We can and we will do more .

I am not the first or the only person on your feed to bring up the events that are taking place around the world in the past few days. The protests around the world, the conversations that have taken place in our communities and our workplaces are reminding us that there is much more work for all of us to do, before the world we live in will be truly inclusive and present equal opportunity to every single person on this planet.

Let's channel feelings and thoughts into actions that drive positive change.

I believe as members of a community, expats in a country, advisers to businesses, members of a team, even leaders and role models, there is more that we can all do.

Personal Accountability

If our education (institutional or experiential) has not offered an inclusive curriculum that highlights the issues, racism, inequality and pain we still experience in our world today or if we have been in the privileged position to not have these experiences ourselves, let's invest in educating ourselves. Knowledge is power and can provide us with the context we need to understand why it's important to go beyond a statement like "But I'm not racist/discriminating/avoiding etc." and take meaningful action.

What can you do?

Read or listen and learn .

I linked above a list of books that are helpful, I can personally advocate for "Brit(ish)" by Afua Hirsch and "Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race" by Renni Eddo-Lodge . These two books are about experiences and challenges in Britain but provide context that is relevant for everyone.

The list I shared above contains books in paperback, digital and audio format, many of them are available for Free with the Audible trial.

Educate your family

Resources for schools and children :

https://www.standup2racism.org.uk/resources/teaching/

Great resources here as well :

https://www.theredcard.org/resources-and-activities

I also believe it's equally important to engage older relatives in constructive conversations about equality and challenge biases or discriminatory remarks instead of ignoring the behaviour.

Provide support - become an advocate

There are many ways to get involved and have a proactive role in creating a more equal and fair society.

It's important to listen to individuals and groups and not make assumptions about their needs. If you are in a position to provide help, funds , education or other resources - ask for feedback regularly and be open to adapt the support you are providing.

A few ideas on how to provide support:

• Donations:

1. Money : Check if the organisation or business you work for matches donations to charities you wish to support. If this is not an available option, work with others to fundraise and (for the UK) select the GiftAid option.

1. Objects: Whether there are things you haven't used and could be sold to raise money for a cause, or perhaps a virtual auction you can organise with friends or colleagues, there are plenty of opportunities to make good use of things you can donate.
2. Time and Skills : We often underestimate the value of our skills to charities and community groups. I have used https://www.volunteermatch.org/ to find opportunities and also found a few others through our internal portal at work and our employee resource groups.

If you are a leader of a team/business/organisation

Although the ideas below may come across as common sense, there is still plenty of opportunity for businesses to be consistent and intentional with these activities.

Facilitate and encourage conversations

It is important for a leader and their organisation to articulate the inequality and discrimination issues faced by employees, customers/consumers every day as well as providing clarity on how the business is structured to help drive positive impact.

Provide virtual spaces for employees to communicate, unite and share ideas .Share activities and discuss next steps or actions for the future in All Hands/Town Hall/Company wide meetings.

Create a company strategy for giving and volunteering

A centralised strategy and set of tools to enable employees to donate funds or their time towards the organisations they wish to support is really valuable to the culture of a company and how they enable employees to bring their values to their workplaces.

One of the many reasons I love working from Microsoft is the Giving and Volunteering opportunities we are provided with. We often work in teams to identify how to best leverage the volunteering days and we can respond to emerging issues by raising funds which are matched by the company.

Employee Resource Groups

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are extremely valuable to providing a sense of belonging and a channel of support for employees of a business.

To a business they add tremendous value by advocating and representing the thoughts and needs of individuals from different backgrounds and demographics. A regular rhythm of business where ERGs are consulted in decisions impacting employees or customer facing products & services will give any business the ability to take an inclusive approach to the way it operates.

The new leaders

In recent years, organisations and businesses who have identified an opportunity to further their inclusive strategies and actions, have appointed new leadership roles to drive change. Positions like Chief Accessibility Officer and D&I lead can create accountability amongst their peers to ensure a business provides equal and inclusive opportunities to every person.

Personal accountability also has an important role to play here and it is important for business to encourage employees to participate in shaping accessible services and products, inclusive hiring, diverse teams and representation.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. I hope this post inspires you to try something you haven't had the opportunity to explore before.

Together, we can and we will do more !

A.