Diversity with Inclusion - 7 tips for a better journey

The Diversity and Inclusion journey is yet a journey and below maybe some familiar examples of bumps enroute:

• "She is too young for that job."
• " You want me to take 30% new hires as females? How do you expect me to keep up production schedules when they go on maternity leave?"
• " If I replace my expatriates with local employees, the level of service quality I provide to my clients will drop."
• " We can't risk promoting him, he is a Middle Easterner, and with that attitude, he will ruin the culture."
• "Are you not scared to relocate there for your next assignment? I mean, you are dark-skinned."
• " My manager and his manager are from the same nationality, and they keep talking in their native language in my presence. It makes me feel that they don't trust me."

The above illustrations of biases in organisations may not be surprising, however what may surprise you is that the organisations themselves were true believers of diversity.

So before we start criticising the individuals, let's focus on the intent in each of those illustrations. They all had a good intention, either to safeguard the interests of the company, a colleague or even an employee. So where does it go wrong?

We all have biases in some form or another, which makes me believe it arises out of our basic instincts of survival, where the subconscious stores' data based on interactions, experiences, information and forms its defence mechanism which generates a bias. It may be a remnant from the stone ages where a clan was cautious of strangers and the fear of the unknown. In effect, it is a reaction to counter the fear or insecurity (let us call it "Patro's theory" for now). I cannot claim to be a guru on biases and hence will leave it at that theory and focus on mechanisms to building diversity with Inclusion.

Biases are typical blockers to embracing inclusion, even though the concept of diversity, may exist in an organisation, promoting diversity does not equate to breeding the culture of inclusion. In organisations, often the lack of inclusion leads to flow out of the non-included talent.

For many companies, Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) is based on the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which was established to prevent discrimination. While the EEOC ensures a level playing field, Inclusion aspires to encourage players onto the field, empower them to participate and become role models for others to follow.

The classification of Diversity ranges from the more familiar ones like race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, age and disability to the less familiar ones like class, caste, ex servicemen (veterans) and even cognitive diversity.

Irrespective of the classification, I could think of seven things organisations could try to succeed in their journey of Diversity with Inclusion (DWI).

Accept and Respect Diversity: It's as simple as learning and obeying the traffic rules.

What does acceptance mean? For me, acceptance of diversity means that I accept, that the person next to me, is not like me and that I may be uncomfortable with that. Acceptance also means that I am willing to live with that discomfort and make an attempt in making it comfortable for both us. Acceptance also implies the belief, that the discomfort maybe mutual and is a temporary sacrifice to achieve a more beautiful endpoint.

Acceptance and Respect are twins that go together on this journey, and one can't get to accept without respecting the difference. In organisations, the need to set the tone for this by providing the mindset of respecting differences while experimenting with the unknown is paramount.

As an example, I worked for an organisation which had nearly 40 different nationalities working at many locations with a gender diversity unparalleled in the industry. One ground rule made it possible - The Uncompromising value of Respect to the extent of Zero tolerance for violations.

Respect could be as basic as abstaining from speaking in your native language to your country mate in a diverse gathering.

Diversity comes with dissent, non-conformity and difference of opinions and requires an organisation to have the courage and resilience to accept these as strengths as against viewing it as subversion.

Acceptance and respect for diversity along with the courage and resilience to accept dissent, are the cornerstones of Diversity with Inclusion (DWI).

Build Purpose: Just like these superheroes, who are out to save the world

Diversity is a strength only if it is unified. The glue to uniting diversity is creating a more significant purpose which supersedes the differences and utilising the energy otherwise spent focussing on differences to using the same energy to achieving the larger goal.

In some of the organisations I have worked for, building pride is an integral part of that unifying glue. Pride built by ingraining the vision of the organisation, either it is "Being the Market Leaders", "Providing Best in Class Quality", "Empowering employees in building tomorrow" or even focusing on the achievements of the past.

In addition to creating purpose is creating the culture of caring where employees feel confident that their diversity will be an advantage for them and the organisation.

Start Young: Children learn the value and respect for diversity easier

"Bias has to be taught. If you hear your parents downgrading women or people of different backgrounds, why, you are going to do that" - Barbara Bush.

Similar to our responsibility to children in teaching them the value and respect for diversity, is also the responsibility in our Organisations to have a robust onboarding and induction program which promotes the value and importance of diversity. Some organisation make it an explicit condition of employment for the aspirant to have a cultural fit into a diverse organisation.

