Voice At The Table

By Rina Goldenberg Lynch

At our conference in February 2024, we gathered together 120 committed people who believe that we all have a part to play in driving Diversity over the next decade.

Our panel discussions were lively, honest and thought-provoking, and we all learnt a great deal from each other.  We are grateful to the panellists, our moderators and the other EDI advocates in the room, who brought a range of challenging and productive questions to the discussions.

When it comes to progressing EDI, here are 10 learning points from the conference:

1. Employee Networks are still important.  Their focus has shifted from being purely support and event-driven to facilitation of EDI strategy and collaborating with EDI leaders to achieve impactful results.

2. Make the extraordinary more ordinary.  It’s valuable to acknowledge great achievements by members of underrepresented groups.  But what we need even more is to see what we think of as ‘unusual’ to be part of the norm. Two men holding hands, a person in a wheelchair shopping alongside ourselves, female leaders being referred to simply as ‘leaders’. When we’re able to see the unusual as usual is when we will get closer to true Inclusion.

3. Allies are key, especially those with the power to influence. Male leaders, for instance, as executive sponsors or advocates, when they lead by example and speak up when others might not.

4. There is still a divergence between what leaders think is important and what employees think is important, as often evidenced in pulse surveys and similar metrics.

5. Listening and empathy remain the top leadership skills evading many leaders. This makes it more difficult for these leaders to be truly inclusive and, in this way, to create psychological safety in their teams.

Does any of the above speak to you?  Or, if you were there on the day, was there anything else that made a big impact on you?  Please take a moment to share with us – we would love to hear your insights.

Suggested Reading

Leading the EDI Transition

Bridging the Generation Gap: How to make the most of everyone’s experience

By Rina Goldenberg Lynch

There is no question in my mind.  Senior leaders – those who have the responsibility and capacity to consider vision and strategy – have been allies of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) for some years now.  I’ve heard many eloquent CEOs espouse the benefits of engaged diverse employees, the creative and innovative solutions proffered by those with unconventional (for the corporate world) experiences, and the benefits of justice and equality in the workplace and beyond.  One might think that some of them were bowing to pressure and delivering a carefully-scripted speech, but I’m confident that many genuinely believed in their words – although their subsequent actions may not have always been entirely consistent with those words.

Leading the EDI transition is not as easy as it sounds.  I offer you three reasons why:

   1. Yes, but!
Even those leaders who consider themselves allies of EDI have found it difficult to make what they might consider ‘irrational’ sacrifices.  As one leader asserted, ‘You can either choose diversity or you can choose to be “super-duper”… To privilege diversity above excellence… is likely to undermine the very objectives that inspired it.’ (This was Justice Antonin Scalia, quoted by Matthew Syed in his book Rebel Ideas). I have also heard leaders say ‘Yes, absolutely we want more Diversity, but we’re not going to hire someone who isn’t qualified.’

This is of course a fallacy, but many leaders struggle to believe that Diversity can go together with excellence.  On its surface, this statement makes perfect sense.  After all, why would you want to hire someone who isn’t qualified?  The question is, qualified for what?  And how?  The idea that hiring someone from an underrepresented background will inevitably lead us down the path of less than qualified candidates, defeats logic.  This trade-off between excellence and Diversity simply doesn’t exist.  There are as many underqualified  people out there as there are professionals, irrespective of background.  Time has shown again and again that, if one puts in the effort and goes in with the right mindset and attitude, finding qualified people from different backgrounds is not difficult at all.  And before you say that’s not the case, I invite you to try, really try.  Put in as much effort into it as you would finding the ‘right person’ and you’ll be surprised at what that effort will yield.

A leader who clearly understands the benefits of a diverse experience and background will see those as additional qualifications for a role and will consider them in addition to any other required skills.  By combining skills and a diverse outlook, a leader is more likely to hire a candidate from an underrepresented background and thereby increase the collective intelligence of their team.

