the 100 year anniversary of women receiving the right to vote in the US, when ALL American women didn't get the right to vote until just 1965 with the passing of the Voting Rights Act that finally granted the franchise to African Americans. This despite the fact that many African American women were front and centre fighting in the movement which granted all white American women the right to vote in 1920.

Change is hard. And it's not inevitable. Time is neutral and changes nothing. Committed individuals make progressive change happen by taking deliberate intentional steps. Without real systemic and cultural change, any social advances are fragile and tenuous, and can be reversed and eroded simply by a change in leadership or political environment, because it is not entrenched in the organizational culture. I'm talking about inclusion, not just diversity, which is about checking off numbers. I'm talking about creating an environment where people of diverse backgrounds feel safe and are welcomed and included, and are part of leadership decisions.

This isn't just a moral imperative. Studies show that organizations with diverse leadership teams are significantly more profitable and more effective. Diverse points of view and perspectives leads to better and more innovative ideas. This should be obvious.

Be a part of real transformational change. Make an effort to engage with and really listen to people from outside your default circle, who may have a different lived experience. Listen without being defensive and don't dismiss their real lived experience. Help to create a safe environment where they can share their experiences without feeling judged or stigmatized, or worried that your feelings are more important than their story. This is a lesson we all need to take to heart. We all need to examine and acknowledge how and where we have benefited from our privilege and take steps to rectify it.

Be the change you want to see.

"The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” ― Albert Einstein

The only way that we can live, is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we change. The only way that we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way that we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the open. Do it. Throw yourself.” ― C. JoyBell C.

#change #equity #diversityandinclusion #systemicchange #unconsciousbias #culturematters