Anti Racism

Action that matters on racial equity

Many organisations have got the message and are finding their voice. But finding your voice is not, on its own, enough to achieve lasting change. Instead, organisations need to take real action to confront their own history and practices and put in place plans to do better.

Calls for racial equity are growing stronger around the world. People are turning to governments, universities and other institutions to demand they do better. Stakeholders – be they citizens, students, staff or customers – want the organisations they interact with to set a high standard and meet it.

Change is possible.

Evidence-informed interventions can make a real and lasting difference to behaviours, practices and structures.

WHY IT MATTERS

Aspiring to racial equity is not just the right action – it is also the prudent action

The moral case for racial equity is clear and compelling. But beyond this, evidence shows that organisations that take action on racial equity are better able to meet client needs, perform better, and are more innovative.

Racial Equity framework

76 per cent of job seekers consider workplace diversity an important factor of their decisions.

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Research shows the power of initiatives to move toward racial equity:

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For every 1 per cent rise in the rate of ethnic diversity in a workforce there is a 3 to 9 per cent rise in sales revenue.

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Teams that include one or more members of the demographic market they serve are 158 per cent more likely to understand that target market, increasing their likelihood of innovating effectively.

At Nous we understand the challenges of inequities, whether due to race or other factors, and handle them with the utmost sensitivity. We bring to the task expertise in intersectional analysis. We combine experience undertaking listening exercises in challenging contexts, a strong understanding of the dynamics in organisations and systems, and expertise in complex data analysis. We are attuned to cultural sensitivities, uphold psychology safety, value lived experiences and take a trauma-informed approach to consultation. We draw on expert advisers and leading thinkers to ensure our evidence-informed recommendations are effective and appropriate.

We work with organisations to achieve lasting change

OUR APPROACH

We can support your organisation in several ways

We combine skilled and safe listening with data analysis to create an accurate reflection of the organisation’s health.

Diagnose

We can work with you to design strategies, develop an anti-racism action plan and conduct an attainment gap analysis to move your organisation to greater racial equity.

Strategise

We can engage leaders (executive and non-executive) and employees to make, monitor and embed change.

Change

Source

Organisations with above-average diversity are eight times more likely to be in the top 10 percent for financial performance.

The organisation complies with government targets and strategies but does not think outside these parameters. Activities are driven by risk mitigation and focus on diversity rather than equity or inclusion.

Compliant

OUR PEOPLE

Our consultants bring deep experience to the task

Manager

Veevek Doolabh

Manager

Minto Felix

Manager

Steph Huang

Director

Antonia Instone

Principal

Peter Horne

Director

Abigail Nduva

Director

Abigail Nduva

Abigail has extensive public and private sector experience across Australia, Europe and Asia delivering projects that focus on improved engagement, inclusion and service of a diversity of employees, customers and communities. This includes service and operating model design, regulatory review, evaluation, implementation planning and delivery, in addition to other work.

Manager

Minto is a trusted policy and strategy advisor who values pragmatic problem solving and has led large, multi-stakeholder projects from conception to implementation. With over seven years of experience in the higher education and not-for-profit sectors, he brings a warm, thoughtful and rigorous approach that allows him to deliver strong outcomes for clients.

Minto Felix

Principal

Peter has leadership and consulting experience across the public, private and voluntary sectors at executive and board level. He brings a breadth of perspective, challenge and insight that he deploys in consulting assignments. Peter has led multiple EDI engagements, ensuring leaders understand the reality of staff and consumer experience and develop a strategic response.

Peter Horne

Manager

Karl De Menezes

Director

Grace Simpson

Director

Antonia is an experienced leader and strategist specialising in not-for-profit organisations, having developed and delivered growth, change and people programmes for international organisations and UK charities. Clients value her stakeholder engagement and insights. She has improved gender and racial equity as an organisational leader and helped institutions with this as a consultant.

Antonia Instone

Manager

Steph brings experience in public policy and strategy fostered through roles across consulting, government and not-for-profit organisations. She has managed projects ranging from high-level strategy through to on-the-ground delivery, focusing on g overnment and challenges with international dimensions. She is a qualified Australian lawyer and is training to become a psychologist.

Steph Huang

Manager

Veevek is a versatile strategy consultant who has worked across the education, government, health, social services and financial services sectors. He keeps one eye on the strategic context and the other on the detail to produce impactful solutions. He has conducted an anti-racism review of a prominent UK institution, including consultations with staff across many countries.

