The Power of Single-Mindedness: How Focused Action Can Dismantle Racism
Every person has that one friend who somehow manages to connect every conversation back to their favourite topic. For Janet Stovall, that topic is racism. She jokes that if someone asks about her Fourth of July plans, she might reply, “I’m going to binge-watch Roots.” Yet beneath the humour lies a serious truth — her focus on racism is not about talking, but about acting.
Stovall believes single-mindedness isn’t just caring about something deeply; it’s caring enough to do something about it. It means moving beyond words and prayers to tangible steps that create change. And through her own experience, she has learned that this kind of determined focus has the power to dismantle systemic racism — not only in communities but within the business world.
Learning the Power of Focused Action
Stovall’s lesson in single-mindedness began in 1984 at Davidson College, a small town in North Carolina divided by railway tracks — white Davidson on one side, black Davidson on the other. Out of 1,200 students, only 52 were Black, with one Black professor and one Black assistant dean. Black students, living on the “white” side of town, were frequently stopped by police and asked for identification.
Refusing to accept this reality, Stovall began writing, speaking out, and challenging the status quo. By her junior year, she channelled her frustration into a document called Project ’87 — a three-year challenge urging Davidson to enrol 100 Black students, hire 10 Black professors, create five Black Studies courses, and appoint one Black dean by 1987.
What made Project ’87 revolutionary was not just its goals but its accountability. It stated clearly that if Davidson failed to meet these targets, its commitment to diversity would be questioned. “We put some real numbers to it,” Stovall said, “and we gave them some real consequences.”
The proposal shook the campus. But when a new, progressive president arrived, also single-minded about racism, he formed a task force to address the project’s demands. Within months, a 77-page report laid the foundation for transformational change at Davidson.
Stovall graduated in 1985, before witnessing the results firsthand. Yet years later, she learned the outcome: Davidson had grown to 185 Black students, 16 Black or multiracial professors, four Black deans, and even a degree-granting Africana Studies department.
Project ’87 not only changed Davidson — it changed Stovall. It taught her that persistent focus, backed by measurable goals and accountability, can lead to lasting systemic change.
Business as a Catalyst for Change
Today, Stovall works as an executive speechwriter for one of the world’s largest corporations — a field that is 92 percent white and mostly male. That makes her “a bit of a unicorn,” as she puts it — but a single-minded one.
In her role, she spends significant time with CEOs and senior executives discussing topics like diversity and inclusion. Over the years, she has come to a powerful conclusion:
“Business is in a position to do something that no other entity can do — business can dismantle racism.”
Her reasoning is simple yet profound. Colleges influence a few million students; churches reach a limited number of worshippers. But business employs 162 million people in the U.S. alone. People of every race, background, and belief work side by side for the same purpose — to earn a living.
If workplaces can cultivate true diversity and inclusion, that mindset can ripple outward, transforming society itself. After all, most adults spend nearly one-third of their lives at work. What they learn about respect, equity, and collaboration in that setting inevitably shapes how they behave outside of it.
The Business Case for Diversity
Despite overwhelming evidence that diversity drives success, progress has been painfully slow. Ethnically diverse companies outperform competitors by 33 percent, and Forbes’ top workplaces for diversity experience 24 percent higher revenue growth. Yet, in 2018, there were only three Black CEOs in the Fortune 500. And applicants with names like Shanice or DeShawn were still 14 percent less likely to receive callbacks than those named Molly or Connor.
The data proves diversity isn’t just moral — it’s profitable. But Stovall argues that businesses haven’t treated diversity as a real problem. It remains an optional initiative rather than an urgent priority. The only way to change that, she says, is for companies to adopt the same single-minded approach that made Project ’87 successful — with real problems, real numbers, and real consequences.
1. Real Problems: Making Diversity Urgent
Companies often treat diversity as a “nice-to-have” rather than a necessity. To drive change, businesses must reframe diversity as an operational problem tied to their most critical assets — employees and customers.
If a company’s workforce and customer base don’t reflect the demographics of society, it risks irrelevance. Employees disengage, customers feel unseen, and innovation suffers. Addressing that disconnect should be treated as urgently as falling profits or lost market share.
2. Real Numbers: Measuring What Matters
Diversity without measurement is meaningless. Stovall points out that America’s population is roughly 13 percent Black and 18 percent Hispanic — yet few companies mirror that composition. Representation must reflect reality.
However, she stresses that diversity and inclusion are not the same. Diversity is about numbers; inclusion is about impact. Companies can mandate hiring targets, but inclusion must be cultivated — ensuring that every employee feels valued, respected, and heard.
Research shows that when underrepresented groups make up at least 30 percent of a team, their voices start to be genuinely heard. Stovall challenges companies to aim for that threshold. “If you’re not willing to set real numbers,” she warns, “then maybe you’re not real serious about diversity and inclusion.”
3. Real Consequences: Enforcing Accountability
In most areas of business, performance has consequences. If salespeople miss their targets, they are retrained — and if they continue to fail, they lose their jobs. Yet when it comes to diversity goals, companies often resort to vague “accountability” without real penalties.
Stovall argues that this double standard must end. “The best incentive is a job,” she says. “And the best disincentive is losing it.” True accountability means linking diversity outcomes to leadership evaluations, promotions, and pay — just like any other core business objective.
Imagining a Truly Inclusive Future
Stovall envisions a workplace — and by extension, a world — where people of all races and backgrounds can climb every rung of the corporate ladder. A place where authenticity is not merely accepted but expected, and where differences are recognised as sources of strength rather than obstacles to success.
In such environments, lessons learned at work would spill over into communities, reshaping social interactions, civic institutions, and cultural attitudes. Diversity would no longer be a checkbox — it would be a shared value embedded in everyday life.
But this future won’t come from wishful thinking or polite conversations. It requires the same kind of single-minded determination that transformed a small Southern college in the 1980s.
The Call to Action: Move Your Feet
Janet Stovall ends her talk with a challenge to all of us: stop waiting for change and start moving your feet. Diversity reports, mission statements, and public commitments are not enough. Businesses — and individuals — must act with clarity, courage, and consistency.
The power of single-mindedness lies in its focus. It turns ideas into plans, plans into action, and action into progress. Whether tackling racism in a college, a corporation, or a community, the principle remains the same:
- Define the problem clearly.
- Set measurable goals.
- Hold yourself — and others — accountable.
When we focus our energy with intention and persistence, we can build workplaces — and societies — where inclusion isn’t exceptional, but expected.
Because real change doesn’t come from praying for it. It comes from working for it.
That is the true power of single-mindedness.
