Four Ways To Build Inclusion As A Mindset For You And Your Organization

Think “DEI” and often, images of people of all skin colors, cultures and ethnicities spring to mind. But DEI encompasses more than just diversity (and diversity is more than just about skin color). The I in DEI is inclusion which builds on diversity, ensuring that once we succeed in working with a varied group of people, we give equal importance and consideration to every individual.

According to the HUD, inclusion is “a state of being valued, respected and supported. It’s about focusing on the needs of every individual and ensuring the right conditions are in place for each person to achieve his or her full potential.”

So how do you build inclusion? Before you embrace any firm efforts toward inclusion in your company, you must first understand that inclusion is a mindset. Until you think inclusively, you won’t succeed in helping your organization execute inclusivity.

What that means is, as humans, our brains are prewired to impulsively gravitate toward what’s familiar, making the unfamiliar or different outliers to our focus. To practice inclusivity, we must literally retrain our brains to resist that impulse so we can explore the unfamiliar and embrace it alongside the familiar.

Here are four ways to make inclusivity a mindset both personally and within your organization.

1. Focus internally first

Change starts from within, so it makes sense that you’ll need to focus first on changing your own mindset before influencing anyone within your organization to change theirs. To embrace an inclusive mindset, practice simple exercises, such as expressing interest and curiosity about the people around you, keeping an open mind to differences, and asking questions to learn about those who hail from backgrounds, experiences, and cultures different from your own.

Also, be cognizant about barriers you place between yourself and those you perceive to be different from you. Only once you acknowledge these barriers can you do any real work in tearing them down.

Once you have an inclusive mindset prewired to pulling people in rather than shunning them away for their differences, you can make strides toward company-wide inclusion efforts.

2. Implement tools that disrupt bias

In the workplace, opportunities to step up inclusivity are not only important, they’re crucial. According to a Royal Academy of Engineering report from 2017, employees who felt they were included were more likely to understand business priorities, be more innovative, speak up about mistakes and concerns and be more loyal to a company and invested in its success. Tools known as bias interrupters make it so you don’t inadvertently cast-off certain types and demographics of people by alienating them from the crowd. An example of a bias interruption tool is is software that tracks pay for people of various genders, disabilities, age groups and so on so you can maintain inclusion in fair pay for everyone.

3. Be aware of perception

What you display in association with your company shapes how it will be perceived by employees. It’s important, then, to make sure you’re being inclusive in all company collateral. This could be as easy as using gender-neutral language in job postings or company-branded content. It could also mean being mindful of displaying visuals across your company that include a healthy mix of people: the elderly, people of color, women, disabled people, veterans, etc. Also, employ supply chain partners who deliberately practice and promote inclusivity within their own organizations. Partnering with a company rumored to be racist or gender exclusive can send the wrong message to your employees and cancel out your inclusion talk.

4. Look within your organization

Gauging how well your company performs on the inclusivity barometer can be as simple as examining your leadership team. Are managers predominantly male? White? A combination of both? Is input and feedback sought from specific employees, or are the quieter ones, the ones with lower titles and those with handicaps also included in the dialogue?

Inclusivity permeates all titles, cultures, abilities, and means including every single person, from the most overlooked to the most outspoken and everyone in between. It means helping maintain the dignity of each and every person at your organization and acknowledging them first and foremost as a human being.

As you work to make inclusivity a part of your mindset both personally and within the workplace, remember that divisiveness is manmade. People are responsible for creating cultures, religions, and stereotypes. The onus, then, falls on us to tear down these barriers when they threaten to break us.

However, remember that mindset is not a change that will happen overnight–not within yourself or your organization. Building inclusivity into your mindset and retraining your mind will take time, patience, and perseverance. The important thing is to acknowledge the work ahead, keep going and not give up.