Is this purely about HR? Or daily leadership? Tell me!
Malumir R. Logan
People-first Leader at Ontario Public Service | Adjunct Professor at Queen's University | Empowering Podcast Guest
You're on! Let's keep the leadership dialogue going! Here's a new question for you.
First, an acknowledgment that some folks may not feel comfortable touching this week's question with a ten-foot pole, so to speak. But if you're open, I would really like to hear your thoughts, insights and observations from a leadership perspective.
Oh, and remember that in these dialogues, leadership can refer to a formal leadership perspective or an informal or self-leadership perspective. It's all leadership, after all.
Here's the question
Well, questions, plural.
I'm genuinely curious to hear folks' thoughts on this, because I've noticed a couple of different perspectives on this topic, and I'm curious to understand the range of perspectives on this.
If you have the time, there is some discussion below on why I'm curious to hear your thoughts on these questions.
If you don't have the time
If you don't have the time, my own thinking is that I believe discussions of meaningful diversity and equity belong in daily leadership writ large - but that it comes at a very real cost.
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Perhaps we can talk more about the costs in a future post, but for now, I'm curious to hear your insights and observations in the comments below.
If you have time
Here are a couple examples of perspectives I've observed and heard.
While some folks may want to agree that discussions of equity and diversity belong in leadership and organizational discussions, mindset, behaviours and values writ large, existing systems also have a great deal of momentum. And even when some folks may have the best of intentions, systems change can feel very uncomfortable (which is natural, by the way). The problems can feel far too big for them to resolve, and there are always so many existing operational demands and insufficient people and resources, so some folks focus on doing good work on their own subject matter in their organization.
Other people believe that the greatest impact in removing barriers and improving equity outcomes in organizations is in the hiring process. Perhaps for that reason, folks with this perspective tend to believe that it does make sense to concentrate diversity, equity and Indigenization discussion and efforts in the realm of HR.
There are other folks like myself who apply an anti-oppressive lens to their leadership as a whole. This approach may perhaps be most aligned with the intentions of organizational statements on diversity, anti-racism, etc. However, I'm sure some of us have noticed that applying this lens adds further complexity, can present the impetus for change and uncertainty, and in general, can be seen as adding to the weight of demands when everyone is just trying to deliver on their foundational responsibilities. And of course, there can be other costs. Perhaps you've experienced some of these.
If you made it this far
If you've made it this far in this article - wow! Thanks for listening, thinking critically about these topics, and hopefully for sharing your thoughts in dialogue with me in the comments below.
I'm glad you're here.
Public Policy Enthusiast & Strategic Thinker | Multi-Level Governance & Global Affairs |
2 年I would say equity and meaningful diversity belong throughout the whole organization. When I think of equity and diversity I always think that it should be happening from the bottom up (staff to leaders) and from the top down (leaders to staff). It should especially be in the realm of hiring and HR and be engrained in the day-to-day discussions of both leaders and staff as a whole. Also, because the workplace tends to be so diverse, i.e. we are from different backgrounds and have different lived experiences, we need to apply diversity and equity/ anti-oppressive lenses when dealing with people as a whole. The power structure within organizations alone makes it very important for everyone to be thinking about diversity and equity (especially those at the top). We should all be thinking about who is in the room, who is not in the room and why. Finally, it should be the responsibility of leaders (because they have the power) to be proactive in removing barriers and improving equity outcomes in organizations and not add to it.??