Enough of BAME: a perspective on diversity from Fahrah Gulamhusein

Fahrah, tell us about your professional background…

I spent 16 years in professional services in banking and entertainment sectors and in the hospitality industry. Qualifying as an ACA and working as an Auditor, I witnessed first-hand the challenges faced when an individual is simply unaware of the subtext, unwritten rules, and language of the majority. I left Audit, took a pay cut and began to work in the Diversity team of the same organisation – striving to create a more inclusive experience for anyone unaware of the cultural context they were entering. Over the span of my corporate career, I worked in senior positions in three different Diversity teams.

What have been your observations about the impact of recent events on diversity in business?

In the past month, leaders have, with good intent, issued curated statements regarding their intention to ‘listen more’ to ‘ask people how they feel’.  This intention does not always have the desired impact.  My recommendation to leaders would be - speak with more honesty- as this would invite an authentic dialogue to take place in which people are more willing to speak up.

For example leaders might share that: ‘I am really unsure of what to say and of inadvertently getting it wrong, and therefore I avoid commenting on the topic’ or ‘I don’t know how to relate to someone different from me because I have never had to’ or ‘I need help knowing the right action to take’.

At the heart of the matter, what do you see as the key barriers to greater diversity in business – and what can organisations do about these? 

Three points come to mind.

Firstly: actions speak louder than words

Despite their best efforts, diversity teams often find themselves at the mercy of prevailing trends -such as being overly focused on awards, reports and ‘success stories’.
I know of examples where individuals are overly profiled in the public domain as the poster person for an organisation that wants to look inclusive, but the everyday reality for these very same individuals is far from it. 

Meaningful action and commitment are where we need to focus; for example: what are the micro-behaviours in every zoom call, talent review, interview and performance appraisal that are hindering progress from being made? What action are you committing to as a result? Or, what story does your data tell about the pay, promotion, development and exit of underrepresented groups? What truly meaningful action will you take as a result? 

Secondly: let’s evolve our language

The BAME grouping has two unintended consequences: preventing a level of detail necessary to tell the true story around representation, and, of removing people’s ability to identify and be acknowledged for their own unique richness. As India Knight quoted last week in the Sunday Times - ‘these four letters are not only offhand but a way of hiding discrimination’ and ‘Enough of BAME. Let’s call people what they are’- I couldn’t agree more. 

Thirdly: let’s elevate our focus

Organisations need to elevate their focus from diversity, which speaks to our differences, towards pluralism – i.e. bringing together the distinctive threads of our identities to contribute to a more powerful whole. Pluralism accepts our ultimate moral responsibility to the whole of humanity rather than absolutising sections of it. Furthermore, the soul of a pluralistic culture needs to sit at the heart of an organisation’s purpose, vision, and strategy- not separate from it.

How do you and your team work with leaders and organisations?

We specialise in creating pluralistic cultures in teams and organisations. We firstly focus on three areas:
1. Building a map of white privilege: this is not about finger pointing or assigning blame – it is presenting an alternative viewpoint for every single person in the organisation. We illustrate exactly how and where white privilege is showing up in the everyday experience of the organisation so that we can take action – we do this via tailored one to one interviews, team sessions and observations of meetings, talent discussions and recruitment interviews.

2. Belonging: our research shows that when someone different to the majority enters an organisation, they have a strong desire to belong and contribute to the organisation. This desire can erode from the moment they are greeted at the door – through sometimes subtle and sometimes obvious actions, the majority culture guides this person to conform or be marginalised as a result. We reset the dialogue around what it means to belong in this organisation and plan actions and commitments around these that are the responsibility of everyone.        

3. Space to succeed: The talent process is an important one - because it’s not just the discussions that happen ‘in the room’ it’s all the multitude of dynamics that go around it- we crystallise what an organisation values in terms of talent vs. what it thinks it values. We then work to free up a space in the system for a broader talent base to be nurtured and to succeed. Often when someone different is promoted to a leadership position – they will talk, look and see things differently and this triggers discomfort for leadership teams – we leverage executive coaching at this point to enable them to consider patterns of thought and behaviour.

Without accountability and measurement of progress, this work can be dismissed- so we put into place regular ‘truth tests’ to ensure that we can keep learning and growing as experts. Every organisation is unique- like the individuals who work within it. Accountability is everyone’s responsibility but there must be clear consequences – not for trying and failing, but for a lack of willingness to learn.

Fahrah Gulamhusein is an associate of The Tall Wall, accredited Executive Coach, Purpose to Impact Coach, and Thinking Environment facilitator. Fahrah works with organisations to create pluralistic cultures in teams and specialises in working with individuals from underrepresented and marginalised groups.