Inclusion has become a buzz word. I personally feel that there are still too many workplaces that sound it but don’t show it.
Inclusion to me is the state of being included, able to engage, and feel supported. Inclusion in the workplace becomes possible when it is a part of the general culture and the way of doing things. While inclusion more commonly references underrepresented groups, I think it’s about applying principles that the majority upholds that is the key to true inclusion. Principles that observe the core human needs of belonging, safety, accomplishment are those that naturally lend themselves to inclusion and are important to humans as a whole.
When we start to see that everyone has differences and is deserving of those human needs, we open up the space for diversity and inclusion to really thrive.
For me, I see the trends impacting this space being the evolving remote workforce, reducing unconscious bias, transparent and flexible work practices and authenticity in the way inclusion is done. The other area that continues to need work is gender identity and expression.
Inclusive learning is about creating a learning experience that respects diversity, uses adaptive learning approaches conducive to a variety of learners and enables a safe space in which learners can actively engage.
As an avid learner myself and understanding that learning is a fundamental contributor to human wellbeing, I believe it’s important that everyone has access to learning opportunities. As humans, we strive for accomplishment which is made possible with new learning. So learning is an innate part of life for us and our sense of purpose. Why would you then not give everyone access to it and do it in a way that promotes the best possible learning outcomes?
Organisations that promote an inclusive learning culture have seen the positive impact it makes on the company performance, morale, and staff retention. They have successfully leveraged representation from a varied range of people to enhance diversity of thought and therefore the quality of the learning. They’ve been thoughtful about learning needs and preferences of the learners to achieve desired learning. This all ties back to showing people they are valued and worth the consideration.
Building a culture of inclusive learning is a big one. When setting out to achieve this, you can look at three key ‘building blocks', growth mindset, empathy and action. Trying to instil them as a collective is a huge feat. Even so, I believe it’s impossible to have an inclusive learning culture when they don’t exist.
Growth Mindset: A growth mindset sets people up to think about what’s possible rather than not. It asks us to take a future focus and be open to mistakes.
Empathy: Empathy is necessary for understanding and respecting differences so that it can lead us to action. My recommendation is to get teams forming these building blocks as the foundation for a culture of inclusive learning. At the very least this needs to include educating people on unconscious bias, inclusive language and what diversity and inclusion means to the business.
Action: While chasing the big dreams, it’s also important not to forget the everyday differences we can make. Looking to the smaller day to day actions. A simple growth area is meetings, both individual and group.
A lot of the time we associate learning with a structured approach, so we forget that feedback sessions or meetings with our team members are also learning experiences. In these cases, it’s about details like whether the relevant people have been invited, is everyone visible in the room, are captions needed if presenting remotely and has access to content been provided. This may sound basic, but I’ve experienced meetings where people have left feeling excluded due to the lack of these considerations. Paying close attention to the smaller details, can have great impact.
For me, the quickest way to make learning inclusive is to reference the below three aspects:
Access: Consider who needs access to the learning and why?
Engage: What do each of the learners need to be able to fully engage in the learning?
Feedback: What is the best way to ensure everyone is comfortable to give and receive feedback?
Considering these questions, when engaging in learning, gives thought and direction to meeting the needs of the whole learning experience.
I’m passionate about building sustainable, healthy cultures. I certainly feel that being inclusive is a crucial part of keeping a culture healthy. I sometimes find that organisations are passionate about reaching a goal but fall short in the implementation. Culture is what you do to achieve something you live and feel. Which is why I’d urge leaders and teams to spend more time on the ‘doing’, in particular the actions that drive systemic changes.
Taking what we know about the people we work with to contribute to inclusion in a transparent and tangible way, not just using inclusion as a PR campaign. Yes, it may get awkward, and we might need to call others out to help them rethink their beliefs or actions, but that’s the responsibility we have to each other if we really are committed to creating inclusion.
