our targets or quotas for hiring a promotions fare well initially it may not seem that they are and indeed in my work I hear people argue against him all the time by saying that therefore a meritocracy but actually I believe true meritocracy is a bit of a myth and you'll see why as we go along now first things first I want to be very clear people who say that have good intentions but by the end of this video you'll understand how the phrase meritocracy has actually been co-opted by the people who are already at the top and you'll also understand how to respond the next time someone says that we don't need targets for gender balance or better racial representation by saying that therefore meritocracy so saying your firm meritocracy is understandable because it sounds fair but it's also very convenient for leaders because it actually backs up their claims and their beliefs that it was purely their merit that is how great they are they got them to the top now psychologically that is a far more comfortable place to be in than having to look at other factors most of which we were born with which may have also contributed to their success if that makes sense to you so far let me know by typing in meritocracy myth in the comments section below anyway you may know that the term meritocracy was first used in the 1950s by the sociologists and actually Member of Parliament Michael Young but this is the important bit he actually wrote the rise of meritocracy as an essay but it was a social satire he did that because he believed meritocracy would always be defined by the people at the top as a means of keeping them and their children at the top of society so that's really important background to understand where the term even comes from now for too many when we asked them what merit looks like well it looks a lot like them and what they did to get to their lofty position but the truth is having one type of person define marriage is really dangerous because it limits our ideas of what great leadership could actually look like the truth is we miss a trick if we don't look at who actually gets to define merit so the next time someone says to you you know what we've already got a good meritocracy here at this organization ask them who defines merit in your organization because the truth is if you don't have a wide range of people at the top it's probably a good indicator that you're not as truly meritocratic as you'd like to be and until that happens I'd say targets or even quotas do have a role to play so if you have a colleague who would be challenged by this or maybe identify with it share this video with them and check out our other videos at inclusive comm