Fostering Inclusion Within an Organization

It’s 5 a.m. I haven’t had my coffee yet. I am very much not a morning person. I barely look presentable dressed in leggings, an oversized hoodie, and a messy bun — not even the kind that’s considered stylish — as I slog my way through the security line at the airport. I empty my pockets and kick off my shoes, adding everything to the conveyor belt leading into the x-ray machine as I await my turn to go into the body scanner. I know what’s coming: I’ll step into the tube, raise my arms, step out, pause and wait for the impatient passengers behind me to shoot me the side eye because something on my person was flagged with the yellow box of doom. I will get cautiously patted around my breast area or I’ll have to shake out my bun to prove to the TSA agent that the block that was flagged is really nothing more than my copious amounts of hair piled haphazardly on my head. It’s embarrassing, to say the least, and all I really want is my coffee, which I swear I can smell wafting through the airport to taunt me as I glance back apologetically to my fellow passengers. 

I’ve tried wearing my hair differently or wearing a sports bra and form-fitting clothing to avoid the flag, yet I still get stopped and patted down. Honestly, the only thing that has kept me from getting an extra bit of attention at the screening station is signing up for PreCheck. 

I used to think that my experience in going through airport security was unique, but I never really thought about why. As it turns out, the problem isn’t me. Rather, it’s a design flaw in that the machines weren’t programmed to consider different body shapes and types beyond a generic male or female. This problem literally cropped up at the drawing table because of a lack of diversity in the room as the machine was being designed. There was no one there to offer a different perspective so that they could create a machine that could account for a wider variety of people and more accurately find the illicit materials it was designed to detect. 

We cannot consider how our work affects others if we are constantly working in teams of people who look and think just like us.

Learning to Lead with a Lens of Inclusion

I often think back to this story in my own leadership journey and my failures to think outside of my paradigm and how that unintentionally excludes others. I’ve always considered myself an empathetic and inclusive person. I was always the kid that pulled the one who was standing on the sidelines into a game of tag on the playground. My group of friends are diverse and identify in many different ways. As I have grown as a leader, I had expected that making decisions that include the perspectives of others would come as naturally to me as it had in my younger days.

While empathy can certainly play a role in mitigating these consequences, it simply cannot replace being intentionally inclusive. If I am planning an event, I know that I am able to consider what a Deaf or blind person might need. I have learned, however, the best person to tell me exactly what is needed and how to find those resources is someone who knows first hand. 

Another reason that we can’t simply rely on empathy is that we all carry implicit biases that influence our thinking and decision making. We’re not always aware of how our unconscious thoughts affect our ability to be inclusive unless we have someone present to challenge us. Self awareness is the foundation a leader builds upon to uncover their biases. 

If we aren't willing to engage in the process of self discovery and evaluate our own behaviors, we can't get to the practice of inclusion. We can build awareness through demonstrated curiosity (accommodative leadership strategies), asking for (and being truly open to) feedback and perspectives of others, and using tools to help us uncover our weaknesses. 

When I first joined the board for Colorado Common Cause (COCC), a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to protecting democracy, our Executive Director scheduled implicit bias training as part of our board development retreat. With the work we do — fighting for policies that are for the common benefit — it’s important that we consider all of the people’s lives that are affected. The purpose of this training was to help make us more aware of the biases that we naturally carry as humans so that we could evaluate our work from a more neutral perspective.

To start, we each took Harvard’s Project Implicit survey. I chose to take the racial bias survey, assuming that my responses would show a fairly neutral bias. As a half-Black woman, I believed that I have never held any strong bias in regards to race. My results completely shocked me. They showed that I carry a strong negative bias toward Black men. Dumbfounded, I shared these results with the group. 

As we delved into discussion, my results began to make complete sense to me. Having grown up in predominantly White environments, I hadn’t been exposed to Black communities or Black men and when I had, it was always from a perspective of service to a community in need. As my only experiences had painted these men as less than, I was completely unaware that my unconscious brain was influencing my conscious behaviors. I could have insisted that the test was wrong and that I didn’t have a negative bias, but I was willing to receive new information and commit to continuing to learn more. I walked away that day knowing that I had work to do so that I could begin the journey to shift my bias. 

Building Teams With Diverse Perspectives

While it’s not always realistic to have more seats at the table, I have begun to ask, “Is there someone with another perspective who can take a look at this?” There is often a fear of having too many cooks in the kitchen, as it naturally makes decision-making and productivity more challenging. I would argue that it’s always better to ask one more person than to actively exclude a person or perspective. It is not uncommon for leaders to apologize after the fact for failing to consider someone else’s thoughts or ideas, but it is usually painted as an accidental oversight, rather than looking at how they can be better prepared to include a diverse group of people on the team. “What are we missing?” and “How does this impact...X?” are two questions I have begun asking our board members when we review a policy to support or oppose. As such, we have begun to take a position on matters that historically, we might have overlooked. 

As you look to create more inclusive teams, one of the things to assess is what strengths and weaknesses does your team currently have, and what gaps need to be filled. 

When I first joined the COCC board, it was made up of predominantly retired White male attorneys, all located in the Denver metro area. In an effort to build a more diverse board across multiple demographics (age, race, gender, geographic location), we looked at what talent we already had across multiple data points. Even though we had a feeling about how homogenous our team was, looking at the data painted a much bleaker picture than we had anticipated. From there, we began intentionally focusing our recruiting efforts to find members who would both complement and challenge our board. 

Although diversifying the members was our goal, it was also vital that we didn’t create an environment where we were recruiting members just because they checked the right boxes. We still needed to build a team that is passionate about our cause and has the connections to their communities to help drive the influence that we need on a local level. Diversity and inclusion are not the same thing — you can have diversity without inclusion and vice versa.

In order to avoid creating an environment of tokenism, it is also important to make sure to give everyone at the table a voice. Creating team dynamics of mutual respect and psychological safety will help foster the feelings of inclusion. As a leader, it is your responsibility to demonstrate the behavior you wish to see as part of the culture of the team or organization. If people are continually talking over one another or dismissing the ideas of others without discussion, no one will feel compelled to participate and the benefits of being inclusive will be lost. Ask questions that invite dialogue and genuinely listen to and consider the responses. 

Inclusivity is a Journey, Not a Destination

Building an inclusive culture is not something that you check off on your to-do list and the work is done. You will never find a point where your organization is perfectly inclusive. It is a continual process that will change as time goes on and as the members of your team change and grow. 

You will make mistakes along the way. Leading with inclusivity requires openness to honest feedback that is received from a place of humility and vulnerability, rather than arrogance. Be willing to acknowledge that you made a mistake or that you don’t know, but that you’re committed to listening and continuing to learn. Don’t expect a day where there will be a clear epiphany and you get a badge for mastering the skill. It’s a lifelong process. 

With our COCC board, we brought new voices to the table, cutting the average age in half and we can boast that our board is about 60% people of color. As proud as I am of those accomplishments, I realized that we don’t have anyone from the disability community adequately represented, so it’s back to recruiting. I’m certain that we will uncover even more to consider as we constantly look for ways to include more communities.

The work is never finished and the path forward is challenging, but the reward of being a truly inclusive organization makes up for it.