Inclusion As A Skill: How To Develop It?

While many have offered the latest leadership models and frameworks, we need to first look at global trends and business landscapes. Based on research by Deloitte, four global trends will influence and shape our business environment: the diversity of markets, diversity of customers, diversity of ideas, and diversity of talent.

Diversity is a certainty in the workplace and business. However, relying on diversity to uplift business is insufficient. With greater diversity in almost all aspects of business, it is more urgent for us to leverage diversity to our advantage rather than squander the opportunity. We need to take a closer look at our leadership and the workplace and shape it to meet future needs. One aspect is ensuring that our workplace and people adopt inclusive communication and behaviours. What does this mean?

Inclusive environments and behaviours must leverage each person’s strengths and talents. Inclusive environments can be fostered, and inclusive behaviours can be taught. Inclusion as a skill is relatively new, and there are not many established frameworks or tools for developing it within individuals.

However, skills such as awareness of bias, inclusive communication, appreciation of differences, and conflict management are essential in cultivating inclusive behaviours in the workplace and in life.

What is inclusion?

When your workplace or community consists of people from diverse cultures, inclusion means ensuring everyone’s needs, concerns, values, ideas, etc., are acknowledged and considered. When an environment is inclusive, people who are part of the workplace or the community are valued for their unique characteristics, feel comfortable sharing their views, and feel safe showing their authentic selves. An inclusive workplace or community allows everyone to participate fully in the discussion, decision-making and shaping of the future.

It is much easier said than done. More often than not, people tend to stick to their cultural groups. Evolution has taught us that sticking to our tribe keeps us safe from natural disasters and predators. Anything foreign, whether people or events, is considered a possible threat to our lives. It is etched into our genetics. Thankfully, our cognitive and social capabilities have evolved to accept a certain amount of diversity. Though, we still have a long way to go.

How does diversity differ from inclusion?

Diversity focuses on demographics, such as race, age, gender, nationality, profession, etc., while inclusion emphasises the interaction, engagement, and integration of the people in the community. As our world becomes highly interconnected and increasingly diverse, it is more urgent to develop inclusion as a skill to bring out the best in our community.

Diversity is the mix. Inclusion is making the mix work. Andres Tapia

Why inclusion as a skill?

Skill is one’s ability to perform a specific action that leads to a particular result. The results of skill may take some time and effort to achieve. For example, driving requires learning to take control of a vehicle on various roads and terrain to get safely from one destination to another. As a beginner, one might find it overwhelming to monitor the roads while manoeuvring a vehicle. After many hours of practice, one can become a proficient driver.

Likewise, inclusion is the ability to foster inclusive relationships and cultivate inclusive environments. One must adopt a different mindset, gain knowledge, and adapt communication styles and behaviours that embody inclusivity. With time, effort, and motivation, anyone can develop inclusion as a skill.

How do we develop inclusion as a skill?

There are many ways to develop this skill. We can start with these four areas, which are:

1. Awareness of Bias
2. Appreciating Similarities and Differences
3. Inclusive Communication
4. Managing Conflict

Awareness of Bias

The first step to any personal or professional development is self-awareness. Self-awareness can include values, beliefs, strengths, weaknesses, etc. By becoming more self-aware, we can identify the natural barriers and biases that prevent us from practising inclusion. There are two actions one can take to increase awareness of our biases. One is to take the time to observe our thoughts and behaviours, and the other is to recognise biases at play.

Observation
Observation is not just about “looking” at an object, person, or situation and making conclusions. It is about getting as much information as possible using all our senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.

Is this a fragrant or pungent smell? Is the air humid or dry? Are the people speaking too loud or too soft?

As we receive sensory information, we also need to observe thoughts and validate them with others going through the same experience.

I don’t like the smell. It is unpleasant. Do others find this smell pleasant?

The Dress: Blue & Black or White & Gold?

As you practice observation more often, you’ll soon realise that people see, smell, hear, taste and feel things differently from yourself. For example, the viral video of a dress is depicted below. Some may view the dress as black and blue, while others see it as white and gold. This is not an illusion. Scientists revealed that this is a difference in human colour perception.

When we see, smell, hear, taste and feel things differently, we can assess whether this difference stems from our biases. When we learn to see things “as it is”, we get closer to the truth of the matter, and that is not based on an inaccurate interpretation based on one’s past experiences or biases.