   2. Give with one hand, take away with the other
Organisations that work hard on getting EDI right are sometimes surprised at the pushback they receive from their employees.  In many cases, what they hear is that these efforts to promote and embed EDI don’t appear genuine because they are inconsistent with other corporate efforts.  I’ll give you an example.  One of our engineering client firms was working hard to attract female engineers to the company.  They had connected with local universities, established shadowing and internship programmes which gave people a chance to find out what it might be like to work there. In addition, they had broadened their pipeline channels beyond the traditional institutions from which they usually hired.

While the graduate recruitment team was working hard to attract a more diverse pool of candidates, a different team had been promoting a colleague referral scheme to employees to recommend friends into the business.  And we know that, given our humanity, we are more likely to recommend someone who is a lot like us.  In this way, the referral scheme was undermining the company’s efforts to expand their pool of underrepresented candidates.  A classic inconsistency that’s easily achieved in a big organisation.

Given that companies were not originally set up to consider Diversity, it is understandable that this will be the case.  Leaders, therefore, should be aware of the potential for conflicting policies and messaging when it comes to EDI.

   3. Do as I do, not as I say
We often talk about the importance of walking the walk – and yes of course it is important.  That said, if a leader isn’t able to clearly articulate the reasons for greater EDI to their team and beyond, it becomes difficult to take people along on this journey.  Even more complex than giving the right messages is to know how to respond to push-back.  People need to process the requested change for themselves, and it’s rare for everyone to follow just because they’re told to.  In processing for themselves, people will inevitably bring in their own views of the world.  A leader who is unprepared or unfamiliar with what might come up (or hasn’t considered what might be being considered, even if it sometimes not expressed out loud) will find it difficult to embed EDI to the desired extent.

These are but a few examples of how leading for the EDI transition requires an additional set of skills and tools that many leaders don’t yet have. This is in addition to being culturally aware and cognisant of one’s own and others’ biases. We at Voice At The Table (together with a few other excellent consultants) prepare leaders for this important role in many different ways, including with one-to-one coaching and as advisors at the end of a phone line when situations arise that could have been prevented.

Inclusive leadership is much more than a skill, of course.  It is a way of being and behaving.  This takes time, patience and perseverance, but those leaders who are keen to leave a legacy of success are willing and able to further evolve.  Are you?

Suggested Reading

Bridging the Generation Gap: How to make the most of everyone’s experience

Taking Diversity Beyond Gender: The Necessary Mindset Shift

By Rina Goldenberg Lynch

In the past few weeks, we’ve been considering how the landscape of Diversity in the workplace has evolved, as part of the run up to our Conference and Awards celebration on 8 February.  These changes have informed the panel topics for our conference and have also shaped some predictions for the next decade in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) that we will share on the day. Our final panel of the day will discuss how the intergenerational mix in the workplace has shifted over the years and how companies are bridging the differences between them.

The way it was
When I first set up Voice At The Table, the prevailing winds of leadership and culture in organisations were blowing from my own generation – the Gen X era (1965-1980).

But even then, organisations were already attuned to the fact that, before too long, the mix of five generations in the workplace will make it more difficult to attract, retain, engage and empower talent in the same way it’s been done for decades before. Demands to tweak working culture became more and more forceful, with a growing number of employees requesting (even expecting) the ability to work more flexibly, be led in a more empathetic, invested fashion, and be developed by sophisticated, knowledgeable managers.

Where we are now
Fast forward 10 years and the intergenerational landscape has become even more complicated, with a large proportion of employees (up to ¾ of the global workforce) belonging to the Gen Y group (more commonly known as the millennials, those born between 1982 and 1996).  Add to the mix a growing ageing employee population and a robust representation of Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012), and you have a cocktail of challenges around motivation, organisation and even leadership. Stereotypes about each generation abound (Gen Z always glued to their phone, Gen Y are entitled, even the term Boomers being used as an insult), so finding a way to bridge and even leverage these differences has become a topic of great interest.

