Inclusion means making sure everyone is heard and accommodating diverse needs. Equity goes further...
It is encouraging to see Indian workplaces taking steps towards advancing DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives and embracing diverse hiring. However, once individuals from different genders, castes, religions, and social classes join the workforce, it's essential to ensure they feel truly included. Historically, workplaces and career paths have often been designed with a limited perspective, but there's a growing recognition of the need for change. Inclusion means making sure everyone is heard and accommodating diverse needs. Equity goes further, ensuring policies and practices give all employees equal access to learning and growth opportunities, accommodations, while also prioritizing everyone's psychological, physical, and emotional safety.
Organizations are increasingly putting systems in place to introduce inclusive practices, but moving beyond the status quo involves unlearning deep-rooted biases and understanding the varied contexts people come from. Active listening is key—not just to respond, but to truly learn from the experiences of those who have been marginalized. This practice informs meaningful actions and fosters a more inclusive environment for everyone.
Active listening and empathy are key to being a good ally. Allyship involves actively and consistently using one’s privilege and power to support and advocate for people with less privilege. EquiLead decided to embark on a journey with a training program that empowers employees to take meaningful action and build an inclusive workplace culture by being true allies. Since our audience and community are mid-senior women from the social sector, we focused on social impact organizations.
Anecdotal evidence has shown that mid-career professionals, especially those in managerial or stakeholder management roles, are uniquely positioned to drive culture change. They shape the culture and practices within their spheres of impact, where their leadership sets the tone for organizational growth and serves as a guiding light for emerging and young professionals. We believed that by participating in our program, they would gain insights and practical strategies to effectively incorporate allyship principles in their workplaces. Our focus was to enable and empower them to cultivate a culture of inclusivity and enhance their leadership effectiveness within their teams.
Understanding and Practicing Allyship
We conducted a 4-part virtual Learning Circle across March and April inspired by the Lean In Allyship at Work training module to learn and create a comprehensive framework for understanding and implementing allyship at workplaces through active listening and learning, emphasizing that allyship is a skill that can be learned and practiced.
This program differed from our previous skill and capacity-building workshops in that it was gender-agnostic, since people of all genders should learn to become allies and cultivate empathy for their team members from different contexts.
We started off by understanding what allyship is and how to translate intent into action. Allyship differs from advocacy; it involves taking intentional, informed actions to support marginalized groups.
Our first session focused on defining allyship and understanding its significance in the workplace. We discussed how allyship differs from other forms of support and why it is critical for creating inclusive work environments. We also explored the barriers that prevent people from being allies and identified enablers to overcome these challenges. Participants were then introduced to the concept of the Human Library, and we demonstrated how to engage with stories of lived experiences to build empathy and understanding. We discussed how such tools and practices can be customized to practice allyship in daily work interactions.
In the second session, we delved into the concepts of privilege and power dynamics. Recognizing one's privilege is essential for becoming an effective ally.
Privilege, often invisible to those who possess it, can manifest in various forms, such as caste, gender, and socio-economic status among other factors. Understanding how these dynamics play out in the workplace helps allies better support their colleagues and challenge inequities. We used tools like the Wheel of Power and Powerlessness to help participants identify and reflect on their privileges. Discussions and breakout sessions allowed participants to share experiences and strategies for addressing privilege and power imbalances. When sociocultural identities merge with workplace hierarchies and imbalances of power, it creates complex systemic inequities. Understanding how privilege, inequity, and power manifest in the workplace and recognizing one’s own power and privilege are crucial first steps toward challenging inequitable power structures.
The third session built on the previous discussions by exploring workplace inequities and the role of positional power. We reflected on recurring instances of inequity in the workplace and to envision an ideal scenario where everyone felt belonged. We examined how inequities manifest in various forms and how positional power can be used to either perpetuate or challenge these inequities. Participants were encouraged to reflect on their own positional power and how they can use it to empower others and promote inclusivity.
A key component of this session was the discussion around the Empathy Triangle, which explores the roles of ally, affected person, and source. We used this framework to understand how individuals can progress from being bystanders to becoming allies.
During this session, we also watched the short film Purl, which illustrates themes of belonging in the workplace and the benefits of creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and included.
In the fourth and final session, our focus was on creating a sustainable framework for active allyship. We reviewed all the key concepts covered in previous sessions, including:
- Identifying inequities at work
- Recognizing our privilege
- Considering actions to take
- Owning our positional power
We discussed practical steps for implementing allyship in the workplace. This session emphasized the importance of continuous learning and reflection, highlighting the need for allies to actively seek out opportunities to support their colleagues. Participants were introduced to different types of allyship actions—individual, interpersonal, and structural. Through group activities, they explored how to apply these actions in their own roles and organizations. The session concluded with a focus on long-term strategies for sustaining allyship efforts and creating lasting impact within their teams and organizations.
Fostering allyship for inclusivity
Allyship at an individual level is crucial for maintaining inclusive and equitable workplaces. These sessions provide a safe space for individuals to learn, reflect, and practice the skills necessary to be effective allies. Over the course of four sessions, we brought together a community of mid-career professionals to reflect on the inequities in the workplace, and on their position in the system to foster better allyship among colleagues and team members, thereby creating inclusive team cultures.
In the Indian social impact sector, where professionals often work with diverse and marginalized communities, the ability to practice allyship is particularly important. Training sessions like these equip mid-career professionals with the knowledge and tools needed to start practicing allyship at a team level and to scale this effort to influence organizational culture.
It is essential to remember that allyship is not a one-time effort but an ongoing process that needs to be practised consistently. By continually learning, listening, and taking action, we can nurture workplace cultures that makes everyone feel valued, respected, and supported. EquiLead is committed to bringing capacity- and knowledge-building sessions across other related topics that are foundational to creating inclusive and equitable workplaces in the social impact space. If you or your organization want to learn more or explore synergies, please write to us at maathangimohan@equilead.org.