For example, one common scenario involves managers and employees giving and receiving feedback. After a feedback session, employees may feel demotivated. Subsequently, they may choose to reduce their effort and believe their manager does not recognise or value their actions.

However, from the manager’s perspective, feedback helps to improve performance, instil motivation, and develop the employee’s skills. While both are involved in the same conversation, the viewpoints might be different. Had the manager observed carefully, they might have sensed employees’ discomfort, anticipated the misunderstanding, and adjusted their behaviours accordingly.

We are all living the same experience, just different realities. Anonymous

Recognising Bias
Bias is an inclination towards a particular outlook, judgement or temperament, whether or not the tendency is just, fair or truthful. When we rely too much on our biases, we exclude ideas, perspectives, people and situations that go against our inclination, even if our tendency can be inaccurate or potentially harmful.

For example, when meeting the CEO of a successful company for the first time, we might anticipate them to be an assertive man who turns out to be a soft-spoken female. Subsequently, how we respond to the CEO might be based on our unconscious biases of female leaders.

Biases can be conscious or unconscious. There is no one easy solution to recognise biases because humans are full of them! Psychologists have studied and discovered a wide range of biases, and more are still to be discovered. A sampling of unconscious biases can be found here.

We can continue to learn about the different biases and compare them with our observations and experiences. Here are a few reflective questions you can ask yourself to identify whether your thoughts, behaviours or situation has a biased influence.

• What are the facts? What is included? What was omitted?
• Who is involved? What is their status and role in the situation? What are their perspectives?
• What are the different interpretations of this experience? What is the personal logic behind this interpretation? What are the emotions involved?
• What possible biases are at play within my thought process? How about the thought process of others?

If we let fear run our lives, it will be detrimental to our well-being and work performance, cause us to isolate ourselves from others, and prevent us from living a fulfilling life. When fear arises, examine it and determine if it’s real or imagined.

Take small steps to confront it and prove that you no longer let fear control your life. Finally, take the time to celebrate every successful confrontation, for you have become more confident, resilient, and more open to new worlds.

Appreciating Similarities & Differences

As our workplaces and communities become increasingly diverse, we will all need to take the time to learn about each other and adapt to one another. You cannot expect this learning process to take place over a short time. With every new member, there will be multiple opportunities to continuously learn each other’s similarities and differences. We must adopt a growth mindset and appreciate and celebrate our similarities and differences.

Adopt a Growth Mindset
Dr Carol Dwek coined the term Growth Mindset when researching the difference between academically successful children and those who were not. In her research, she discovered that children with a Growth Mindset outshone children with a Fixed Mindset.

A Growth Mindset is an attitude and a way of looking at challenges as an opportunity to improve one’s abilities. People with a Growth Mindset believe that intelligence is gained through effort and is not inherent. Conversely, people with a Fixed Mindset believe that intelligence is an innate talent that cannot be improved.

A Growth Mindset can help accelerate your ability to become more inclusive. Adopting a growth mindset strengthens confidence and improves relationships. People with a Growth Mindset don’t feel stressed if they make a mistake or are faced with unfamiliar situations or people because they see it as an opportunity to learn something new.

When practising inclusion in your workplace or community, adopting a Growth Mindset will keep your mind open and curious so that you can continuously learn about people from culturally diverse backgrounds.

Show appreciation and celebrate
When we maintain a growth mindset and practice our observation skills, we will notice cultural differences and similarities. Similarities or differences are often overlooked, and we don’t take the time to appreciate or celebrate them.

Appreciations and celebrations need not be a grand gesture of organising parties or buying extravagant gifts. A celebration could be as easy as Let’s grab a coffee and celebrate your kid’s graduation!

An appreciation could be as simple as saying, Hey, I appreciate that you took the time to explain and share your thoughts on the issue, even though everyone else had a different opinion.

As we uncover the similarities and differences between the people we interact with, we get a complete picture of the person and not just a 2D caricature based on generalised stereotypes.

Inclusive communication

Communication is in everything we do. It is about what we choose to say and what we choose not to say. Communication involves ordering coffee, drafting emails, responding to chats, and even how we dress, make eye contact, use hand gestures, etc.

