Racial equity transformation work is not easy, nor for the faint of heart. We designed our new book “Hear Us Now: Racial Equity in the Workplace” as one tool for your toolkit.

You don’t have to lead transformational change efforts alone. In fact, nobody can do it alone. The experts in this book will help you through common challenges you’ll likely face in the workplace as you lead on race. Because make no mistake: this work is worth taking on. It’s good for business, good for communities, good for company culture, and good for the soul.

 The R.A.C.E. Podcast, hosted by our founder Dr. Keecha Harris, intentionally motivates, challenges, and invites listeners to try on new approaches to navigate race-related change processes at work — generally mission-driven organizations like foundations, corporations, or government agencies.

 As Keecha and Ali Webb co-authored “Hear Us Now” to share learnings from Season 1, a set of themes emerged. The chapters focus on those themes: individual/personal elements (1-4), teams, organizations, and workplaces (5-10), and our communities/society/world (11-13).

• Chapter 1 emphasizes the importance of intentional self-care and personal healing to create resilient, joyful, and supportive workplaces.
• Chapter 2 outlines the crucial importance of understanding one’s “why” and rooting into our personal motivations for engaging in racial equity work.
• Chapter 3 delves into understanding and challenging conscious and subconscious narratives.
• Chapter 4 lays out the importance of building a supportive circle and support system in the workplace.
• Chapter 5 highlights the importance of identity, and how embracing all identities contributes to workplace innovation and resilience.
• Chapter 6 tells the story of shifting to “relationships before task” to promote organizational success.
• Chapter 7 explores various dimensions of authenticity in the workplace.
• Chapter 8 shows the difficulty, discomfort, and messiness inherent in addressing systemic injustices and the need for normalizing difficult conversations.
• Chapter 9 focuses on the crucial aspect of trust within a team, including recognizing the shared humanity of team members.
• Chapter 10 explores the complex and nonlinear nature of change in the workplace.
• Chapter 11 recognizes the need for continuous learning, adaption, and community engagement,  including acknowledging our deep-rooted history of racial discrimination.
• Chapter 12 offers the idea that we must move forward together collectively — across racial, ethnic, and cultural lines.
• Chapter 13 explores the realities of systemic change being a lifelong commitment with no “quick-fixes.”
• And finally, the Conclusion brings together our guests’ most important guidance on each topic to reiterate why this work needs to be put into practice in all workplaces, especially those who work on philanthropy: the love of ALL humankind.

 Whether you’re a long-term foundation CEO or you’ve just entered your social impact career, everyone can discover new opportunities in leading organizational and sector change work, by learning from other change agents. We hope this book will reach even more people doing the hard work of systematically transforming their foundation, corporation, or government agency to contribute to an environment that supports the full humanity of the people around them.