Inclusion Benefits Everyone
Research shows that groups where people feel included-that is, valued for their uniqueness while also feeling like they belong-tend to experience increased team citizenship behaviors (e.g., offering help to colleagues with heavy workloads, picking up responsibilities of absent colleagues, and volunteering assistance to one’s manager) as well as innovation (e.g., identifying opportunities for new products and processes and trying out new ideas and approaches to problems). Team citizenship and innovation increase, in part due to employees feeling that they have support and access to opportunities, and rather than being in competition with their colleagues for these, they are able to provide support to each other. This, in turn, can have a profound impact on overall team productivity and innovation. One way to view inclusion, then, is as the “secret ingredient” for getting work done, and not as an additional task for managers to squeeze in between everything else.
But striving toward full inclusion in the workplace is not worthwhile solely because of the strong links between organizational diversity and achievement of business goals. And it isn’t just a “feel good” exercise or something to help underrepresented groups. Inclusion is good because it honors each person’s individuality, inviting each of us to bring our full selves to work, where we can all benefit from each unique perspective and find common ground to build a community of belonging. Diversity benefits everyone because it not only brings in under-represented perspectives but it also changes the behaviors of the majority group. Because diverse groups don’t have the typical established common ground that homogeneous groups have, it is often less comfortable initially, and that discomfort leads to everybody working harder because they can’t assume that they will be understood and forces group members to prepare their points of view better. Therefore diverse groups have the advantage of having more ideas, and those ideas are presented more thoroughly and vetted more rigorously and that is why they outperform homogeneous groups in problem-solving, information exchange, and decision making. Moreover, because diverse groups tend not to conform as much as homogeneous groups, more creativity and innovation takes place.
In sum, inclusive environments-which are created and sustained by inclusive leaders-benefit organizations from being able to leverage their diversity to reap its business advantages; it benefits workgroups by fostering better innovation and team citizenship; and it benefits individuals from the feeling of belonging and honoring their uniqueness by giving them the tools, knowledge, and support to be able to thrive. When people are viewed and respected as individuals, this deconstructs stereotypes and bias, allowing each person to contribute and engage in their jobs to the fullest of their potential. Inclusive leaders create environments where all voices and ideas have an equal chance to be heard, tested and tried, to establish a competitive advantage in the global marketplace.
Contact us to learn more ways you can foster an inclusive workplace.
Originally published at https://eskalera.com on June 6, 2019.
