Action Plan: How to Make Room for Diversity in Your Industry

Business

Jun 17

It has been a heavy two weeks in the country as we continue to demand that #BlackLivesMatter. With the frustration of so many people reaching its head, the demand for inclusion and diversity is one we cannot deny anymore. I’ve gotten a few questions about how to make true and effective moves to increase diversity in your business and my answer is always the same- it requires honesty, humility and true intention. There’s a fine line between diversity, tokenism and pandering. It’s important as a business owner to properly evaluate your purpose and process to be able to make long term sustainable changes.

Here are 6 ways to do the work and make room for diversity in your business.

1. Look within. First, do the work to identify your own conscious and unconscious biases. Your unconscious biases will be much more difficult to uncover, since, as the name suggests, you don’t realize you have them. There are multiple unconscious bias tests available online (Project Implicit, Tolerance) to help you identify these beliefs. Once you realize the biases you have, the next step is to actively work to dismantle them. Second, take a look at your employees and contractors to identify whether you employ any BIPOC. Are people who don’t look like you represented in your business? If the answer is no, change that with step two.

2. Prioritize hiring qualified BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) for the roles. If you have an open position in your business or are looking to hire a contractor to outsource some work, prioritize hiring qualified BIPOC for those roles. [Note that BIPOC don’t want you to hire them because of their race but because they are the best person for the job.]

3. Listen. Making the right changes is birthed from truly listening to your team and your clients and customers. Have your employees or contractors ever raised concerns about past actions of the company as a whole (like social media posts or press releases) or past behavior within the company? If so, listen to those concerns and take them seriously. Don’t just dismiss them. Don’t perpetuate a racist or hostile environment or company culture where your employees or contractors feel unsafe, disrespected, undervalued, or ignored. In addition, listen to feedback from your clients and customers. Have customers ever emailed you to ask for better representation of BIPOC in the images you use to promote your products or services? Have attendees of the conferences you produce ever expressed disappointment at the lack of BIPOC speakers or attendees? Listen to what BIPOC are saying. They are giving you a guidebook on what to do and how to change right now.

4. Learn. Pay anti-racism educators to teach you and your team about doing this work. Be sure not to exclude yourself from this equation. Reading articles online and Googling topics is a great start, but it’s not a complete education. An anti-racism educator knows how to structure the information they are presenting in a way that helps people actually learn the information. They know that this work is a combination of understanding how history impacts the structures and systems in place today and then adopting a critical lens through which to view society. This is not something you or your team can adequately self-learn. It is important to note that it is NOT the responsibility of any BIPOC within your company to explain to you what your company needs to be saying externally and internally right now. That is not their job and they are not getting paid to do that kind of emotional labor (nor should they be expected to do it even if they were getting paid). In addition, it is NOT the responsibility of your BIPOC friends to teach you any of this or to answer your questions or to be the sounding board for you to process your emotions. Some anti-racism or bias awareness consultants to check out are:

5. Leave room and make space. The default in your industry is to elevate the voices and work of the privileged. Do not keep contributing to that standard. Do your part to make space for the marginalized or under represented in your business. If someone is better suited for a role in leadership, make the steps to help elevate that person. Spotlight people who are doing amazing work in your industry. Amplify the voices and work of BIPOC in this industry (obviously being careful to not take credit for their words or their work). Also, consider highlighting the work of BIPOC on your team and the contractors you work with. Maybe you hired a BIPOC vendor to help you with your branding or marketing strategy. Show them some love publicly so others will hire them and support their businesses.

6. Collaborate with and refer BIPOC vendors and professionals. When friends or colleagues ask for recommendations for vendors to work with, make sure you’re including BIPOC in that list of recommendations. Aside from striving to work with more BIPOC within your own business, find a way to bring BIPOC into cool collaborations and important conversations. Or maybe you’ve been given an opportunity to partner with a brand with a big following. Bring in BIPOC vendors to work with you on that project. Find a way to make room and then bring them to the table with you. Have you been given an opportunity to speak on a panel or conference? Ask the organizer how many BIPOC will be on the panel with you. If the answer is none or one, suggest BIPOC they can add and let them know that you won’t participate unless there is better representation.

This is by no means an all-inclusive list on how to achieve diversity but it’s a good place to start. True change takes hard work no matter how uncomfortable it is. Here’s to a more diverse future together.