Like many people I have spoken to recently after the sickening news about George Floyd’s killing, I wondered what we could do. Over the last week I have been inspired by others and identified ten things we can do.
- Ask the question
As researchers, we know that a good start point is to ask the right question. “What can we do to tackle racial injustice and inequality?” - Listen to our black colleagues
Sandra Quince, SVP, Diversity and Inclusion Executive at Bank of America, speaking this week to over 200 attendees on a webinar set up by Jennifer Brown, Award-Winning Entrepreneur, Diversity & Inclusion Consultant, Speaker, Author (she/her/hers), inspired us all to think about what we could do. She opened up ways where we can make a difference. I immediately went to our speciality subject – research. - Turn a team status meeting into a time to think differently
Dana DiGregorio, MESH MD, North America, inspired me here. She asked her team “What can we do differently?” Tiny things add up to big things. Dana sent a heartfelt email to MESH globally to encourage us all to feel empowered to stand up against racism, including encouraging our team to take time out of their day to fights against this cause by supporting their workload. I followed this up with some of the specific things MESH has been doing. - Sign the MRS CEO pledge
This week I signed the MRS CEO pledge. One of the key points in this is to benchmark salaries and to publish the results annually. As a small team, with many diverse backgrounds and ethnicities, we wanted to be sure to protect individual privacy. Jane Frost reassured us that we could measure in whatever way we found acceptable, providing it was consistent. On this basis it seems to be a wonderful springboard for the management team to discuss our recruitment policy and our approach to nurturing inclusiveness. - Check out The Great Reset and get involved
On Tuesday, I was privileged to host 2020: The Great Reset, the Women in Research (WIRe) New York event, where Kalinda Fisher was our inspired speaker. A couple of years ago, inspired by a long conversation with a policeman, which Kalinda found fascinating because the views expressed were different from her own, she arranged for the policeman and others with polarised views to meet around her dining room table for a respectful discussion. The Great Reset was born! This year it went global, via zoom. At the WIRe event we broke into groups, poured our hearts out and looked for silver linings. One was that the conditions of the pandemic, which is hitting everyone around the world and causing us to stay at home, made the conditions ripe for us to all focus on racial injustice. There is a wider context for us all to play a positive part in history. - As a client, use your corporate buying power
In another social network of researchers, a global insight lead, asked any diverse-owned businesses to get in touch. As a woman-owned business, I spoke to her. She had realized how she could help with racial inequality. She has buying power. In fact the company she works for is a member of many organisations that support diverse-owned businesses, including the NMSDC (National Minority Supplier Development Council – http://www.nmsdc.org) that certifies ethnic minority businesses and WEConnect International, the body that certifies women-owned businesses, including MESH. All research buyers, you have the power to make your dollars count! Don’t just know your diverse supplier policy – encourage and enforce it. - Measure the amount of spend you put through diverse suppliers and create a diverse supplier plan
This week Annie Pettit, Market & Social Research Consultant, People first, research second, #PeopleArentRobots, She/They, I do not tolerate racism, an amazing activist in our industry, sent a post on Linkedin asking for us all to recommend black-owned research companies. If we know them, we can support them! This was one of the difficulties I found when writing a diverse supplier plan for MESH Experience, it wasn’t easy to find out which partners were certified as diverse owned. In my last blog (so much has changed since May 21st!) I urged researchers to make your business count. Measure the amount you spend with diverse suppliers and create a plan to improve your support. - Help ESOMAR, MRS, GreenBook and others to make our directories searchable for diverse businesses
ESOMAR, MRS and GreenBook have all agreed to make their industry directories searchable on these criteria in the future, which is a fantastic step forward. Help them by providing the information they ask for! - If you are a diverse-owned business, get certified to benefit for help available
Certification is important. What it demonstrates is that 51% or more of the business is owned by the minority (whether ethnic, LGBTQ, Veteran, Disabled or women). What’s more that this minority has decision-making power. 20% ownership by a VC that can overturn key decisions doesn’t cut it. Corporates know with certified businesses that these companies will not only be likely to bring a fresh perspective but that those in charge are committed to diversity. Before committing to becoming certified, why not sign up to benefit from the resources available, like webinars and email information as a first step. - Look at our data through a diverse lens and see what we can learn to give diverse groups a voice
Whether you are a client or supplier, check out your data! This will help you see how different groups perceive your brand and where there may be gaps in your product portfolio, service and advertising.
Finally, check out “A Class Divided” on YouTube (free), as well as other films and books, so we can educate ourselves and become more empathetic, compassionate and knowledgeable in the process. “A Class Divided” was recommended by a number of attendees at Jennifer Brown’s webinar. It shows how children in the 1960’s were divided into blue-eyed and brown-eyed by their teacher and the amazing lesson this taught them about racism.
