Diversity Beyond Lip Service

May 15, 2019
Harris, who has decades of experience in both corporate leadership and social-justice activism, offers a thought-provoking (and action-provoking) guide to meaningful diversity initiatives. The key, she says, is to focus on inclusion; without it, diversity recruitment is bound to fail. Instead of walking readers through why diversity and inclusion are good business decisions, she addresses the barriers to success: a failure to recognize privilege and, by extension, a lack of buy-in from business leaders, most of whom are white men. In fact, her approach to "Inclusion Coaching" is geared toward these leaders, who often need the most convincing, but who also have the most power to effect change. Not everyone will agree with all of it?in fact, Khalil Smith, a fellow leader in the field of corporate diversity and inclusion, admits that he does not, and he admits this in the foreword. But readers will agree with Smith's conclusion?that Harris' work is a unique and necessary addition to the literature on successfully promoting diversity in the workplace. A must-read for leaders in any size organization.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)