Why Inclusion in the Workplace Starts at Home

Many of the problems that persist in the world of work are based on myths that are passed on from one person to another. Myths may sound somewhat benign but they can have crushingly powerful real-world consequences —?especially when they support systemic discrimination.

LinkedIn Top Voice Mita Mallick is a well-known leader in diversity, equity and inclusion. She's busting some of the most dangerous and discriminatory workplace myths in a fantastic new book being published October 3, called Reimagine Inclusion: Debunking 13 Myths To Transform Your Workplace .?

Those myths range from people claiming they are all for diverse talent "as long as they are good" to people saying others "need to stop being so sensitive." Mallick, who is also the co-host of Brown Table Talk on the LinkedIn Podcast Network , uses her vast experience to explain why these statements are myths and what you can do to stop them in their tracks.?

I had a chance to chat with Mallick about the book. She told me why people should invest their time in unlearning these myths, and why the work actually starts at home —?not necessarily the office.

Be sure to pre-order her book by clicking here . You can read an edited transcript of our conversation below!

Andrew: Why did you want to write this book?

Mita: There are a lot of great books on leadership and inclusion right now in the marketplace. I thought to myself, if I'm going to write a book, I want it to be additive and bring a different perspective. Over the years, Andrew, I've actually kept career journals, which I would recommend people do. I process my work experiences; I jot down highs and lows, things I'm struggling with. So over the years, I have documented a lot of things in my career. I thought about myths, like the stories I tell my kids at bedtime, and the stories we tell each other. If we continue to tell these stories at work and think they're true, then how are we actually going to make progress in our workplaces?

Andrew: You're not necessarily writing for people who have to deal with the backlash of these myths, or the side effects of them. You're actually talking to the people who perpetuate them. Right?

Mita: Absolutely. If I'm honest, there's more than 13 myths. I picked 13, I joke, because it's my lucky number. The ones that I had heard often in my career. But if we're honest, there's probably some point in our journey to being an inclusive leader when we've each believed one of these myths. And that's hard to say out loud, but it's true. That's how we make progress by saying, 'Hey, I'm going to unlearn that.' But you're right. I do say as a woman of color, somebody who's reading this identifies as a person of color will be like, 'Yeah, tell me something I don't know'. But I hope that they can use this as a tool to reach somebody that they haven't been able to reach before.

Andrew: I think the myths that you talk about apply to everyone. You don't just have to be someone in leadership. What is your case to say, 'listen, you should give me a couple of hours of your time to go through this book and reference it, and really sit with it for a little while?'

Mita: If you care about staying competitive, if you care about staying innovative, if you care about not just growing your career but also advancing other people's careers, you need to be caring about diversity, equity and inclusion. My hope is this book is a useful tool, handbook, resource or guide.

When we look at the statistics, the U.S. government will tell us over 40% of individuals in this country identify as non-white. That number will quickly shift in the next decade. Procter and Gamble tells us there's over $5 trillion of spending power with the multicultural consumer. Then, you think about the spending power of the LGBTQ plus community, individuals with disabilities, and veterans. There are so many dimensions of diversity. If you are not thinking about how you are going to include and retain the workforce that is here now and actually how you are going to sell to those individuals, you will be left behind in this marketplace. You will be left behind from a business perspective. I always say inclusion is a driver of the business. I've always believed that.

Andrew: When you look at what you've done in the book, one of the things that I like is how you bring some of your coaching to say, 'this is how you apply it in your everyday life.' For people who want to make a change, what are some of the initial steps you suggest to people to take to make a difference in their workplace?

Mita: I start at the very beginning. I talk about how I believe that this work doesn't start in our workplaces. We have it backwards. Inclusion doesn't start at the conference room table or at the boardroom table, it starts at our kitchen table. It starts in our neighborhoods and our communities. The simple exercise that I take people through is: who do you spend time with outside of work? Who are your friends? What's the last wedding or celebration you went to? Who lives in your neighborhood? Where do you go grocery shopping? Where do you cut your hair? Taking people through these exercises to literally just be quiet and envision in your mind who's there — physically. We're still self segregating in this country. ?

One of the stories I shared in the book is 12 white women showed up on the start date of [an intern] class. 'How did that happen? We did a great employee referral drive.' And I said, 'yeah, it goes back to how diverse your networks are; it goes back to a lot of the stuff we do outside of work.' I think really self auditing your relationships and who you spend time with and how you can broaden those things is really important.

Andrew: Making change and following some of these things in the workforce is not a one-and-done process. It's something that you really have to commit to and have frank discussions about if you are a leader. Right?

Mita: One of the things that I've seen in this marketplace is we cut diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. We cut this work when it's just tagged on; when it's just added versus it's embedded in everything you do. It's really much more difficult to just say, 'Okay, this isn't important.' You need to think about inclusion as a driver of the business for everything you do. If we surpassed our revenue targets this quarter, would we stop selling? If we surpassed the number of new clients we signed on for a pilot product, would we stop pushing? When we think about all the other ways in which we operate in the business landscape, we don't stop. But in this work, it's like, stop, start, stop, start. If you can have the same level of discipline, you can make an impact.

Andrew: Is there anything else that you would like to add that you would want people who are interested in the book to really take away from the discussion??

Mita: There's so much noise in the marketplace. What does inclusion mean? It means I work for you. I feel valued. I feel seen. I feel recognized. My contributions matter. My voice matters at work in this marketplace, not just now, but forever.

Guess what? Inclusion is the biggest retention tool we have. When I feel valued by you, I'm just not going to be looking. That's what we're trying to do. If we can really think about how to unlock the potential of our employees, it helps unlock the potential of the company. They have to feel comfortable coming to work and contributing and making an impact. That's really what it's about.

Click here to order Reimagine Inclusion: Debunking 13 Myths To Transform Your Workplace

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