The Anti-Racist Organization. Shereen Daniels
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became one of LinkedIn's Top Voices for 2020 and won HR Most Influential Thinker 2021, awarded by a top UK HR publication. Considering that I speak about racism pretty much every day, these are a few of the ‘trophies’ I'm happy to display with pride. Along with that came the comments. The emails. The voice notes. Phone calls, tweets, DMs.
From CEOs, founders, investors, diversity and inclusion leads, chief people officers and colleagues who realised their organizations had a problem, or in some cases problems, plural. CEOs realised their companies were ‘too white’ and ‘too homogeneous’. The ‘About Us’ page on their websites suddenly became a focal point of conversation.
Diversity and inclusion leads quietly admitted that even under the banner of equity, their initiatives failed to specifically tackle race – not in depth and certainly not in a way that gave them any confidence their workplace cultures were genuinely welcoming of all colleagues.
Chief people officers didn't know how to lead the change and were either pressured to do something, fast(!), or encouraged to do nothing and ‘wait for the storm to pass’.
Investors responded to consumer pressure and public opinion and turned their focus to all white boards, citing governance risks due to a lack of diversity and social risks due to a failure to address social justice issues that have a material impact on people and communities.
Colleagues became vocal activists, collectively coming together across different ethnicities not only to demand change, but to hold leadership teams accountable for ‘walking the talk’ and addressing racial discrimination and harassment that was the unchallenged elephant in the room.
A moment in time on 25 May 2020 had changed everything.
This book is an opportunity. No matter how much I may make you wince with my uncompromising honesty in what needs to change and how, it is an opportunity for you to stay with me. But it is also a chance for you to be a role model of moral courage, because in order to go back to your company and ask your colleagues to scrutinise their relationship with racism, you have to be willing to do the same. And I would not ask you to do this, unless I too was doing the work.
Whilst at this stage you might feel tempted to close the book and pick it up again another day when you're more ‘in the mood’, all I require of you is to stay curious – curious enough to want to know more, to think creatively, to question workplace behaviours, systems and practices that until this point probably seemed normal, perhaps even natural.
Back to the point about writing a book that gives you all the answers: This isn't one of those.
Instead, I offer you a framework, based on thousands of conversations, of the transformative work I have spearheaded as part of leading my advisory firm, HR rewired. The information in this book utilises the experience I have in the challenges and immense opportunities open to us all when we embrace a growth mindset and remain open to new information, new experiences and new perspectives. Where appropriate, I'll share resources with you, places you can go for further insight, yet mostly I'm asking you to do the majority of the work.
Whilst there is only so much one book can cover, you can visit Shereen-daniels.com for further resources and guidance that align with the key themes we are about to explore.
I am a firm believer in co‐creation. Rather than tell you what to do, I will provide a foundation for you to explore and ask better questions, because only you can decide what being an anti‐racist organization looks and feels like.
Thus the way you apply the principles and perspectives outlined in this book will be based on several concepts:
How you define what your version of great looks like
How honest you are willing to be with yourself and your teams about the journey ahead
How committed you are to move beyond the temptation to focus on ‘low‐hanging fruit’ and instead prioritise and invest in programmes that make a difference for those most impacted
How willing you are to confront systemic racism and discrimination within your organization and your wider ecosystem
How comfortable you are to prioritise colleagues, suppliers, partners and other stakeholders who don't look like you.
Throughout each of the chapters you will also come across quotes, from an array of directors, leaders, DEI and HR leads who also struggled at times with their ignorance, discomfort and, in some cases, resentment about why this issue was now on their agenda. Perhaps their positioning is similar to yours, or to that of your colleagues or peers, and if so, that is something to reflect on.
Who Is This Book For?
A safe answer would be to say ‘everyone’. Everyone who cares, who wants to make a difference and be part of the solution. But as you'll come to realise, I'm direct and I like specifics. Because it means there is no room for misunderstanding, and we don't waste time and energy on things that make very little substantive difference to the issue at hand.
You have organizations to run. People to lead. Customers to engage and delight. Shareholders to keep happy. Communities to serve. And amongst all of that, a life to lead with people you hold dear. Time is precious. We don't have a lot of it and what we do have has to be used effectively.
The Anti‐Racist Organization: Dismantling Systemic Racism in the Workplace is a book for leaders. Particularly white leaders, who occupy the majority of executive positions in corporations on both sides of the Atlantic. Those of you who:
Suddenly found yourselves having to speak with confidence and clarity about an issue that you may have avoided talking about, both personally and professionally
Want to exercise your power, privilege and influence to exact change for groups of colleagues, who to varying degrees have been consistently silenced, marginalised and excluded from opportunities because of their ethnicity
Care about social justice and want to ensure that actions and interventions make a difference in a way that goes beyond ticking boxes
Want to align anti‐racism to your core values and business objectives in a way that is meaningful and not performative or tokenistic
Have the ability to put your head above the parapet, to ask tough questions of yourself and others, and be prepared to listen, really listen, and have your views, beliefs and perspectives of the world challenged
Are willing to work hard to resist feeling superior, of being the saviour, of taking action geared towards what looks good rather than what makes a difference and when times get tough, doesn't resort to “can't do right for doing wrong” thinking.
An End to Business Cases?
The business case for dismantling systemic racism is not one of economics. Many people have suggested I talk more about the financial benefits that come with addressing this, yet I don't need to, partly because there are plenty of studies and articles totaling how much exclusion costs our economies, but more importantly because I'm not about to build a business case to address inequality or basic human rights.
Instead, this book is an opportunity for those who want to hear from someone who has publicly and privately committed, day in and day out, to doing the work to unlock thousands of global conversations about race. Who has been doing the work with brands and organizations all over the world who decided they could no longer do nothing. Partnering with leaders who wanted to build deeper partnerships with their colleagues, customers and communities who wanted to evolve their cultures to become more anti‐racist, equitable and kind and who every day practice pushing past their discomfort and defensiveness about racism to understand the interconnectedness of all of our experiences, recognising it's impossible to separate what happens in society from what plays out within the four walls of their companies. And that the root causes of what negatively impacts one