Team Creativity

In This Section

10 Actions You Can Take

Section 3.0: Make a Difference Through Actions

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Starting the Conversation

Section 6.1: Asking the Right Questions

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Section 3.0: Make a Difference Through Actions

7. Start a conversation with one of your colleagues about what you’ve learned from others and how you’re bringing inclusion into your everyday practice.

  • Try to reach out to someone who hasn’t yet participated in these conversations

8. Find out if your organization has created networks or safe spaces for discussion (for example, employee resource groups) on how to make sure everyone feels welcome and respected.

  • If it has, become a member! Also, ask if those discussions inform how your organization improves the way it makes sure people feel welcome and respected

  • If it hasn’t, suggest to your organization that it could be important to have those opportunities for discussion and learning how to make the workplace better for everyone

Small vs. Large Organization Consideration

9. Pay attention – do you feel that everyone is being held to the same standards at work and being treated fairly?

  • If the answer is “no”, are you pointing it out and speaking up to make sure people are held to the same standards?

  • If the answer is “yes”, are you participating in building that safe workplace?

10. Share this document with your colleagues to continue the conversation!

Starting the Conversation

6.1 Asking the Right Questions

A leader in an organization is someone who manages a team or several teams, and/or has an important stake in the organization and a role in making decisions that push for change. The following are some questions that you can ask the employees you lead and manage:

  • Systemic Barriers to Success
  • What are some barriers to your success in this organization?
  • Can I play a role in removing some of the barriers? What can I do?
  • Creating a Sense of Belonging
  • Whose voice or what perspective is missing from this conversation?
  • How can I help amplify your voice and that of other underrepresented voices?
  • Individual Experiences
  • Do you feel safe enough to take risks at work? To contribute? To belong to the community?
  • What percentage of your time is spent on addressing exclusion or microaggressions against you or others?
When asking your questions, consider the difference and impact between person-first language and identity-first language. Visit the Public Health Sudbury and Districts website to learn more about position statements.

When starting the conversation, creating a safe space by setting ground rules is important. Safe spaces allow individuals to feel comfortable having brave and honest conversations, where one can openly express themselves and their ideas to others on a team without risk of punishment, humiliation, or rejection.

Let individuals know the following:

  • “Confidentiality is important, and unless you want me to share information outside of this conversation, I will not do so.”
  • “It is important for me to hear your perspective and understand the various inequities faced by employees at work. Doing so, as a leader, it will help me determine ways to remove potential barriers for your success. However, you do not have to partake if you wish not to, and I will respect whatever decision you make.” (To learn more, read the Harvard Business Review article “Getting Over Your Fear of Talking About Diversity”.)
Although these questions are important to start the conversation with your employees, remember that these topics can be triggering to some. Respect the individual if they want to opt out of sharing or if they do not feel comfortable answering the question.
Explore additional resources presented by Catalyst related to having challenging conversations and talking across differences.

Considerations for Small and/or Non-Profit Organizations

Small or non-profit organizations tend to lack the resources that are readily available in larger or for-profit organizations – time,  human resources capacity or budget, etc. – to help them along their Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) journey. The following are some considerations to help these organizations to begin and continue on their EDI journey:

  • Partner with other organizations: If your organization does not have a subject matter expert on staff, seek one out from outside your company. Partner with other similar-sized organizations to pool talent and resources to address EDI within your industry and context.
  • Trainings in EDI need not be expensive or complicated:
    • Create an exchange program between organizations to access knowledge and training opportunities
    • There are high-quality, free materials online that can serve as an excellent starting point to Starting the Conversation.
Considerations for Intermediate / Advanced Organizations
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Larger organizations are more likely to have formal Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), whereas small/medium organizations may not have formal ERGs but have networks of individuals with shared identities/interests.

Considerations for Intermediate / Advanced Organizations

As you advance through your EDI journey, continuous education means enhanced people and data analytics.

The type of data being collected is critical to understand the depth of systemic barriers within organizations. This includes information on the nuances and complex layers of specific roles and responsibilities at the workplace and how it differs for women and/or non-binary people, Racialized, Black, and/or People of Colour, People with disabilities (including invisible and episodic disabilities), 2SLGBTQ+ and/or gender and sexually diverse individuals, and “Aboriginal” and/or Indigenous Peoples.

A collection of comprehensive data will give direction and provide greater equity in approaching solutions. Ask questions such as:

  • Is the self-identification data you collect specifically role-based data or just aggregate data?
  • Do you know how digital transformation or remote work is impacting different racialized, gender, and intersectional identities?
  • How might technology implementation support, or contradict, equitable hiring and retention practices?
  • Do you know which constituencies in your organization may experience job risk in the future? Do you have strategies to address those risks?

Definition

Microaggression

Microaggression is defined as: “A comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group” – Source: Merriam Webster

Definition

Unlearning

Unlearning is defined as: “To make an effort to forget your usual way of doing something so that you can learn a new and sometimes better way” – Source: Cambridge Dictionary

Definition

Intersectionality

Intersectionality is defined as: A framework for understanding how different aspects of a person’s social and political identities (e.g., gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, physical appearance, etc.) combine to create unique modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies advantages and disadvantages that are felt by people due to this combination of factors – Source: Kimberlé Crenshaw, TIME

Definition

Privilege

Privilege is defined as: “The unfair and unearned advantages individuals are granted for having, or being perceived to have, social identities that align with those deemed to be superior according to societal rules and norms. It is often experienced as an absence of barriers related to a particular social identity (e.g., White privilege, straight privilege)” – Source: Egale

Definition

Safe Space

Safe Space is defined as: “A place intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism, or potentially threatening actions, ideas, or conversations” – Source: Merriam-Webster

Safe spaces allow individuals to feel comfortable having brave and honest conversations.

Definition

Emotional Tax

Emotional Tax is defined as: “The combination of feeling different from peers at work because of gender, race, and/or ethnicity, being on guard against experiences of bias, and experiencing the associated effects on health, well-being, and ability to thrive at work” – Source: Catalyst

Definition

Tokenism

Tokenism is defined as: “Performative policies that ostensibly promote diversity or equality (placing women or diverse groups in leadership positions), but do not truly have a positive impact on the workplace. Tokenism isn’t progressive, and it especially causes harm to tokenized individuals, causing extra pressure to succeed due to being perceived as representative of a group and often leaving them in an alienating work environment” – Source: Catalyst

Definition

Psychological Safety

Psychological Safety is defined as: “An environment that encourages, recognizes and rewards individuals for their contributions and ideas by making individuals feel safe when taking interpersonal risks. A lack of psychological safety at work can inhibit team learning and lead to in-groups, groupthink and blind spots” – Source: Gartner