Championing change in Black History Month

This year’s Black History Month theme of “Reclaiming Narratives” serves as a powerful opportunity to examine how we can better amplify Black voices and experiences within DCC.

We had the opportunity to sit down with Mike Hewitt, Chief Technology Officer and D&I co-sponsor and talk to him about his perspective on how we can all become better allies to our Black colleagues.

Q1. This Black History Month's theme is Reclaiming Narratives. How do you see your role in amplifying and supporting Black voices, this month and beyond?

I think it's a great initiative to be bringing to light. Before I go on, I’m going to bring an example of what reclaiming the narrative means to me and here’s a real example I've got, which goes back to 1998, which is Nelson Mandela and the Rugby World Cup.

You've got a country that's been divided throughout apartheid being brought together through the national sports team, which was a real example of apartheid - the white rugby team, but Nelson Mandela used that to bridge a country. And boy, was that amazing and so powerful for me. We can lose some of that because that seems like a long time ago. But to me it's almost like yesterday.

That's the real power of bringing that narrative to life. My role as amplifying the Black voice in this organisation is to continue to educate myself, call out and understand where biases start to appear in our organisation and where examples of racism are noticed, even through microaggression behaviours, call these out and keep learning. As a leader, we've got to continue to listen to the voices of our colleagues.

It's important to start to create a space to amplify black voices within our organisation. And I do that through building psychological safety so people feel comfortable to talk about those things, which may be uncomfortable to us some of the time. So that's really how, as leader, I bring it to life. And I think we saw some examples of that, earlier this year, when someone challenged me as a senior leader in the organisation with “Are we doing enough?” It starts with those conversations.

Q2. As the sponsor of the D&I forum, how are you creating space for Black employees to reclaim their own narratives?

As a co-sponsor, I've identified that this is really important because being a sponsor means I can't be passive. I've got to be active in all of this and start to lead by my actions. Part of it is doing things like this interview. Part of this is being a conduit to the wider leadership team, talking about the things that we are doing well and things that, maybe, we're not doing enough of.

That’s my role as a leader to keep that conversation going - to bring it to life to the organisation. I've got to hold myself accountable through all of this, but really, it's through my ability to get people together and foster that conversation because that keeps it alive and well. That's keeping the narrative alive or keeping the initiatives we've got alive.

That's how we do it. Constant conversation. This is not just a dip in and read the anti-racism books and put it back on the shelf. Let's take lessons from the books and have those conversations with the wider community, both in the workplace but also outside the workplace - in our home and our community lives. Let’s keep having those conversations.

Q3. What advice do you have leaders to be greater allies to our Black colleagues in DCC?

It's not just about certain stereotypes or the Black community. We need to be allies to all colleagues, whether it's race, gender, or any background or sexuality. It’s a wider conversation as allies. That means we're colleagues, friends, supporters and sponsors, so we foster that conversation.

For me, as a leader, it's about listening with empathy and continuing to listen. Don't be defensive about any of it. Some of the things challenge me and when they challenge me, it's time to slow down, take a breath and say, ‘This is not personal’. This is just part of societal changes that we need to adopt.

So, I hold myself accountable to having those conversations and taking the time to listen. Don't get defensive about history. Acknowledge that biases do exist in all organisations and the team around me have been great about educating me around this. And my role as a leader is to be able to be self-aware, understand that bias does exist and use it as a strength.

And use it as your inner voice sometimes as well. Be open to feedback in the language that we use in our organisation. Being a senior leader in our organisation does give me the opportunity to really lean in and address some of these issues, rather than being passive and standing back.

We surf on a wave of history of those who have gone before us. That's where the narrative comes from. Those who have been through hardship, been through adversity, have created the society we live in tonight. That's why the narrative of the past is so important to where we are today.