Workplace Diversity is about Good Communication

“Define the behaviours and values (with as many people as possible) that will make the business a great place to work and a success -hire and fire based on these”.

Grey Matters Board Member

He was one of the best, technically brilliant he could problem-solve better than anyone we’d seen. The problem was he froze every time he was asked a question in a meeting. We knew he had the answers and would find a solution for us but none of the other team members rated his talent because they hadn’t seen it in action.

Simon was a Solutions Architect for our firm, we had brought to the team knowing he had exceptional problem-solving skills. He was also diagnosed as autistic meaning that he was quite meticulous, and became anxious if his performance was not perfect. He found communication quite stressful and early on, meetings would move too quickly to include his valuable contributions.  

All that talent was being overlooked because others with better people skills owned the floor and their ideas were adopted instead. We noticed this was costing time and money as the team pursued less successful outcomes.

Committed to making this work, we brainstormed other avenues and turned to change our communication strategies and what a difference it made.

We decided that rather than address questions to Simon directly, we would pose questions to the group in general and he would feel less threatened and come up with a sensational solution.

This approach was very successful and encouraged us to examine the number of ways poor communication was causing a blockage in all our teams preventing optimal success. A sort of Coms Audit, if you like, leading to open discussions about how different people and cultures interact and how different words, tones and methods of communications were given and received in alternate ways often causing angst when none was intended.

Out of that workshop came a clear understanding of how company diversity had a direct connection to workplace communication. A real epiphany and it was soon that we realised that our company’s commitment to diversity that started with recruitment, now needed to be the driver of all our interactions. In short, we identified just how being diverse, enriched all aspect of our organisation.

That was 20 years ago and now we channel all our energies into helping organisations have the success we’ve had, giving them the advantage of 100 years of experience in one room. 

So much of what causes a lack of efficiency in organisations can be linked backed to communications. It’s why when we meet with companies we ask them how their culture optimises clarity of communication as an essential tool.  

Both of us now work with a group of retired or semi-retired former C-Suite executives, and successful business owners, who help organisations find solutions to hundreds of different issues that companies face now more than ever. 

Our model of an informal advisory board helps organisations stop for a day and plan a new course of action in a time a crisis. We bring experience from all aspects of business and are able to advise with confidence because at least one of us has been there before.

We love what we do, and more and more we see communication within organisations as a blocker to good business. Providing our roadmap that empowers all team members gives us great joy.  

Let's take a closer look at how diversity and communications are so closely connected and dependant upon each other for success. 

The Importance of Diversity & Communication

The story of Simon illustrates how a shift in communication processes can bring about stunning results. However, it’s important to say that in some organisations change is demanded from the team member, not the leadership.

When team members are underperforming, organisations need to take ownership and review their processes. In the same way, the fault for poor communication needs to be placed at the leadership table, as it is fundamentally the key skill of sound management.

When organisations do the work of creating a culture that takes responsibility at management level, team members will take ownership of projects and dare to try new things.

By the year 2025, 75% of the global workforce will be made up of millennials - which means this group will occupy the majority of leadership roles over the coming decade. They will be responsible for making important decisions that affect workplace cultures and people's lives. This group has a unique perspective on diversity. While older generations tend to view diversity through the lenses of race, demographics, equality and representation, millennials see diversity as a melding of varying experiences, different backgrounds and individual perspectives. They view the ideal workplace as a supportive environment that gives space to varying perspectives on a given issue.

The 2018 Deloitte Millennial Survey shows that 74% of these individuals believe their organisation is more innovative when it has a culture of inclusion.

Diverse Background Team Members Enrich Organisations

There is substantial research to show that diversity brings many advantages to an organisation. Advantages such as increased profitability and creativity, stronger governance and better problem-solving abilities. Employees with diverse backgrounds bring to bear their own perspectives, ideas and experiences, helping to create organisations that are resilient and effective and outperform organisations that do not invest in diversity.

It’s important for HR professionals to understand the scope of diversity in their hiring. Different groups tend to have different preferences for things like working hours, benefits, and other working conditions, but it’s always important to realise that not everyone fits into the same mould and that individual differences are just as much a part of diversity as group ones.

Total workplace Diversity

Forward-thinking companies should be looking for ways to employ and empower more women at work, not just as a moral obligation, but also as a sound business strategy. McKinsey’s most recent Delivering Through Diversity report found corporations that embrace gender diversity on their executive teams were more competitive and 21% more likely to experience above-average profitability.

It has been estimated that closing the gender gap would add $28 trillion to the value of the global economy by 2025 – a 26% increase. Put simply, companies and societies are more likely to grow and prosper when women gain greater financial independence.

However, addressing the gender gap is only part of the story of diversity. We believe that managing your company culture actively, will set the goal post up such that diversity as a process becomes automatic.

