YOU CAN BE YOURSELF HERE

A primer on diversity, equity, and inclusion and how to embrace them in the workplace.

Executive coach and debut author Dobson-Smith takes on the weighty subject of diversity, equity, and inclusion training and makes it easy to grasp, not only with real-life examples of people experiencing a lack of inclusion, but also by clearly summarizing research and studies that show how more united workplaces are more productive. For the author, it all comes down to the psychology of belonging—the human need to feel like one is a part of something. The key is figuring out how to make everyone in a company feel as if they are part of the whole. The most accessible information in the book, unsurprisingly, comes from the author’s interviews of everyday people telling stories of belonging in a workplace, how inclusion is connected to growth, and building a sense of culture, among many other topics. These testimonials are interspersed throughout Dobson-Smith’s book, which otherwise gets a bit bogged down in such topics such as self-psychology and attachment theory. There are footnotes throughout, which are often informative—one defines the term LGBTQIA2+, for instance, for those who may be unfamiliar. Dobson-Smith, a therapist themself, is clearly knowledgeable about all the topics at hand, from fostering equal access and diverse hiring practices to using preferred pronouns. Most readers will be able to see themselves in these pages—either as someone who has had trouble fitting in or, in some cases, as someone who has, either on purpose or inadvertently, created environments that make others feel excluded. Either way, the work will be effective at helping workers understand the issues it raises.

A comprehensive workplace guide bolstered by real-life examples.