Building Consensus Across Diversity is Hard. But Critical.

Welcome to Inclusion Is Leadership, a biweekly infusion of insights, research, and guidance to create inclusive workplaces. Created by Ruchika Tulshyan, inclusive leadership advisor, founder of Candour, author of Inclusion On Purpose , and creator of the LinkedIn Learning course: Moving DEI from Intention to Impact .

As leaders, our goal is often guiding our team to a place of consensus. The smoother and simpler that journey, the better. …Right??

Not quite.

Building consensus is often necessary, yes. We have to be on the same page about what our goals are before we can even begin to tackle them. However, sometimes consensus can be misleading. We may believe we have it because we’re surrounded by people like us.

But true, effective consensus-building must happen among a diversity of people. Research By the late, great Katherine W. Phillips teaches us there's more productive conflict in these situations that leads to innovation. THAT is the type of consensus-building leaders should work towards.

Recently, I was invited to speak on a panel at my alma mater, Columbia University, on just this. Consensus-building matters greatly in leadership, but too often we believe we just have to get along with people who think like us, when the real challenge and opportunity is to build consensus with people who are unlike us.?

What can leaders do?

Foster a psychologically safe environment

Psychological safety is absolutely essential for a collaborative, healthy, motivated team, particularly for people from historically excluded backgrounds. Agatha Agbanobi and T. Viva Asmelash described this perfectly in their Harvard Business Review article, “Creating Psychological Safety for Black Women at Your Company ”: “Identity Matters to Psychological Safety.” (And please check out their article for how to increase psychological safety for Black women!)

People of different backgrounds have historically dealt with different challenges, stereotypes, and discriminatory practices in the workplace, so it’s important to consider these and how they may impact the people on your team as you navigate building psychological safety and finding consensus.

Practice productive conflict

I was on the panel alongside negotiation expert Kat Banzon , moderated by Shaun A. Hoyte . Kat shared how most of us aren’t taught how to have productive conflict; we either become completely adversarial or avoidant, which is particularly detrimental to women and people of color. Learning to negotiate effectively is so critical to our success at work and life. So one exercise Kat leads her students through to get comfortable with productive conflict is by asking each student to share an unpopular opinion, then directing other students to ask questions about the opinion but not “challenge” the unpopular opinion.?Even when the stakes are "low" (an unpopular opinion I have is that pineapple doesn't ever belong on pizza!) people can get really adversarial just because instead of really listening to another person's perspective or reasoning. (For the record, I don't see myself changing my mind on the pineapple-on-pizza thing, but I've tried hard to really listen to those in my life who swear by it.)

Practicing negotiation is so important, and doing it regularly rather than only in high-stakes situations (like a salary negotiation) is crucial. Every act of leadership is about negotiation, and disagreements can be productive and lead to innovation, but only when done correctly. Avoiding conflict or treating disagreements like a battle to be won will only lead to missed opportunities and damaged relationships.

Build relationships across a diversity of backgrounds

Three-Quarters of White Americans Have No Friends of Color . Our friendship circles greatly impact our views on the world, and studies show that “the composition and homogeneity of Americans’ friendship networks is strongly correlated with their views on questions about American identity, pluralism, Christian nationalism, and the changing demographics of the country.” For instance, “White Americans whose social networks only include other white people (42%) are less likely than those whose social networks include at least one nonwhite person (58%) to say that the legacy of slavery and discrimination still has an impact on the lives of Black Americans.”?

If we lack diversity in our social networks, it’s no wonder that this is reflected in our professional lives. Everyone is harmed when we ignore this history and how it impacts our lives today.? This is an urgent matter and one change I am constantly advocating for.

A lack of consensus does not have to be a bad thing.

It’s normal to disagree about how to confront challenges and achieve our goals, particularly when we’ve all had different backgrounds and journeys! Most of us are not taught how to debate or disagree productively in education or at home, and that can cause so much tension at work. But if we can approach disagreements as opportunities (or even encourage them!) and establish psychologically safe environments that allow everyone to speak from a place of authenticity, we can go beyond consensus to a place of thriving innovation.?

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