Here's how you can foster diversity and inclusion within your team.

Many companies focus on diversity and inclusion through recruiting and HR policies. Both are good, but you also want to ensure there is a 'belonging' aspect to your DEI efforts as a company. Provide training on diversity, provide resource groups for veterans, women, people of color, LGBTQ+ , provide a mentorship program for leaders where their mentors come from backgrounds like their own so they can see a career path to success. If you do these things, you will have not only a more diverse and equitable workforce, but you will be more profitable and successful as a company.

Fostering diversity and inclusion within your team is essential for creating a positive and equitable work environment where all team members feel valued, respected, and empowered to contribute their unique perspectives and talents, so remember to: -Provide support -Train and educate -Promote equity -Promote open discussions and dialogues

Nowadays we are more global than ever, it is a bounderless world and diversity is an inclusion is a must in all environments, more likely at work, where all should feel part of it, respected, valued and able to be ourselves.

A thousand mile journey begins with taking the first step. In the context of building Diversity, start with the first step of hiring diverse individuals. Let us not relegate diversity definition to be hiring women (gender diversity), physically challenged or ex- servicemen, or LGBTQ only. Start building the muscle for cognitive diversity while building gender, geographical, and generational diversity along with focus on underrepresented/ minority groups.

Today's hiring is open to everyone without discrimination as they have the skills required for the job opportunity, the need to reduce to zero the unconscious bias through training and methodology.

In my experience historically Diversity was related to gender so we could encourage & hire more women employees. But as we are evolving & moving towards gender neutral world , the Diversity today is not limited to Gender alone and focus on different Thought process’s , Approach & Cultural backgrounds we build. Organisations need to appreciate & encourage diversity of both Mind & body and foster work environments to align with core & create space for diversity to thrive & excel. And we need to do this to constantly innovate and adapt to Change faster to stay ,survive and sustain growth.

While we focus hiring developers verse groups of employees, if the internal policies are not inclusive or open, it defeats the purpose. We all know that ‘well begun is only half done’ so, it is important to craft inclusive policies and sensitize the stakeholders.

It all begins within you and with you! Inculcating change is a very hard thing but also mandatory if we wish to grow and bring around beneficial change around us. Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging are key words that shape our perspectives and destinies, and as leaders, we need to bring in actioning on these approaches in all our workplace areas. Leading by example is the best way to become the force multiplier that will inspire and motivate others to follow and reinforce our vision on ground.

The grass always seems greener on the other side. Inclusion starts within you and from you. Diversities need to embraced rather than segmented. We all are pieces of a larger puzzle and we keep on shifting and make different images/shapes. Some serve the purpose, some serve the purpose and make the image a true visual delight. Rules, policies will always be there, in some places they will be implemented with nearby perfection and some will be places they won't. People makes a policy work or doesn't. So it starts with me, you, us. Value the right virtues at the right places. Finally, love, respect, admiration are a two way street and they are gender, seniority, designation independent.