LEADING INCLUSION

A comprehensive guidebook to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the workplace.

Debut author, organizational psychologist, and executive coach Cox begins her overview of DEI with stories of executives who’ve come to her over the years, worried that their own efforts in these areas have met with less success than they hoped. To these executives, and implicitly to her broader readership, she points out that the most accurate way to gauge DEI progress is through the reactions of “the stakeholders who matter the most”: the employees. “If employees can’t see and feel meaningful DE&I outcomes,” she writes, “they will not believe their leaders are building an inclusive organization.” Cox breaks down the historical underpinnings and current variations on respect, equity, diversity, and inclusion (REDI, her preferred term for DEI) as they apply to “targeted groups” affected by diversity and inclusion issues, including women and people of color. Cox proposes a five-step approach to REDI, involving understanding one’s own beliefs about its central concepts, connecting with people whose experiences one doesn’t have, and facing REDI anxieties—a “combination of avoidance and social awkwardness” that Cox describes as “the hallmark of many workplace interactions between leaders and employees of color.” She also highlights the importance of modeling “the REDI way like the organization’s primary change agent (which is what you are)!” Using a combination of data, statistics, and personal stories from her own life and those of people she’s interviewed in the business world—including her own anonymized clients—the author lays out various forms of workplace bias and a number of ways to identify and resolve them.

Over the course of this book, Cox wisely decides to ground her narrative in both anecdote and analysis, and, as such, her accounts of her own experiences as a Black female professional are blended well with those of other interviewees. In particular, her discussions of “unconscious bias” in businesses may enlighten any readers who might believe company DEI officers are unnecessary. She also strongly asserts that investors should pressure corporate boards to improve their diversity: “You must create and maintain an environment in which traditionally underrepresented groups do not face systemic hindrances and are unequivocally safe to voice the injustices they experience.” Over the course of this book, Cox adopts a tone that’s firm but patient and persistently encouraging as she asserts that vigilant REDI measures benefit each and every employee, as when she writes that “Systemic bias affects all people in the system (in the organization) and its effects, though persistent, may not be readily observed or redressed.” Throughout the work, her explanations of bias—its various origins, its expressions, and its possible resolutions—are carefully pitched to reach the widest variety of readers. The personal elements of her points will likely make them relatable and thought-provoking to a wide range of readers, particularly those in her clear target audience: corporate executives and diversity officers.

An upbeat and proactive plan to address and resolve issues surrounding diversity at the corporate level.