Dr. Poornima Luthra is a globally recognised expert on developing inclusive workplaces.
She is Principal Lecturer at Imperial Business School, a Fortune 500 consultant, keynote speaker and award-winning author of several books, including her latest Can I Say That?, which explores the fear behind today’s DEI backlash and empowers courageous workplace conversations.
The biggest blocker to building truly inclusive workplaces is fear – fear of DEI, fear of those who are different from us, fear of getting it wrong, or saying the wrong thing, of causing offence without intent or even getting ‘cancelled’ for trying to advocate.
This fear is felt by well-represented and marginalised groups alike. Even DEI practitioners feel fear when it comes to championing inclusive workplaces. But here’s the thing – this fear can lead us into the trap of being passive bystanders to bias and discrimination at work.
As women in the tech sector know intimately, making our workplaces fairer for all isn’t just a “nice to have” – it’s the right thing to do. Because employees from marginalised groups deserve to have the same access to opportunities as their peers, and when DEI is done right, everybody benefits.
Here are three behaviours that we can all develop to turn fear into an opportunity to make our workplaces truly inclusive:
Openness
Many of us fear change. In the context of DEI, this can show up in many ways. We may be worried and anxious about the impact DEI initiatives will have on us, our position and the future opportunities available to us. We may even feel threatened by the need to give up space and power that we have enjoyed and held, or the right to express ourselves as we please.
To effectively address the root causes of this fear of change requires openness – openness to new and different experiences, ideas and ways of thinking and doing and, importantly, an openness to people who are different from us.
We can develop this openness by recognising our privilege. Once we become more aware of the lack of fairness in the systems and cultures around us and how that provides us with advantages that others do not have, it makes us more open to levelling the playing field.
When it comes to privilege, there are two things to keep in mind:
- For unearned advantages, such as skin colour or biological sex, we continue to benefit from systems and cultures around us that favour people who share the same advantages.
- For earned advantages, such as our education or job, acknowledging privilege does not mean negating the achievement or what it took to get there. Instead, recognising privilege means being open to reflect on how much harder it would have been for others who may have had to not only work hard but also overcome the lack of privilege.
Curiosity
If we want to make our workplaces more inclusive, we must first understand that our experiences of discrimination are not shared and, to understand that, we must educate ourselves. It is our responsibility to unlearn our pre-held beliefs, stereotypes and prejudices. Educating ourselves also involves challenging our pre-held beliefs and assumptions about what is good practice in our organisations.
When we feel that we don’t know enough about a topic when engaging on it with others, we may feel anxious or fearful, which, in turn, may keep us from engaging. We can seek help by practicing curiosity and asking questions like:
- ‘I would like to know more about this topic, can you point me in the right direction for some articles, podcasts and authors whose content I can read/listen to?’
- ‘Could you tell me more about this? It is not a topic I know a lot about and would love to know more.’
Once you have made the effort to educate yourself, take time to deeply reflect on what you have read/listened to. Dwell on it and go deep. Allow the know-how to be internalised. That’s when it has the potential to change our attitudes and behaviours.
Vulnerability
Discomfort, especially in the context of DEI, is inevitable. The journey towards embracing equity and inclusion will involve many moments of discomfort. Yet, the discomfort is natural and shows your commitment to this process. It is in this state of discomfort that we can learn the most about ourselves and how we interact with others.
Letting go of the fear of discomfort requires vulnerability to acknowledge that everyone is biased. We need to allow ourselves the grace and space to sit with the discomfort that comes from examining our biases, because in these moments of discomfort the desire to make change happen is born. In making space for vulnerability, we become comfortable with the discomfort and, in doing so, move towards making our workplaces more inclusive.
If DEI makes you uncomfortable, try to consider how someone from a marginalised group feels in situations where they are discriminated against. It may be only recently that you thought about your race and skin colour or sexual orientation. For others, especially those from underrepresented or marginalised groups, they must consider those factors all the time, and even when they are not thinking about their race and skin colour or sexual orientation, often they are reminded by others of the privilege they don’t have. Imagine that discomfort every time you feel discomfort. Taking a moment to think about others may help put the discomfort into perspective.
DEI requires long-term commitment to make systemic and cultural change. By practicing openness, curiosity and vulnerability, we can let go of our fears of change and discomfort and educate ourselves about discrimination, inspiring a mindset shift that moves us towards cultivating truly inclusive workplaces.