An example of learning from childhood: My father was a pilot in the Indian Air Force and similar to many countries the Armed Forces in India have been built on an ethos to transcend all barriers of diversity which may otherwise exist in society. Hence, while growing up in the armed forces surroundings, I had a representation of nearly all religions and cultures (from the subcontinent) as squadron mates of my father, neighbours, friends, classmates and took diversity and Inclusion for granted as that was what I knew from my childhood.

This video from Ashok Leyland says it all when it comes to starting Young.

Be curious & learn: Curiosity is bliss for these monks and so should it be for us.

The most beautiful aspect of diversity is cultivating the curiosity and learning in our organisations to appreciate, learn from these differences and to harness the strength of it.

I remember an incredibly diverse organisation I worked for, which encouraged challenging the status quo, to the extent of questioning upwards. Curiosity was an integral part of the culture as it formed one of the recruitment criteria and this, in turn, promoted a creative culture. 

In yet another organisations, I worked for we started celebrating the profiles of our diverse nationals on our internal communications channels with them sharing a little about their culture, family and what they liked about the company they worked for. It's impressive when one goes into individual stories of the employees to discover the beauty of diversity.

Celebrating differences and communicating them helps build a learning culture which helps overcome the fear of the unknown.

Demonstrate Value add to the business - It could be as small as sales from selling Lemonade.

Value Adds to the business would be perfect if it could always be quantified in dollars and cents, in the language the business understands and while some of it could be tangible most of it is intangible.

Some of the intangible value adds are breaking silos for the excellence of business, encouraging creativity and aligning with diverse clients, while the tangible ones could be as simple as meeting nationalisation quotas of countries, focussing on a future management pipeline for emerging markets or measuring diversity statistics at C-Suite

In today's rapidly evolving business environment, one needs all hands on deck and getting the best talent irrespective of the backgrounds and having them empowered and involved is the single highest value add to the business.

Demonstrating value adds to the Leadership helps in sustaining the initiative and investing in the future of it. 

Create Brokers & Champions: Recently I was walking through a museum in London and was surprised by a Britisher who spoke to me in Hindi.

He had lived in India for six months and had taken the trouble to learn the language.

What would your reaction be if you met someone who had been to your country, spoke your language and knew your customs and cuisine? For me, he was a broker.

Multinational organisations need brokers who have experienced the diversity to bridge gaps, create and champion Inclusion. It could be as small as having role models from a minority section of employees to encourage others to follow suit and be a "go to person".

Have a game plan - quotas don't go far, focus on meritocracy.

Diversity with Inclusion needs a determined game plan to succeed.

I have heard different schools of thought on quotas/ targets. I believe quotas/ targets are an excellent start to get broader participation from the underrepresented population. However, it would not succeed without setting a bar on meritocracy at some stage in the career path.

A couple of organisations I worked for, bridged the meritocracy gap with investing in robust training and mentoring. As the organisation matures, the the bridging investment is seen to reduce over time.

The importance of meritocracy Vs Quotas was experienced by me when a female manager we were offering a role into regional leadership questioned us "Are you offering this role to me because I am a female or because I am good? If its because I am a female, I will not be able to earn the respect of my peers and don't want it." In this particular case, we were promoting her on the basis of merit, as well as to increase diversity. This situation may have had another ending, if the decision making reasons was otherwise.

The game plan could start with recruiting quotas/ targets to ensure a steady pipeline of diversity, simultaneously creating a supportive infrastructure to make DWI happen (policies, diversity acceptance, overcoming biases), while investing in the bridging to get meritocracy by Training, in some cases perforating the glass ceiling and last but not least, a strong management commitment.

In ending customise your strategy, what works for one may not work for another. Besides, as we speak about Diversity, it's perfect to be different, remember its more about Tolerance and Respect for the difference.

It's not a perfect world as yet, and even though it might be tough, it's a beautiful journey out there.

I wish you all the best on the journey of diversity with inclusion with this beautiful video of diversity coming together for music, where musicians and singers from over 190 nations coming together to sing the national anthem of the UAE

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The views and interpretations in this article are solely the views of the author and the resemblance of illustrations to actual incidents, or people is purely coincidental.

A special thanks to all the unnamed contributors to this article.

Photo Credits: Shutterstock and Age Fotostock 

Video Credits: Ashok Leyland and Expo 2020

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