Contemplating Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

A couple of weeks ago the organisation which has the joy of employing me held a Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Day with a number of guest speakers. A couple of projects at work have caused me to investigate this topic in more detail and as a reflector I thought I would pull together some of the strands from this and other research.

Susanna Romantsova started the day by stating that she hoped the day would be an inspiration and it certainly was! Thank you to everybody responsible for organising the day and in particular the Exec Team for sharing some deeply personal moments and demonstrating vulnerability which role modelled one of the key areas.

The last 12 months have been critical – The murder of George Floyd and the profile of the Black Lives Matters events have brought the issues front and centre and have raised the profile of the discussion. In the words of Asif Sadiq the last 12 – 14 months has changed everything around us and that this case made it evident that enough hadn’t been done. 

Changes in the Agenda –  Inclusive Employers have conducted a survey which  noted a number of changes in the agenda including

• Race and Ethnicity is on the Diversity agenda for 85% of respondents
• 10 years ago 8% of organisations had gender identity on their agenda is now 70%
• 10 years ago 10% or organisation had Mental Health on their agenda it is now 80%

Integration is not enough – Inclusion is not integration – that’s not enough. Also needs to include empowerment, having a voice and decision making. The following equation sums up the key elements:

Uniqueness + Belongingness = Inclusion

• Uniqueness is honoured when we communicate across different and are willing to have difficult conversations.
• Belongingness when everyone feels accepted and included for our authentic selves.
• Inclusion when everyone has an equal voice.

Inclusion made up of two elements

• Structural Inclusion – equitable, transparent structure, processes, practices and algorithms
• Behavioural Inclusion – feeling respected and see for how we are

Diversity is not just one element – We need to remember that individuals are not one aspect of who we are. The focus should be on intersectionality – recognising that we are a combination of factors. For example – for myself I am female, married, introverted, L&D, university educated and focussed on making a difference at work. In addition we also need to remember the non visible elements which sit within this including dyslexia. 

It’s about Action – there has been a lot of conversation in this area now it is time to move onto intentional actions both from an organisational and individual level. 

It’s about Courage – Nicolas Hamilton shared the story of how as a 12 year old he spoke in front of the whole school to ask if anyone had questions or a problem with his disability to dispel awkwardness. This topic requires us to have those conversations and to ask the difficult questions. It feels like the phrase ‘Get comfortable with being uncomfortable’ is very much of the moment and it is especially true here as covering new ground with people is not always comfortable. We may make mistakes – for example John Barnes when asked about “How do you feel as a black footballer representing England?” discussed the implicit bias in the question.

Creating Psychological Safety – Throughout this blog safe spaces have been mentioned and equally they deserve a place of their own here. You can find out more about these here. These serve two clear purposes – the first is to enable open and honest discussions and the second is to create safe spaces for each other so that we can be our authentic selves. Asif Sadiq cited two clear examples of which demonstrate when psychological safety isn’t present in an organisation

• Lack of questioning to put 3 K’s on a product
• Companies advertising holidays to the LGBTQ+ community in places where it is illegal to be so.

We may need to reframe ourselves – In this space there is a place for a long hard look in the mirror at our own practices and behaviour. In addition we need to open ourselves up for education and rethink our approaches. 

Open yourself up to new experiences – If we only mix with the same kinds of people as you will miss out on a whole range of experiences, opinions and feedback. All of which are essentially to help us grow. For example this could be as simple as sitting somewhere different at work, asking someone for an opinion who hasn’t spoken up in a meeting or saying hello to someone you don’t normally speak to. Sir Alex Ferguson famously would say hello to everyone at the club including the groundsmen, the laundry and the canteen staff – all of whom he knew not just by name but also as characters. He took a real interest in everyone at the club, not just the star football players. Ali Stripling  has also signposted an initiative that exists in 50 countries (from The Human Library) where there are libraries where you can ′′ borrow ′′ a person instead of a book to listen to their life story for 30 minutes. The goal is to fight prejudice. Each person has a title like: ′′ unemployed “, ′′ refugee “, ′′ bipolar “, but listening to their story assists people to realise how much you shouldn’t ′′ judge a book by its cover.”

Let’s Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable – Addison Barnett from Inclusive Employers makes an interesting point that “If sessions don’t feel uncomfortable then we are probably covering the wrong topics”. As facilitators operating in this space we need to enable others to have these conversations and be careful how we respond to this type of sharing. It is easy to say ‘I understand how you feel’ but can we ever really if we have not been in that position. 

What does it look like in practice?

• We all be who we are at work – our authentic selves. Each of us has our own story.
• Being curious, asking really good questions of each other to learn more.
• Building on the above point we need to educate ourselves so we can be effective allies. 
• We need to challenge those micro – aggressions we see in the workplace so that they don’t become the norm. 
• It’s a mindset that each of us needs to embed.
• These conversation become the norm and not the exception. 

What should organisations focus on?

• The primary dimensions of IKEA strategy includes Gender, Age, LGBT+, Nationalities and Disabilities. Although as Susanna Romantsova points out it is important not to try and do everything at once – it depends on the maturity of the organisation. 
• Ensuring that colleagues can progress no matter their backgrounds.
• Running fair recruitment processes – we are all responsible for ensuring that happens.
• Establish some measures and strive towards them – remember it’s about a journey rather than achieving a particular goal. 
• Look at the gaps – what can we do to eliminate bias from the organisation.

How should organisations approach devising a strategy?

• Hold listening groups – create safe spaces where people can tell us how they feel and we need to genuinely listen.
• Look at what similar organisations are doing in this space.
• Take learnings from existing activities – for example participants in Windsor Leadership and BBA Talent Accelerator

Where am I as a Leader?

Dr Stephanie K Johnson has developed the Inclusify Leadership Matrix as below – you can take an assessment here to determine where you might sit on this.

Image and further information from Arki Sudito

You can take an assessment here to determine where you might sit on this matrix.

Things to Consider as a Leader

• Consider ‘The Pygmalion Effect’ and how it impacts the way you manage people – This study was originally focused on teachers and pupils although it has a clear application for managers and teams.

1. Manager thinks the person is performing really well.
2. Manager focuses on the person.
3. Person learns more.
4. Person increase their performance.
5. The cycle starts again.

           We need to focus on the whole team not just the people who are performing well or 

           poorly.

• Asif Sadiq suggests that the future of leadership is to be human and to be vulnerable. Susan David suggests that diversity isn’t just about people it’s all about the diversity of feelings inside of people. Leaders sharing some of those enables others to do the same. 

Useful first steps as a leader

1. Understand who you are working with – look at both qualitative and quantitative data.
2. Start with yourself – you can’t include anybody if you don’t include yourself.

Clear benefits 

• At an individual level it helps to attract and retain talent.
• At a team level as inclusive teams perform better.
• At an organisational level as there is a larger talent pool for recruitment, customer loyalty increases, customer bases expanded
• Individuals are 3.5 times more productive in this kind of environment. 
• Our customers sense when we are being authentic and we can’t serve our customers well unless we include everyone. 

A couple of the speakers challenged us to think about what actions we are going to take – so here’s mine:

I commit to

• Ensuring that Leadership development incorporates behaviours which drive of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at work
• Seeking different perspectives from a variety of backgrounds
• Continuing my own research and education in this area

What are you going to commit to?