Veevek Doolabh

Director

Grace is an experienced consultant and public policy professional who holds a Master of Public Policy. She has significant experience in English higher education policy, specialising in access and student success. As a consultant, she has delivered projects in the UK and Australia. Grace has a strong research background with experience engaging with varied and hard-to-reach stakeholders.

Grace Simpson

Manager

Karl is a consultant specialising in digital and business strategy. His strong data analytics capabilities provide an evidence base for tailored solutions. He draws on his background in mechanical engineering to provide an evidence-based approach to solutions and approach challenging problems in a structured manner. Karl helps lead Nous’ internal multicultural network.

Karl De Menezes

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Read more about our thinking on these issues

OUR THINKING

Developing an anti-racism strategy for an arts academy

A creative arts academy had undertaken significant work to advance racial equality but was facing challenges creating a shared, institution-wide approach.

Anti-racism strategy

Helping a university to understand BAME staff experience

A large university wanted to better understand the experiences of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff.

Employee engagement

Working with Great Northern Museum on a decolonisation strategy

Great Northern Museum showcases Newcastle’s natural history, archaeology, geology and world cultures.

Decolonisation strategy

Helping a health and social care system connect with BAME communities

Stakeholder listening

Supporting the University of Kent to advance antiracism

The University of Kent identified the need to address racial inequities for staff and students. Many members of Kent’s community actively advocate for change and there were pockets of grassroots...

Anti-racism plan

Helping a specialist university with a diverse community to combat racism

A specialist university had committed to becoming an anti-racist institution following scrutiny over past efforts. The university recognised that students and staff had experienced racism.

Anti-racism review

We have helped other organisations move toward racial equity

OUR WORK

Finding the right language to talk about ethnicity and other protected characteristics is challenging and differs across organisations, communities, and countries. Individuals see their identity in distinct ways. However, language around ethnicity often aggregates experiences of people from diverse backgrounds into homogenous categories. Examples include BAME (which amalgamates individuals and communities who are Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic), Global Majority and people of diverse ethnicities. This often creates an “othering” by defining one group of people by what they are not (say, “minority ethnic” as opposed to an undefined majority ethnicity). In addition, any definition of “minority” is context-specific, so the categorisation means different things in different places. We understand this complexity so work sensitively with clients and consultees, and with respect to jurisdictional differences, to ensure we use the right language for your context and treat people compassionately. The project examples given here use the preferred language of the clients in each case.

A note on language and terminology

A specialist university had committed to becoming an anti-racist institution following scrutiny over past efforts. The university recognised that students and staff had experienced racism. With our support, senior leaders wanted to understand those experiences better in order to design a new Head of Equity and Inclusion position and to establish organisational change principles to reduce inequity. A diverse Nous team conducted an institution-wide listening exercise to understand and improve the experiences of students and staff of colour. We used a trauma-informed approach, that emphasised safety (physical, psychological and emotional) and helped rebuild a sense of empowerment in those who had experienced trauma. At each stage we re-iterated the process’ confidentiality. The exercise identified instances of racism and highlighted challenges for the institution to address. We used journey maps to visualise challenges students and staff of colour experience during their engagement with the university. Our recommendations, which have been accepted, will help the university in its drive to be anti-racist. Find out more about this project.

Anti-racism review

Helping a specialist university with a diverse community to combat racism

The University of Kent identified the need to address racial inequities for staff and students. Many members of Kent’s community actively advocate for change and there were pockets of grassroots good practice across the university. However, the route to setting strategic direction had been unclear, and the university community felt little action had taken place. The university needed a strategy to support a culture shift that would tackle issues of structural racism. As a first step, Nous reviewed outcomes data to better understand issues for racially minoritised staff and students. Following this, we worked with the reference group and other university staff through interviews to understand the underlying issues contributing to race inequalities. Finally, we facilitated workshops with a reference group to develop the strategy’s vision, objectives and detailed actions. Kent is now one of the few universities in the UK with a strategy committed to advancing anti-racism. The executives are all committed to its success and have been assigned responsibility for delivering their relevant objectives. Find out more about this project.

“Nous was the critical external eye we needed to surface our structures and practices that are embedding racial inequality. They provided a framework for the work needed to enable colleagues and students to unlock a shared vision appropriate for Kent.”

