A few years ago at RADIUS, our team was delivering strong outcomes externally but internally, things didn’t feel aligned.
Staff, especially those who were Indigenous and racialized, felt tension and disconnection. Some avoided coming into the office. While we talked about equity, dominant culture still shaped how decisions were made, how urgency was prioritized, and how we related to each other.
We were doing equity work—but we weren’t living it. We were hiring for ‘diversity’– but didn’t have the culture for our people to thrive.
Aside: What do we mean when we say dominant culture or white supremacy culture?
RADIUS is a systems change hub. So it’s important to note that when we use these terms, we are talking about the system, not about individual people. We are not finger pointing at someone or some people, but rather, looking around everywhere. White supremacy is the lens that design/ed the systems where we live and learn, and governs what we value. It’s our dominant culture – it’s the “water we drink from and swim in.”
In Tema Okun’s 1999 seminal and original piece ‘White Supremacy Culture’, she offers a list of characteristics that guide what leaders expect and are expected of them in organizations. She states they are “damaging because they are used as norms and standards without being proactively named or chosen by the group … because we all live in a white supremacy culture, these characteristics show up in the attitudes and behaviours of all of us – people of color and white people.”
In RADIUS, here’s what dominant culture characteristics looked like:
- Urgency over care: Tight timelines and “move fast” culture took priority over thoughtful relationship-building.
- Top-down decision-making: Key decisions were made in closed-door conversations, often by those farthest from the communities we served.
- Projects over people: Check-ins focused on deliverables rather than how people were actually doing.
These patterns aren’t about bad intentions – they’re about leadership models shaped by organizational cultures, business schools, societal expectations. And these are / were shaped by colonialism and inequity. And they continue to harm people.
Many organizations claim DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) commitments without naming how white supremacy culture operates in daily practices through perfectionism, power-hoarding, defensiveness, and more.
At RADIUS, our BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) caucus named the harm, and we brought in an external consultant to lead an equity audit. That process was a turning point.
Here’s what changed:
- We adopted a co-leadership model, focused on care, accountability, and relationship, not just productivity.
- We embedded the Equity-Centered Design framework to integrate those closest to the work and the community into decision-making.
- We shifted meeting structures to slow down, make space for all voices, and value relationships alongside productivity.
- We integrated Humanity Check-ins into our work — asking “How are you?” as a person holding the work, not just as a project lead.
The Result? Staff feel safer, more supported, and more valued. That transformation didn’t happen by accident, it continues to take intentional work, deep reflection, accountability, and practice.
We’ve taken those lessons and built our Inclusive Leadership Masterclass, a space where leaders can move beyond surface-level DEI and reimagine how they lead, relate, listen, and take action.
Want to learn more about our journey at RADIUS? Watch our documentary where we share the messy truth of this work and how we came through. Our RADIUS leadership team will candidly share more at the Masterclass about our story, learnings, and actions.
Reflect:
How did reading this piece make you feel? If it feels uncomfortable, that’s okay and normal, it felt and continues to feel that way for us too.
How does your leadership culture reflect characteristics of white supremacy? What would need to shift?
👇 Let us know—or reach out if you want to explore this work with your team.