It's Time to Talk about Race at Work

CHAPTER 10Where to Start When You Don't Know Where to Start: Eight Steps to Making Progress on DE&I

Have you ever thought about all the things you've learned to do that began with the most basic, simple, fundamental steps? Here is a list of things we all had to learn how to do that may have seemed difficult at the time, but we have become so proficient at them now that we can do them with barely a thought:

• We learned how to read. We started by learning the alphabet, and perhaps we learned the alphabet by “singing our ABCs.” We then learned the sounds those letters make, and we learned how to assemble those letters into words and those words into sentences.
• We learned math. We started by learning numbers and then learning to count. We then learned how to add and subtract, multiply and divide. We learned fractions. Then algebra. And some of you (not me!) learned complex math, such as calculus.
• We learned how to drive. We started with coursework that taught us the rules of the road and what all the road signs and traffic signals mean. We learned about auto safety. We learned about acceleration and braking. And then we got behind the wheel and learned how to drive on roads, merge onto freeways, and parallel park.

You get the picture. Everything that you have ever learned to do started with basic steps that culminated in proficiency.

Talking about race at work is like that. Just because you've never had a conversation about race at work, or you've only had limited conversations, ...