Undoing Racism by Understanding Your Organization's Culture

"Too many of us have for too long been trained to see the deficiencies of people rather than policy. It is an easy mistake to make. People are in our faces. Policies are distant. We are particularly poor at seeing the policies lurking behind the struggles of people". 

Dr. Ibram X Kendi 

As we pass the anniversary of George Floyd's death, more nonprofits are exploring how they can embed an equity perspective in their programming and institutionally, but few know how to go beyond crafting equity statements and providing diversity trainings to make more meaningful, long-lasting changes. Unfortunately, progressive values don’t always translate into progressive actions. Although 63 percent of Americans believe the legacy of slavery has greatly impacted the black community today, 90 percent of educators ”feel uncomfortable teaching about slavery.” In this blog, we’ll explore ways to understand organizational culture to inform strategies for changing organizational behavior.

Swimming Against the Current

In the same way progressives failed to gain momentum by fighting a culture war through reason and logic, leading organizational change without taking into consideration the invisible forces that shape behavior is like going into battle without armor: You’ll get hurt and you’ll lose. The ways that culture shapes our behavior is similar to a goldfish in an aquarium: It isn’t aware of how its environment shapes its reality; it only knows that “this is the way things are here.” We should assume we are part of the problem and need to take intentional action.

You can spend an eternity trying to decipher the artefacts, values, and assumptions that shape an organization’s culture but here are a few tips to help you get started:

●       During your next high-level team meeting, tally the number of times women or people of color are interrupted. Notice whose voice is given preferential treatment. Implicitly or explicitly, what does this communicate about who has power and how different voices are valued? This exercise alone can bring more some awareness around your own and your team’s group dynamics.

●       Edgar Schein, an expert on organizational culture, proposes that the gap between what an organization communicates to the world (espoused values) and what it actually carries out provides rich data on organizational culture. Start by asking the business problem you are trying to solve, then list the artefacts that describe behaviors in the organization, for example, how people dress, who has the largest office, how decisions are made. Then you compare these artefacts against the values the organization espouses. I tried this exercise several times with my organizational change class students and one time it illuminated the painful realities for professionals of color. In the fishbowl, women of color from a city agency discussed the progressive values their organization espoused in their website but when safety, salaries, or opportunities for growth were discussed, it became apparent that they were not valued as much as the organization claimed.

●       Like an anthropologist trying to understand a unique culture, walk around your office and take note of the artefacts that reinforce messages created by those in power. What images are posted in common areas? What do these images, or lack of them, tell you about what is important to the organization? Who has a private parking spot? These symbols of status give you a glimpse of what is valued and assumed in the organization beyond what is posted on a website.

Culture is more complicated than the exercises above indicate, but your observations can begin to unearth assumptions that you might not be aware of and that might contradict what you’re communicating. In addition, these behaviors are often reinforced by historical, institutional racism and our own biases which further shape the values, myths, and relationships influencing the invisible culture that shapes an organization. 

In the same way that most Americans refuse to confront the uncomfortable account of our country’s past, we must end the Happy Talk that creates passivity in our organizations and in our society. Creating an equity statement or attending a diversity training are symbolic actions that fee like something is happening but rarely lead to actions that influence organizational culture. It gives the illusion that something was completed without challenging real behaviors which further alienates women and people of color and keeps them from being heard, respected, or acknowledged. There’s a lot of unpacking when it comes to undoing institutional and systemic racism. Let’s start with what we can see and go from there. 

I’m curious, what are you doing to change your organization’s culture to be more inclusive? What’s worked for you?

M. Horowitz, A. Brown, and K. Cox, Views on Race in America 2019, Pew Research Center, April 9, 2019, https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/04/09/race-in-america-2019/

Turner, Why Schools Fail to Teach Slavery, National Public Radio, https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/02/04/582468315/why-schools-fail-to-teach-slaverys-hard-history.