“There is no point having diversity for diversity’s sake” — Exclusive Interview with Kriss Akabusi
Diversity and inclusion have been important topics of 2020, with the global pandemic highlighting many of societies’ imbalances and misrepresentations of minority ethnic groups. As a result, businessowners have become more conscious of their decisions regarding diversity and inclusion in their workplace.
Kriss Akabusi MBE plays an important role in the workplace diversity conversation. Now working as a motivational speaker, the three-time Olympic medalist uses his expert knowledge of leadership, teamwork and peak performance to educate and inspire his mainly corporate audiences. Speaking with Kriss, I took the opportunity to ask:
What does diversity and inclusion mean to you and why are they important?
“When it comes to diversity and inclusion, I do think it’s better today than when I started but we have a long way to go, and I hope it will be much better than it is now in future for my children. Diversity is obviously important in its place and having an inclusive work environment that does not discriminate is imperative, but what I find fundamental to establish, is the difference between a business embracing diversity and inclusion, purely to satisfy a tick-box exercise, and those who genuinely want to create a diverse workforce at all levels of the business to be representative of society at large.”
“For example — I was a relay runner. In the relay team, the quickest, strongest, fastest people are part of the team. There’s no point me saying to anybody: ‘Hold on, we haven’t got a woman on this team, lets go get a woman. Or, we haven’t got a black guy on this team, lets go get a black guy. Or, everybody here is in their twenties, that’s no good, let’s go get someone who’s 50.’ I know it sounds ridiculous, but what I’m trying to say is, you can’t have diversity for diversity’s sake.
“With inclusion, you can have a diverse workforce, but this doesn’t mean you include them. You can have all sorts of different ages, races, genders, abilities, and keep everybody on the shop floor and nobody in the boardroom. Then you wonder why everyone has a groupthink and you’re missing the target — it’s because you don’t know what the general populous are thinking, wanting and experiencing.”
Kriss highlights the importance of authentic diversity and genuine inclusion in the workplace, emphasising how counterproductive a box-ticking mentality is. Kriss’ points also stress the importance of staying mindful. Known as performative activism, social media has made it incredibly easy to jump on the bandwagon of a trend without remembering why the trend exists in the first place. In terms of diversity and inclusion, it is vital to remember the ultimate goal — equal opportunity for all.