The good news
While the conversation so far has focused on the differences between expectations and values, we are seeing evidence of these differences being bridged by recognising and acknowledging the strengths that each generation adds to the mix – from experience in stressful work scenarios to the natural use of technology, people are valuing the input and experience offered by the various age groups. Even more promising is the fact than, putting difference aside, people are starting to see more commonalities between the generations than they had expected to see before. While it may have been the millennials who insisted on ‘purpose-driven’ work, for instance, it became apparent that everyone cares about purpose and motivation, not just the millennials. Beyond purpose, all generations also share a desire for respect, growth and development opportunities, meaning in their work, flexibility and financial reward.

The most common thread to it all, then, is the fact that focusing on Inclusion – listening to individuals, challenging one’s assumptions and not stereotyping – will make it easier to make everyone feel a sense of belonging at work, regardless of which letter follows their Generation.

By Rina Goldenberg Lynch

We have been looking back to identify and reflect upon the trends and changes that we have observed over the last ten years, as we approach our Conference and Awards event on 8 February.  These changes have informed the panel topics for our conference and have also shaped some predictions for the next decade in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) that we will share on the day. In one of our panels, we will be examining what it takes to take Diversity beyond gender equality and why this is so important.

The way it was 

Gender balance was the most prominent Diversity challenge that everyone focused on 10 or more years ago, because women are the biggest underrepresented group in the workplace.  Over the years, companies introduced targets on hiring and promoting women, as well as specific training and development programmes for women – and a fear grew among working men that, in order to hit these targets, only women would be hired and promoted.

Terms like ‘glass ceiling’, coined by a woman in 1978, became fashionable and well-used, illustrating the need for women to break through the long-established constraints on their advancement in the workplace.  Organisations made attempts to bring women back to the workforce after becoming mothers, but usually failed to provide a sufficiently flexible and family-friendly working environment to make this workable for the mothers concerned.  Companies leveraged advertising campaigns making us aware of society’s fallacies around gender stereotypes – Always’ like a girl, Pantene’s sorry not sorry and Boss vs Bossy being some of the more prominent ones.  There was a lot of talk and activity, and also very little real change.
Why this didn’t work 

The gender balance objective was to put more women into the mix – and it’s true that more women were being ‘parachuted’ into boards and more senior positions – but they had to adjust to the prevailing male culture in order to succeed.  Even when women were getting to senior positions, they weren’t being taken seriously, listened to or heard.  It’s important to remember that the glass ceiling was never about women not being good enough to break through, but about the barriers to advancement being cultural, not personal.

Women who succeeded at work by acting more like men were disliked, as that’s not behaviour expected of – or acceptable from – women.  Those who didn’t succeed were told they needed be more confident, more outspoken, and be better at networking, i.e., behave more like ‘men’ do in order to succeed.  The culture around women at work wasn’t changing, and women became disenchanted with, on the one hand, being cheered on and encouraged, on the other hand, not fitting in, being appreciated or allowed to make a real difference.

Other issues include the emerging concept of the ‘glass cliff’, meaning that women are more likely to be promoted in times of crisis, or to be given less support when put into a senior role, so that the risk of failure is far higher for them than it was for the men who might have previously held the equivalent position.  The gender pay gap is well-known as an apparently insurmountable challenge, and board quotas remain a controversial topic.  In the summer of 2022, The Guardian reported that, ‘The EU has agreed that companies will face mandatory quotas to ensure women have at least 40% of seats on corporate boards.  After 10 years of stalemate over the proposals, EU lawmakers hailed a “landmark” deal for gender equality.’  It remains to be seen what impact this will have on women’s experience in these senior roles.
Beyond Gender 

Two major things contributed to the end of EDI’s primary focus on gender balance:  There was already a growing backlash to and fatigue around the prevailing messaging.  Then the tragic death of George Floyd brought global focus to the racial inequalities that are still a fundamental part of US culture, and the message resonated everywhere: Black Lives Matter.

Companies started talking about addressing the workplace challenges faced by other groups, not just women, and focus shifted away from gender to ethnicity, LGBTQIA+ and more general Inclusion.  There is a much greater understanding of different types of groups in society, including neurodiversity, age, etc. and organisations now understand that in order to benefit from diverse perspectives, Inclusion is essential.

