How To Invite Inclusion

Hello, Cadre community, and happy Friday. Hope you are doing well. Doctor E. Here coming to you from the balmy Twin Cities where I think it is about seven or eight degrees outdoors today. Hope your week has gone well. I am doing pretty well on this end, trying to stay warm. As you can see, I have the thick sweater on and have a little sniffle, but still, still happy to be in 2024 and happy to be with you today. So wanted to talk a little bit about how you can invite inclusion in your organization, within your teams and why I think that is important.

I think it's obviously important because you don't want to just talk the talk, you want to walk the walk. And inclusion, a way that you can begin to model all of your language and approaches and sentiments that you are putting toward heightening and increasing diversity, equity and inclusion. And so when you hear me talk about Dei, you always hear me delineate between, you know, the three letters and the three terms. And I think inclusion is absolutely up there in terms of being paramount for individuals, both outside your organization and inside your organization to truly understand how you are embodying your approach.

And so think about inclusion, or think about inviting inclusion in three different ways. And these are all together. And I want to say that, again, these three things have to be done in conjunction and in connection with each other. If you separate them, I think you run the risk of coming across as not being authentic, which is the last thing that you want to leave with someone. Hello. Speak. Wonder. Hope you are doing well. Happy Friday. And so I think the first step or the first ring or the first phase in inviting inclusion is to have it as a value, maybe as a personal value, particularly definitely as a leadership value, and hopefully as an organizational value.

So how do you begin to integrate? Include. I shouldn't say include because I'm talking about inclusion. I apologize. How do you begin to incorporate inclusion as a value? And more importantly, how does that value get passed on as you orient and onboard new individuals to your teams and your organizations to also find yourself supporting the practice of inclusion? But then also, how are you promoting it organizationally, structurally, within, you know, what you do? And that leads me to my second point, which is, you know, if it is a value and you place it as a value, how are you validating it?

How are you making it known throughout your team, throughout your organization, that it is a value and you are placing an emphasis on it by validating it? Now, lots of individuals and lots of organizations will say, well, we simply reward inclusion or we simply provide incentives for individuals and teams to practice inclusion, and I have no problem with that, I think that is fantastic. But if the practice of inclusion is simply revolving around receiving incentives and rewards, I don't think that actually gives folks a reason to take it in and take it on in a really integral way.

And so while I'm not saying incentives and rewards are bad, I am saying, how are you doing it as a fundamental, organic piece to who you are and what you do? And incentives and rewards can't necessarily always do that. And so as a leader, as an organization, as a team, think about ways that you can validate inclusion that don't necessarily center or hinge upon rewards and incentives. And I hear, and I see lots of wheels turning. What does that mean? What does that look like? Well, you know, a great way for, in my humble opinion, to validate inclusion is to give inclusion an opportunity to lead, to have inclusion as a focal point of your agendas, to have it as an item.

Whenever you're doing team building or team retreats or organizational gatherings or leadership summits, inclusion needs to be part of all of those things that make it front and center. So it doesn't seem as. Or it doesn't come across as a one off, or that you just care about it in terms of checking a box, because that really sends you down a rabbit hole from a perception standpoint that I don't think you can climb out of. Oh, speak wonder. I'm sorry, you're in a snowstorm. We don't have any snow.

Well, we have snow on the ground, but we haven't had a real snowstorm yet. So while my heart goes out to you, I'm certainly glad I'm not in your position, but I'm glad you're tuning in and stay positive. Sometimes snowstorms are good. Good for catching up on readings and things like that. So hopefully I'm giving you a couple of talking points that you can use later on. And so after it is a value, or once you make it a value and then you find ways to consistently validate it, then I think the third piece is you have to make it visible.

And this is a slippery slope. Let me just say that at the outset, making something visible is a slippery slope. And, you know, I say that with a lot of sincerity, but also a lot of recognition that if you do something or if you. And when you make something visible, you run the risk of coming across as pandering or patronizing or doing something in a performative fashion. And those are all three things that you want to avoid when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. And so by making inclusion visible, you have to also make it credible.

So don't do anything that you can't support, that you can't, you know, identify as a value and validate it in a number of ways. But then, more importantly, that doesn't come across as an, as a fundamental part of who you are and what you want your team, your organization, or even your leadership to be. So visibility can be a catch 22. Stay away from patronizing, stay away from performative kinds of things, but make it fundamentally connected to who you are and what your organization is about. And that's why I say all of these three things are so intertwined, to the point that I don't think you should do any one of them without the other two.

And so hold it as a value, place it as a value, talk about it as a value and model it as a value, validate it in a really substantive, fundamental kind of way. Every agenda, every retreat, every, every gathering, every type of opportunity where you can put it front and center that gives it meaning, both leadership, individual and organizational meaning is super important. And then make it visible, visible to the point that you embody it as a core value and you mean it as an integral part of who you are as an organization.

And sometimes that might be more individually and relational, but more oftentimes than not, it's going to have an external framing for folks to really understand that you mean what you say you are about what you say, and that is truly, truly important to who you are as an organization. And I think more oftentimes than not, that really will give folks an understanding of who you are and what you want to be and what you hold dear in terms of your mission as an organization, your style and credibility as a leader.

And then moving forward, how you want other folks to be once they step into your space and your context as a workplace. So I'm Doctor E. I hope this has been helpful. Remember, value, validate and visibility, hugely important with how you try to make inclusion more invitational or invite folks to be a part of your inclusive journey. Have a great weekend and I will see you next week.