Roman Ružbacký
April 6, 2016
When I worked as an analytical chemist for a scientific research organisation, many years ago, I would work away in my laboratory, often in solitude. I could go days without a conversation. It was such an exact profession, requiring precision, timeliness, some troubleshooting, critical interpretation of data and room for some creative thinking. The end game was to make a compound of ultra-high purity. I could clearly see what our research team was trying to achieve. At times, politics and cost got in the way of quality. But the numbers (good or bad) were always reliable and helped me navigate through the labyrinth of research.
As a long term Diversity and Inclusion manager and practitioner, my experiences have been vastly different. This vocation involved lots of talking – day and night. Solitude was only ever found in research and reading. The main point of difference between these two professions was that my position description of Experimental Scientist did not indicate that I was responsible for other people’s actions or behaviours, whereas my PD as a Diversity Manager implied that I was ultimately responsible for the actions and behaviour of others. My performance as a Diversity Manager was largely measured by not only by the effectiveness of my strategy, but on how other managers and employees’ behaved and acted in accordance with Equal Opportunity legislation and how executives’ delivered on their diversity key performance indicators. Unfavourable results usually reflected badly on the Diversity Manager (for example a discrimination complaint) because it occurred on their watch.
As a Diversity Manager, how do you change people’s deeply ingrained beliefs in relation to gender, race, age, pregnancy and LGBTIQ? Can you change people’s core beliefs through diversity strategy and compliance activities? You’d expect that clear evidence and rational argument would eliminate discrimination and sexual harassment. Not so, when we continue to hear about discrimination and sexual harassment in the media. It’s the one topic that appears to hit a nerve with people and it’s the endless comments section at the end of an article about promoting diversity and inclusion or that critiques power and privilege that is alarming, hurtful and harmful. You see people endlessly arguing their point of view and no one ever wins even if compassion is used as a rationale. A leopard does not change its spots.
An organisation is responsible for the actions and behaviours of its employees in relation to discrimination and sexual harassment (vicarious liability). However, should the Diversity Manager or practitioner be responsible for the actions and behaviours of others? Especially when it affects the diversity and inclusion strategy they oversee or have authority to implement? Should they wear this burden of responsibility? This baggage of expectation cuts across many professions. Think of a great teacher who has a class of lazy students who bomb out on a test. Are Diversity Managers held to a higher standard of behaviour than the rest of their organisation? Are they meant to be saints? When I left one place, I was called the ’Conscience’ of the organisation. When I left another place, I was called the ‘Keeper of values’.
I keep an open mind about the realities of human behaviour. I think about how self-interest and profitability intersects or clashes with diversity strategy. Diversity strategy should not be a commodity or tool for exploitation. And, at all costs, I try to avoid practising the Noah’s Ark principle of Diversity, where we’ll have two people from each diversity cohort and diversity is achieved.
Recently, I tried to find all the Australian Diversity Managers on LinkedIn. I noticed a large proportion of Diversity Managers (or roles that combined diversity) had less than five years’ dedicated experience in the role and wondered whether in this was symptomatic of the profession. Is there a high burnout rate of diversity practitioners? It’s not a job for the faint hearted and many bones lie scattered on the diversity and inclusion highway. The work is intense. Diversity Managers often work in very small (or no teams) and have relatively small budgets but are asked to do a hell of a lot. In 2016, many organisations and small businesses were still at the foundation stage of their diversity and inclusion journey. This may suggest that some diversity strategies never get full traction or get mothballed.
Behind the position description of a Diversity Manager is the expectation that you will use your diversity strategy to change the organization’s DNA and reinforce its core values. How will you bridge the gap between policy and practice, rhetoric and reality? How will you use your diversity strategy to lift an organisation from being risk averse to authentic in its diversity practice, where inclusion becomes a lived and breathed experience?
In 2005, I attended Jock Noble’s presentation on the “Integral Model of Evolutionary Diversity”, which was affirmation to me. It detailed organisations’ D&I journey, beginning from compliance and moving through the stages of risk minimising, being competitive, aware, committed, reflective, aspirational, strategic to authentic. There was one statement that stuck with me and it was part of the authentic suite. It stated that an organisation that was authentic in diversity and inclusion reached the point where, “The community viewed the success of the organisation as representing their own success. They seek to protect and strengthen the organisation because they believe values it represents, represents the values they hold dear.” This concept completed the picture for me about the Diversity Manager’s role and its multi-layered complexity and dimension.
Another point I would like to make is in relation to testing your D&I strategy to see what really works and what doesn’t. Do Diversity Managers manage complaints to see where policies or processes don’t work? Is this essential? One adverse finding of sex based harassment can cost your organisation an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality citation (WGEA). A complaint of racism can undermine your Racism, It Stops with Me, Supporter Agreement (AHRC) as well as pose a huge reputational risk. Through my handling of discrimination and sexual harassment complaints, I was able to unpack highly complex, emotive and overlapping issues and apply the learning to uncover diversity blind practices and other systemic issues.
As a complaints handler, I’d often hear of awful life changing incidents and the impact of alleged discrimination and sexual harassment and at times, inaction, isolation, abuse of authority, wearing down of the complainant, to acute physical and psychological trauma experienced by all involved. This was very heavy work. At the end of a complaints process the organisation should be able to test their processes and practices and implement change and improvements. I usually saw the complainant being empowered by the process (if supported well), learning to establish boundaries of acceptable behaviour and dismantle power where necessary. However, they often became burned by the process, angry, isolated, forgotten, wore a cloak of invisibility whilst bystanders ran for cover and later on everyone forgot that the person ever existed. Who’s x, y and z you ask? (names of people subject to sexual harassment that we have forgotten).
If you have a large volume of staff and a large causal workforce, then you need to be aware of your blind sides. Are your causal staff engaged or trained in EEO? Are you looking on social media sites and posts to see if there are any issues in relation to discrimination? Are your managers consistent in the application of equity and inclusion principles, including flexible working arrangements? Are you seeing the red flags? Does the organisation become reactive and slow to respond when faced with a serious issue?
And finally, working in the area of human rights, equal opportunity, diversity and inclusion requires some emotional investment, a capacity to care for people and a self-monitoring regime to avoid burnout. It requires a fire in the belly, someone who can stay calm in the storm, be the voice of reason and compassion and be open minded. It is a job of little or no self-interest. And not to be naïve, people need to make a living doing this important work, but through this work there needs to be a genuineness, authenticity, some depth, empathy and sincerity. It requires you to go outside your comfort zones and not just view the world from your lens but embrace multiple perspectives. It requires Diversity Managers to even explore any issues of homogeneity in their own profession. It is not a job for the blindly ambitious or for those who want to make a name for themselves. It’s not about awards. It’s not for those who lack compassion whilst preaching inclusion.
I have always stood by the belief that the work in diversity and inclusion is more important than the organisation. It’s about the work. It’s not about looking good, fluffing the figures or just pleasing executives. At times, the role requires challenging the status quo, self-interest and narcissism. And you need to do this whilst keeping centred, objective, rational, holding your integrity, speaking your truth and a times walking comfortably on the fringe. You are not always going to be liked and that’s OK. Your empathy needs to be matched with an efficiency of pragmatic action and organised response from the infrastructural to the interpersonal. This often require humility, inter-personal communication skills and genuine empathy towards others.
So yes, as a Diversity Manager and practitioner, I take on this responsibility. I wear my scars (mostly hidden) like a badge and use these acquired and cumulative skills to continue to challenge and change a system that allows discrimination, sexual harassment, bullying and unfair and unreasonable behaviour to happen.