Creating Intersectional Solutions: Insights from Tamara Makoni
We had the pleasure of receiving valuable insights from Tamara Makoni, a leading voice on diversity, equity, and inclusion. We explored her practical approach to building intersectional and inclusive solutions, focusing on four key steps to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard and respected in the workplace and beyond.
The Importance of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
One of the critical elements in fostering a culture of inclusion is the active participation of employees. Tamara highlights how organizations are beginning to integrate Employee Resource Group (ERG) participation into performance objectives, allowing employees to dedicate time to work on these initiatives.
In her own experience, Tamara has seen organizations that mandate time for ERGs as part of performance objectives. “For instance, I’ve worked with organizations who have said that the employee resource group work is going to be part of performance objectives, so there will be, for instance, 15 percent of an employee’s time to lead the ERG and to work on things going on there.” This dedicated time helps avoid the issue of ERGs becoming isolated from the broader organizational goals and ensures that inclusion is embedded within the company’s strategic framework.
Four Practical Steps for Building Intersectional Solutions
In her book Women, Intersectionality, and Europe, Tamara presents four essential steps for building intersectional and inclusive solutions that address the unique needs of individuals in the workplace and society. These steps aim to ensure that diverse groups are actively involved in the creation of these solutions, making them meaningful and effective.
The first step emphasizes the importance of bottom-up solutions. Tamara stresses that solutions must come from the communities affected by them. “First of all, having bottom-up solutions, so taking participation from different groups who are impacted by the work that we are doing and making sure that they all have a voice and their concerns are all understood,” she explains. This participatory approach ensures that the solutions are relevant and cater to the real needs of the people they are designed to serve.
The second step highlights the need for specificity. “The issues and challenges that people experience in life and in the workplace are highly specific, they’re not generic. Therefore the solutions that we provide need to be specific, and that is how they will be meaningful and do what we need them to do,” Tamara notes. By understanding the unique challenges different groups face, organizations can create solutions that truly address those challenges.
The third step focuses on ensuring that everyone has a seat at the table. “We need to make sure that they are actually enabled to have a voice and make sure that the conditions are there,” she says. This includes ensuring that marginalized groups have the time and space to participate fully, without the added burden of overwork or burnout.
Lastly, Tamara emphasizes the importance of data in shaping these solutions. She advocates for the use of both qualitative and quantitative data to understand the experiences of different groups. “Qualitative in terms of hearing people's stories and having the dialogue, and quantitative data in terms of hard facts, bigger statistics, okay 70% of women x, y, and z when we start looking at the population,” Tamara explains.
She stresses that the data must be disaggregated to capture the nuances within groups. “Within, for instance, the headline of women, then there are different populations, women with disabilities, women of global majority heritage, women who are mothers.”
Besides the bottom-up approach, it is always key that the leadership is sponsoring the ideas and is supporting the initiatives.
Building Inclusive Cultures
Creating an inclusive culture is not just about implementing policies but about actively fostering an environment where everyone feels heard and valued. Tamara shares that psychological safety is a key factor in building such a culture. “People need to reasonably believe that their views matter, that they are valued, that they will be able to influence things and will be listened to, and to feel able to speak up,” she explains. This sense of safety enables individuals to bring their full selves to work, which in turn strengthens the entire organization.
Tamara also emphasizes the importance of curiosity and dialogue. “Understanding there's never only one way to view things, there are always going to be different viewpoints, reconciling ourselves to that ambiguity, and just getting curious about, okay, this is what I think, what do you think? What are your experiences?” By fostering an open and inquisitive culture, organizations can better understand the diverse experiences of their employees and adapt their policies accordingly.
The Role of Data and AI in Intersectionality
In addition to human-centered solutions, Tamara also discusses the potential of data and AI to drive progress in intersectionality. She believes that these tools can play a pivotal role in addressing systemic inequalities, but only if they are used correctly. “In my opinion, AI is a very powerful tool and it does have the potential to do a lot of good in society and in workplaces,” Tamara states. However, she also warns that AI is not without risks. “AI tools are only as good as what we are putting into them.”
Tamara stresses the importance of using representative data when training AI systems. If the data fed into these systems is biased, the results will be too. “We historically haven’t done the best job of representing different communities, of having different stories being told, and so we really don’t want this to perpetuate,” she explains. Ensuring that AI systems are trained on diverse and inclusive data can help prevent these biases and ensure that AI becomes a force for good.
Conclusion: Moving Forward with Purpose
Tamara’s insights offer a comprehensive framework for creating inclusive and intersectional solutions in both the workplace and society. By focusing on bottom-up, specific, participatory, and data-driven approaches, we can make meaningful progress toward a more inclusive future. Her emphasis on curiosity, psychological safety, and the careful use of technology provides a roadmap for organizations to build environments where diversity thrives and innovation flourishes.
With continued momentum and collective effort, the future of intersectionality is bright.
As Tamara so aptly puts it, “None of us has the responsibility by ourselves to completely make progress in society, to move the needle, and so it's important that we both recognize that yes, each of us has responsibility, but we are also all in this together.”
Silatha’s Bias Training is designed to help organizations uncover unconscious bias, build inclusive mindsets, and create equitable workplace cultures. Through expert-led sessions and actionable strategies, we support teams in understanding the implications of intersectionality in their daily practices and decision-making processes.
Book a call with us today to learn more!
Written by Tudor Marinca