WINSight // The Future of Intersectionality
After a year of radical change for individuals, organizations, and societies alike, many of us now feel fortunate to be taking steps towards greater normalcy. Yet, while it is clear there will be no return to the status quo, the future seems more uncertain than ever.
Across business and society, many are calling for a complete re-imagining of how we live, learn, and work across business and society. An opportunity to re-address social inequalities, diversity and inclusion efforts has been at the conversation's forefront. Up until now, the drive for equality has struggled to be truly expansive. From unconscious bias to outdated models and narrow conversations, looking back, it's clear to see where, as individuals and as industries, we have fallen short.
In April, WIN LDN partnered with global futures consultancy, The Future Laboratory to shine a light on what the future could hold for diversity and inclusion through an intersectional lens. In a presentation and workshop led by Futures Director Victoria Buchanan, WIN attendees learned what current trends lead to equality before reflecting on their positionality and intersectional advantages. Inspiring attendees to take back key learnings to the workplace, Victoria also shared how businesses can adopt more robust and expansive DE&I strategies, revealing learnings from The Future Laboratory's journey.
What does the future hold for DE&I?
From amplifying diverse voices to taking a political stand, current trends addressing inequality signal change on the horizon. Emerging trends suggest a paradigm shift in how we understand diversity and see it through an intersectional lens.
With a focus on education, progress, and betterment, Victoria highlighted what The Future Laboratory sees as the six key principles set to shape the future of life and work.
1. Alliance Futures: Language is simply not enough. A radical shift is needed to break down the systemic barriers that stand in our way. If we are to build truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive futures, it will require us as individuals and communities to engage in tangible action. We already see impressive statements in this space. Take, for example, Zalando's CEO, Rubin Ritter, stepping down from his position at the end of 2020 to prioritize his wife's career.
2. Modern Un(Learning): Even as we learn about what we can do, bold and provocative commitments need to be matched with lifelong journeys of unlearning, too. But this will require looking beyond just individual efforts. For a future to be truly built on an alliance, collaborative ventures encouraging educational movements and inclusive communities will be at the very core.
3. Neurodivergent Thinking: With 1 in 7 people in the UK being neurodivergent, from ADHD to dyspraxia, recognizing these abilities will undoubtedly take a prominent role in future understandings of inclusion and belonging. Many brands and organizations are already undergoing brilliant work to help educate and re-think these stereotypes, such as Leo, an e-reading platform enabling educational material to be more accessible to those with dyslexia and other neurodiverse differences.
4. Intergenerational Progress: Re-addressing the intergenerational divide will focus on tackling the prejudices around ageism, especially for those oppressed through other axes. It will see us challenge our own perceptions of what age and generations mean and the assumptions we carry about experience, knowledge, and skills.
5. Healing Spaces: Following a year defined by trauma and emotional labor, there is a real need for organizations and communities to prioritize healing and create safe spaces that allow people to do so. But this will also require organizations to evaluate the insidious ways workplace cultures have permeated exclusion until now to re-create genuinely inclusive situations, support, and experiences.
6. Intersectional Activism: The final trend highlights how we can apply an intersectional lens to other challenges too. The relationship between sustainability, social and environmental activism is a prime example. Across different industries, systems and structures exist overlapping axes of oppression. Re-addressing these tensions will facilitate more balanced access, equity, and economic opportunity in the future.
What does this mean for our own DE&I journeys and commitments?
As with significant macro trends, these observations ladder down into individual actions, thoughts, and behaviors. Change ultimately starts with us.
Collectively, these principles show that meaningful, widespread, and systemic change will not be possible without accountability and the willingness to participate and progress from individuals, businesses, and brands.
The first step towards this is awareness. In the final part of the workshop, WIN attendees came together to identify their own identity touch-points and privileges.
Supported by content from The Other Box, attendees were guided through an exercise highlighting the intersectional barriers many, or few might have faced, from race and gender to religion and neurodiversity. For many of us, it meant sitting with or confronting a high degree of discomfort in the event. But it's a discomfort that is wholly necessary if we're to start asking the relevant questions, admit new possibilities, and re-imagine an equitable future.
For some, this meant re-evaluating company cultures and internal initiatives, while for others, it meant confronting the role unconscious bias plays in their own decision-making. Only by recognizing intersections and privileges and calling out their unintentional influences and effects can we begin to look at how we can embed diversity, inclusion, accessibility, justice, equity, and anti-racism strategies at the heart of our work.
How can we re-imagine the workplace of the future?
Sharing learnings from The Future Laboratory's own DE&I strategy, Victoria highlighted a few key principles for change. For a DE&I strategy to be expansive, sustainable, and successful, it must:
- Lead with authenticity. Align with your company’s core values and principles and serve as a platform to educate and to listen.
- Prioritise progress over perfection. Encourage openness and transparency around DE&I journeys. The real focus should be on adopting a growth mindset, active participation, and accountability; there’s no space for cancel culture or disparaging attitudes.
- Think inside-out. Achieving external empowerment starts with a focus on internal authenticity. Where everyone is a stakeholder, it’s even more important to ensure DE&I efforts are driven from within.
- Put systemic change over financial gain. Organizations must embrace their social responsibility in the industry, community, and beyond. Commit to breaking down structural inequalities by building the spaces and platforms that enable access to equal economic opportunity.
From the group discussions to the solo reflections and guided learnings, taking all these lessons back to the workplace will be challenging. But it all starts with intentionality.
In a collaborative effort, our attendees created the WIN x The Future Laboratory Pledge, a commitment to identifying and recognizing our own intersections and privileges and the many ways that we can better embed diversity, inclusion and belonging in the spaces and experiences around us, whether at work or at home.
It's a commitment that will promise a longer-term view that goes beyond a reactionary approach. It's a commitment that is not motivated by the optics and isn't driven by evident results. And finally, it's a commitment to creating strategies that are focused on the marginalized, not the privileged, to give them a seat at the table.
Take a look, sign, and share our WIN x The Future Laboratory Pledge here!
There will be difficult conversations and realizations ahead, but the future is signaling a real shift in how we look at diversity and inclusion. If we want to make this diverse, equal, and inclusive future for all a reality, it's our role, as allies, to actively be a part of shaping it.
We all took so much away from the event and are delighted to see WIN members engaged in this conversation. Thank you to Victoria Buchanan once again for the hugely inspiring and transformative session!
Editorial by Lucia Corry
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