5Cs to shift the dial on Inclusion in 2023

It was the 5th of November 2008 and like many around the world, viewers in the UK (myself included) had been glued to their screens to see Barack Obama declared first black president of the United State of America. The promise of that historic event was reflected in the hope on this man’s face. “Well, the beginning of the end”, I replied. Looking back on that day more than 14 years ago and thinking of the deeper concerns around the race conversation in the USA and around the world, I was right to temper my optimism with caution.

Since then, there has been a greater outcry and most objective observers admit that event has done little to shift the dial on racial equity. The moments that are at first seen as watersheds become fleeting at best, leading us all to doubt that true change is possible. These sentiments are not new; they are reflected in the words of writer Jean-Baptise Alphonse Karr (“la plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose”) which written in English mean, “the more things change the more they stay the same” The same can be said of the increased conversation that followed the tragic murder of George Floyd and the broadening of the diversity conversation that followed. There is no doubt that some companies made advances. At AFBE-UK we have seen our corporate membership grow to almost 70 corporate partners and while this is encouraging, it would be unwise to mistake this for true progress.

Real progress involves cultivating an environment that is psychologically safe and enabling enough for people to give their best at work. It’s about ensuring that our organisations reflect, at all levels the communities in which we operate. I have seen first-hand the dance of persuasion that many EDI champions must do with the stakeholders to get the goahead for initiatives. The truth is that in most companies the responsibility for cultural change rest on the shoulders of particularly passionate individuals or on the HR department by default. These committed individuals either move on, get promoted or burn out and give up, all the changes they sought to make get undone and we are left wondering why “…things stay the same”. In the meantime, we encounter business challenges that are would be mitigated in an inclusive environment where every voice counts and fail to connect the dots. Having seen this happen repeatedly in organisations it’s hard not to be sceptical about change being truly possible. It’s no wonder the civil rights campaigner Angela Davis described EDI as the “difference that doesn’t make a difference”

For lasting change to occur, companies must move away from the “volunteer-based or CSR” model and instead draw lessons from the world of safety. This means businesses ensuring that inclusivity is interwoven into all its facets and is included in its performance indicators i.e., is viewed as a key part of what makes a business work. So, what does change look like? I believe there are 5Cs that will help your company shift the dial in the new year.

The first is Candour by which I mean an open and honest conversation about how the business is doing and how all employees truly feel about your efforts. This should not only include people from minoritised group but employees from the majority who may fear the zero-sum game in which the proposed changes stand to disadvantage them.

The second is Cohesion; far too often companies engage in divergent efforts to achieve the same goal. Efforts on inclusion are also rarely tied to business performance. This makes it impossible to monitor the impact of our efforts e.g., does your plan for long term diversity include your STEM outreach to young pupils in your area or does it begin with graduate intake?

Is your company seeking to understand how cognitive diversity is helping the business reach better outcomes? Does your work on diversity extend to your supply chain? Do middle managers see diversity as a tool for better outcomes or just a nice to have? Without these considerations we will have plenty of activity but little productivity.

The third is Consistency which involves sustained effort in doing actions repeatedly. One-off lunch and learn sessions will not make your company more inclusive. It’s not what we do momentarily but what we do habitually that leads to change. In the energy sector we have safety woven into all our processes and decision gates. Can we do the same with inclusion in all its forms? Can your company alternate safety moments with inclusion moments to really embed inclusion into our culture.

The fourth is Continuity – Few things are more damaging to EDI efforts than this. It’s about succession planning and understanding how EDI programmes enhances the business. On Offshore installations we have safety cases (i.e., a structured argument, supported by evidence, intended to justify that a system is acceptably safe for a specific application in a specific operating environment). We need a similar approach for diversity and inclusion.

At AFBE-UK it is quite common to see a stalling of progress when a new diversity lead is appointed. This will not happen if we have continuity priced into the theory of change

The fifth change is a Coalition because, benefit for the minoritised groups often means growth for all. Back in 2008, it was the dramatic racial bias of Subprime Lending during the housing boom that eventually led to the global financial crises that affected us all. Diversity is not a zero-sum game, and so far from a charitable act for the sake of the underrepresented, a coalition of allies against injustice benefits us all.

This year AFBE-UK was pleased to launch the first ever ethnicity indexing tool the Engineering Ethnicity Index to help companies benchmark their progress on racial equity. We hope in 2023 that many more join us in our quest to make our sector more equitable.

Article by Dr Ollie Folayan MBE