Diversity, inclusion and belonging: Meet people where they are.
What’s the square of the hypotenuse?
Some of you will have read that and answered it correctly straight away. Some of you will still be thinking about the answer knowing you’ll get it eventually and some of you won’t get the right answer without googling it. The people who got that right will have studied maths at some point in their lives and some people may never have been exposed to it and so wouldn’t be able to give the answer – maths is a different language, a different set of skills.
And that’s the same with diversity*, Inclusion* and belonging*. As a society we can’t suddenly expect people to osmose knowledge on these topics: these concepts are the same as learning maths or learning a language – they have their own set of rules and principles, things that work and things that take the cause backwards, and it is a specialist subject. Far from fluffy or soft this work is absolutely critical if we want to be better and do better to one another at work, at home and in the world.
‘We need to hear from people who have had those real and lived experiences, that’s absolutely core to the work we do.’
So yes, we need to hear from people who have had those real and lived experiences, that’s absolutely core to the work we do and yes often people who gravitate to D&I roles have a passion for it because of what they have been through – our passion often comes from a place of pain and we choose to work through that pain, change the narrative and make a difference. However, it’s critical to understand the psychology behind it, the science of the human brain holds all of the secrets as to why exclusionary behaviours pervade cultures and why diverse thinking, inclusion and belonging is so vital to us. Which is why we need to call upon the experts to do this work and do this work well. People who have led change in this space, people who know how to liberate stale systems and processes within organisations, to open up the talent pool and inject new life, new experiences and new thinking.
This work isn’t about disenfranchising the straight, white, cisgendered, able-bodied man - because frankly he is still so often the person in a position of power and because ally-ship is a vital support mechanism that we should all be building. Not only that but we absolutely must not vilify those men because seeing ‘them’ as the bad guy is exactly the type of stereotyping we want to discourage in the work we do. We know that structures exist unchallenged that allow some people to move through life with ease and disallow others to even contemplate their dreams never mind realise them and we know that this is our why and we can’t allow this to continue. This work isn’t about alienating people because of our assumptions or using jargonistic language or jumping on the bandwagon and following the latest hashtag - because in doing that we pay lip service to a serious, pervasive and complex problem. It’s about meeting people where they are and giving them a safe space to have what are probably going to be difficult conversations, opening up the dialogue and letting people have their own thoughts on this within a clear framework of right and wrong. Our future society is about all people living, working and creating together – and that includes cisgendered, straight, white , able-bodied men This isn’t about punitive or patronising conversations, this stuff is big and scary and it’s a minefield but we won’t get people on board unless we meet them where they are: inclusion means everybody.
Change is a journey. Education and exposure are the keys which will unlock some of our stagnant thinking but that can’t happen unless we are patient and kind to one another, and it won’t happen unless we put our trust and more importantly our investment in the experts in this space.
‘Education and exposure are the keys which will unlock some of our stagnant thinking.’
In education there are lots of people realising the need to do this important work, which is incredibly positive. It comes at a time where world events have exposed inequities in a real sense and in a way that people cannot shy away from. I’m delighted to be having so many great conversations with schools about how they can move things forward, and how beyond a single training session they can really take hold of some of these complex topics and start to make changes happen for their staff and their young people. Because as we know, and I’ll keep saying it: education is way behind where it needs to be in terms of diversity, belonging and inclusion. Lifting our heads above the parapet and learning from other sectors would really help us shift the dial on this work.
On this topic Robyn Ellis, global head of leadership development at Booking.com says:
“’Cancel culture’ is one of the biggest threats to diversity, belonging and inclusion becoming just a given, from diverse people coming together in a way that feels like a real community. That doesn’t mean it’s acceptable for people to say or do things which exclude, humiliate or mock anyone for any protected characteristic or for any reason, what it means is there’s a step before someone gets “cancelled” in which they are given the chance to learn, to step back, educate themselves and evolve their thinking. Without this step we create a culture of fear which drives exclusionary behaviours underground, and that doesn’t meaningfully move the narrative on and bring everybody with us: it drives us further apart.”
Because this work is about behaviour change and it should be taken as seriously as the millions of pounds of investment that goes into leadership programmes in education every year. This work matters, getting it right will be a gamechanger, but we have to meet people where they are. It doesn’t matter where that is as long as it’s a start and as long as people realise the road is long and they need to put in the miles. We are all on a journey with diversity and inclusion and that is ok.
‘We are all on a journey with diversity and inclusion and that is ok.’
My best friend’s dad is 70, he’s a retired history teacher and the other day he called her to asked her to explain to him what’s happened with JK Rowling ‘and all the trans people.’ His words. Not mine. He didn’t understand it at first, he agreed with lots of JK Rowling’s ill-informed points. So she talked to him from where was at, without judgement or anger or jargon. She read him the beautifully written response from Mermaids and two hours, lots of tea and cake later, he shifted in this thinking. Only a little, but shifted he had.
D&I experts won’t use their knowledge as a way to intimidate those with less experience, they will ask the difficult questions and create the space for people to really reflect on the work they need to do as individuals and as organisations to make change happen.
D&I is a journey, it is a specialist subject so call upon the experts, meet people where they are and let’s be the change we want to see.
*Diversity is about taking account of the differences between people and groups of people and placing a positive value on those differences.
*Inclusion describes an individual’s experience within the workplace or in wider society and the extent to which they feel valued and included.
*Belonging is when you allow your employees to feel like they belong to your organisation, they will feel more confident in their abilities to represent themselves authentically. People who “belong” feel comfortable expressing ideas, sharing experiences and contributing to a group when they know that their input is valued.