Georgina Randsley de Moura, Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic Strategy, Planning, and Performance, University of Kent

Anti-racism plan

Supporting the University of Kent to advance antiracism

The Integrated Care System for Devon (ICSD) is a partnership of health and social care organisations working together with local communities across Devon to improve people’s health, wellbeing and care. The ICSD knew from previous consultations that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities were experiencing challenges with healthcare access, participation and outcomes. Nous worked with the ICSD to explore these issues and identify opportunities for improvement. To understand the opportunities it was essential to tap into the lived experiences of BAME staff and communities in Devon. Nous collaborated with BAME staff networks and community organisations, including the BAME staff network in hospital trusts and the Plymouth & Devon Race Equality Council. This partnership gave participants essential support, including translation, during the consultations. In total we engaged 67 BAME participants from across Devon, using individual and group interviews, in person and online. These engagements were complemented by analysis of local and national data on BAME health inequalities. We offered system-level recommendations for ICSD and local recommendations for individual partner organisations, all of which were accepted. Find out more about this project.

“The review undertaken by Nous has been an invaluable step in understanding the issues in Devon and enabling us to develop a plan to tackle them. It has been a real pleasure working with Nous. The team were really focused on what we wanted to achieve and worked with this at every stage to ensure our goals were met.”

Andrew Millward, Director of Communications and Engagement, Integrated Care System Devon

Stakeholder listening

Helping a health and social care system connect with BAME communities

Contact Nous Group to discuss how we can help your organisation achieve better outcomes on racial equity.

Get in Touch

Great Northern Museum showcases Newcastle’s natural history, archaeology, geology and world cultures. The museum was seeking to more effectively incorporate the perspectives of people who had been impacted by colonisation. We worked with the museum to develop a decolonisation strategy so it could understand and address colonial legacies. We interviewed individuals, community organisations and museum staff to understand the situation. We then worked with the museum to plan the long-term work to create and enact the strategy. We identified key work areas, including alignment of purpose, objectives and scope; a conceptual framework to guide key questions; and a full strategy workplan. We established ways to engage stakeholders and reviewed the current state to identify risks and mitigations. The museum is continuing to develop its decolonisation strategy.

Decolonisation strategy

Working with Great Northern Museum on a decolonisation strategy

A large university wanted to better understand the experiences of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff. We helped the university run consultations with BAME staff to explore their experience of recruitment and progression to better understand themes that had emerged from a survey. We held workshops, group interviews and one-on-one consultations to explore recruitment and selection, career progression and promotion, and raising and reporting racism. The work surfaced key insights, including that staff perceived a lack of equitable practices in the recruitment process, insufficient progression-related transparency, and barriers to reporting incidents. We then identified realistic actions to address pain points and barriers and improve equity, diversity and inclusion.

Employee engagement

Helping a university to understand BAME staff experience

A creative arts academy had undertaken significant work to advance racial equality but was facing challenges creating a shared, institution-wide approach. We started by reviewing existing anti-racism documentation and synthesising leading practice in higher education and the performing arts. We then engaged about 50 teaching staff, professional services staff, students, trustees and alumni to shape the academy’s refreshed anti-racism action plan through interviews, workshops and a survey. We later tested and iterated the plan with key stakeholders. The refreshed action plan identified six high-level goals, from supporting an equitable experience of Global Majority students and staff through to fostering partnerships that support racial diversity and inclusion. The academy’s executive and board have endorsed these goals. The work took place in a highly sensitive and emotionally charged environment. Some students and staff felt the plan was not going far enough, while some senior leaders felt it was lacking nuance. Developing a plan that could unite all stakeholders was a big challenge. We worked iteratively with cross-sectional groups of community members to define and prioritise the actions required and helped senior leaders and non-executive stakeholders to understand why these actions matter so much to the wider staff, student and alumni body. Establishing a governance process for the plan to be approved and communicated was crucial to its success.

“We were very happy with the project leadership and delivery. The Nous team were excellent colleagues to work with – highly professional, knowledgeable and efficient.”

Director at the arts academy

Anti-racism strategy

Developing an anti-racism strategy for an arts academy

A creative arts academy had undertaken significant work to advance racial equality but was facing challenges creating a shared, institution-wide approach.

