From the desk of Founder and Director Irene Mosota.
Diversity is a reality of the world and inclusion is a choice. Often organisations are mistaken that if you have lots of different people in a room you are diverse and inclusive. I tend to think of it this way- diversity is being invited to the party and inclusion is being asked to dance to your own tune.
Not making inclusion intentional and deliberate is a great loss to the organisation that wants to be innovative and creative. Inclusion is what unlocks creative genius. This is so because inclusion means that organisations are able to consider different viewpoints and become better in problem-solving.
There is nothing worse than having a diverse team and only listening to a select few individuals whom we feel a sense of affinity towards. This in fact leads to group think and ultimately, tunnel vision, which may make your organisation irrelevant or worse, lead to the organisation’s ultimate demise.
Invisibility is one of the most painful things we can experience. Lack of inclusion does just that. Inclusion makes people feel valued and respected.
Diversity and inclusion should transcend beyond buzz words such EDI. These words have become rhetoric that is far from reality. Organisations should also refrain from making diversity and inclusion a checkbox exercise. This may create a toxic work culture where individuals are not respected for their talents and are instead resented for their identity.
Organisations, now in their attempt to address their diversity or lack of it, tend to amplify short of advertising their dedication to diversity. This is being accomplished by organisations identifying themselves as equal opportunity employers or diverse friendly and more recently through use of the term “diverse person”. My assumptions are that there are beliefs that these pronouncements will increase diversity however, the reality is, these statements achieve little or nothing in the way of meaningful change or impact.
So what do we do now knowing that buzz words, desires and diversity statements will not do the trick?
Acknowledgement: Organisations need to acknowledge that discrimination still exists and that bias is hardwired into our behaviours such as stereotypes and prejudice.
Innovation: Innovative recruitment strategies leveraging technology need to be used to disrupt the bias that exists intrinsically in the human brain.
Policy: Have in place policies that support blind recruitment whereby information that can lead to bias is removed.
Organisations that implement and embed diversity initiatives into practice are able to do so with clear and good intentions and are cognisant that discrimination does exist. Denial is the oxygen needed to sustain discrimination and lack of diversity. They are also aware of the social and economic value diversity can bring.
Buzz words and diversity statements and advertising organisations as equal opportunity employers isn't simply going to cut it, perhaps they may give you a diverse pool of applicants but the change ends there.
It will take more than buzz words to make organisations truly inclusive and help in creating a better world.