They are focusing on changing culture by exposing bias in the workplace that holds back not just women but others who don’t fit a specific type destined for success in a given organisation.   Books like Rebel Ideas and The Promises of Giants began to hail the outsider perspective and explain how to leverage it for the good of the organisation (and, indeed, society).   Slowly, the perspectives of those who don’t fit a specific type became interesting and it became important to learn how to behave in order to benefit from them. Learning how to behave in this more inclusive way is showing people that instead of feeling threatened by the diversity of another, we can all benefit from it.   This mindset is benefitting women as well as the other underrepresented groups now being taken into account and supported through greater Inclusion.

This is the inclusive mindset that will make a difference to Diversity.
What now? 

Although the focus remains steadfastly on Inclusion, organisations are beginning to  refocus on gender, as the numbers of women at work have never recovered from the mass drop off during Covid.  In addition, organisations have realised that taking their eye off the ball – in this case the ball being gender balance – presents the threat of that ball falling and rolling off.  Perhaps people gave up on gender balance too soon.

That said, the way gender is being addressed now is more meaningful, as part of the broader drive for greater Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.  The changes that are being put in place are changing working cultures to make work a better place for everyone, not just women.  In many cases, progress on these changes is being measured around the progress of women in companies, as there is a realisation that if companies succeed in attracting and retaining more women, they are also succeeding in changing the culture in a way that will benefit other minority groups.

By adopting a genuinely inclusive mindset that addresses workplace bias, promotes inclusive behaviour and looks to the benefits brought by greater Diversity of all kinds, real progress can be made.

Suggested Reading

A Look At Gender Equity

What Gender Equality Can Do for Men

By Rina Goldenberg Lynch

In the run-up to our Conference and Awards, we’re looking back across a decade to identify trends and changes that we have encountered.  Our observations will be put to the test at our panels during the conference when we will also address some predictions for the next decade.

Our first panel will explore what it takes to run a successful employee resource group (ERG) or staff network.  So today, I’m sharing what we’ve discovered over the years in our work with ERGs.

That was then
It is probably no surprise to you that in Europe (which for our purposes includes the UK), the first staff networks formed in organisations were women’s networks.  Increased pressure to address gender imbalance in the workplace often led to their creation, and many organisations used to believe that the existence of such a network was in itself enough to address Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI).

The hallmark of most of these early networks was a set of annual events at which women gathered to celebrate gender equality, listen to speakers who supported the gender agenda, and participate in workshops that raised awareness about how women (generally speaking) are different from men in what they expect from work and how they manage their careers.  During the early days of Voice At The Table, we provided many talks to networks on topics such as imposter syndrome, navigating your career, speaking up in meetings, female leadership and more.

While network representation gradually increased (to include Ethnicity, LGBTQIA+ and other groups), these networks were still considered by management to fulfil their requirement to address EDI and seen most notably as employee benefits.  Management tended to see the networks as another social outlet for a given group of employees, much like the organisational sporting, theatre and/or wine clubs that (used to) exist as an added social benefit for employees.

In many organisations, ERGs were assembled under the Social Corporate Responsibility umbrella, illustrating that the networks were seen as another means by which to ‘give back’ to society.

This is now
Fast-forward 10 years and the ERG landscape looks very different.  Many organisations now recognise the benefits that networks bring to the organisation.  This  McKinsey article highlights some of these benefits.  Management also recognise the fact that, far from simply enjoying the social benefits of running a network, dedicated employees are giving up their time (free if charge) to improve the culture of their organisation.  This is something that many managers now acknowledge and appreciate, and are therefore prepared to make time available for the running of ERGs.

Networks are becoming sophisticated in identifying their remit and purpose and they are learning how to achieve success for their members and the organisation.  Working with such networks, Voice At The Table has helped several committees develop strategies that help the network deliver on its promises to members and, more broadly, improve Inclusion.  Our full offering of services for ERGs can be viewed here.

