Big part of what Ocean Allies is working towards is unlearning generations of the ‘good old boys club’ and repeated challenges in certain industries (there are some industries that women still don’t feel safe in, etc).
We still see BIPOC individuals as well as women being paid less and treated poorly within certain industries, it is a huge undertaking to challenge this and help people unlearn decades of prejudice.
Start by trying to find out where the hesitancy comes from to adopt DEI&A, a lot of previous challenges has involved perceived threats to one’s livelihood, people are afraid that if they allow more/new people in the door their livelihood is going to be challenged because there will be more fisherpeople out there doing the same work they are doing.
Oftentimes it is less about wanting to be derogatory and offensive towards specific groups but rather trying to protect the generational system that they have created and put in place.
This is hard to unlearn! Once again you can use the business case to ensure that they understand that innovation comes from diverse perspectives.
Encouraging to understand that it is more than just the threat of increasing the workforce but increasing innovation and therefore sales, which means you would need more employees anyways.
On an industry level start with advocacy, using the resources that OA provides in order to see the value of DEI&A, educating people, using training resources (around persons with disabilities, neurodivergent folks, people of color, etc).
By providing people with the resources to understand it increases their willingness to adopt a new mindset