How can I create a diversity and inclusion policy for my workplace?

Start with a broader and conscious understanding of each of the two words. Words alone fail to matter.?

When you create greater respect for the gifts and relevance diversity and inclusion create, that opens the door to a healthier culture and purpose.?

All businesses eventually are part of a stakeholder ecosystem. The more you connect with that diverse ecosystem, the better you become. Raise the bar where relevance is earned.?

I grew up in the projects of Brooklyn NY. We were all poor and many were veterans returning from WW2, thus financially strapped. I chose to stay there for 20 years as based on the feelings we all had as family. What I loved is how we all embraced our diversity as the major trust advantage it always proved to be. We were all in it together.?

While others labeled our projects as a bad neighborhood without ever testing their assumptions, we empowered each other through inclusion in ways most CEO’s, leaders and employees need to learn today.?

We would meet most afternoons and early evenings in the courtyard and discuss many topics openly, share opinions and ultimately shape better, more inclusive truths. Imagine if business leaders did that today.?

While many people interpret diversity by ethnicity and gender, yes, when others look at your staff and only see older white males, they eliminate you as relevant.?

Within our age, ethnicity, and gender, we see patterns that reveal skills based on years of life reflecting values now vital to business. Just hiring a variety is less productive than knowing what to look for.?

There is a dangerous trend underway to just say the right words with zero commitment. Thankfully, stakeholders have 100% transparency to who makes and keeps promises made internally and externally.?

Our future needs to leap beyond the challenges that define our past. There is no place for greed and superficiality. We are all in this together.?

This does not mean paying everyone more money for the same work. What it does mean is a greater range of contributions to culture, purpose, brand and stakeholder relevance as the path to greater shared equity.?

While most of the attention has been on technology, in this age where what we stand for is more important than what we make, our attention to humanity will reveal greater outcomes. Besides, robots don’t shop.?

Waiting is not an option as today’s winners - those that act sooner now - will soar beyond all precedents that define success.?

As employee’s why wait for managers to transform where your earned insights add value needed now. As a designer, I was able to greatly influence our HP culture, reasoning, attention to stakeholders and outstanding shared relevance. No one made it their policy, yet no one ever disagreed with the logic I used to earn support.?

As a designer, I loved my profession, yet when I went to accept yet another graphics design award, when the judges told me I was doing hero marketing – thus adding the only layer of relevance, my love for HP back then, helped me to determine my path to greater relevance. I immersed myself in HP’s customer facing stakeholder ecosystem for two years. I was greeted as a converted factory puke and while I saw their logic, what we did as a team earned 3 times higher revenues each of the two years I was there. That command of the ability to recognize strengths in others and derive the path to greater relevance is exactly what I hope to do for others before I semi retire.?

About the author- Bill Van Eron is a self-made catalyst to greater shared relevance. https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/bill-van-eron??