Prioritizing Inclusion

 

When it comes to Prioritizing Inclusion, your results indicate you are in the Active stage.

This stage is about getting actively involved in the change effort, disrupting the status quo, and applying an equity lens to the systems, policies, and practices that surround you. The good news is, if your organization has a DEI program, this can be an entry point from which to get started. The most successful DEI strategies have involvement from the top, with leaders engaged as full partners and actively involved as spokespersons, sponsors, mentors, council members, and allies.

In this stage, you create and hold space for difficult conversations on topics including bias, racism, privilege, and inequity. By engaging in difficult and uncomfortable conversations, you expand your perspectives and mindset and reframe your conventional thinking. You build relationships, trust, and respect with colleagues from different identity groups and understand better the lived experiences of the people around you.

In the Active stage, you embrace vulnerability. You share things about yourself in a more open and personal way. Stories have the unique ability to shift hearts as well as minds, and often, a story will compel action more than any statistic. By sharing your personal story and experiences, you set an example and cultivate a safe environment in which other people can open up and do the same.

Resources to learn more

• Inclusion: Diversity, the New Workplace and the Will to Change, by Jennifer Brown
• Will to Change, podcast series with Jennifer Brown. Episode 230: Finding, and Solving, the Puzzles Around Us: How the Rubik’s Cube Speaks to Identity
• How To Be An Antiracist, by Ibram X Kendi
• Five Podcasts to Encourage Diversity and Inclusivity, Forbes

To advance your knowledge about DEI and build the skills and competencies to get actively involved, consider registering for our 6-week Level I DEI Foundations Course.

 

Awareness of Intent vs Impact

 

When it comes to Awareness of Intent vs. Impact, your results indicate you are in the Active stage.

In the Active stage, we can think we’re doing the best and right thing but still miss the mark. For example, many leaders awaken to the importance of leveling the playing field, of rolling up their sleeves and getting to work, and then jump into DEI efforts and either take over or reinvent already ongoing efforts.

This example highlights the old way of checking the box and the tendency so many leadership teams have of assuming the right remedy without consulting those most impacted. In discussions pertaining to certain groups, it is critical to seek out and listen to their perspectives first and learn where they need the most support, since it is their experience of discrimination and exclusion that you are working to mitigate.

As you get more deeply involved in the change effort, you will make mistakes. In the Active stage, you accept that failure is an inevitable and essential part of growth. You do not let mistakes stall or hold you back, but instead openly welcome the trial and error that comes with growth, and you continue to move forward no matter how imperfectly.

Resources to learn more

• How to Be an Inclusive Leader: Your Role in Creating Cultures of Belonging Where Everyone Can Thrive (second edition), by Jennifer Brown
• The Wake Up: Closing the Gap Between Good Intentions and Real Change, by Michelle MiJung Kim
• The Will to Change, podcast series with Jennifer Brown. Episode 212: Journalist and Producer Monika Samtani Joins Jennifer to Discuss the Inclusion Imperative at SXSW 2022
• Podcast: The Diversity Gap

If you already have a foundational understanding of DEI concepts and are looking for practical ways to apply those concepts in workplace practices and processes, consider registering for our 8-week Level II DEI Foundations Course.

 

Embracing Change

 

When it comes to Embracing Change, your results indicate you are in the Advocate stage.

In the Advocate stage, you draw attention to systemic inequities and get involved in solving them. You work in allyship with others to shift systems and behaviors and leverage your power and influence to propel change.

You recognize that aligning in solidarity with people who may not benefit from the dominant systems means looking critically at those same systems, even if you are an insider who benefits from them. You understand this is hard work. It can mean breaking with groups you are a part of, and there is, of course, risk in this. And the risk level increases as you become more public about your actions and advocacy in this stage.

It takes resilience to keep moving forward in the face of resistance or when it feels like the amount of change that is called for is insurmountable. But the true measure of leadership is not how an individual performs during the good times, rather the fortitude they display during times of uncertainty and their willingness to take a stand—especially when the stakes are high.

Resources to learn more

• How to Be an Inclusive Leader: Your Role in Creating Cultures of Belonging Where Everyone Can Thrive (second edition), by Jennifer Brown
• Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good, by Chuck Collins
• Will to Change podcast with Jennifer Brown: Episode 195: Leading Systemic Change with Former Diversity Officer Rohini Anand
• Racial Economic Inequality, Institute for Policy Studies

To hear from DEI experts and learn more about the lived experiences of individuals from different identities and backgrounds, check out Jennifer Brown’s free podcast series: The Will to Change.

 

Bias Awareness

 

When it comes to Bias Awareness, your results indicate you are in the Active stage.

As you dive deeper into the Inclusive Leader journey, you build the capacity to continually check yourself for ingrained biases and stereotypes you may hold about people with identities different than your own. One of the best ways to challenge your biases is by increasing your proximity to difference and building relationships with people from other identity groups.

Storytelling is a powerful tool to shift biases and forge deeper connections. It helps us to locate ourselves in the larger human experience and to develop empathy and understanding for the lived experiences of the people around us. By sharing your personal story and experiences, you set an example and cultivate a safe environment in which other people can do the same. Stories have the unique ability to shift hearts as well as minds, and often, a story will compel action more than any statistic.

In this stage, you create and hold space for difficult conversations on topics including bias, racism, privilege, and inequity. By engaging in difficult and uncomfortable conversations, you expand your perspectives and mindset and reframe your conventional thinking.

Resources to learn more

• Beyond Diversity: 12 Non-Obvious Ways To Build A More Inclusive World, by Rohit Bhargava and Jennifer Brown
• Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, by Mahzarin R. Banaji
• Inclusion Revolution, by Daisy Auger Domínguez
• Implicit Bias Resource Guide, SHRM

To learn more about the issues from DEI experts and practitioners, and find out what leading organizations are doing to advance DEI, join our free Community Calls.

 

Language

 

When it comes to Language, your results indicate you are in the Active stage.

In this stage, you get comfortable talking about difficult and uncomfortable topics like bias, racism, and privilege. You recognize these conversations are important and provide you with an opportunity to learn more about people from different identity groups and to build trust and respect across differences.

As you build relationships with people from different identity groups, you become more knowledgeable about the issues they face and you develop new language and vocabulary that better reflects the current conversation. You understand your choice of words can send a powerful inclusive signal to those that you are endeavoring to support, and you address others and their experiences in nuanced and culturally competent ways. You continually develop new language and vocabulary to help colleagues from different identities feel psychologically safe, valued, and respected.

In the Active stage, you accept that making mistakes is an inevitable and essential part of growth. For many of us, this is new territory and the likelihood is you won’t always get it right. As an Inclusive Leader, you don’t let mistakes stall or hold you back, but instead openly welcome the trial and error that comes with growth, and you continue to move forward no matter how imperfectly.

Resources to learn more

• Beyond Diversity: 12 Non-Obvious Ways To Build A More Inclusive World, by Rohit Bhargava and Jennifer Brown
• We Can't Talk about That at Work! How to Talk about Race, Religion, Politics, and Other Polarizing Topics, by Mary-Frances Winters
• The Will to Change, podcast series with Jennifer Brown. Episode 184: Critical Conversations: Finding the Courage to Discuss and Dismantle Racism
• Inclusive Language Guidelines, American Psychological Association

To learn more about Jennifer’s story and the evolving conversation around inclusive leadership, watch her docuseries at Jennifer Brown Speaks.