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Messages from the archive of Rutherford Hall, critical communications strategist
WhatsApp to Noah@ZEEGen clothing: Absolutely brother, at a time when other companies are reacting to Trump by gutlessly sneaking away from the DEI agenda, there could be real power in doubling down on it. You have a young staff and customer base. As long as you are comfortable with an “anti-woke” backlash, this could be a powerful statement.
From: [email protected]
I hear you sister. This whole woke diversity agenda has been a nightmare. And there is no doubt there is a vibe shift against it that would play well with the right. But a word of caution. This is not like the green agenda, which no one really thought you believed in anyway. You declared yourself deeply committed to diversity and inclusion, and whatever we are calling E this week (equality? equity? equidistance?). You don’t need to ride the anti-woke wave.
I’m not saying don’t ditch DEI. I’m saying you don’t need to make a song and dance of doing so. You might get Jacob Rees-Mogg praising you on GB News, but I’m not sure that’s a big enough win in the wider market.
Glad you were pleased with the positive political response to our retreat from the net zero alliance, btw (I’d definitely get that tweet from Vivek Ramaswamy framed).
Best, Rutherford
Find me on Strava, KoM Sydenham Hill, London to Brighton 3 hrs 04m, Al Jubailah/Bawdah Loop — 42 mins.
From: [email protected]
Hi Susan, yes shareholders might like a bold stance against wokery. But given your plan to push back on working from home, you don’t want to become Labour’s poster child for nastiness at work. This may be the year we return to mean, but you don’t want to be painted as the queen of it.
WFH is easier. We can sell the end of that as showing you are focused on performance and bottom line. But rolling back DEI is better as a submersible operation. You don’t want any one big thing people can grab at, like sacking the whole DEI team. The other thing to bear in mind is that pendulums swing back. Baby steps is the way to go here. The message if challenged is we are not abandoning it, simply refocusing on what works and never losing sight of meritocracy.
If any internal comms are forced on you, I think the argument is that policies that have done a lot of good are now outdated and are being reviewed. You might study the efficacy of individual programmes and conclude that unifying them under a single umbrella group (with a smaller budget) offers a more holistic approach.
We have spitballed names for the new group. The “Global Inclusion Team” was popular on the grounds that no one knows what it means. We also like “Global Opportunities Team”, “All Staff Matter” and (my favourite) just “Belonging”.
Then, instead of ditching things, just slowly scale them back. Fewer minority awareness weeks. Don’t fill DEI vacancies. Look at how the Belonging team can streamline monitoring requirements. Perhaps use the bonus scheme to orient HR towards strategic goals like apprenticeships, with a diversity focus on excluded sections of society such as non-graduates.
Don’t ban pronouns on emails, just stop using them yourself. Don’t scrap inclusive toilets, just do an audit of their use and cut the number. See what I mean.
Your staff will notice if you no longer fly the trans-inclusive Progress flag. So you need to frame any such action as part of a wider and less contentious policy. I’ve also worked on a piece of internal comms that might work for this.
“Successful businesses cannot divorce themselves from society, so I want to alert you to a new policy. Volpone has decided that we best help society by remaining laser-focused on serving customers. So we have taken the decision to row back our social activism. We will no longer be taking political stances as a company; this includes supporting causes, however worthy, flying flags and symbols or sponsoring social initiatives. Politics is out at work. This does not stop individual staff expressing their support for these or other causes, as long as it does not conflict with or intrude on work. For guidance see our code of practice (NOTE: which you might want to quietly update). This shift in no way detracts from our mission of making Volpone the most inclusive and socially aware bank in the world.”
Let me know what you think.
Best Rutherford
Find me on Strava…
WhatsApp to Noah@ZEEGen clothing: Yes Noah, Volpone is a client. At Monkwell we respect diversity of opinion.
Messages recovered by Robert Shrimsley
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