More on this book
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Rhodes Perry
envision a workplace that centers the importance for each of your stakeholders to feel an emotional outcome of belonging.
often leads to better business outcomes due to the shared sense of safety and trust, which creates strong team cohesion
When we have the courage to imagine what we could build, it gives us a target to work toward.
Ultimately, these statements failed to acknowledge the very real fear, pain, and anxiety so many employees, and in particular BIPOC employees, endured.
making the leadership decision of not centering the safety of those most harmed by the images we all saw that horrific day suggests that there is a great deal of discomfort in fully honoring these stated DEI commitments.
Euphemisms are designed with certain folks’ fragility in mind.
When hearing the phrase dominant culture systems, I feel frustrated because I know these systems exist but they feel too entrenched and permanent - unalterable.
When I locate myself on the Wheel of Power/Privilege, I feel privileged but conflicted because my cis, white, citizen status should afford me more political capital and strength; but being gay, especially in the 2023 cultural climate, seems to undermine all that.
On the wheel of power and privilege, I am mainly marginalized by my sexuality and relative lack of wealth; these are surprisingly heavy counterbalances to all the places where I hold privilege. It’s like being white, male, and a citizen isn’t enough because I’m also gay.
I should be able to use my privilege to shine a light on places where our DEI efforts are not reaching, working, or being successful. But it feels fraught these days to be a cis white male trying to speak up for others without appearing to infantilize them or negate their own reaches for power.
I can call out or identify sexist or ablelist behaviors when I see them, though rare in my office and work. With an Afro-Latina dean and a female VP, not much feels too risky in this work.
Make sure the voices of those not privileged are heard and amplified.
When hearing the phrase systems of belonging, I feel hopeful because there are strategies that we can use to upend or replace the status quo without spending our energy fighting the status quo.
When considering my current workplace culture, I feel fortunate that my workplace seems to operate so well, and yet painfully aware that my privilege probably means I have several cultural blind spots.
Clear goals make the goals easier to understand and achieve, rather than some nebulous measure of “better”.
I can learn more about my workplace culture by asking those from non-privileged groups if or when they feel they have been disadvantaged, left out, left behind, or not heard; or noticing on my own when it seems they have and then inquiring about it.
we will not experience a collective sense of belonging
But those in the dominant cohort won’t recognize that they are missing a common sense of belonging. They belong to all the groups that matter, all the groups that hold power, and they have no incentive to worry themselves over whether there is a *collective* sense of belonging. All that will matter to them is their own sense that they belong in the top group.
What does this look like, and how do you build it?
White supremacy culture also interacts with ableism.
What in the world does this sense of urgency have to do with white supremacy?
belief that we all have enough.
This belief has to be backed up by **actually having enough** or else it won’t last long, and members of the organization will stop buying into it.
Who on your team is the least likely to feel safe?
I really don’t know who on my team is most likely to feel unsafe. Am I supposed to make assumptions based on stereotypes - the women or the black people will feel the most unsafe? How can I know who feels this way other than by guessing at surface characteristics?
