Becoming an Anti-Racist Organisation
Practical training to help organisations examine culture, systems, policies and outcomes, strengthen accountability and develop sustained approaches to anti-racist organisational change.
Practical training to help organisations examine culture, systems, policies and outcomes, strengthen accountability and develop sustained approaches to anti-racist organisational change.
Becoming an anti-racist organisation requires more than individual awareness or statements of commitment. It means examining how culture, systems, policies, practices and decisions affect people differently, identifying where racial inequality is being created or sustained, and taking accountable action to change it. This course helps organisations move from intention to evidence-informed action and develop practical approaches for creating meaningful and sustained anti-racist change.
Many organisations are committed to racial equality. The more difficult question is whether that commitment can be seen consistently in people's experiences, organisational decisions and outcomes.
Anti-racist organisational practice requires us to look beyond whether discrimination was intended and examine what is happening in practice. This includes considering who has access to opportunities, whose voices influence decisions, where disparities occur and whether organisational responses are producing meaningful change.
Look honestly at organisational evidence, experiences and outcomes to identify where racial inequality, barriers or disparities may exist.
Create meaningful opportunities for people to raise concerns and share lived experiences without being expected to carry responsibility for solving organisational problems.
Identify where policies, processes, practices or cultural norms need to change rather than relying only on individual awareness or good intentions.
Establish responsibility, follow through on commitments and examine whether actions are actually producing fairer experiences and outcomes.
Racial inequality is not created only through individual behaviour. Organisational structures, established ways of working and apparently neutral decisions can also create different experiences or outcomes for different groups.
The course encourages delegates to examine how different parts of the organisation interact rather than treating individual incidents or disparities in isolation.
Who joins, progresses, stays, leaves or gains access to development and opportunity?
Whose experiences may be different?
Could recruitment, promotion, performance, disciplinary, grievance or other processes contain barriers or produce disparities?
What does the evidence show?
What behaviours, assumptions and informal practices are normalised, challenged, rewarded or overlooked?
What happens in everyday practice?
A policy or process can appear fair because everybody is subject to the same rules. However, treating everybody identically does not necessarily produce equitable opportunities or outcomes.
Delegates consider how apparently neutral organisational requirements or established practices may affect groups differently, and how evidence can help distinguish assumption from actual organisational impact.
The organisation might ask:
“Are people experiencing this process in the same way, and what do our outcomes tell us?”
The organisation might ask:
“How are we defining merit, and do our criteria or decisions create barriers that are unrelated to what the role genuinely requires?”
The organisation might ask:
“Do people feel safe and confident raising concerns, and what other evidence might help us understand their experiences?”
Anti-racist organisational change requires more than responding to individual incidents. Organisations need to be able to recognise patterns and ask whether different groups are experiencing different opportunities, treatment or outcomes.
Delegates consider how quantitative and qualitative evidence can be used together. Numbers may identify a disparity, while people's experiences can help an organisation understand what may be contributing to it.
Who applies, is shortlisted, appointed and at what level?
Who gains access to development, promotion and influential opportunities?
What do surveys, concerns, grievances, networks and lived experiences tell us?
Where do retention, performance, disciplinary or other organisational outcomes differ?
Lived experience can provide important insight into how organisational culture, policies and practices are experienced. However, colleagues who experience racism should not be expected to repeatedly educate the organisation, prove every aspect of their experience or carry responsibility for designing the solution.
The course explores how organisations can listen with curiosity, create safer routes for concerns and participation, recognise differences within and between communities, and combine lived experience with organisational evidence and accountability.
Individual incidents need to be addressed appropriately, but they can also provide information about wider organisational culture or systems.
An anti-racist organisation asks not only “What happened?” but also “What might this tell us about our organisation?”
What happened, who was affected and what response is required?
Respond appropriately.
Have similar concerns, experiences or disparities appeared elsewhere or previously?
Look beyond the isolated event.
What might need to change in culture, policy, process, practice, leadership or accountability?
Address underlying causes.
Commitment becomes meaningful when responsibility is clear and action can be demonstrated. Organisations need ways of ensuring that concerns, disparities and commitments do not disappear once immediate attention has passed.
Who owns the issue, who has authority to act and who needs to be involved?
Who is accountable?
What specifically will change, by when, and what resources or support are required?
What happens next?
How will the organisation know whether its action has improved experiences or outcomes?
How will progress be demonstrated?
By the end of the course, delegates should be better able to:
This course is designed for people who have a role in shaping organisational culture, systems, policies, practices or approaches to equality and anti-racism.
It can be particularly valuable for:
No previous anti-racism training is required. The course can be tailored to reflect your organisation, sector, workforce and existing equality priorities.
We also offer related programmes where a broader foundation, allyship focus or leadership-specific approach is required.
For organisations wanting a broad foundation in how racism operates and practical ways employees can recognise, challenge and respond to it.
View course
For organisations wanting to develop practical allyship, including how people can use their voice, influence and privilege to support racial equality.
View course
For leaders who need to understand their responsibility, influence and accountability for creating and sustaining anti-racist workplace cultures.
View course
All our courses are tailored to ensure the training reflects your organisation, sector, workforce and equality priorities.
The course can be delivered face-to-face or online via Zoom or Teams.
To support participation, discussion and interaction, we recommend the following group sizes per session:
Need to train a larger workforce? No problem. We regularly work with organisations that need to train larger numbers of employees. Where appropriate, training can be delivered across multiple sessions to ensure everyone receives the same high-quality, interactive learning experience. We can develop a delivery programme to suit your workforce size, locations and timescales.
Please note: the half-day rate is not always available for face-to-face sessions.
Over 25 years' experience delivering equality, diversity and inclusion training, consultancy and professional development.
Keep updated with the latest equality and diversity news, offers and updates.