Building an Inclusive Organization summary

Researchers from Princeton University conducted an experiment in which participants were shown two photographs. They were asked to decide which of the subjects looked more competent. Unbeknownst to the participants, these photos were of two candidates in a US congressional election. Sure enough, the candidate that the participants had decided looked more competent was indeed more successful, and won their races around 70 percent of the time. 

But what makes someone look competent? Their clothes? Their ease before the camera? We make these kinds of superficial judgments about people all the time. This is called unconscious bias, which means we have judgments and beliefs that shape how we think and interpret information. 

In 2017, 45 top female performers wrote to BBC director Tony Hall to complain about the gender pay gap. Notably, not one male performer had signed the letter. It was seen as being a “female” issue, or a feminist issue, and so was left for women to fight, without any participation from the men who were benefitting from the pay disparity.

The key message here is: Men need to start worrying about the gender pay gap.

It’s a tradition in the famous Tour de France cycle race to give both the first and last cyclist to cross the finish line an award. While the winner is given a yellow jersey, the loser is given a red lantern, in recognition that they were lighting the way from behind. 

It’s easy to see the winner’s strengths. They were fast and nimble and demonstrated their sporting prowess. It’s much harder to see the value of the losing cyclist. But the loser demonstrated different qualities that are no less important, such as perseverance, stamina, and determination. As a team, the winning and losing cyclists complement each other, each bringing different strengths to the table. 

One of the authors, Raafi-Karim Alidina, always dresses up and makes sure to smile at security when he’s walking through an airport. That’s because he knows that as a Muslim man, people will subconsciously associate him with being a threat, or a “terrorist.” The New York Times columnist Brent Staples has taken to whistling Vivaldi when he walks home at night because he noticed that his very presence on the street frightened the white people he encountered. By whistling “white” music, he puts them at ease. Both men are very familiar with minority stress: the experience of constantly trying to fit in with the dominant culture, and reassure everyone else they pose no threat.

Efforts towards improving diversity in the workplace are usually aimed at trying to help minority employees assimilate more seamlessly by, for instance, offering them workshops. But this doesn’t solve the problem. In fact, minorities already know how to adapt; they do it all the time. The people who need to work at it are men – specifically, the white men who lead companies and therefore play such a disproportionate role in creating the company culture.

These days, unconscious bias workshops are ubiquitous. While this heightened awareness is great, studies have shown that knowing you’re biased isn’t enough to change your behavior. In fact, it could have the opposite effect; people may become complacent after attending training, and fail to interrogate their deeply-entrenched biases. 

To really change the culture of a company, you have to go beyond awareness and focus on concrete actions. These actions shouldn’t be sporadic and individualized, but rather, embedded in the daily functioning of the company. 

British comedian Lenny Henry was knighted by the Queen. But on ITV News, another Black man was seen accepting the award. They’d played the wrong footage. This blunder is indicative of the fact that TV news crews are often almost entirely white. In this instance, they didn’t have the cultural competence to realize that they weren’t actually showing footage of Lenny Henry. 

When we look closely at specific industries, we see how destructive it is that they are largely white and culturally homogenous. We also discover how different industries mount different obstacles to becoming diverse and inclusive. 

Try typing “three Black teenagers” into Google Images. You’ll be greeted with row upon row of mugshots. Do the same for “three white teenagers,” and you’ll see image after image of sporty young people. 

While technology is often heralded as a utopian solution to countless problems, this example shows that it’s not free of bias. An investigation by ProPublica revealed that an algorithm, COMPAS, used to try and predict whether those previously convicted of crimes would reoffend, was twice as likely to incorrectly suggest a Black person would reoffend as their white counterparts. Technology is created by people who embed their own racism and biases into the programs they create. It further exemplifies the urgent necessity to tackle diversity in the workplace.