Dear Company Leaders - You might be shocked by #Floyd & the subsequent protests you saw in the US this week. I guarantee you not one of your Black employees is. So if you’re moved, angry, or concerned...good. USE THAT. Channel those emotions to propel you to action. A word.../1

Over the past few days, I’ve seen a flurry of corporate activity like tweets and donations to public causes. These external-facing displays of solidarity are great. Please keep them up. Please also know that they’re not sufficient for uplifting your Black employees./2

Racism isn’t just “out there” in police departments or rural Georgia. It’s hard wired into your organizational structures, team dynamics and individual employee experiences. How do I know? Because this is America./3

While you can't solve for slavery or racism - and nobody's asking you to - you can directly impact the extent to which your organization counters historical inequity, inequality & injustice. If you’re fired up this week, some active antiracist corporate commitments to consider./4

Validate your Black employees’ humanity by communicating with them directly and personally.
Curate a private memorial or other virtual space for Black employees to process and grieve.
/5

Protect Black employees’ time and ability to heal via external community gatherings, expensable coaching or therapy, and PTO.
Relieve Black Employee Resource Group (ERG) members and leaders from all things. Managing the company through this is not part of their roles.
/6

At the same time, check in with Black ERG leaders to the extent that they’re energized, able and willing to be consulted.
Mobilize other ERGs to ally in ways prescribed by the Black ERG or an internal or external #DiversityandInclusion leader.
/7

Hold managers accountable for checking in 1:1 with Black employees and equip them to hold that space.
With Black employee consent, express solidarity in team settings & actively facilitate discussion so Black employees don’t carry the ensuing emotional labor.
/8

Message the whole company, taking care not to position this as a Black people problem or one that is removed from the workplace experience.
Host an expert-led company conversation on how to be antiracist.
/9

Set quantitative goals for Black diversity, inclusion and belonging, including specific targets for Black leader representation, internal mobility and Black employee engagement.
Put recurring time on the calendar now to assess progress against these quantitative goals.
/10

*Broadcast the commitments you make companywide so there’s no turning back.*

Because the embers in Minneapolis will cool and so will your emotions. And you’ll shift your attention back to the coronavirus and remote work and Q3 priorities and [fill in the blank].
/11

You're bearing witness to the race crisis that Black employees live every day and you should never let a good crisis go to waste.

What will you do about it? Enough is enough.
/end

Bonus tip to mechanize all of the above:

Devise a #DEI emergency response plan. This will happen again. Election 2020? Leverage whatever you did for #covid to organize a Comms decision tree across use cases. Don’t waste valuable time coordinating reactively next time.