ERGs are becoming a much better-utilised tool to support and implement EDI strategy.  Many of these networks are now viewed as an invaluable voice for the represented group of employees and work hand in hand with EDI and HR teams to support corporate EDI ambitions.

The first panel discussion at our event will explore how organisations can make the most of these invaluable resources, how best to keep volunteers skilled and motivated, and how to define and measure a network’s contribution and success.  I hope you join the conversation.

Suggested Reading

5 Tips for Creating An Impactful Employee Resource Group

The 10 Components of the Thinking Environment: A Truly Inclusive Space

By Rina Goldenberg Lynch

Happy New Year! I hope you had a great break with family and friends.  We did.  And now it’s time to shift gears into a more active mode.  In 2024, we want to help our clients become more diverse and more inclusive by focusing on changing behaviours and shifting mindsets.  Why?

Changing Behaviours, Shifting Mindsets 

We know that, in order to reap the full rewards of Diversity, we need to operate in an environment that sees Diversity as a virtue rather than a potential threat.  This means developing a profound understanding of the value that Diversity offers to teams, and to individuals. This also means becoming aware of and being able to remove the obstacles that stand in our way of seeing these valuable contributions.

We believe that the simplest and quickest path to gain the outlook that allows us to reap these rewards is to mechanically shift small yet pervasive behaviours.  Doing so will normalise the way we do and see things and, in turn, will change the way we see things.  Let me explain in more detail.

Seeing Diversity as a Virtue 

No matter how often people recite the full benefits that Diversity brings to our teams on the whole, it remains a very difficult concept to implement.  Here is an example:

People these days are well able to list the benefits of having a more diverse team.  We are very good at understanding that diverse teams help reflect our customer base, make us more creative, raise levels of engagement and are more attractive to prospective talent. (By the way, If you’re still struggling to make this business case in your organisation, we have several solutions to offer.)

The challenge materialises at the implementation stage, when we have to decide between two candidates, for instance – one who resembles the rest of the team, and one who doesn’t.  We know that we like to hire in our own image, so it is often the case that team members resemble each other, offering little true Diversity.  But even when we know this and consider ourselves as  avid supporters of Diversity (having previously recited the list of benefits so well), we often struggle to choose the other candidate – the one who is nothing like us or the rest of the team.

Instead, we convince ourselves that we’re going for the ‘best candidate’ and that unfortunately, the candidate who is ‘different’ is not ‘it’.  We tell ourselves stories to justify our decision to side with the candidate we really want – the one who is more like us than not – e.g., that they will be a better fit for the team, or have more experience, or will get along better with the clients they will look after, or that they were more enthusiastic about the job.  In other words, when it comes to making a genuine call in favour of Diversity, we fail to see its true virtues and err on the side of caution.

Of course, if we had a different mindset, a mindset that clearly saw the benefit of hiring someone who is different – for the sake of the different perspective, for the sake of the clients who are also different, for the sake of the future value to the team and the organisation – it would help us redefine who we believe to be the ‘better’ candidate.

First Behaviours, Then Mindsets 

Unfortunately, changing mindsets is difficult.  It’s hard to change one’s mindset without special interventions, like ‘inclusion nudges’, for instance.  These are specific behaviours that are dictated as part of a specific process: for instance, when hiring, a requirement to justify to someone significantly more senior why the ‘other’ candidate was not chosen.  This nudge would force the hiring manager to more thoroughly review the candidates’ skills and compare them to the requirements of the job.  This exercise might also require looking at the team as a whole to see what skills or indeed perspectives are missing, and what additional attributes would enhance the team’s performance.  Is a person who is much like the rest going to do that?  Would a box of fancy grey pencils benefit from the same type of pencil, or might it be better to add a colour pencil, even if it is less fancy than the rest?

Behaviour nudges like this make it more likely that our inclination to do the same as we’ve always done is reduced.  Repeating this nudge over time will lead to a change in behaviour and eventually, once some of the benefits of having added more colour to our pencil box are realised, this change in behaviour will also contribute to a shift in mindsets.

