Start Making Changes Towards a More Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Work Place: Book Review of Inclusion Revolution

 

Inclusion Revolution: The Essential Guide to Dismantling Racial Inequity in the Workplace by Daisy Auger-Dominguez
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to Basic Books and GoodReads Giveaways for the review copy of Inclusion Revolution: The Essential Guide to Dismantling Racial Inequity in the Workplace by Daisy Auger-Domínguez, which I received in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Inclusion Revolution is meant for businesses, aimed at management-level professionals who wish to make a difference in the long-lasting diversity of their workplace. As Auger-Domínguez argues, hiring a more diverse set of employees is not the final answer, as BIPOC (a currently used acronym which stands for “Black, Indigenous, and People of Color”) often feel alienated at work, do not receive the mentoring and coaching that they need, and are judged more harshly during performance reviews. All of these elements and more contribute to difficulties being promoted and lack of retention. It is not enough to change hiring practices if you are not serving your employees, because they will not have a voice in the company and they will not stay. Inclusion Revolution offers practical advice on how to begin the conversation about race and racial inequity, how to help employees be more open and honest, and how to begin to make changes that will make work a more inclusive place.

While Inclusion Revolution is written for managers and people who have power within a company, I found that the information was helpful for me to know, and that I could apply many of the suggestions to my own classroom. After all, being a teacher is a form of managing people. For example, Auger-Domínguez takes time to establish the importance of being honest and open with employees about criticism. It is not easy to deliver criticism, as we are often afraid of the other person’s response, of coming off as a jerk, or hurting their feelings. However, Auger-Domínguez argues that not telling someone is more harmful than it is kind. If a person is doing something that is damaging to their career, then they ought to know. I find that being straightforward with my students about their flaws can be difficult. A large part of my job is encouraging and motivating my students to do their work. I do not want to tell them when they are doing something that they should know better than to do. The problem is that often people do not know better, students included, or they are not self-aware enough to know that something is a problem. Giving someone this input can help them to make changes. Of course, the way that the criticism is addressed to the person is especially important, and I would approach a fifteen-year-old significantly differently than I would approach a thirty-year-old, but we all need feedback.

Often when I read popular non-fiction that is business related, I find myself thinking, Yes, that is a great idea, I would love to do that--but how? Auger-Domínguez does a lot of work to explain how to go about the process, gives examples of companies who have gone before, and provides researched evidence to back up her recommendations.

Another trap that I see business and self-help books fall into is pointing out the obvious, but helping us to consider it in a new way. In and of itself, this is not a trap. It is important to look at things differently, as this will help us look at the situation and what we can do about it differently. The trap occurs when the majority of the book is rethinking the obvious and not teaching anything new. Again, Auger-Domínguez does not do this, either. Her suggestions for setting up and changing systems are not “no duh” solutions.

Which brings us to, “Would I teach this book?” The answer is: parts of it. As an ELA (English Language Arts) instructor, I am not teaching business. I do teach some non-fiction, especially when I am teaching argumentation and research in composition classes, but I look for non-fiction that is not too far outside of my students’ experiences. Thinking about management is a bit past their imaginations. Even teaching in a traditional role in an actual college with college-aged students, it would be difficult for them to relate, especially since many have not held jobs, and those who have have not been in positions of power.

However, there are instances when it would make sense to teach excerpts from the book. As discussed earlier, there were several parts that could be easily transferred to teaching. If I were teaching an education class, I can see using those for teacher training or if I were presenting professional development to current instructors. In a class that I currently teach, Multicultural Literature, we discuss different life experiences from world and American cultures, and again, excerpts would be helpful in presenting how people can feel in the workplace. I can also envision a class on writing non-fiction in which portions of this book would be helpful to study, in part because of how they instruct and provide solutions.

I found Inclusion Revolution helpful and the prose style enjoyable to read. Auger-Domínguez is good at teaching without preaching and providing data and resources. I strongly recommend reading it, even for those who are not managers.

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