How do you create an inclusive practice?

Really important to use a data driven approach to assess the current situation. Your best benchmarking tool is your employees. Whilst it's good to compare against other organisations in your sector, every business is different.

Step 1: Distinguish inclusion from belonging and treat inclusion as the outcome. Imagine people feeling included in something but outside of that 'something', they're code switching and clothes switching. Step 2: Focus on belonging as the effort. This means, among other things, challenging and removing unnecessary, outdated, and majority-friendly standards, codes, and norms. Otherwise, people are trying to belong in an already existing structure that doesn't consider their authentic self. Remember, the more people are trying to fit in, the less their identity can come out. Step 3: Keep reminding yourself that without belonging, there is no inclusion, only unsuccessful efforts to MAKE people feel included.

Start by enhancing existing goals: 1. Make time to understand the diversity that is missing in your practice. Ask team members, stakeholders in your circle. This discourse with colleagues and allies will help you understand the key gaps to focus on. 2. Adjust the fulfilment of goals: Start with existing goals and enhance them to help you to fulfil gaps you choose to focus on. For example, if your gap is lack of female representation: then in your recruitment goals add that recruiting mangers work hard to reach 50:50 balanced number of m/f résumés/CVs to view before sorting candidates for initial interviews. Enhancing existing, in-flight, goals raises the bar, infuses diversity throughout and energises your practice to aspire for more.

Referring back to step 1 comments: Make sure that the actions/efforts are intentional (not performative) and focused on belonging.

It's not enough to include people. Orgs attempt this with events, shadowing opportunities, etc., only to run into people feeling excluded. But how do you measure something as subjective as feelings? The answer is simple: Distinguish and trust collective and representative regard. Meaning, trust what the majority (collective) of employees tell you when it comes to whether they feel included. AND, distinguish how most employees feel from how most underrepresented employees feel. Which means: *Don't build an action plan looking for objective proof or trying over-science the effort; feelings are subjective. Don't conflate how the majority feels from how the majority of underrepresented employees feel. People aren't a monolith.

It is fairly easy to SEEK feedback, but in order to meaningfully EMBRACE feedback, but you go into the feedback session with three critical acknowledgements. 1. Collective and representative thoughts and feelings are FACTUAL. Meaning: If most employees or employees from underrepresented groups are feelings a certain way, acknowledge those feelings. 2. Root feedback about DEI&B isn't about stats and/or the business case. Focusing on stats and 'the business case' will have you discounting anything that seems subjective or 'non-factual'. 3. Interviews, surveys and focus groups with canned questions are going to give you canned responses. If you want open-ended, authentic feedback, asked open-ended questions and be prepared for the answers.

This is critical, particularly with the FACT that people are not a monolith, the world is becoming more diverse and cultural, and everyday people are still learning about themselves. In the spirit of inclusion starting with belonging, what someone tells you they need to like they belong in 2021 may change in 2023. Maybe they found their voice and are more comfortable telling you what true inclusion looks like for them. Maybe they've learned some things about how they best show up in the workplace. Also, as voice (disability, neurodivergence, LGBTQIA+, etc.) are more lifted, you will AND SHOULD hear new things every single day. But hearing isn't the same as learning and growing. You need to do something with what you hear.