Purpose and Race: learning from recent experience

Personal experience and learning so far

As a charity working with businesses on organisational purpose, aiming to put the good of people at the heart of business success, Blueprint should have been early off the blocks in response to the extraordinary awakening in business and society in the USA , UK and many other countries caused by George Floyd’s murder and its aftermath.

In fact at Blueprint, I was slow and hesitant to have internal conversations and face directly into the uncomfortable truths that needed addressing openly and honestly.

In our regular CEO forums, we, of course, have discussed the issue in the context of the companies concerned and their reactions, and in the process, I learned a lot from company leaders who in various ways were initiating conversations and eliciting views. All were in different ways seeking to navigate and respond in a careful and appropriate way, whilst recognising that this issue was deeply difficult and uncomfortable. All had been personally struck by the intensity of reaction and feelings, and especially the daily life experience of their black employees outside work.

I have been reflecting on Blueprint’s early response, asking of myself where that resistance to face the issue came from, what I could have done differently and learn for the future. As a team, we have recently invited external challenge and received it, including especially from Derek Browne, and that dialogue is continuing. Here are some distilled thoughts from that experience.

• There is something distinctly uncomfortable in talking about race, from what language to use, a fear of causing offence, a desire to present an image of respect and inclusion, a reticence to name an issue in those terms. My own reaction, on reflection, revealed to me something about my attitude I was not previously conscious of – a desire to protect myself from looking in the mirror lest I saw something I didn’t like, a discomfort that I should have known more and didn’t.
• In Blueprint’s work, so far we had not specifically thought about the engagement and involvement of black people. We have considered issues of diversity and inclusion more generally in staff hiring and membership of our trustees and advisory council but to limited effect. We need to remedy that.
• I have learned that the widely used constructs of BAME and “diversity and inclusion” can paradoxically result in the specific issues of black people not being addressed, as other forms of difference are easier to talk about and tackle and diversity officers often prioritise those.
• I’ve learned too that for many black people the issue is not only the lived experience of work but the whole of life. That reality of daily life - and the systemic discrimination it so often reveals - is so different from the daily experience of many white people in the UK that it is hard to comprehend. Nevertheless, when heard and known it changes you. You cannot unknow what you now know. You can choose to ignore it but in fact, that knowledge imposes its own obligation.
• The issue of race and of deep-seated injustice and inequality is fraught and complex, tied up with history and many other factors. Black people understandably resent the way reference to their experience of racial injustice is sometimes immediately met with “but some white people suffer injustice too”. The response of highlighting others suffering reflects on how uncomfortable it can be to simply acknowledge the reality of this specific injustice. It is not the only injustice, of course. But it matters that it is named and addressed specifically.
• The issue is not only explicit but also implicit biases, which are far more entrenched and difficult to challenge and change. I have learned more about how these biases are systemic, often hidden in organisational processes and reflected in implicit norms. If Blueprint’s purpose is about system change - creating a better society through better business- this has to become an integral part of the challenge we bring to business.

Bringing Blueprint’s thinking into play

As I’ve reflected on my own struggle with this issue, I’ve turned to our own thinking to try and make sense of what to do. Blueprint is founded on two core principles – human dignity and the common good. Human dignity is the inalienable value of every person simply in virtue of being human. The Framework‘s opening sentence is “show respect for the dignity of each person and for the whole person; never use people merely as a means to achieving business success.” The way the Blueprint Framework and Principles are set out does not presume a specific social context. It is not designed as a response to a specific social or cultural situation. Nevertheless, of course, it needs to take those into account.

It seems to me that what this means is that if a business is founded and grows in a social and cultural context where there are systemic injustices, then once a business is aware of those and its own role in society there is no neutral place to hide. A business is either an agent of change, helping to alleviate and address those injustices, or it is unwittingly or actively perpetuating or even exacerbating them. This is true of social inequality generally, and true of the specific injustice experienced by black people.

In particular, the Framework and Principles both place an onus on a business to serve the broadest community including the underserved and excluded “not to emphasise the divide but rather to bring people together, through new job opportunities, innovative goods and services and new markets.”

This is key, as what we have in common - our shared humanity – is far more important than any differences between us. In Blueprint’s thinking any focus on an aspect of difference that may be necessary to highlight and address injustice or to value diversity, has as its ultimate aim the creation of common goods through better and more just relationships founded on our shared common humanity. In this way, addressing one injustice need not be thought of to the exclusion of others. The aim is the same: promoting respect for human dignity.

A purpose-led business exists to help create a better society. Businesses can act in ways that help remedy racial injustice against black people, and so they need to. Moreover, that very same obligation rests of course on Blueprint itself as a charity. Given the systemic injustices, we are now much more conscious of it needs to become an integral part of our challenge to companies to be fully “purpose-led”. But this is easy to say. How do we actually help businesses to act in a way that is not “virtue signalling” but genuinely creates dialogue and real change? There is work to do.

The issue of alleviating the injustice that black people face in the UK is for all of us to address everywhere in society. Business alone cannot fix it. However, Business can hinder or help. And as shapers of culture and society businesses have an opportunity and responsibility to act. We cannot unknow what we now know.