
than a specific project about particular groups. That said – and I
know this is going to sound potentially contradictory, but I think
we have to live in this tension – on the one hand, it’s a universal
project; on the other hand, we have to contrast the 45 per cent of
straight white men who reported covering with the 83 per cent of
LGBT individuals who reported covering. Once we understand
that no cohort is immune from the past, then we can become more
attentive to the fact that people pay this tax at different rates and
that organizations need to really educate themselves about the
specific ways in which individuals cover.
The first prescription that we have is diagnosis. We can’t do
anything until we diagnose the covering demands that particular
groups are subjected to. I mentioned before that there are four axes
of covering: One is appearance, one is affiliation including cultural
affiliation, one is advocacy (not sticking up for people in your own
group or feeling pressure to not stick up for people in your own
group) and the last one is association or not being with people of
your own group. Until we can diagnose those four axes of cover-ing,
we won’t be able to retire them.
The second is what we call an active ally strategy. The idea is
that covering demands are so infinitesimal; they’re so numerous
and so tiny in the sense that we’re talking about micro interactions
between individuals such that an organization or a chief diversity
officer or a single HR person isn’t going to be able to do anything
about it. You really have to train teams and managers and everyone
in the organization to interrupt these covering demands as such
and be active allies in that productive interruption.
And the final one is to share your story or role model what
forms of authenticity are consistent with organizational values.
One of the things we learned from our survey is that people re-ally
wanted their leaders to go first, or they weren’t going to go at
all. Leaders have the power to set the culture for the workplace.
One of the things we’ve found to be extraordinarily powerful, and
Deloitte has adopted a version of this itself, is the practice of lead-ers
at the top sharing their stories so you get a kind of bank of
stories within the organization that act as a model. That will differ
from organization to organization but when a leader gets up and
does something that’s not “too much information” but does colour
outside of the bounds of a traditional resume, that is extremely
powerful and people respond very well to that.
For starters, I would say to do those three things. Diagnose the
covering demands that are going on in your organization, train
your people to be active allies to each other in the project of un-covering
talent, consistent with values of organization, then have
leaders share their stories to model what it would look like to share
a story that was consistent with the values of the organization.
Do you have any suggestions for strategic steps an orga-nization
can take to ensure a more authentically inclu-sive
environment?
KY: This is going to be a leap of imagination in some ways, but
bear with me. It’s one of the things we’re exploring with the
Centre for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at NYU School
of Law and it’s been really wonderful. I gave a bunch of talks
at a management consultancy and the leader there said, “Look,
you have the best concept but you don’t have the best delivery.”
Frankly, I was a little offended and sad because I’d won all these
teaching awards and I think of myself as a very good lecturer.
Then my colleague said it had nothing to do with me; it’s not
that I’m a lecturer, it’s the fact that I’m lecturing. So I said, tell me
more, I’m interested. She told me so much of the learning in her
organization now uses theatre to disseminate ideas. That sound-ed
a bit hokey and too avant-garde for us, but she encouraged
me to come and see. I did and I thought it was transformative
and brilliant.
So, what we’ve now done at the Centre is we have a Broadway
director and a whole cast of actors. These actors take the data
we’ve collected and then play out the uncovering talent scenes. We
then get the audience to spot diversity and inclusion issues that are
present in the scenes, and the scenes aren’t parodic, they’re quite
nuanced and ambiguous. We want people to wrestle with ambi-guities
in the scene and see different things, as much as drive a
particular message home. We found this to be extraordinarily ef-fective
as a mode of learning. So it’s not just that we have a new
idea, it’s that we have a new delivery method for the idea, too. n
feature
The Axes of Covering
In 1963, sociologist Erving Goffman coined the term
“covering.” In 2006, Kenji Yoshino further developed
the concept, outlining the four axes along which
individuals can cover: appearance, affiliation, advocacy
and association.
Appearance-based covering concerns how individuals
alter their self-presentation – including grooming, attire and
mannerisms – to blend into the mainstream. For instance,
a black woman might straighten her hair to de-emphasize
her race.
Affiliation-based covering concerns how individuals avoid
behaviours widely associated with their identity, often to
negate stereotypes about that identity. A woman might
avoid talking about being a mother because she does
not want her colleagues to think she is less committed to
her work.
Advocacy-based covering concerns how much individuals
“stick up for” their group. A veteran might refrain from
challenging a joke about the military, lest she be seen as
overly strident.
Association-based covering concerns how individuals
avoid contact with other group members. A gay person
might refrain from bringing his same-sex partner to a work
function so as not to be seen as “too gay.”
30 ❚ JANUARY 2018 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL