Yes, everybody has good intentions. I personally haven’t met in my career a leader or business owner intentionally trying to create or promote exclusion in the workplace. However, how do we take those sincere good intentions and make them a reality? Culture! Not culture in the conceptual or aspirational stage. Culture in the practical sense.
An organization’s culture is reflected in its employees everyday’ s behaviors and attitudes about their work and their coworkers.
The quality of their interactions with potential and current clients and stakeholders. When we think about how we have been approaching culture, we have been sort of selective for decades. We mostly hire, train, and promote individuals based on education and experience. Which is logical, but in today’s climate, we also need to consider their story, their upbringing, their behavioral drives. Taking a holistic approach to employee engagement and understanding what motivates and drives different individuals is the real key to an inclusive culture. To have a tangible inclusive culture we need to create capabilities in the workplace that support reflection, open minded collaboration, and awareness. An intentional effort to build confidence and competence in Diversity, Equity, and Belonging, allowing individuals and groups to understand and reframe potential barriers to inclusion in the workplace and beyond. An inclusive culture is an environment that fosters collaboration and innovation in the workplace with a positive impact in the community.