Key Resources on Navigating Feelings of Fear and Loss in EDI Initiatives

The reality is that we live in societies that generate and maintain unfair inequalities.

Our intertwined social, cultural, and economic systems systemically benefit some groups or individuals over others, creating structural inequities that shape people’s everyday experiences, including those in the workplace.¹ From the employee lifecycle to workplace culture, structural inequities in the workplace are pervasive, yet often unacknowledged. To achieve equitable outcomes for all, organisations need to grapple with this uncomfortable reality.

What are Structural Inequities?

The topic of structural inequities can be an intimidating one to talk about. Structural inequities are complex injustices, shaped by the historical oppression of certain social groups and everyday social processes that systematically position certain groups or individuals at a disadvantage while enabling others to flourish.²

These structural inequities are heavily built into the fabric and ways of thinking of our societies. Implicitly embedded within our social systems, they are difficult to distinguish and grapple with. They can embed and create harmful experiences in employment, healthcare, education, and countless other social institutions – and are often replicated within our workplaces, impacting how people experience and progress through their careers.

The reality is that something as simple as a non-English sounding name can be enough to reduce a person’s employment opportunities – a persistent problem that is shown in recent studies.

The Myth of Self-Sufficiency

Many of us are familiar with the Western idioms of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” or “if you work hard, you can achieve anything” that can dominate business and self-development conversations. It’s a longstanding ideology that proposes that anyone can overcome their circumstances or hardships and achieve success by merely working hard enough. This myth of meritocracy, or self-sufficiency, perpetuates the idea that opportunities are equally available to everyone and those who succeed do so only because of their qualifications and effort.³

This mindset fails to acknowledge that there are certain advantages – or privileges – that come with certain identities, such as being white or male. We often dismiss the structural inequities that shape our opportunities and experiences in the workplace – and place some people far behind others on a starting line due to their identity or the communities that they are a part of.

As McIntosh aptly puts it in her influential paper White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack: “I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious.”

We are often hesitant to consider how our identity may have played a hand in our successes as it brings this myth of self-sufficiency into question. It can be difficult to accept that some supporting forces may have given us an upper hand over others. Acknowledging that our privileges may have contributed to our successes conflicts with the ideal of achieving something by ourselves, and many of us are unprepared or simply unwilling to explore our own roles in societal structures.

Because of this, your company’s efforts to dismantle inequities that may manifest in the workplace through equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives or programs can provoke strong emotional discomfort, including feelings of anger, denial, shame, fear, or loss from people who were unaware or uncritical of their privilege. Even if there is no actual loss or reason to feel shame or fear, people’s feelings can influence how they how they experience, respond, and act on EDI initiatives.

While these strong emotions are rarely openly discussed in organisations, leaving them unaddressed can create further divides that can hinder meaningful progress.

Addressing Feelings of Fear and Loss in Your Organisation

If you’ve been thinking about how to understand and address the feelings and responses that may accompany EDI programmes in your organisation, here are some helpful practices, and resources to consider:

Understand structural inequities

An important step is helping your organisation gain insight into structural inequities and how they can be replicated in workplace interactions and operations.

The Wheel of Privilege and Power and this article on Social Identities and Systems of Oppression offer a starting point to understand and explore patterns of power and privilege in our societies. These articles on Understanding Race, Racism, and Racial Discrimination and Racism Defined are also helpful pieces to set the broader context and legacies that shape our experiences.

There is no single resource that comprehensively captures all the different structures at play or how these structural inequities may be replicated in your organisation, so you may need to research certain more prevalent aspects in your specific context. This can include the role of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, disability, and/or religion in shaping current and historic positions of power.

It is crucial to ensure that your efforts are contextually relevant. Aim to understand which identities have historically been marginalised and privileged in the regions where you operate, and how ongoing legacies impact or are embedded in your organisation, so that you know which groups you may need to work with in your organisation.

Invite and include privileged identities into EDI conversations

Including individuals with privileged identities into conversations and spaces for equity provides an opportunity for them to surface unconscious assumptions and to engage with these topics in a more nuanced way.

Reflective workshops and discussions can offer an important space for privileged identities to begin to understand and grapple with the impacts of historical legacies and current inequities on their co-workers, and to reflect on their own privileges and responsibilities. Consider workshops or exercises, such as the Blanket Exercise, to help individuals gain a deeper understanding of the histories that shape current structures and how they can underline workplace experiences for many people. Adapting scenarios and activities, such as the Privilege Walk, to organisational contexts can also be useful to invite workers to build their understanding of the different power structures present within organisational interactions and reassess any assumptions they have held.

Our guide on Becoming an Agent of Change shows how privileged insiders can reflect on their role in the perpetuation of injustice and leverage their own privilege to promote change. Similarly, this article explores how to encourage privileged identities to look beyond the fear of loss or discomfort and participate in meaningful change within organisations.

Address resistance with patience, understanding, and firmness

Efforts to address inequities within the workplace can have real impacts on those currently benefitting from the status quo, whether they realise it or not. For example, fostering pay equity may sometimes require reductions in compensation or lower increases going forward. Meet these concerns with patience, empathy, and understanding. It's often difficult for people to grapple with the idea that their privileges are unearned and linked to structural injustices.

This research article on Understanding Advantaged Groups' Opposition to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policies touches on the different types of perceived threats privileged identities may feel and how to mitigate these reactions. This article on Managing Resistance to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Workplace Initiatives can provide insight on strategies to get buy-in from those in your organisation that may be hesitant or resistant to change.

Challenging existing norms and structures will often create discomfort and may generate resistance from those that have benefitted from their existence. It is therefore important to offer a long-term vision and clarify how equitable outcomes can benefit all to address people’s fear of losing status or limit zero-sum thinking.

Be a Part of Creating an Equitable Future

Engaging in conversations to confront how privileges and structural inequities may affect your organisation can feel daunting and complicated.

There’s no one way to begin – each organisation is shaped by its context in different ways and requires different approaches to meaningfully engage with these complex topics. But these conversations do need to happen, and your organisation will need to find ways to bring along even the most hesitant to change - or be willing to lose them.

If you’re ready to start your organisation’s journey towards equitable outcomes for all, explore these and other resources for equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in our EDI Leading Practices Guide.

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