On this episode, Ren Akinci and Dr. Lori Watson discuss how leaders can effectively respond to societal incidents that impact employees, creating a safe and inclusive workplace. They explore essential strategies for open discussions on race, balancing inclusivity with free speech, and building a lasting commitment to racial equity in organizations.

Antiracist training and community building for staff and nonfaculty academics… Our workforce development team created a work plan based on a series of planning and brainstorming sessions during the 2020–2021 academic year. As a result, a series of voluntary trainings and community building circles was held in collaboration with an outside vendor (race-work.com) and our campus wide Restorative Justice Center.

I’ve experienced many racial equity trainings for teachers over the past two decades that were intended to transform my school’s culture. Recently, my school began working with Dr. Lori Watson, and it made me rethink what’s possible. … What Hasn’t Worked Before: There were a number of reasons previous racial equity trainings did not always resonate with our school community. The timing of the PDs definitely influenced the lack of any shifts. Facilitators were often brought in as reactionary responses to racial events at our school when in fact, the work should have begun long before that. Some facilitators rushed into content without first building relationships with the staff. Others did not find ways to make the content accessible or relatable to all staff. As a result of these mistakes, people did not feel invested in the work.

DC is proud to announce Kumi Croom’s new role as DC’s first director of diversity and collaboration. Check out Kumi talking with Adweek about her goals and the progress she’s already helped to usher in. Croom explained that the agency focused its efforts over the course of the last year on recruitment and retention, as well as antiracism education efforts which have included mandatory programs with Dr. Lori A. Watson—all areas which will remain priorities going forward.