What Inclusion Looks Like (#willseries2017)
There’s a new concept sweeping the business landscape right now: belonging. It’s catching on like wildfire, a “new” phenomenon, the complement to inclusion. But those of us who work in inclusion know that belonging was never separate from inclusion.
So why is belonging resonating? Because, as it turns out, very few people actually know what inclusion means or what it really looks like.
I got the idea for the WILL (What Inclusion Looks Like) series last year. I had noticed that, across the multiple client systems I was working with, employees overwhelmingly believed inclusion was important at work; could describe desired outcomes; but had trouble connecting inclusion to their ways of working. Leaders seemed to lack the will to move toward what to them seemed a abstraction. I would talk more, but they just couldn’t visualize what I was talking about—because they’d never seen it before. So I started thinking about how to show what inclusion could look like on a daily basis. And going meta, I decided to be inclusive about inclusion…
Starting this month, I’ll ask leaders from my network to share their real-life examples of inclusion within their organization. I don’t expect we’ll all agree, and that will be the fun part. If you want to weigh in for the series, don’t wait, let me know!
Check back here regularly, and/or follow #willseries2017 on Twitter.
