Times are challenging for equity, diversity and inclusion work. Globally, there is a shift to the right and pressure from a range of directions to slow down, pause or stop our work to ensure everyone is able to thrive and progress in our workplaces. In addition, there are very real financial challenges for individuals and businesses of all kinds.  

So how do we keep the work we know is essential going?  

Equity, diversity and inclusion is an ever-evolving field.

Approaches to EDI in 2020 are not as effective as they were last year. The expectations on us to create inclusive working environments is every increasing, and the challenges are constantly changing.  

Getting a clear understanding of where we are now will allow organisations to identify when and how changes should be made.  

Keeping progress moving in the right direction can be a challenge.  

Organisations will sometimes reach out to us when they get stuck. This can be a very difficult step for people as they will often come to an initial conversation feeling some very deep and complex emotions: shame, guilt, inadequacy, frustration, anger, resentment etc.  

Sometimes, they are getting pressure from colleagues to explain why progress has stopped, why actions haven’t been actioned, why some people feel the same now as they did when the work started. The will to keep moving will be there, the commitment will be evident in the deep emotions listed above, but for whatever reason, they just can’t seem to get moving again. Why is that? 

Last weekend I was drawn to a feature on Sky News talking about racial discrimination in the theatre industry.  

This caught my eye not least because much of the work we do at Spotlight Inclusion to create equitable, diverse and inclusive environments is in the arts sector and much of that is in the theatre industry.