The start of a new year is a time for reflection on the past and making plans for the future. Many big events and social shifts have happened even since 2020, with no sign of the pace of change slowing any time soon. Now, perhaps more than any time in recent memory, organisations are expected to respond to, or at least be aware of, wider world events and the impact they have on staff.<\/p>\n
Events including the murders of George Floyd and Sarah Everard, the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on minoritized groups, the war in Ukraine, climate change and global movements such as Black Lives Matter has forced organisations to confront these inequalities.<\/p>\n
Inclusion has for many employers become inescapable. All of this is positive; we are seeing genuine change happen, finally, at organisational level not just interpersonal. However, this shift brings risks with it. The risk now is that the actions taken can be performative, tokenistic and disingenuous.<\/p>\n
Performative means it is a \u2018performance\u2019, it is done for show. When actions are performative the purpose is to make the individual or organisation look good without thinking about what will benefit marginalised and underserved communities. Actions may lack integrity, words and actions aren\u2019t aligned and organisations are not fulfilling their promises and commitments.<\/p>\n
Tokenism is similar: it means symbolic or performative efforts are made to create the appearance of equality, diversity or inclusion without actually creating genuine change.<\/p>\n
Performative or tokenistic actions are not always deliberate. For many organisations, they aren\u2019t consciously setting out to pay lip service, get some good PR and then move on. Of course, for some organisations this is exactly what they do, but often it is a result of well-meaning but na\u00efve attempts to do good, or knee-jerk reactions coming from a place of panic or fear,<\/p>\n
If we look at responses to George Floyd\u2019s murder and the subsequent popularisation of Black Lives Matter, many organisations rushed to act. Unfortunately, this led to knee-jerk responses and tokenistic actions such as Instagram \u2018black squares\u2019 during the peak of Black Lives Matter in Summer 2020, the proliferation of which were widely criticised by Black people at the time<\/a>. However, where many people and organisations moved beyond performative or tokenistic actions came after the event.<\/p>\n As this article<\/a> from Pascale Diverlus explores, for many organisations the Black Lives Matter movement spurred them into making genuine change. These organisations muddled through taking actions, making mistakes, learning and growing as they found new directions. This is the key to avoiding performative or unsustainable inclusion change: your first step might be performative, or even a bit na\u00efve, but you follow it up with consistent action and accountability.<\/p>\n These tokenistic or performative actions don\u2019t work precisely because they aren\u2019t genuine: they are rarely attached to concrete actions and often don\u2019t look at the wider context of an organisation\u2019s cultural and inclusion challenges. In addition, people can tell when something isn\u2019t genuine, and the biggest risk is that a lack of authenticity delegitimises your inclusion efforts. Once that trust has been broken it is difficult to re-engage staff, as they will always be wary of your true intentions.<\/p>\n Performative inclusion can also lead to fatigue for those attempting to influence change and a subsequent disengagement. It damages reputation and trust \u2013 both internally and externally. <\/p>\n Common examples of performative inclusion and diversity include:<\/p>\n Often performative inclusion is about grand gestures or big words without any actions, for example, statements of outrage on social media without actually taking any action; or having internal Inclusion and Diversity commitment statements that don\u2019t have \u2018teeth\u2019 when it comes to accountability and governance.<\/p>\n Performative and tokenistic actions are often:<\/p>\n My top tip for avoiding these situations is to stop, breathe and think. Be vigilant for when you and other people are rushing to make decisions and reacting in a hurry rather than thoughtfully responding. Engage your higher-order thinking skills: creativity, curiosity and collaboration.<\/p>\n Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom<\/em>.<\/p>\n Viktor Frankl<\/em><\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Your first step for any inclusion and diversity change should be taking a holistic view of your organisation. For instance, you could undertake the Inclusive Employers Standard<\/a> to establish your baseline and use the report to build an action plan.<\/p>\n Be rigorous in how you define the success or failure of any interventions. Accountability is key, so make sure you build a clear governance structure. <\/p>\n What actually changes for people as a result of an action?<\/p>\n What does your data tell you? <\/p>\n Self-evaluate and ensure your words and your actions are in sync.<\/p>\n Real change takes time. It involves dismantling inequalities that are systemic, institutional and embedded in our processes, ways of working and culture. <\/p>\n Support your organisations to understand that there are no \u201cquick fixes\u201d, and work needs to be transformational, ongoing and consistent.<\/p>\n Deloitte research<\/a> suggests that organizations frequently underestimate the depth of the change required, adopting a compliance-oriented or programmatic approach to diversity and inclusion. <\/p>\n For most organizations, change requires a culture reset. To be meaningful it cannot be a series of HR initiatives but needs to be a layer over everything your organisation does. Think about your customers, marketing, IT, supply chain, and facilities.<\/p>\n Before taking action around I&D undertake a deeper examination of needs, goals and motives to understand why inclusion action is essential and what you are trying to achieve. This will help to connect with your driving force for change and propel real action.<\/p>\n To be meaningful inclusion needs broad engagement and the work cannot be left to underrepresented and marginalised communities. Individuals can be given the burden of speaking up for their group, and are put in the spotlight often without regard to their existing workload and position. <\/p>\n Work undertaken should be informed by the lived experience and expertise of those that experience injustices but not left to them to carry out.<\/p>\n When you don\u2019t know the answers, Inclusive Employers can help. Here are some ways Inclusive Employers can help:<\/p>\n Many of our account managers have previously been internal I&D colleagues, so we understand what you\u2019re facing, please feel free to be open with us.<\/p>\nHow performative I&D has a negative impact <\/h2>\n
Examples of performative I&D<\/h2>\n
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How to avoid performative I&D and what you should do instead<\/h2>\n
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1. Look at the bigger picture<\/h3>\n
2. Build accountability<\/h3>\n
3. Be prepared for the journey<\/h3>\n
4. Connect to the purpose<\/h3>\n
5. Engage allies<\/h3>\n
How Inclusive Employers can support you in 2023<\/h2>\n
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