A friend and former colleague of mine accepted the position of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Director Officer at a large national accounting and consulting firm a little over a year ago. In my quest to assess progress on racial justice work and what others are learning that advances racial equity and justice, I checked in with her.

Frankly, I expected she would be disgusted and discouraged by now. When a person of color becomes the point person in a mostly white organization that says it wants to deal with racial equity in new ways, my experience says this is high risk. Too often the carrier of the message becomes the enemy and is dismissed or ignored.

Not so the experience of my friend. While there are difficult days, she is experiencing real progress and hope.

My friend finds that progress and hope are resulting from following some pretty basic principles. First, she made sure when she took the job that the highest executives wanted real change and would support her in her pursuit of it.  To her delight, the number of inclusion and racial diversity ambassadors and allies across the company continues to grow. 

Wisely, she has cultivated allies among the mostly white leaders of the firm. Her way of enlisting allies is through practical, data-driven communications. And it is no secret that the leaders responded well to the return on investment that a diverse and inclusive firm has on the bottom line.

Everyone has a story and has achieved whatever position they might have because of opportunities and breaks. White leaders, whose families started as immigrant laborers, know how someone encouraged them. Deciding to be an advocate for racial diversity and equity may be as simple as looking honestly at the people who took a stand for you.

Acceptance that the old paradigm of white guys hiring white guys and making tons of money is over. Diverse leadership teams hiring diverse managers and staff and have a much better chance of competing in a racially diverse world for business and profits.

In business or at a school board or a community meeting, we have all seen the limits of moral arguments. As another African American consultant friend of mine frequently reminds me, most folks work to some extent from WIFM – what’s in it for me.

My friend with the responsibility to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion has helped to change the way leaders and managers in her company talk about diversity. Goals include attention to inclusion and diversity because people perform well when they are rewarded. If a manager is rewarded for increasing the racial diversity of her team, she pays attention to that goal and lets everyone involved know it is an important goal. She finds language that encourages positive action and moves beyond old either/or discussions based on a zero-sum game that white people will lose if people of color are hired or advance.

One of the keys to advancing racial justice is to be a catalyst and then step back and let the interest and passions of new leaders to open new opportunities. Through organized employee resource groups, my friend has an opportunity to sow seeds and support others in advancing change.

A great example happened when the firm decided it needed a Diversity Scholarship Fund to build the pipeline of diverse talent entering the profession. The executive team took the lead in raising these funds by contributing themselves. The Fund exceeded its goal for the first year.

These advances are not always easy, nor is the path always clear. Yet the principles my friend has used in her work seem to me to have a lot of relevance to the work each of us needs to do to advance racial equity and justice. What principles are guiding your efforts to advocate for racial justice and equity?