Ways to Engage Your Team During Black History Month

With a focus on Black History this month, we’d like to give your team tools and ideas for intentional ways you can make space for conversation and celebration within your work community! The best place to start is to realize this is not a month-long endeavor. It’s a life-long endeavor. While February is singled out as a special awareness month, our jobs in creating safety and empathy within this conversation is definitely not limited to 28 days of the year.

Before You Begin

With that in mind, as you look for ways to be intentional, consider the following questions as you begin:

• Have we opened up ownership and input from our staff? The inclusivity and celebration meant to be lifted up during Black History month might be stifled if there isn’t representation across the board and from the beginning.

• Do we make this conversation a priority at all times? If not, a sudden celebration or event may come across as disingenuous. 

Ways You Can Celebrate Black History Month

• Make space for the conversation
  Have you considered bringing in a guest speaker to your office or team? A special guest is a great way to offer a new perspective on racial awareness and inclusivity as well as open up space for conversation within your team. 
  
  Dedicate time this month to new conversations, storytelling, and dialogue around the issue of racial reconciliation. After hearing from a guest speaker, you may find your own team is inspired to share their own stories. Open the doorway for a welcomed conversation surrounding these important topics. 

• Volunteer your time as an organization
  Which organizations in your community can you support or volunteer with that would celebrate Black History? Taking the time to intentionally volunteer or give back to the community is not only morale-boosting for the organization receiving the help, but also to your team as a whole! 
  
  The relational equity of team experiences like this go beyond the time spent volunteering. You’ll find a return on investment at a deeper level on your staff. 

• Spend time learning together
  This month would be a great time to read a book together as a team. It’s yet another way to open up natural conversation in the realm of racial reconciliation. How might a dedicated time of learning together boost your team’s awareness and openness to this important conversation? Here are our top picks for books you could incorporate into your Black History Month celebration:

  • One Human Race: Five Strategies to Empowering Transformative Change –  Jeff McGee, Ed.D.

  • The Warmth of Other Suns, –  Isabel Wilkerson

  • Just Mercy – Bryan Stevenson

  • Lest We Forget: The passage from Africa into the Twenty-First Century – Velma Maia Thomas

  • Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison

  • Their Eyes were Watching God – Zoe’s Neale Hurston

  • Letter from a Birmingham Jail – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

  • The Color of Compromise – Jensen Tisby 

  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou

As you prepare for Black History month and the ways you can better engage your team in the conversation of racial reconciliation, there are multiple ways you can begin. But we encourage you to take a step, whatever that may be for your team. Remember, this initiative is a conversation starter to last beyond Black History Month. The best thing you can do is view this month as a launching point for continued conversation, continued growth, and continued pursuit of understanding. Open up the conversation, initiate learning together, take time to listen to other perspectives.

The joint ownership across the board will be key in making this collaborative. So, invite other team members into the planning process! We hope this sparks a healthy dialogue and community-building in the month to come…and beyond!