Tag Archives: belonging at work

“Imagine Belonging” – A powerful new book to help workplace leaders build an equitable workplace.

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Rhodes Perry with his new book

About two or three times a year, I do like to blog about new books in the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) field that are powerful, practical and can truly help an organization grow their DEI strategy and execution. One such book is “Imagine Belonging – Your Inclusive Leadership Guide to Building an Equitable Workplace” by Rhodes Perry.

Belonging is becoming a key concept in the DEI arena. In fact, I have seen many organizations add the “B” and now talk about diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. Rhodes Perry defines belonging as “an emotional outcome that comes from feeling seen for your unique contributions, connected to your coworkers, supporting in your daily work and career development, and proud of your organization’s values and purpose.”

More information on both Rhodes’ books

This is Rhodes’ second book on this topic, with his first being the best-selling “Belonging at Work: Everyday Actions You Can Take To Cultivate an Inclusive Organization.” When it came out in early 2019, I wrote this blog about it. This book focused on what all employees and leaders can do to build an inclusive workplace culture where everyeone can feel like they belong.

This new follow up book is now specifically targeted for workplace leaders who are the ones who need to drive and build a belonging workplace culture.

Here are some of the key points and topics in the book:

• Rhodes shares some of his journey growing into leadership as a transgender man, and introduces the importance of clarity, confidence and commitment in driving transformation.

• The criticality of addressing organizational culture in doing any kind of work around DEIB. This includes examining your own leadership style, your team and the entire organization, and how identifying and addressing dominant culture vs. belonging culture systems is crucial. This also includes six key questions to explore in doing a “belonging culture audit.”

• How all efforts can get derailed by conforming, and the need to have courage, which Rhodes defines as a the opposite of conformity.  (See my June, 2022 blog “The importance of courage in being an inclusive leader.”)

• The book includes a fantastic practical table of “12 belonging culture traits.”

• Comparing competitive teams (and their issues) with cooperative teams (and their advantages.) The book also discusses the pros and cons of individualism and traits of a relationship driven team

• How to transform organizational culture to build belonging and trust, and the business advantages of doing this.

I highly recommend this book if you are leading transformational diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging work in your organization. To check out the book an to order it, link to www.imaginebelonging.com. And if you want to connect more deeply on the topic of belonging in the workplace, please check out Rhodes’ newest podcast, Imagine Belonging at Work, at https://imaginebelongingatworkpodcast.com/.

An Important Book – Belonging at Work: Everyday Actions You Can Take To Cultivate an Inclusive Organization

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Rhodes Perry of Rhodes Perry Consulting

In late October, I published the blog, “After Workplace Diversity and Inclusion Comes … BELONGING!” I shared two perspectives; from a North Carolina-based diversity and inclusion consultant (Gracie Johnson-Lopez) who recently spoke at our local HR SHRM chapter, and Rhodes Perry, founder and CEO of a leadership and management consulting firm in Portland, Oregon. I also mentioned that Rhodes was just about to publish his new book about this topic.

The book, Belonging at Work: Everyday Actions You Can Take To Cultivate an Inclusive Organization, is now out! I quickly ordered it and read it, and recommend it to all leaders who need to take that next step of assuring everyone on their team feels they belong so they can contribute their very best.

Rhodes starts the book with a little personal sharing of how his fear of disclosing his being a transgender man, coupled with a general lack of understanding and acceptance of transgender people while working at the White House, stymied his ability to show up as his authentic self at work. This then ended up adding additional stress to his daily responsibilities, foreshadowing his eventual departure for greener pastures.

Starting from his own base of personal experience, Rhodes shares several key concepts along with many practical suggestions on moving from diversity and inclusion to the next step of as he shares, “cultivating a culture of belonging.” Topics Rhodes expands on include:

• The concept of intersectionality; that almost everyone has some aspect of their diversity (gender, race, family status, veteran status, sexual orientation, etc.) that they “cover” at work.

Understanding the difference between equality and equity (graphic from the Interaction Institute for Social Change)


• Understanding the difference between equality and equity. Yes, there is indeed a difference. See graphic to the left and buy Rhodes’ book to understand more.

• The human need for and the power of fostering a sense of belonging at work

• How to apply an equity and empowerment lens by considering people, place, process and power

• How the fast changing global workplace has made belonging even more critical for business success, including the compelling business case for focusing on belonging

• And finally, very importantly, loads of practical actions to take in the workplace to promote belonging; because, at the end of they day, shouldn’t the outcome of reading a book like this be taking practical steps to increase personal and business effectiveness?

In addition to the book, Rhodes has an upcoming 30-Day Belonging Challenge. It offers readers of the book (or future readers) the opportunity to work with the concepts presented and allows them to have a hands on opportunity to put them into practice during the challenge, learning directly from the author himself.

I strongly recommend this book – here is the link to secure your copy. And do consider joining Rhodes’s 30-Day Belonging Challenge.