Changing the way your culture operates begins with looking at the way you think and make decisions. It requires adopting a shift from “what we think we already know,” to thinking guided by inquiry, curiosity and humility. When we trade our ingrained stories, assumptions and opinions for a more objective, open mind, we’ll more easily recognize and confront our beliefs around individual and organizational privilege, bias, and our own racial identity.
As we gain the knowledge, tools and strategies required to discover Individual, Institutional and Structural racism in all its forms, we can then seek out and replace inequitable policies and practices within our organization.
This process is an ongoing commitment to changing the way we behave and interact with our people and our customers. It’s about creating a culture where everyone contributes because they know they belong. And it begins and is driven by individual leaders. Being successful in this work requires leaders to show up every day as role models and advocates for a more diverse, equitable and inclusive culture.
Each module in the series is modified according to where you and your organization fit on our Multi-Cultural, Anti-Oppressive, Continuum, which assists us in measuring and determining the length and depth of every engagement.
To do this work, I am grateful to have a team of facilitators, certified coaches, consultants and assessors bring extensive leadership and organizational development/change experience in diverse private, public and non-profit organizations… with a foundational passion for Racial Justice.
Having a Positive White Identity leads to the acceptance that White People must take responsibility for ending racism. To assume their responsibility, White People must become aware of how racism hurts White People and how ending it serves the interests of all People. And this awareness must be accompanied by the enhanced ability to recognize the many faces of racism along with the discovery of options to replace it.
White People seem to be the only racial group that spends more time and effort wondering about the implications of race for other groups than it does for itself. They find it hard to accept that they have a race and therefore are threatened by groups who have no such difficulties.
White individuals need to develop a sense of themselves as racial beings, acknowledge the realities of structural racism and White Privilege, and come to accept race as a healthy aspect of themselves and others.
Take a look at Janet E. Helms’ White Identity Development Model below. Where do you belong and where would you like to be?
—White People, Stage 1, Contact:
Colorblind model
White People, Stage 2, Disintegration:
White People, Stage 3, Reintegration:
White People, Stage 4, Pseudo-Independence:
—First stage of positive racial identification
White People, Stage 5, Immersion/Emersion:
White People, Stage 6, Autonomy:
I’ve worked with a lot of folks in a variety of organizations, and all of those individuals and cultures would benefit from learning to work and live more effectively together. I see struggles that don’t need to exist - struggles that diverse, equitable and inclusive cultures do not suffer.
Leaders share their fears and doubts with me - their uncertainty around what they should or shouldn’t do. They have good intentions, yet feel at a loss over what to do and where to start. So we talk. We share why we want to do this work. And if they can’t quite verbalize why, I tell them it’s okay… that’s part of why we’re here.
Then I share with them that I do this work for three main reasons: I want to bring people together, I live with the shame of knowing I grew up in and still live a life of privilege while others suffer, and I know that it’s the responsibility of white people to dismantle racism.
I know that my most valuable tool is my desire to listen and learn from my clients, and my passion for Social Justice. These times find us more divided than ever - so we must operate from the perspective that we’re more alike than different - which requires letting go of opinions and assumptions about ourselves and others so that we can all adopt the shared purpose of mutual respect and appreciation for differences - the first step to living more fulfilled, together.
Experience has taught me that the most successful and satisfying personal relationships happen when both parties are invested in supporting each other on their own growth journeys… that our differences are opportunities to be cherished and respected. And I’m on a mission to scale this belief system with every individual and organization I work with.
I adhere to the proven knowledge that leadership effectiveness results in improved overall performance - and that the most effective leaders are those working to further develop themselves so that they may assist in the development of others.
The most effective leaders aim to constantly develop themselves and their staff to think in more complex, systemic, strategic, and interdependent ways - to think more objectively and hold multiple perspectives at the same time, without judgment, while still holding on to their own.
© 2022. Joel Kampf/Inclusive Leadership Project