Let's work together
What are you looking for?
Scroll to top

Inclusion & Diversity

Back

Dare to be different

There’s a lot of noise around inclusion and diversity right now, with a million and one different opinions on what true workplace allyship looks like and how to achieve it.

For many businesses, the seemingly simple task of trying to work out how to begin building an inclusive culture is so overwhelming that it can feel almost easier to do nothing at all.

We hear you. So, let’s make it easy for you.

Diversity starts with Inclusion, and Inclusion starts with You. Think of it as DIY – Diversity, Inclusion, You.

There are enough organisations paying lip service to the Inclusion & Diversity challenges they face through running endless unconscious bias workshops and box-ticking exercises they don’t really believe in.

And doing this work badly is worse than not doing it at all, because it does exponential reputational damage and reduces trust and confidence – not just amongst your own people, but also among those outside your organisation.

If your organisation is different, if it’s forward thinking, if it’s completely serious about creating meaningful and lasting change that positively impacts on its people and revenue, and if it’s not afraid to make mistakes trying, you’re exactly the people we want to work with

What is Inclusion & Diversity

We believe it’s impossible to create a sustainably diverse workforce if you haven’t first created a culture of inclusion. It’s why we always put Inclusion before Diversity in everything we do.

Let’s put that a different way.

Diversity is a state of being – your organisation is either diverse, or it’s not. To be the former, Inclusion has to be in the DNA of the environment in which Diversity is expected to grow.

The 6 Tenets of Inclusion

If you’ve got this far then we can probably assume you already know why I&D is important to every organisation. The big challenge is how to lead and implement the changes needed so it becomes a virtuous circle that delivers tangible benefit corporately and individually.

1. Collaboration
Building an inclusive culture worthy of the name is a collaborative exercise and not something to be decided and implemented in a vacuum. Every organisation is unique, and to understand the changes yours needs requires a process of mutual and open discovery.

When you work with us, we’ll help you to find the right way to get the information you need in order to, engage with and build the confidence of everyone in your organisation.

2. Psychological Safety
No one is going to pretend that making progress on I&D in any organisation is easy or painless. In fact, the reverse is probably true – which is why our clients who have done it successfully consistently report experiencing an overwhelming sense of pride, purpose and achievement.

Moving an organisation forward on its I&D journey often requires difficult conversations, the acknowledgement of uncomfortable truths, an appetite to make changes that may themselves present their own challenges, and a commitment to ensuring every voice is heard rather than simply listened to.

When you work with us we will advise, guide and support you in creating psychologically safe environments, where every individual is free to express how included they feel now, and what is needed to make them feel differently in the future.

3. Understanding
Through collaborative communication at all levels of an organisation it’s possible to identify and begin to understand common themes that exist. And with that understanding comes an opportunity to explore what drives existing behaviours, and to reshape how the organisation might support the processes that change them.

When you work with us, we will arm you with the tools and processes you need, to be able to see any barriers to progress and to identify what's needed to overcome them.

4. Implementation
Effective implementation based on a deep understanding of the I&D issues in play in your organisation are the key to achieving successful outcomes that leave a lasting legacy on your organisational culture.

It’s not enough to do the discovery work and analysis unless there’s also a clear and, crucially, visible commitment to implementing plans and processes that support organic change within the organisation.

Anything less than that will be seen – probably rightly – as tokenism, and there’s a risk that not finishing what was started will have an exponentially negative impact that puts your organisation in a worse position than when it began.

When you work with us, we will help you to develop a clear implementation plan, backed by effective internal communication and broken down into achievable steps over a realistic timeline.

5. Belonging
An I&D change process that is inclusive and open, founded on a safe environment of mutual discovery and learning, which champions understanding and implements new thinking and actions to effect meaningful change, will in turn foster a wider sense of belonging across the organisation.

And the good news is that these new behaviours will be an inherent part of your organisation’s DNA, modelled from the very top to the very bottom.

6. Review
All organisations go through change over time, and solutions that were right then may not be relevant in a constantly evolving community of people with uniquely different needs facing uniquely different challenges.

Part of our work is aimed at equipping your organisation with the review and monitoring skills needed to ensure I&D is always at the heart of your strategy.

Find out about our dynamic and innovative Inclusion and Diversity workshops.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. By continuing to use our website you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy.