[Email sent to ATD Hawaiʻi Chapter on Monday, June 8, 2020]

Dear colleagues,

Perhaps like a number of you, I fell into this type of work. 

I say that because I didn’t start out in the talent development space. I got into organizational development and workplace facilitation five years ago after spending the first half of my career in education and community engagement. In that work, I played a bridge role between communities and institutions to address systems of inequalities that continued to marginalize people.

As I reflect on the recent all-too-familiar events that have taken place recently: the egregious acts of privilege and racism against Christian Cooper, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and countless others in the Black community – I stand convicted knowing that there is a continuing role for me and for ALL of us to play in standing up to institutions of power and breaking down the systems that perpetuate racism and inequality every day.

Our role is a very important one, built upon what our guest speaker Sarah Guay spoke to in our last event about the role of shaping organizational culture and behavior. We discussed the iceberg metaphor: the “top of the line” surface culture that we all see – the values written on our company walls, the promises we make to new hires during orientation, the great speeches made by our company leaders – and the “below the line” culture of what truly happens behind closed doors and the ways in which people experience our organizations.

My colleagues, if we aren’t addressing the systemic issues that are impacting our people and impacting them in that “below the line” covert space – the micro-aggressions in the workplace, the ways in which some people are included and others are left out, the decisions made without transparency, the assumptions and stereotypes perpetuated about people because of their backgrounds, the mysoginistic locker room “Old Boy” cultures that exist – if WE aren’t addressing those as the ambassadors of healthy workplace culture and as leaders of learning organizations, who is?

I have been around this organization for three years and met many of you and heard your thoughts and the great things you do for your organizations. I respect you all as smart, talented, and amazing people. I implore all of us, to be angry about this issue – and to use that anger to teach; to inspire; to cultivate; to foster; to lead; to champion; to empower; to advocate for; to lift up – those things which we know are good and right and just, not just within our organizations, but within our communities and across our world.

Because the true work we do, I believe, is that we bring about the very best in people. At the end of the day, that is our job. So we’ve got to reflect, we’ve got to take some time to learn about the issues, listen, and ask ourselves how we can be part of the solution. We’ve got very important work to do.

Here are just some great resources that may help as you work to train and shift mindsets and behaviors in your organization on these issues:

• Harvard Business Review: “U.S. Businesses Must Take Meaningful Action Against Racism,” by Laura Morgan Roberts and Ella F. Washington
• ELI Inc.: “What Does it Mean to be an ‘Ally’ at Work?”
• Harvard Business Review: “Dear White Boss…,” by Keith A. Caver and Ancella B. Livers
• Forbes: “We Must Step Up For Black People Right Now – Here’s How,” by Sheree Atcheson
• Society for Human Resources Management: “How to Develop a Diversity and Inclusion Initiative”
• Harvard Business Review: “Two Types of Diversity Training That Really Work,” by Alex Lindsey, Eden King, Ashley Membere and Ho Kwan Cheung
• NPR Podcast: Code Switch
• Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.: “Understanding White Privilege” and “Diversity in the Classroom”
• Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence, Building A Multi-Ethnic, Inclusive and Anti-Racist Organization
• Seeds for Change: Facilitation Tools for Meetings and Workshop
• Smithsonian Institute: Being Antiracist
• Korn Ferry: “Race Matters” webinar series
• NAACP: We Are Done Dying

Just as these were not one-off acts but representations of larger, ongoing, systemic issues, we know that the solutions are not one-off training events but larger, ongoing, and systemic interventions to help bring about true change. 

ATD Hawaiʻi stands with you as partners and fellow collaborators in this work, and if we can be of help to you in any way, let us know.

Me ka mahalo nui (with lots of gratitude),

Kuʻulani Keohokalole

ATD Hawaiʻi Chapter President