Making the Diversity and Inclusion Conversation Concrete—A Practical Template

The diversity and inclusion conversation can benefit from a framework

I recently joined a panel on diversity and inclusion at work at the We Colloquium held at the Lisbon School of Economics and Management (ISEG). As a result of my preparation and participation combined with insights from my own experience, in this article I recommend a simple template to help address the diversity and inclusion conversation.

It should be common sense that empathy, compassion and vulnerability are key ingredients to resolve diversity and inclusion issues. In addition, business leaders, management consultants and researchers guarantee that the business case for diversity and inclusion is a no-brainer (check the references below), for those who need such extra push to be ethical and do right. The question, among those who agree that a continuous diversity and inclusion conversation must take place, is how to frame it.

Everyone must take part in a continuous diversity and inclusion conversation

Single-mindedness and exclusion is within us all—whether stimulated by classifications, arrogance, ignorance, inclination, social osmosis, or other reasons. The following exercise I learned proves the point. Think of any situation where you felt left out (e.g. as a kid not invited to play, as an adult not invited to a wedding, as a new mother struggling to return to work because of "the market", etc.). How does it feel? Now think of any situation where you excluded someone (e.g. the master's students from abroad you could have helped integrate, the friend you did not invite to your wedding, the junior employees you never considered listening to, etc.). How does it feel? Ouch. We all do it. We all must take part in the diversity and inclusion conversation.

As we go through life, our single-mindedness and exclusion bugs may readjust as we learn new things, unlearn others, or just transition from/to weak/strong minority/majority demographics. Social context plays a role because characteristics that make you majority in one context can make you a minority in another and vice-versa. Furthermore, such characteristics are not necessarily absolute but can change depending on definitions and perceptions. For example, I can be considered of a race in my country of birth, where I hear a version of a story, but of another race elsewhere, where I hear another version of the same story. The diversity and inclusion conversation must be continuous because change never stops.

Framing the diversity and inclusion conversation with a practical template

It is past time to commit to diversity and inclusion. It's past time to have the open, continuous conversation going. Tools can help. The diversity and inclusion template below—hereby proposed if not done so before—may be useful for example to: initiate and facilitate team discussions; capture and organize thoughts, feelings and data; document, compare and present analyses (e.g. on recruiting, retention, advancement, leadership, population); answer different types of questions; etc.

In the template, 'Context' defines the scope of interest, which can be broad, specific or fine-tuned to fit your conversation (by the way, this is not academic). 'Minority' and 'Majority' refer to the size of a demographic group or segment. 'Weak' and 'Strong' refer to the level of influence or decision power of a demographic group or segment.

Examples of questions to be asked could be:

• How is your organization mapped or distributed now? How should it be?
• How does each group perceive the other in a given context?
• What does each group expect from the other in a given context?
• What does each group acknowledge doing towards the other in a given context?
• What are the underlying assumptions?
• What are the fears and barriers?
• What should the best practices, do's and don'ts of each group be?
• What are the ideas for closing the gaps?
• And much more...

The use of the template is not limited to corporate environments or organizations. You can naturally be creative and adapt the template if needed.

Diversity and inclusion need a micro-level conversation approach too

Ideally, the diversity and inclusion conversation needs to reach the one-on-one level so that everyone is included. However, some might say that this could be impractical in an organization with more than a few hundred employees, unless some sort of divide-and-conquer approach is designed. With the right motivation and resources, this can be done. Diversity and inclusion should be everyone's responsibility.

In time, the diversity and inclusion template proposed in this article comes with many limitations. In general, such 2x2-matrix approach risks nesting groups in a rather simplistic way. The idea of the template is not to segregate or treat different groups like 'others' in an excluding way, which would undesirably reinforce single-mindedness and exclusion. Furthermore, the macro-nature of the template can fail to capture important intra-group differences and insights, depending on how the template is used. Just as importantly, the template does not hint at the questions to be asked.

Let's make the diversity and inclusion conversation concrete

Regardless of the limitations of the template, the greatest risk of all does not lie in itself. The greatest risk of all is that we do nothing or only pay lip service to diversity and inclusion. As it turns out to be, even with all the advances our society is still quite immature. We need to make diversity and inclusion stronger in our culture through concrete, continuous conversations.

As Barack Obama said, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek”. As Raul Seixas sang, “I'd rather be this walking metamorphose than having the same old opinion set about everything” (translated). As The Great British Diversity Experiment highlighted, “Diversity is the new Darwinism”. As Doe Zantamata reminded us, “When I see you through my eyes, I think that we are different. When I see you through my heart, I know we are the same.”.

Some References

Humanize Diversity and Inclusion (Damien Hooper-Campbell)

The Playbook for Humanising Diversity and Inclusion (Damien Hooper-Campbell)

Inclusion Starts With I (Accenture)

Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders (TED)

Why We Shouldn’t Underestimate the Power of Diversity (TED)

How To Get Serious About Diversity And Inclusion In The Work Place (TED)

The Surprising Solution to Workplace Diversity (TEDx)

Rent-A-Minority

Modern Society Has Reached Its Limits. Society 5.0 Will Liberate Us (WEF)

Tokenism (Lexico)

Survey: What Diversity and Inclusion Policies Do Employees Actually Want? (HBR)

Why Diversity Programs Fail (HBR)

The Mistake Companies Make When They Use Data to Plan Diversity Efforts (HBR)

The Dangers of Categorical Thinking (HBR)

Fixing the Flawed Approach to Diversity (BCG)

How Diverse Leadership Teams Boost Innovation (BCG)

Getting Most from Your Diversity Dollars (BCG)

Dispelling the Myths of the Gender “Ambition Gap” (BCG)

Disclaimer & Miscellaneous

Copyright ? 2019 Gabriel Mayrink. Please like, follow, share!

I would like to thank Myriam Taylor for the opportunity to join the panel on diversity and inclusion at work at the We Colloquium and my fellow panelists for the great discussions. Diversity and inclusion is a broad topic that can become quite complex. This article should be considered as a good-faith opinion of a non-expert. Let me know in case the template used here appeared elsewhere before so that I can reference it. Otherwise feel free to improve it, share references, etc. The references mentioned in this article do not represent commercial endorsements. Taking anything as advice, tip or hint is on your own account and of your entire responsibility and not of the author, who is not liable in any way, shape or form. Last but definitely not least, I would like to thank one of my most intellectual, Lisboeta friends, Jo?o Colaco de Freitas, for the sardines, green wine, sweet rice pudding and bagaceira, in their literal and metaphorical meaning—obrigado.