Anti-racism strategy

Helping a university to understand BAME staff experience

A large university wanted to better understand the experiences of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff.

Employee engagement

Developing a roadmap to diversify the student population

A Russell Group university sought a university-wide strategy and implementation roadmap to enrol and support students from underrepresented groups.

Diversification roadmap

A Russell Group university sought a university-wide strategy and implementation roadmap to enrol and support students from underrepresented groups. The strategy had to cover undergraduate and postgraduate students and enable staff teams to understand how they contribute. We started by analysing student demographic data to understand key issues for access, continuation, attainment and progression. We then consulted with staff and students on strategic vision and priorities, bringing together different perspectives into one coherent narrative. We tested emerging findings with a taskforce of key senior staff through interactive online workshops. Finally, we developed an implementation roadmap that established delivery horizons, accountabilities for strategy elements and supporting governance structures. The new strategy brings together broad work areas through an access and student success lens. The strategy has accelerated efforts to address unfair access and success for postgraduate students through the expansion of previously undergraduate-only initiatives and policies. It has also led the university to set targets for a more diverse workforce of professional and academic staff to support the agenda. The university is implementing the strategy via our implementation roadmap and is adjusting governance processes in line with our recommendations.

Diversification roadmap

Helping a university to understand BAME staff experience

“Nous took the time to really understand the institutional context and the perspectives of stakeholders. They combined this with their expertise of the global higher education system and clarity of approach to work with us to develop our ambitious strategy.”

UK university executive

As trusted external partners, we are well-placed to listen and understand people’s experiences and reflect those back in safe, anonymised findings. We can review your organisational data to pinpoint where you can improve. We can also review your programs and services through an intersectional lens. This work establishes the lived experiences of individuals in the organisation and creates a forum for positive and co-owned change. It is a crucial first step in the journey to improving racial equity.

Our co-design approach means that anti-racism actions are owned by internal stakeholders, the targets are meaningful and the timeframes are realistic. We bring rigour, experience and a human-centred approach to planning for change in these sensitive areas. We work with employees and stakeholders at all levels to ensure these plans will deliver the right changes and will have support from the CEO and chair of the board to the new recruit and frontline worker or client.

We work with leaders to encourage and coach for change, helping prioritise actions, provide transparent updates and track progress. Racial equity outcomes rely on cultural transformation as well as defined actions. This is hard and takes commitment over a long time. We will partner with you in that journey.

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Why it matters

OUR APPROACH

OUR WORK

OUR PEOPLE

Compliant

Segmented

Accommodating

Inclusive

Equitable

Belonging

Racial equity maturity path

The organisation implements programs to source greater demographic diversity of talent. These efforts may be undertaken without preparing for the inclusion of the new talent.

Segmented

The organisation adapts to respond to underrepresented groups (such as through unconscious bias or cultural competency training). But without a more comprehensive approach to inclusion, the majority culture may overwhelm efforts to better respond to diversity.

Accommodating

The organisation works to include its diversity of talent in organisational processes. It leverages the experience across a diversity of groups, and diversity is seen to promote better outcomes. Inclusion is integrated into processes and moments that matter.

Inclusive

The organisation recognises the power of inclusive practices, which are reflected in systems, processes, data collection and organisational norms. The organisation leverages diversity of thought to respond to its strengths and challenges.

Equitable

The organisation integrates and leverages equity, diversity and inclusion at all levels – grass roots, management and leadership. The organisation is recognised for its culture, which results from equitable and inclusive practices and systems.

Belonging

Racial equity contributes to stronger organisational performance, including productivity and innovation.

Organisations with racial equity are better able meet the diverse needs of their clients and deliver better quality outcomes.

Racial equity is critical to attracting and retaining talent, and contributes to the experience, wellbeing and performance of individuals.

Source

Inclusive workplaces are 1.7 times more likely to be innovation leaders in their given market.

Source: Nous Group

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Inclusive teams make better business decisions 87 per cent of the time, and make decisions two times faster, with half the meetings.

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Employees whose organisation has a supportive diversity climate report higher levels of job satisfaction and have less intent to quit.

Companies with the most ethnically diverse executive teams are 33 per cent more likely to outperform their peers on profitability.

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Inclusive workplaces are 1.7 times more likely to be innovation leaders in their given market.

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Companies with the most ethnically diverse executive teams are 33 per cent more likely to outperform their peers on profitability.