Employee communities are valuable spaces for innovation, networking, mentoring, and support. However, they can sometimes operate in silos, and the work can begin to feel duplicative, or even competitive. It’s critical that, as culture carriers, we remember that belonging is not a zero-sum game — when we find opportunities to work together, we win together.

Before we can talk about the power of intersectional collaboration, we must first define what it is. Intersectionality, first coined by law professor and civil rights advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, refers to the ways in which different dimensions of our identities intersect with one another and produce unique experiences and perspectives. The term was first developed to articulate the ways that Black women experience sexism differently than white women, and racism differently than Black men. This can be applied to all combinations of identities, and is an invaluable tool for understanding why equity and inclusion work must be prioritized. We all contain multitudes, and our various identities can’t be divorced from on another — they all come together to make up who we are and how we understand the world.

To apply an intersectional lens to the work of inclusion, we can identify the overlapping identities within and across employee communities, and how those experiences are represented in the workplace. It is critical to acknowledge the nuance of our identities and the ways in which they influence our experiences and perspectives. However, it’s equally important that we come together across difference and build strong alliances between employee communities.

‍Intersectional collaboration can look like:

• Co-hosting events or communication campaigns across multiple employee communities
• Identifying common themes that unite your groups and combining forces to address them
• Leveraging the various levels and elements of diversity within your community
• Being thoughtful and considerate about the experiences and perspectives that you may not hold yourself

Put simply, intersectional collaboration can happen within one employee community — exploring the many facets and dimensions of subscribers' identities —  or across multiple groups, so long as the framework of intersectionality is central to your strategy and approach.

‍What are the benefits of intersectional collaboration?

• More impact with fewer resources: By pooling our resources and supporting each other’s initiatives, we enable a broader impact with more efficient use of time, energy, and budget.

• Greater engagement and visibility across your company: When you collaborate across groups, you are inherently amplifying the reach of your initiatives. Colleagues who may not have been aware of your group, or may not have believed there was a place for them in it, will now have exposure to learn more and get engaged.

• Easier to get senior leader buy-in: Support for these initiatives can be challenging to obtain and sustain, and it often comes down to the data. By increasing engagement and highlighting collaboration across groups, you are proving the effectiveness, efficiency, and exponential impact of employee communities.
  
  
• Increased representation: An intersectional lens makes it more likely for employee community subscribers to see themselves and their unique perspectives represented within events, communications, and leadership.
  ‍
• Allyship and solidarity across groups: This type of coalition building is critical to the success of diversity and inclusion efforts. This support of one another will enable broader reach, wider impact, and strong relationships that can foster future opportunities for innovation and alliance.

Ask yourself, how can you foster intersectional collaboration at your organization? If you're part of an employee community: how can you be conscious of the various identities represented within your community? Where do you see opportunities to intentionally partner with other communities?

‍

Find more resources on building belonging at work here, and check out the first enterprise SaaS ecosystem for building belonging at work, Mindr Connect.