Over the past 10 years of our work at Voice At The Table,  we have observed that it is the small, consistent changes in behaviours that lead to the creation of more inclusive cultures, one team at a time.  So in the next few issues, leading up to our client event in early February, I will share some of these observations with you so that you too can benefit from our team’s aggregate experience from the last decade.  Stay tuned!

Suggested Reading

Your Top 6 Autumn Reads

What If We Do Nothing?

By Rina Goldenberg Lynch

We are grateful for all our readers and have been surprised and delighted to see how many of you are opening our newsletters outside the UK, all around the world.  We value you all, and we’d like to offer our season’s greetings and wish you all a prosperous and happy New Year.

Inspired by our global readership, we would like to share with you today our top 5 readership locations and take a quick look at some of their festive traditions.

The UK and the USA

Festive traditions in the UK and the US (our biggest readership locations) have a lot in common and have been heavily influenced by each other, so it makes sense to look at them together.  In common with many other countries, a visit from Santa Claus is eagerly anticipated by children in both the UK and the US for the gifts that he brings.  The real Saint Nicholas was a bishop born in what is now Turkey in 270 AD; he became well-known for his many charitable deeds, and he became the model for Santa Claus (often known as Father Christmas in the UK).

Seasonal decorations and lights are a major part of the run-up to Christmas, both inside and outside houses, and many high streets and shop windows are illuminated and decorated with a seasonal theme. The tradition of ceremoniously switching on Christmas lights in the UK began in 1954 on Regent Street in London.

The decorated Christmas tree is a modern tradition made popular in Britain during the 19th century by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, who knew the tradition from his native Germany, and is a key element of an American Christmas too.  Decorating the house with holly, ivy, and mistletoe adds to the festive feeling, and bringing greenery into the home is a midwinter tradition dating back to pagan times.

Carol singing is a long-standing tradition where groups of people sing Christmas songs at people’s front doors, going from house to house. This custom dates back to the Middle Ages and these days it’s often used to raise money for charity, continuing the season’s spirit of community and giving.

Sweden

Christmas Peace (in Swedish: julfrid, in Finnish: joulurauha) is a practice that has its roots in ancient Swedish legislation established in the 13th century, building upon the Truce of God tradition.  It was designed to encourage respectful and peaceful behaviour at Christmas, as any offenders who committed crimes during the Christmas season would be subjected to harsher punishments than usual.  The tradition of Christmas Peace has survived in Finland, which was part of Sweden from the late 13th century until 1809, and in parts of Estonia. The Declaration of Christmas Peace on Christmas Eve is a symbolic and integral part of the Christmas tradition in Finland in the present day, although the message is largely symbolic these days.

A slightly more amusing Swedish tradition is the Yule Goat, a Swedish Christmas symbol dating back to ancient pagan festivals. In the 1960s, the tradition was transformed by the idea to make a giant straw goat weighing more than 3 tonnes and  now referred to as the Gävle Goat. The goat is built in the same place every year and it’s possible to watch a livestream of it, from the first Sunday of Advent until it’s taken down again in the New Year!

France

Different French regions used to have their own local traditions, but with modern communications and globalisation, they have become more homogenous, with many of them heavily influenced by neighbouring Germany.  One of the most popular is the advent wreath, made of fir and pine tree branches with red bows and pine cones. Unlike the wreaths hung on house doors in many countries, these wreaths are laid flat. They have  four candles on top to symbolise the four Sundays leading up to Christmas and they are lit in turn on those Sundays.

The first French Christmas tree appeared in Alsace in 1521, an evergreen tree covered in red apples and candles to symbolise Christ as the light of the world, a symbol of hope and eternal life.  Similarly religious and coming from a long Catholic tradition, Nativity scenes are important part of the Christmas celebrations in France.  They represent the birth of Jesus in a stable or cave, in Bethlehem in Judea.  Both miniature and life-size displays are present in many households, churches and public places in France today, and some of the more famous cathedral scenes attract thousands of visitors each year.