We must be mindful of how our communication is delivered, received, and perceived. On a practical level, there are many steps we can take to ensure our communication is inclusive. We can first start with these two actions.

Who’s in the room?
Communication is never one-way, even if the other party remains silent. It is the act of conveying messages. It can be from one person to another, from one person to many, or from many to many. When sharing a message, we need to be aware of who is receiving the message. While messages might be intended for one person, many in the room can receive and perceive them.

For example, your team is tasked to create a marketing strategy for a product launched in a foreign market. In the brainstorming session, everyone enthusiastically discussed different ideas. The conversation heightened as they debated outrageous and unrealistic ideas that got everyone engaged except a quiet team member. The more silent team member eventually raised a lacklustre idea and questioned the viability of the outrageous idea. In response, the team supervisor ignored the question and continued the conversation.

In this example, the team supervisor who ignored the question communicated a message to the quieter team member and the others in the room, which can be interpreted in multiple ways, such as “Your question is irrelevant.” Or “Your input is not important.”

The team supervisor may have intended to convey something other than that message, as he or she might be too engrossed in the excitement to hear the question. Hence, it is good to take the time before a meeting to recognise who is in the room and be sure to acknowledge them.

Is it safe?
Psychological safety is when people feel safe showing and expressing their ideas, thoughts, and opinions without fear of being humiliated or punished. So, we need to note who is in the room. The tone and emotionality behind the messages can influence the quality of the communication.

For example, instead of ignoring the quiet team member, what if the response was a critical remark spoken in a harsh tone? How would the quiet team member respond? How will the others in the room perceive this response?

It’s not to say that you cannot disagree with another. However, there is a distinction between disagreeing with the ideas or opinions and criticising or attacking the character.

To be inclusive in our communication, we must ensure that everyone feels safe enough to express themselves. There are many ways to foster psychological safety. Some methods include asking questions curiously, promoting healthy conflict, and giving voice to your peers or direct reports.

Managing Conflict

Conflict is inevitable. It is part of life. Without conflict, we will not learn from each other, and many problems might remain unsolved. Once we have accepted that conflict is unavoidable, we can focus our efforts on managing and resolving it. While many frameworks consider managing conflict, we’ll share two steps concerning inclusion.

Learn about Cultural Values
Most conflict comes from misunderstanding. A word can carry various meanings. For example, the term “rubber” means “a latex commodity” in certain countries and “eraser” in other countries. However, if requested by an American, “rubber” can bring potential trouble along with it.

If a simple word such as “rubber” can carry various meanings and possible misunderstandings, what other damage can simple words bring? Behind verbal and non-verbal communication are unspoken rules that a cultural group takes for granted and deeply assumes. Cultural Values have long been researched by psychologists and social scientists, ranging from individualism vs collectivism, being vs doing, long-term vs short-term, competitive vs cooperative and many more.

Learning about cultural values requires many separate discussions, as this is a vast area of research. To be more inclusive, we need to take the time to understand the cultural values behind others' speech and actions. Only then can we appropriately extend our respect and adjust our actions and behaviour to include others.

Be Patient. Be Persistent.
In a culturally diverse environment, there is no right way to manage or resolve conflict. Various stakeholders involved in the conflict come from different contexts, speak other languages and hold different beliefs and values. As you tease out the complexities of the conflict, one thing for sure is that you need to be patient and persistent.

A conversation among native speakers may progress faster than among a group of non-native speakers. You will need to exercise your patience among non-native speakers as the people involved require the time and effort to find the right words to express themselves.

At some point, you might wonder whether managing or resolving the conflict is worth it and may choose to give up. Please don’t give up. Ask for help, advice or support where possible. While it can be challenging, as long as you stay persistent, progress can be made in resolving the conflict, or at the very least, learn lessons from these experiences.

Are you ready?

Practising inclusion is more critical now than ever before, but developing inclusion as a skill is difficult. It consists of increasing our awareness of bias, appreciating similarities and differences, practising inclusive communication, and managing conflict, which are often uncomfortable and challenging. As difficult as this can be, we all can learn, grow, and become more mindful, compassionate, and inclusive versions of ourselves. This is not an exhaustive list. We hope the approaches here will be an excellent place for you to start.

This post is updated from the originally published post on Culture
Spark Global on 30 November 2021 and written by the same author, Ling Ling Tai.