- You know, what excites me about the importance
of inclusion is what the data is now telling us.
When you have an inclusive workforce,
when you have a diverse workforce, you get better results.
You get better retention, less attrition,
you hire more people,
your people feel more included, they're engaged more
and quite frankly, they're simply happier.
And that's a very powerful combination.
Inclusive cultures are hard to create
for a handful of reasons.
First off, even if a manager or a leader cares,
they do not understand the lived experience
of others to even know what to start to do in an organization.
And if you do begin to try, it's a lot of work.
You have to learn yourself,
you have to understand, you have to engage,
you have to get your direct reports to engage.
And I'll say another reason is a lot of business,
all of us, understand the job is to make money.
It's to grow profits, to grow the business.
And if you don't believe
that a diverse and inclusive culture helps to drive that,
you're not going to move forward.
You know, if you want to increase inclusion
in your workplace, there's a couple things I'd say.
One, of course,
you have to believe yourself that it's important.
Two, you have to be building an inclusive
and diverse leadership team so start to build a pipeline now
because it takes time.
Three, you got to open up communication channels
in your organization, which is a lot of work.
Four, I think you should role model yourself.
Be an action ally.
Make a difference for somebody.
You also should make sure you put metrics
and measures in place.
At least publish those amongst your organization
and with your leaders.
And if you're willing to publish them publicly,
it will make a difference.