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CYCLE ONE: GROUNDING

  • We start by listening to a cross section of the organisation to understand its culture.
  • We prioritise sitting with Black and Global Majority staff to understand how they have been impacted by racism.
  • We document the lived experience of racism in the organisation.
CYCLE TWO: AWARENESS AND UNDERSTANDING

  • We facilitate anti-racism training for white identifying staff and trustees.
  • This is always grounded in the lived experience of racism in the organisation.
  • We hold solidarity spaces for Black and Global Majority staff, focussed on the radical imagination, resilience and processing harm.
CYCLE THREE: ACKNOWLEDGING HARM

  • We work with leadership teams to understand their accountability in upholding systemic racism.
  • We support them to acknowledge the harm caused to Black and Global Majority staff.
  • We support them to identify anti-racist actions rooted in the lived experience of racism in their organisation.
CYCLE FOUR: ACTIVATING

  • We support leadership to share their anti-racist awareness journey, acknowledgement of harm caused and the initial anti-racist actions.
  • We help to set up internal working groups to activate and evolve the anti-racist actions, turning them into a plan that is transparent and SMART (Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Timely).
  • We use this to hold leadership to account for its delivery.
CYCLE FIVE: PRACTISING

  • We create accountability frameworks within the organisation to support the implementation and evolution of its anti-racist action plan and practice.
  • We review policies and practices to develop human-centred alternatives, such as living organisational values that centre equity.
  • We provide bespoke interventions to address specific needs identified in earlier cycles.

We partner with organisations who can demonstrate a commitment to addressing systemic racism and creating alternative models for human centred practices. 

Our methodology has five cycles which are iterative and adaptive – meaning that there is no linear route and each partnership has it’s own bespoke journey.

We run parallel journeys for colleagues who identify as white and colleagues who identify as Black and in the Global Majority because there is different work to be done.

We always begin in Cycle ONE: GROUNDING, which involves listening to the testimonies of Black and Global Majority colleagues. This allows us to:

  • Root everything we do in the knowledge that racism lives ‘here, in this institution’ not ‘over there, somewhere that we don’t have to deal with’
  • Develop actions in response to the current lived experience of racism e.g. an equity pay review
  • Adapt our training modules for white colleagues with anonymous examples of harm caused within the institution.

Our specialism is anti-Blackness which is always our starting point however, the intersectionality within our team enables us to respond to specific areas of racism and discrimination as they surface. 

Working With Us

We are halfway through a 2 year partnership with the BFI and have decided that we will not be working with any other organisation for the time being. We have reached a point in our journey where we enjoy the power of no, just as much as we enjoy the abundant power of yes. 

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“The What If Experiment is a revelation. The work they did at the Young Vic is nothing short of extraordinary. Our partnership has enabled us to see the changes we need to move from an outdated 21st century model, to a theatre fit for the future. For me personally, as a Black Artistic Director, this theatre now feels like mine. As our country and sector continues debates around equality & inclusion, there’s only one organisation I would recommend to help us negotiate this moment.”

Kwame Kwei-ArmahArtistic Director of Young Vic Theatre
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“Our partnership with The What If Experiment has been game-changing, institutionally and personally. They don’t change what you think, they change how you think - a true systemic intervention for growth and understanding. My leadership has been critically enriched by the insights and tools gained through their challenging, rigorous and generous collaboration. Come prepared to work, and you will be fortified to make real change.”

Lucy DaviesExecutive Director, Royal Court Theatre