Editorial note: I recently attended an excellent presentation on Allyship at my workplace. I invited the speaker Jose Ureta, a Human Resources Generalist Partner at Genentech, to share a guest post on what is Allyship and how to be an Ally at work.
By Jose Ureta
Allyship has gained a lot of traction at Genentech as of late. At least, that’s how it appears to me. This may be because I’ve been talking about it for the last year or so.
It’s similar to how you get a car of a certain make and model, and all of a sudden, you start seeing this car everywhere you go.
As a core team member of a women’s organization at Genentech, I co-hosted an event on Allyship that really took off. Genentech has now hired a Chief Diversity Officer, Quita Highsmith, who has embraced Allyship as a way to achieve the goal of fostering belonging. Thus, I imagine we will be hearing about Allyship more and more.
What is Allyship?
So what is Allyship? I have spent a year of engaging in this topic as a facilitator. I’ll say that Allyship is the practice of developing yourself to recognize and understand how intersectionality, bias, and privilege impact the ways you interact with the world.
In recognizing and understanding this, Allyship is also the practice of learning to use your voice, status and power to challenge inequality whenever you encounter it. Your Allyship will lift others up.
Easy, right? Actually, no. There is a lot to unpack there.
One thing you need to know about practicing Allyship is that you will never “arrive” or ever complete the process. This is why I say Allyship is a way of life.
It sounds exhausting, and your plate is already full, right? You’re too busy to learn yet another thing. You’re a good person already, and what does this have to do with working in pharma/biotech anyway?
I would argue that understanding and practicing Allyship is the key to fostering a culture of belonging at work. In fact, it is key for anyplace where personal interactions impact how work gets done.
Good Allyship Requires Intentionality
Chances are, you already do some of the things required to practice good Allyship as a byproduct of living your life.
Are you a parent, a partner, a manager, community leader, or sibling? If yes, then most likely you’ve been in a situation in which you advocated for someone else. Or you have spoken up to address a situation you felt was wrong, at work or elsewhere.
In order to speak up, you probably needed to identify that there was something wrong. Or maybe someone asked for your help directly. In any case, you acted. You decided that you would say something or do something. You put on your problem-solving hat and went to town.
Allyship is taking this impulse to help and expanding it beyond your family, your friends, or your loved ones. Allyship requires intentionality.
How to Practice Good Allyship
So what do you need to do to practice good Allyship?
First, you’ll need to get to know yourself better. You’ll need to examine your life for the automatic associations -your biases- that you have picked up throughout your life. These might include:
- Who do you inherently trust?
- Who do you fear?
- How do you see yourself?
- Who are you like?
- Who are you not like?
One way or another, the answers to these questions and many more can be explained by many influences. Examples of these influences include when and where you were born, where you lived, how much money your parents had when raising you, the religion you were born into, and what you look like, etc.
These layers of factors and traits -your intersectionality- not only form your identity. They they also influence your day-to-day decisions, your habits, and your interactions with others. Your intersectionality influences your “objective” reality.
Here is one way that illustrates how intersectionality functions in our lives. When 9/11 happened, I had two babies at home. As a young parent, I contextualized that event by thinking of the kids who were lovingly dropped off at daycare or school. These kids would never see that parent again.
That is how I experienced the event. As a young parent, I was learning to view events around me through the lens of a father. There are as many ways to experience that event as there are people old enough to remember living through it. I’m still a dad today, but with my kids being much older and independent, I don’t automatically see events around me through the lens of a father.
Intersectionality and Privilege
Intersectionality influences how others around you see you as well as how you interact with the world around you.
Similar to the concept of wave interference, at times the various intersectionality factors line up in a way to diminish your standing, voice, or power in a given context. Other times, the factors line up in a way that your standing, voice, or power are enhanced. When this happens, that’s called privilege.
The only thing that varies in these situations is how others perceive you or how closely you fit to the accepted “norm” through no effort of your own. Contrary to what you may have heard, privilege is not about having an easy life. Privilege is not about having things handed to you or denying any efforts or struggles you have experienced. At least not in this context.
I see privilege in relation to Allyship as a responsibility. This is a responsibility to realize you are in a position to call out inequality and challenge norms. Part of that responsibility is advocating for change for more inclusivity.
Self-Awareness of Privilege
Some years ago I got really into running. My miles per week really ramped up. But all the activity led to a torn achilles tendon. During my recovery time, I had crutches to help me get around.
However, I found the partial loss of mobility difficult. Back then, we were not able to attend meetings via google hangout. I found it difficult to get to back-to-back meetings on time unless I dedicated extra time to plan my routes. In addition, I had to learn where the elevators and ramps were located. Plus, I had to carry a backpack to free up my hands for the crutches. Thus, I became aware of several inconveniences at work. This included the things I needed to get around and how inconsistently they were available.
At work, I don’t have decision-making responsibilities for campus design features. But I shared this experience widely to raise awareness about how some of us just get to show up with all our needs taken care of so we can contribute. Through a little more self-awareness of our privilege, we can learn to find opportunities to push for meeting the needs of more people so that they can also just show up to contribute.
Click here for an exercise on understanding your privilege.
Allyship in the Workplace
Practicing good Allyship is doing the work necessary to understand your intersectionality and privilege. The next important step is being intentional with that knowledge. This can include advocating for changes that will create spaces, processes and systems that are more inclusive of others.
Allyship can show up in big ways in the workplace. These can include making systemic changes. For example, as part of the interview process, changes might include ensuring that there are diverse hiring panels, removing names from resumes, and asking behavioral questions related to inclusive behaviors.
Allyship can also show up in smaller, more personal ways. One example is adding your pronouns to online profiles and email signatures so that doing so becomes a norm. This norm signals more welcoming spaces and cultures. Other Allyship activities include taking an interest and helping promote Employee Resource Group (ERG) events and looking for opportunities to expand our networks beyond our comfort zone.
The important thing is to strive to do your best.