Inclusify: Micro Review
More than ever, as an individual or a corporate citizen, we all are more aware of the need for diversity and inclusion in our workforce. I personally thought of myself well aware of the need for it as well as what it means to be more diverse and inclusive. And I was wrong. I have a long way to go. One of the first things I am doing (and what we all can do) is to educate myself. There is more — have empathy, listen to other’s experiences and reflect on our own.
Dr. Stefanie K. Johnson’s book Inclusify is a revelation. In her book, Dr. Johnson talks through what it means to be an “inclusifyer” - a leader who can build a diverse environment which celebrates the uniqueness of different individuals but also creates a cohesive, collaborative environment where everyone feels included with a strong sense of belonging.
Its a great book to start your journey on understanding what Diversity & Inclusion truly means for you. She starts the book with and introduces some key concepts (e.g. different types of biases) with research and stories (that hit close to home). She then moves on to the meat of the book.
In the rest of the book, Dr. Johnson describes 6 types of leaders — Meritocracy Managers, White Knights, Shepherd, Culture Crusaders, Team Player and Optimist. Though these sound positive, well-intentioned leadership types, she delves into the follies of each of these types and how their actions & approaches could exclude members of their organization. I will be honest. As I was reading through each of these and the stories and research she put forth, I could identify a little bit with each one of these types. She also delves into leadership strategies she recommends for each of these leadership types to become more of an inclusifyer. She also has neat SELF and TEAM framework that brings it all together. And of course, you are not doing this at the expense of business success. She cites multiple research and examples which provides evidence that a more inclusive and diverse workforce is tied to business success.
Bottom line — It’s a great book and I did learn a lot. It made me reflect on many unconscious biases that I may have, on some of the follies of my own approaches and I did relate with many of the stories told in the book. I will say that everybody will reflect on this differently because it can be a very nuanced subject based on the context, people involved, your beliefs and your experiences. Its a must read if you are serious about Diversity & Inclusion and learning how you can play a role as a leader to promote D&I in your organization.
The only critique of the book would be that most of its stories were “biased” towards “gender” bias and not on WOC, POC, LGBTQ etc.
Here are some nuggets of wisdom:
That is what Inclusifyers do. They don’t pretend that they don’t see race, gender, or sexual orientation, as many people proudly proclaim. To reinforce uniqueness, pretending race and gender don’t matter just does not work; it does not promote the integration of diversity to create greater learning organizations
“A company is not really diverse, nor can it benefit from diversity, if all of the ethnic minorities are clustered at the bottom, top, or middle of the organization. It does not help improve gender parity if all of the women are in human resources and all of the men are in information technology.”
“There are three foundational points to remember before Inclusifying: First, the playing field is not level; people have to travel different distances to get to the same place. Second, entrenched systems can inhibit your diversity and inclusion efforts. And third, we are living in a post-#MeToo world.”
“Numerous studies show that crowds, as long as the individuals in them are diverse, can outperform experts when making decisions, a phenomenon called the wisdom of the crowd.
“As Warren Buffett put it, “What the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact. Psychologists call this confirmation bias, but it is essentially the idea that we see what we expect to see.”
“The tendency to gravitate toward people who are the most similar to us is called homophile, or similar-to-me, bias.”
“Cultures can become invisible to those who are in them”
“Because of the psychological bias called projection, we all assume that everyone sees the world the same way that we do, and we project the most onto those who are the most similar to us.”
“INCLUSIFYING ACTION: Lift people up, don’t carry them.”
“Boston Consulting Group has shown that when men are engaged in gender inclusion programs, 96 percent of organizations see progress, whereas only 30 percent of organizations in which men are not engaged see progress”
“Only someone not affected by biases could possibly be satisfied waiting that long to feel included and welcomed. If you and your teams want to wait 170 years to have equality (that is what the World Economic Forum estimates it will take to have gender parity; it is longer for race), just sit back and remain optimistic. But if you want to see change in your lifetime, you need to start taking action.”
“Equality is about giving everyone the same thing; equity is about giving people what they need to succeed.”
“Deloitte has shown that teams who have higher rates of inclusion outperform others by eight to one and that leaders have the greatest influence on inclusion.”
