The Inconvenient Reason Your Inclusion Efforts Aren’t Working

I’ve had 3 disturbing conversations with 3 inclusion leaders that reminded me why so many organisations aren’t making progress.?

Before we get to that.

Here are 3 popular posts from the last week:

For 8 years I’ve struggled to use LinkedIn responsibly.

Here’s what I do to stop being overwhelmed:

You still can’t buy an inclusive workplace.

Money doesn't solve it.

When you have a pure motive,

Inclusion gets easier.

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PS.

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I recently spoke to 3 People Leaders with titles like:?

• Chief Diversity Officer
• HR Director
• Head of HR

These are accomplished, experienced professionals.?

During our conversations it became obvious they weren’t doing as well as they wanted.

They all had one thing in common.

They weren’t learning enough.?

Let me be clearer:?

They weren’t consuming enough high quality resources that influenced their behaviour in a positive way.?

This is by their standards NOT mine.?

If this sounds like you.?

I think you need to reconsider some of your day to day behaviours.?

Here we’re going to cover 3 things:?

1. How I make room for high quality resources?

2. How I filter the signal from the noise?

3. How I judge if any of this is working.?

I do this for myself and for my clients.?

I strongly recommend that you do the same.?

How I make room for high quality resources?

I’m on a low information diet.?

I first heard this term from Tim Ferriss in his book the 4 Hour Work week.

I talk about it more in this show.

For me this means?

- No newspapers?

- No Live TV

- No radio

This makes me less vulnerable to propaganda and mainstream diversity narratives.?

I like to think of this like food shopping.?

When you eat healthy:?

- You ignore most of what's on offer.?

- You don’t go down every aisle in the store.

A low information diet creates more time and attention for things that can help you.

How I filter the signal from the noise?

Here’s 4 things I do to make things easier for me regarding social media:?

I wrote about last week

1 Ration my time.

It’s easy to spend hours scrolling down the feed

Now I login for a set period of time and then I logout

2 Know why I’m here.

I’m here for 4 specific reasons:

- To learn

- To share

- To contribute

- To collaborate?

I tend to ignore everything else.?

3 Bad actors.?

I avoid people who:?

- Act in bad faith?

- Want to argue?

- Are just rude

I used to give the benefit of the doubt.?

In the end I was forced to block them.?

This happened to me last week. Again.?

I won’t let it happen anymore. ?

4 Focus on high ROI Content.

It took me too long to figure this out.?

I benefit from people with high credibility.?

For me this means:?

Superior knowledge

Compelling experience

And they are generous.?

These people never let me down.?

There’s not that many of them.?

I think it’s easy to get overwhelmed

We did a whole show about managing overwhelm that shares the same themes.?

In that show I discuss the importance of distinguishing between Entertainment Vs Education

Entertainment:?

- Is about them

- It’s superficial?

- Does the thinking for you

Education:?

- Is about you?

- Offers more depth?

- Wants you to think for yourself

I use the term “entertain” loosely, sometimes this means agitate or terrify.?

I say education because I want to learn something I can use.?

The leaders I spoke to were not learning.?

I recommend Evidence Based Inclusion as part of your process.?

This means collecting evidence from at least 4 sources:?

- The scientific literature

- The organisation

- The stakeholders?

- Professional Expertise.?

This helps me filter the signal from the noise.?

How I judge if any of this is working.?

This where I put it into practice.?

I recommend you Start a Book Club:?

OR Host Informal Lunch and Learn Sessions

OR some kind of Peer-to-Peer Learning Sessions

Why should you do this??

1 It’s cheap. You don’t need to pay external trainers. ?

2 You probably don’t need to get sign off or permission.?

3 You show initiative.?

Suppose you accept that.

Suppose you accept what I just said.?

It’s all a waste of time unless:?

You choose books that address issues important to your colleagues to generate solutions to day to day issues.

You reinforce the practical application of what you learned.?

You give different people the opportunity to lead and share their insights.

It’s not a popular view but for me, the key measure of learning is an appropriate change in behaviour.?

Let’s make it personal.?

If YOU. Yes You.?

If you read this and you don’t:?

Adjust your information diet.

Consider your entertainment/education consumption.?

Start a book club or lunch and learn or peer learning session.?

Think about introducing an evidence based inclusion practice

OR?

Share this with someone who will try one of these things.?

I would argue that you didn’t learn anything, because your behaviour didn’t change.?

Of course, I don’t think that’s you.?

I think you’re one of the million people I’m helping to make their workplace inclusive.?

Part of that involves learning.?

Part of that involves changing your behaviour.?

Those leaders reminded me that not everyone does it.?

I hope you’re one of the leaders that does!?

I'm cheering you on.

Have you shared this with a colleague yet?

Think about who needs to know this.

They need a friend like you.

As always

I’m cheering you on.

Dr. Jonathan

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