Exceptional Organisational Communication in Your Workplace

“Respect and give time to everyone in the business. Talk to them like you were having coffee with a friend, this ultimately creates one of the key fundamentals for success, a team that wants to do well for themselves and the leader”.

                                                                                               Grey Matters Board Member

 Listening

Working in a diverse environment requires excellent listening skills. Every cultural group communicates differently, and great co-workers and managers will listen to each other before speaking.

To truly understand each other and communicate authentically, it is important to take the time to listen and to ask meaningful questions. This process is slower than communication between two people from the same cultural group and background but the investment of time spent doing this can offer significant emotional rewards.

We believe that an external circuit breaker such as an informal advisory board can help organisations look at how they communicate.

Often a reservation around having a team of experienced execs come and help a business is a belief that they will employ a saviour mentality, dropping wisdom that can be employed in any situation to any organisation.

We know that helping people requires 70% listening before any meaningful assistance can be given. It’s important to respect the journey they have all taken and the skills they have gathered along the way. We offer a different journey and skillset and importantly an outsiders view.

We believe the best way to juggle everything is to stop completely and ask the ‘why’ question for all aspect of the business. In the same way clearing, one shelf in your pantry is a temporary fix, you need to pull everything out and reorganise and reimagine possibilities, and then the whole system works more efficiently.

Outside eyes will identify those things you are clinging onto unnecessarily, that may be holding the business back. Experienced hands can help reset without the old baggage that poor communication may have been engendered in the culture.

There is a whole school of study that supports the notion that listening is a skill more prominent among women. Indeed, listening skills are thought to be an advantage women have over men.

"What Makes a Team Smarter? More Women," a 2011 article in Harvard Business Review, reports that cutting-edge research on group behaviour shows that the collective intelligence of work teams rises when more female members are added. Why? Because women tend to be better listeners. We know firsthand because both of us have daughters entering the now workforce.

Leading

The success of organisations, whether large or small, depends upon both leaders and team members. The complex interplay between leaders’ decision-making skills, ability to communicate and inspire others, and relationship-building abilities, affects team members work behaviours and feelings towards their jobs.

We believe a critical understanding here is the important difference between motivation and empathy. Many leaders set the goal of finding new ways to empower team members to take on responsibility for success, without building empathy into this incentive.  

Motivation is enjoying achievement for its own sake. A passion for the work you do, optimism and energy to improve are the key hallmarks of an emotionally intelligent and motivated person.

Empathy is understanding other people’s emotional makeup. It’s considering others’ feelings, especially when making decisions. Some trademarks of empathy include expertise in hiring and retaining top talent, an ability to develop other people and sensitivity to cross-cultural differences.

Team members are the soul of any organisation. They want to be heard, they want to share their views on what works and what doesn’t work so that they can improve their workplace. Team members who are engaged more care more. Their productivity increases, they believe in the organisation’s mission and vision, and they give it their all.

Team members who believe in their employers are also an organisation’s most potent voice externally. They’ll want to talk about what they and their employer are doing, and they’ll look to promote their work and the work of their employer. Your people can be your most potent weapon when it comes to building a strong reputation among your customers, potential employees and the public.

Use your organisational culture to inspire your team members. They, in turn, will inspire others through what they say about the company, its vision and leadership.

A Relationship between Diversity, Communication and Culture.

We believe that workplace diversity leads to more empathy, which in turn leads to better communication, resulting in a highly functional company culture.

There is a wealth of specialised equipment available to enable people with disabilities to contribute successfully to their work environments. If your organisational environment does not support diversity broadly you risk losing talent to your competitors.

The definition of diversity goes beyond race and gender to encompass lifestyle issues. Programs that address work and family issues, alternative work schedules and child and elder care resources and referrals, make good business sense.

The long-term success of any business calls for a diverse body of talent that can bring fresh ideas, perspectives and views and a corporate mindset that values those views. It’s also no secret that the lack of diversity can affect your ability to communicate effectively with diverse clients.

 Link your diversity strategies to specific goals like morale, retention, performance and the bottom line. Build your business with everything you’ve got, with the complex multi-dimensional talents and personalities of your workforce, and make diversity work for you.

How to Keep Going and Grow

We realised early that so many organisations and managers use mentors that they are often partnered with by accident. Sometimes that can be relations, friends or former colleagues. We have found that the success rate is low due to three essential aspects.

Firstly the mentor may not have the necessary skills to be a good listener and teacher. These are separate skills from business acumen and are not always present in successful business leaders.

Secondly, the mentor may not take the time to really delve deep and understand the unique culture and needs of the organisation.

Lastly, the mentor needs to be significantly removed form the organisation to have the tough conversations around changes to culture and diversity and be prepared to call out structures and people that are not serving the organisation well.

Andy Rooke & Dan Valmadre

Greymattersadvisory.com.au