We were asked why we don’t post about every single awareness day or month.
This was the answer, (but maybe we’re missing something so we’d love hear your opinion if you think this stance could be more nuanced.)
We don’t post about every single awareness event because we’d be posting only about that.
And if that’s all a company did when it comes to EDI, we’d advise them to do some more meaningful work too, like
🎂- asking themselves difficult questions about the levels of inclusion at their company
🥮- understanding their demographic data, not just looking at gender and race
🥞- exploring whether their SLT are capable in having conversations about EDI (and whether they’ve had a chance to confidentiality air their actual views as opposed to just nodding along, but then kicking up a stink when budgets get discussed)
🧁- making all business decisions with as much alignment to their values as possible, so they don’t end up being accused of virtue-signalling like countless companies with itchy social-media-trigger-fingers
🍰- being able to navigate internal and external comms so they don’t make bad situations worse
🎂- handling microaggressions, bullying and harassment with the appropriate levels of intervention
🥞- creating a language guide after they’ve actually done the foundational work about the principles of inclusion, rather than doing it just because OXFAM did it
🧁- handling PR issues with EDI input when required
If all we do is have a bake-off or a talk or workshop whenever there is an awareness day, but not some of the above stuff too, then the EDI work becomes (a teeny tiny bit) performative.
To see real change we have to take the harder actions and have the braver conversations
But maybe we’re wrong.
Contact us to have a deeper conversation about this.
