An inclusion policy? Check. Een training over onbewuste vooroordelen? Check. The job ads have been updated, there's an employee network and HR has numbers on who comes in and who leaves. Effort isn't missing. And still, at the next promotion round, the familiar question returns: who has "potential" here?
Er valt een naam. Someone has made themselves visible, knows the right people, has already been pulled into conversations about where the organization is going. About another employee, it's said they need a bit more visibility. Nobody asks who gave her the visible projects over the past years.
In the book I call this the inclusion shopping list. Organizations collect things that are valuable on their own. A training can help people recognize something. Clearer job descriptions can lower barriers. Numbers can show where people are falling out. You can work through the whole list and spend real time and money on it. But a shopping list isn't yet a meal.
The question is what those actions change the moment someone gets picked. Take that promotion. Does the training change what the committee understands by "potential"? Do the numbers reveal who's had chances to prove themselves for years? Is anyone responsible for asking those questions, even when the committee is in a hurry and seems to already know its answer?
Excerpt from Inclusion (Doesn't) Work — Dr. Sana Sellami
