We recently held a virtual interactive workshop “The Holistic Case for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging” to better understand how unconscious bias, privilege and systemic racism affects the workplace.
Many issues have been brought to the surface because of worldwide movements like Black Lives Matter. We wanted to start a conversation about our respective responsibilities, promoting equality and looking into the best way to navigate our journey of learning. To cultivate a culture of belonging in the workplace to create an environment that allows all employees to truly flourish.
Chico Chakravorty, founder of Doing Diversity Differently led the session, providing valuable context and terminology, linking race issues in society to race issues at work. He shared how good intentions can still result in micro-aggressions. How to unlearn the unconscious prejudices that form our world views. And most importantly, how to recognise privilege and move forward as a business with awareness and consideration.
Acknowledgement is the first step
To become more attractive to those outside your business is to care about the issues surrounding diversity and inclusivity. Even if that means addressing your own position.
Is the culture in your organisation one of validation rather than dismissal? Are you as a leader an active listener? Business leaders need to be comfortable having uncomfortable conversations in order to progress.
Join the conversation
As a result of the session we have set up a group on Linkedin 'Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging in the NE' which is a safe place for business leaders in the North East to discuss and share their practices on creating a fully inclusive workplace where everyone feels they belong.
Whether you are looking at your existing workforce, or looking to recruit new talent, this group brings together the North East business community to tackle some of the harder elements that prevents your employees from truly flourishing. Join the group here.
Further resources to explore
A video of Systemic Racism Explained
An overview of what Microagressions are
The Twitter thread about the Microsoft Inclusivity settings
An article on why empathy is a needed leadership
Some ways to help you build your empathy
The overview of covering up
An article explaining the concept of cognitive diversity
Some high level leadership strategies to be more more inclusive