When my younger son was about 18 months old, I recall how amused he would get by our reactions. I recall a time when we had some guests over at our house and happened to be doing a diaper change. After I had cleaned up all the mess from this little guy’s haul for the day from all that good food, I folded the diaper, turned around and sent it down one of those ‘diaper genies’ we had in the room. In those few moments, the little guy had bolted out of the room diaper-less and was headed to an audience in the living room. While his older brother laughed at this situation (like he always did), thankfully, my reflexes (well learned from the older brother’s toddler years) kicked in and was able to quickly grab him off his feet, back into my arms with the fresh diaper going on him in a matter of seconds. I cannot think of a truer form of authenticity than the first few years of our lives. That period in our lives when we are well unaware of what consequences mean and live our lives with no filter.
Over the last eighteen months, there has been an incredible number of organizations that have taken steps to strategically adopt or embed Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) into their fabric. While this is incredible news, I remain cautiously optimistic as I’m also aware that there are quite a few out there who have not taken any steps at all to embark on this journey for reasons best known to them (this includes the `all hat no cattle’). This adoption of EDI presents a new shift in how organizations have always conducted themselves and how they view people. You will notice that I have used embedding EDI into the fabric of the organization as I am yet to come across any policy, process, position or aspect of the functioning of any organization that is an exemption to an EDI lens. This observation however begs the question, `is there legitimacy in any profession without EDI as a core competency?’, one that I would want to examine further.
About a year ago, a colleague invited me into a bidding opportunity at a large food processing organization. The opportunity here was to provide Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) consulting services as they undertook their strategic ten-year plan. The Leadership team insisted that they preferred someone with experience in the food processing industry which neither of us had. I was taken aback by this request as I couldn’t connect the relationship between the scope of the bidding opportunity and the experience within the industry. Nevertheless, we challenged this request, but they insisted. We scoured our networks and could not find anyone with that type of industry experience and so we both decided to move on. Fast forward four months after this situation, another consulting partner that I had worked with reached out on an opportunity. Turned out that it was the same food processing organization and had hired a friend to this consulting partner to take the initiative on. This consultant had some previous contracting experience in another scope within the food processing industry and required my expertise. Unfortunately, I had to turn this opportunity down as I was out of capacity.
Having worked with various Professionals across multiple industries now, I’ve noticed that these experiences are more common-place than we can imagine and happen everyday across various industries and organizations. This phenomenon of conditioning brought about by the elements or aspects of one’s profession or industry is one I believe warrants some unpacking and will term `Profession Bias’.
I recall an incident a few years ago at a gas station where this irate customer had pumped his gas and was unable to pay at the pump. The interac payment service was down at all pumps and everyone had to pay inside the store. It was quite cold and crispy that day and I happened to be waiting in line when this man walked into the store and the first thing he said, “..of course it had to be two [racial slur], nothing seems to work in this country nowadays with you people around..”. There were two clerks at the till, both of South Asian descent, who were both caught by surprise and shocked at what was happening and stood in silence. Two other people in line and I swiftly intervened by letting this man know that it was not okay to say what he had said. This swift response seemed to have caught him in surprise while he remained reluctant to take any words back and had the nerve to let everyone know that it was a free country, and he was entitled to say whatever he wanted. In this commotion, one of the clerks gathered the courage to speak up and asked him to leave the store or he would call the police. This man then pulled a fifty-dollar bill out of his wallet, threw it onto the floor and left.
Our world is complex, difficult to navigate and one that requires thoughtful resolve. Through my own experiences and observations, we live in a world that is largely exclusive. One that caters to a select group of people while leaving others out, tilting power and privilege dynamics which eventually influence the majority. I say this having benefited from this imbalance at times while also being on the receiving end of the short end of the stick. I am also cognizant that not everyone may necessarily recognize exclusivity in this context. We all experience inequities differently based on various factors such as identity in gender, race, religious views or background, education, profession etc. This recognition of `exclusive spaces’ was not always apparent to me and may not be apparent to you as you read this, so I encourage you to keep reading. Let’s explore exclusive spaces.
I have seen countless examples of minimization which are prevalent in our society leaving so many impacted lives with no resolve. Please allow me to highlight a few examples. A news agency reported “Black customer recounts ‘degrading’ treatment at Ottawa bank branch”. The news agency reported that the bank offered ‘an unreserved public apology’ which read, “[the bank] is committed to providing a level of excellence for those we serve, and when an individual has the courage to speak out, we have a responsibility to listen and take appropriate action."
A couple years ago, I remember speaking to a good friend of mine who happened to be one of my direct reports at the time. Like many of my relationships within the workplace, I never allowed the reporting structure to obscure the human element and so for me, it was important to build genuine relationships with all my direct reports.
The recent Oprah interview with Meghan & Harry stirred up many conversations within households, workspaces, governments, and all in between that you can think of. Some people were glad that they spoke up, some felt offended, some were shocked, some weren’t, some felt a sense of relief, others felt betrayed, others confused, some raged with sincere anger plus an exhaustive list of feelings generated by the interview.
“[Insert Corporation] is seeking to increase Black employees throughout the company by 20%”. “We recognize we have work to do”, [Insert “I have a dream speech” & a few references to police shootings & declines to provide a current state of the corporation or timeline to achieve new set targets]
“Hey Kevin, so what size of pants do you wear?” said a former colleague who was my senior where everyone burst out in laughter with the exception of one woman who was in the room. I nervously laughed it off as this was all so confusing as I was not sure how I ended up being part of this conversation and most importantly, did not really know how to react.
2020 was a year unlike any other for most of us. A year of pause, a year of grief/ loss, a year of pain, a year of milestones, a year of personal achievements, a year of awakening, a year of reflections, a year that tested boundaries that some may have never imagined, simply a year best defined by you.
Biases exist everywhere in our society. They are deeply embedded in our day to day lives and can be difficult to avoid even with the most conscious minds. Let’s start off with an exercise.
In a time when we are facing a racial awakening, I found it of particular importance to explore something that most of us are so blind to. Privilege. Every step of any improvement in our lives affords us privilege. With the very first breath we take at birth to coming of age as adults, we are all afforded some type of privilege. Our society however faced many injustices that categorized life as we understand it today.
2020 has been quite the year of re-awakening. A year that has not only managed to break physical social ties but exposed the skeletons in our closets. Families and communities have been ravaged by COVID in a way that we will perhaps never quantify the impact whereas if it is not a loss of life, many have lost a way of life.