Are you ‘good-ish’ enough? How to be better at driving change in D&I.

Most of us would probably think of ourselves as being a good person, right? We know we’re not perfect but we try to do the best by our families and we’re there for our friends and colleagues.

I’m posing this question because of a fascinating conversation I had last week with Sarah Minor-Massy. Sarah is a behavioural scientist who describes herself on LinkedIn as a Diversity & Inclusion Revolutionary (I love that - what a great title!).

Sarah drew my attention to a book by social psychologist Dolly Chugh, ‘The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias.’ Later that day I was sitting in my kitchen listening to Dolly’s book. In it, she explains that when we believe an injustice exists, but then don’t do anything about it, it can deepen the problem.

Are we doing enough?

Dolly’s refreshing approach to diversity and inclusion begins with each of us looking inwardly at ourselves. She explains that our mind’s shortcuts can sometimes lead us astray: consciously we might have egalitarian views, but under the surface we may inadvertently be holding unconscious biases.

It’s not enough therefore to simply believe in equality, diversity and inclusion. We have to go further. We need to be what Dolly calls a good-ish— rather than a simply good - person.

Good-ish people are always growing. They recognise their ‘privilege’ — the part of their everyday identity they take for granted. This means race for a white person, sexual orientation for a straight person, gender for a man. And a good-ish person doesn’t hide behind their own assumptions of themselves, stating “well I’m a good person, and I’m already doing enough.”

Dolly’s book got me thinking - how can we better help colleagues who haven’t been included in the same way or given the same opportunities as the majority? How can we practically make a difference when it comes to Diversity & Inclusion?

As a female leader it’s easy for me to be confident and authentic on inclusion when I’m talking about women. But how to do so about other minority groups, whether that’s people of colour or LGBTQ+. How do I - and how can each of us - help fuel the conversation so that it’s heartfelt and authentic?

I believe the key is allyship.

Allyship

In the November/December issue of Harvard Business Review the authors of the article ‘Be A Better Ally’ define allyship as a device used by individuals to become “collaborators, accomplices, and co-conspirators who fight injustice and promote equity in the workplace through supportive personal relationships and public acts of sponsorship and advocacy.”

Allyship sees us build relationships with our colleagues from minority or underrepresented groups in order to drive change. It means we will actively promote the advancement of inclusion. We commit to being supporters and advocates of those groups in the workplace.

Allies within Ericsson

Getting everyone on board starts with honest and open discussion, which is something Sarah Minor-Massy and I will be doing at the end of this month, hosting an allyship panel inside Ericsson. Joining us will be some colleagues from across MELA who are already doing great work in this area.

In Brazil, improvement & performance manager Marcelo Goldstein is helping our leaders understand the Latino community and the challenges our Latino colleagues may face. One of his recent projects has been a partnership with a university on identifying and dealing with hate speech. In Iberia, sales engagement principal Juan Calero Gonzalez has started an allyship with people with disabilities. It’s a subject he’s passionate about as his youngest son has the genetic disorder Fragile X syndrome. My nephew Max also has Fragile X so it’s something close to my heart. Juan serves on the board of several non-profit organizations that provide services for people with disabilities. These are just two great examples of our colleagues being active allies, both inside and outside the company.

The steps we can take

As Dolly’s book makes clear to me, we need more than good intentions. We need to be proactive with this. Of course, it’s an organisation’s responsibility to promote an inclusive culture and to remove bias from systems. But organisations are made up of people and it’s individual acts that create culture.

And it’s not up to minority groups to drive change. It’s the responsibility for the majority to move things forward. Through allyship the majority must help, support and advocate for the minority. Otherwise, we won’t get there. Together, each of us in the majority can start to change our own behaviours in service of a more inclusive world.

Certainly I can be an ally to the women’s network, and I'm proud to be the new UK women’s network sponsor and show up for that group. But now I need to pay attention to what being a better ally means to some of the other networks. How can I learn and understand more of their needs? That’s the challenge to myself.

So can we be vulnerable enough to accept - and own - our shortcomings? Once we do this, we can begin to educate ourselves. We can speak up about injustice when we see it. Sponsor marginalised colleagues. Insist on diverse candidates when hiring. Build a community of allies and help us all to become the ‘good-ish’ people that are needed to make change happen.

Let’s grow in this space together and learn from each other’s ideas. I’d love to hear from you in the comments - what are the steps we can put in place to be the best allies we can be in the workplace?