Switzerland

It’s a Swiss tradition for families to make their own advent calendars for the holiday season.  The calendars are made together as a fun family activity or presented to children as a gift.  Each day reveals a new surprise or treat, with the biggest gift on Christmas Eve.

In common with many other European countries, the tradition in Switzerland is that Santa visits on 6th December.  Santa does not bring the main Christmas presents, as those are said to be brought by the Christkind.  Instead, Santa takes along a big bag filled with nuts, mandarins, cookies, and chocolates, which he distributes to the children he visits, if they’ve been well-behaved since last Christmas.  This concept of rewarding children for good behaviour runs through the festive traditions of many countries.

Goodwill to all men (and everyone else)

One thing that these festive traditions have in common is that they are rooted in faith, family or the friendships that tie people together.  It can be a difficult time for the lonely or the bereaved, but also a joyous opportunity to give to others (including donating our time or money to those in greater need) and to reflect on who and what are most important to us.

And now all that’s left is to wish you a relaxing festive season and a happy and healthy 2024, filled with lots more EDI adventures together.

By Rina Goldenberg Lynch

We’re nearing the end of the year and have been engaging in some reflection over the past 12 months.  How did we do?  How did our clients fare?  What is working well?  What are some of the challenges they experienced?

To get a fuller picture, we reached out to our associates to ask their input and observations.  Here are a few of their reflections.

Listening: the biggest challenge of them all.

We have observed that people still struggle to truly listen to each other, even when mechanisms are put into place to support more open communication. Listening is a simple concept and most people understand what inclusive listening means  – the intention to understand another’s perspective and learn from them.  The practice of inclusive listening, however, is becoming tougher than ever, especially as societal view points drift further and further apart.

We also noticed that, although younger team members often sound knowledgeable about Inclusion and are likely to be aware of EDI terminology, they don’t always know what it really means or requires in practice.  As a result, many younger professionals don’t always listen and are not always open to views other than their own.  As a generation who has grown up with the emergence of cancel culture, being truly inclusive can be difficult.  We sometimes hear phrases such as ‘Everyone should know …’ or ‘No-one should say this…’ which conveys a lack of empathy for other people’s experiences and can have the impact of closing off open communication.

A number of our clients have engaged us to work with them on improving Inclusive Behaviours. With others, we have been working on listening in the Thinking Environment© to improve the inclusivity of all team members by  building appreciation for each other’s diversity and instilling a sense of safety to speak openly.  This transformative way of being has made a great difference to several of the teams to whom we have introduced these techniques as they continue to hone their listening skills.

Two steps forward.  One step back. 

Inappropriate behaviour is still encountered in workplaces, as it takes time for everyone to understand what’s acceptable and what is not.  A positive development we have seen is that this behaviour is no longer tolerated.  It is being addressed head on by raising awareness of changes in societal norms, including through one-to-one remedial coaching.  In recognition of the fact that a lack of understanding of EDI does not make a senior person immediately redundant, companies now invest in their people with education, training and development. This is something that would not have necessarily taken place only a few years ago and is a positive step forward.

There’s still evidence of pushback to EDI, as the much publicised US cases involving Target and Bud Light show.  That said, organisations are continuing to spearhead EDI initiatives despite these set backs.  Companies realise that, while the pace of change may need to let up, halting progress on EDI completely is a losing proposition.

In any given industry, there is always a group of companies and people who understand the value of Inclusion and are moving forward.  The reward of this trajectory is the competitive advantage it brings when attracting talent.

These few reflections show that progress is being realised, and that it comes in small, specific steps.  They also show that we cannot become complacent about EDI and, in particular, inclusive behaviours. Yet, while we’re progressing, let’s also not leave anyone behind.  As we have witnessed over and over, there are plenty of people who are unaware of their own bias as well as people who have not had the opportunity to face bias and continue to believe in meritocracy. This is the reason that one of our key tenets is to support organisations across all phases of the EDI journey, offering strategic and impactful EDI support wherever you are, even if it’s at the very beginning (with one of our basics of EDI training sessions, for instance).

What has been your own reflection over the last 12 months of EDI?