Build an Impact Business, but Make It Afro-Indigenous
Consider How Your Work Supports the Culture and Tradition of the Community It Serves
“We have the power to show what an inclusive future looks like. We can show what ergonomic housing and transportation, food, and water equality, as well as the dismantling of systemic racism, looks like. When a narrative is embedded with those visuals, it takes on a more powerful connecting tissue. That is Afrofuturism.” — Tim Fielder
The COVID-19 crisis has brought up and exacerbated the already existing failures in our systems: income inequality, precarity, systemic racism, injustice, and economic exclusion to name a few. Our work as social entrepreneurs requires that we consider our role in the broader system, the one that seems to be failing so spectacularly.
“The courage to be vulnerable is not about winning or losing, it’s about the courage to show up when you can’t predict or control the outcome.” — Brené Brown
I remember sitting through leadership meetings and corporate training where the underlying questions were “How can we create more inclusive spaces?” “How can we still drive profit while prioritizing the needs of the ‘minority’?” or more plainly, “How can we become better leaders?”
Even leaders with the best intentions at heart face systemic obstacles, inherent unconscious bias, and mindsets that trickle down into the various levels of company culture. More often than not we hear statements and promises of change — the vision of community, safety, and success in the workplace — but how often are leaders acting on their words? On the notion of not knowing how to move forward, I’ve observed leaders fall into their own insecurities and discomfort while missing a key point in business.
Business is about people.
Jim Hayhurst, CEO of Pretio Interactive, said: “Nothing happens without the people. Work with good people, partner with good people, have good people as your customers.”
Over time I’ve come to learn that becoming better leaders and creating a culture of inclusion and safety are two sides of the same coin. Most conversations are based on the underlying assumption that safer spaces through diversity and inclusion are an added task to our work — a challenge to solve. In reality, businesses that are sustainable, long-lasting and profitable are a byproduct of holding safety and inclusion at the core. Rather than seeing it as a task at hand, what if we asked instead: How can we have safety and inclusion embedded as part of our core business? How would this drive innovation, community, and unity?
Businesses are businesses because of their people, and culture is everything.
Build a business, but make it inclusive.
The inclusive economy that we are striving to create won’t become a reality without taking concrete steps to address the mindsets and values that led to the fundamental inequity, injustice, and violence in our society. We might refer to a shift in leadership, a human-centered approach to business. I look at it as decolonizing business and impact. From a business perspective, especially for social impact businesses, we can learn from Afrofuturism and Indigenous Futurism ways of being and thinking. A process that is inherently connected to decolonizing, unlearning ways of working and being that lead us to division.
“We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society.” — Angela Davis
Decolonization is as much a process as a goal.
From a leadership perspective, decolonization requires a breakdown of the traditional hierarchical power structure. It calls for decentralizing power, from going beyond who gets to sit at the table to a shift in culture and values. Words are powerful, but actions speak louder. It starts with valuing the collective rather than the individual — and when we understand that we are all interconnected, relational beings, we start focusing on what I believe matters most: people.
Take it a step further and we now start seeing our businesses and interactions as connected, not only impacting people but environments, communities, and future generations.
So, how can we engage with Afrofuturism? How do we go further in decolonizing our leadership practices?
Before you quote your mandate, values, and goals, ask yourself: Who are the communities affected by my work? Are the communities affected also a beneficiary of this work? Have we consulted and identified how our communities wish to engage with us?
How are you building a culture of trust in your organization?
Are you focusing on titles alone or are you willingly handing over your decision-making power to those carrying out the work?
How does your work support the development of local economies?
How does this support the culture and tradition of the community served by the project? How does this investment contribute to reparations for the community in which it is rooted?
What kind of relationship do you want to have to this project and those people/communities involved in it? What relationship do they want to have?
The importance of embracing culture.
I want to end by circling back to why embracing culture (decolonizing) is so important in this context. As Black communities, we inherently relied on our reciprocity, pure creativity, and joy — Black excellence — to survive and thrive. We learned to laugh, to lead families, to rise above all odds and, most importantly, to open a path for (Afro)futures where sustainability is the norm. Where there is no longer an argument for sovereignty or for a seat at the (one) table.
There are so many ways businesses can play their part and in turn influence society. Everything from human resources, to supply chain, to impact investment can contribute to reconciliation and to shifting our notions of leadership and business overall. This might be the first step in decolonizing leadership and truly building sustainable ventures of impact.
B The Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
