Diversity and Inclusion

As I went out for my daily walk, I started thinking about writing this blog and I realised I needed to ask myself what diversity and inclusion means to me.  How does it fit into my beliefs and experiences?  I don’t live in a diverse area of the country, and I work in small organisation where the opportunity for wide-ranging diversity is limited.

So, I quickly realised that my stance is very much based on what it looks like for the individual.  To be inclusive is about having an open mindset – one that allows us to see and value things through the eyes of others, to empathise and seek to understand.  To experience inclusivity is to be able to freely speak my mind and to know that not only will I be heard but that others will seek to understand me.  The things that make me unique and different will be valued.

In literature on the internet, diversity is best summed up as being about valuing everyone for the individuals that they are, the diversity of their strengths and weaknesses, their ideas and opinions, their ways of working and the experiences they bring with them.  We can only reap the benefits of having diversity if the environment in which we experience diversity is inclusive – a culture where everyone feels they can participate, share their ideas and opinions without fear of retribution and have the opportunity to realise their potential.

I’m not too far off in my own personal definition then.  My discomfort in not feeling like I know enough may then come from not knowing enough about the legislation we have that protects the minimum standards that support diversity across age, race, gender, religion and sexual orientation.  This legislation seeks to create equality through prevention of direct or indirect discrimination.  However, equality is hard to reach and much of the literature I read also spoke about equity which recognises that we can’t treat everyone equally, and so we should treat people according to their own individual needs.

I was glad to see that it’s widely recognised that these minimum legal standards aren’t sufficient enough to create a diverse and inclusive environment.  For an organisation to be truly diverse and inclusive there is so much more that needs to be done.  As a psychologist I realised I do know about this ‘so much more’.

Humans are notoriously bad at having a truly open mindset.  We rely on assumptions and unconscious biases as we try to make sense of the world around us.  We create rules and schema in our minds that allow us to categorise people and situations so that we can understand them.  We are the sum of our life experiences and we are affected by cultural and societal norms.  This is why having an open mindset is crucial – we must be curious and challenge our assumptions if we are to be truly inclusive as individuals.

Organisations need to encourage this mindset through their values, so that openness and honesty are encouraged and inclusivity is nurtured.  There needs to be a safe environment in which people can speak openly, feel heard, challenge assumptions and have an honest dialogue in which those assumptions can be re-set when appropriate.  People need to be able to be themselves at work.

Given the need for values and an organisational culture that supports and encourages an inclusive, open mindset, it’s vital that any attempt to improve diversity begins at the top.  Senior leaders need to be role modelling inclusivity and setting the tone for the rest of the organisation. Leaders need to display compelling leadership, where the goals, values and priorities of the organisation are clearly and explicitly communicated, both in terms of business goals and ‘how we do business’.  This begins with decisions about the membership of the board and senior leadership teams. The composition of these senior teams should be guided by an authentically held belief that inclusivity matters, otherwise, however diverse the senior leadership team is, only the same old traditional voices and ideas will ever be heard.

Of course, alongside the cultural values and role-modelling of inclusivity there must be practices and processes that encourage everyone to adopt an inclusive mindset:

• To be fully effective, values need to be translated into behavioural and competency frameworks that make explicit what diversity and inclusion looks like. These need to be spoken about and used in training, appraisals, and recruitment.
• Employee voice must be strengthened for everyone within the organisation. Mechanisms for listening to employees need to be employed. Employee forum, focus groups, surveys and specific working groups for LGBT+, BAME and disability networks can be powerful amplifiers for voices that may not have been heard fully in the past.
• Flexible working policies that help to support work-life balance also play a crucial part in creating an inclusive work environment by making it more open to the differing needs of individuals.
• Messaging in internal communications will also play a role in nudging behaviours of individuals collectively towards an open inclusive mindset (see our blog on nudging behaviour).
• Monitoring and recognising efforts to create an inclusive environment through organisational team and individual objectives, appraisals and reviews helps to reinforce the ‘right’ behaviours and mindset.

Diversity and inclusion are a key component of employee engagement, and without them employees will struggle to feel fully engaged. The organisations that are getting this right are the ones that have an open mindset. They encourage curiosity, questions and discussion and they are unafraid to admit that they don’t know everything and are striving to do better.

We’d love to talk to you about your diversity and inclusion goals and the progress you are making towards them.  The Survey Initiative has powerful tools to help you on your journey and we are keen to keep on learning and asking questions.