Is This the Most Transformative Metaphor for Systemic Change?

The "groundwater approach" is a metaphor used to explain systemic issues related to racial inequality. In this context, it suggests that instead of dealing with individual instances of racial bias or discrimination (akin to addressing the "bad apples" or homing in on the "symptoms"), leaders should focus on addressing the deeper, systemic, and structural issues that contribute to racial inequality (akin to addressing the "contaminated groundwater" that affects the entire "ecosystem"). 

I was first introduced to The Groundwater Approach: Building a Practical Understanding of Structural Racism (Racial Equity Institute) by Donald Fan, former Senior Director at Walmart and it features in my book – The Anti-Racist Organization: Dismantling Systemic Racism in the Workplace – and it goes a little something like this: 

The Fish, the Lake, and the Groundwater  

If you have a lake in front of your house and one fish is floating belly-up dead, it makes sense to analyse the fish. What is wrong with it?  

Imagine the fish is one student failing in the education system.  

We’d ask: Did it study hard enough? Is it getting the support it needs at home?  

But if you come out to that same lake and half the fish are floating belly-up dead, what should you do? This time you’ve got to analyse the lake.  

Imagine the lake is the education system and half the students are failing. This time we’d ask: Might the system itself be causing such consistent, unacceptable outcomes for students? If so, how?  

Now… picture five lakes around your house, and in each and every lake half the fish are floating belly-up dead! What is it time to do? We say it’s time to analyse the groundwater.  

How did the water in all these lakes end up with the same contamination?  

On the surface the lakes don’t appear to be connected, but it’s possible — even likely — that they are. In fact, over 95% of the freshwater on the planet is not above ground where we can see it; it is below the surface in the groundwater.  

This time we can imagine half the kids in each region are failing in the education system, half the kids suffer from ill health, half are performing poorly in the criminal justice system, half are struggling in and out of the child welfare system, and it’s often the same kids in each system!  

By using a “groundwater” approach, one might begin to ask these questions: Why are educators creating the same racial inequity as doctors, police officers, and child welfare workers? How might our systems be connected? Most importantly, how do we use our position(s) in one system to impact a structural racial arrangement that might be deeper than any single system?  

To “fix fish” or clean up one lake at a time simply won’t work — all we’d do is put “fixed” fish back into toxic water or filter a lake that is quickly recontaminated by the toxic groundwater. [1]

Here are five reasons why I believe this illuminating and transformative metaphor  should be the bedrock for any leadership and HR teams who are seeking to do more than just increase representation and prioritise actions that act as symbols of change: 

1. Understanding the systemic nature of racial inequality: The groundwater approach highlights that racial inequality is not simply a series of disconnected incidents but rather a systemic issue deeply embedded within the structure of an organization. Just as contamination in groundwater affects all the wells tapping into it, systemic racism affects all aspects of an organization. 

2. Addressing root causes, not just symptoms: Focusing on individual instances of racism can be akin to addressing symptoms without treating the underlying disease. Too often organizations wait for something to happen before intervening, the assumption being that if there are no overt instances of racism, then there aren’t any problems to address. The groundwater approach emphasises the need to delve deep into the structural roots of racial inequality to close the inequality gap between what an organization claims versus the experiences of those most impacted. 

3. Creating a culture of anti-racism, equity and kindness: The groundwater approach insists on developing a culture that acknowledges and actively works against systemic racism. It isn’t just about tasking HR to de-bias recruitment or find more ‘diverse candidates’. It’s an organization wide mindset and approach that involves being consistently alert to the way racial inequality shows up and taking active steps to combat that. The relevance of kindness? Doing the work irrespective of whether the issue only affects the statistical minority within your organization.  

4. Responsibility of leadership: Just as the health of a water system is the responsibility of those managing it, leaders in an organization have the crucial responsibility to address racial inequality. This means actively seeking to understand, acknowledge, and dismantle systemic barriers, and to create an environment that supports racial equity. That environment allows for decision-making that is not through the lens of comfort, but through one of impact. 

5. Continuous learning and course-correction: The groundwater approach recognizes that addressing systemic racism is not a one-time fix but requires ongoing effort, learning, and frequent course correction. Leaders should be committed to continuous learning about racial inequality and open to adapting organizational policies and practices accordingly, even if it means conceding power and the restricts the ability to “do what you like”.