Combatting Systemic Racism: How Should the Board Respond to Fatigue?

COMBATTING RACISM: Are Corporations, Colleagues and Society Fatigued and How Should the Board Respond?  

Since May 2020 and the murder of George Floyd, NACD New England has committed to exploring how companies and their boards can combat systemic racism. Our fifth program in our Combatting Racism series will examine the progress made over the last 3 years, the lessons learned overcoming the challenges of implementing change, and the continued work that remains.   

Diverse, equitable, and inclusive organizations have been shown to outperform their peers, proving that it’s not just the right thing to do—it is good business. This concept is increasingly recognized throughout the world, shown recently when the World Economic Forum stated, “Business has the transformative power to change and contribute to a more open, diverse, and inclusive society. We can only accomplish this by starting from within our organizations.”   

The journey is not even or easy and corporations that have been focused on this opportunity for years continue to hit road bumps.  Recently, the press has highlighted pushback due to factors such as topic fatigue and priority overload. This program will focus on maintaining momentum into the future. We will bring together board leaders, CEOs, and experts and examine the steps that boards could take as obstacles grow and progress slows.