Diversity is being invited to the party while inclusion is being asked to dance!

By Leigh Greer (Manager, Wholesale Markets) of Utility Regulator NI.

During November and December last year, I participated in a ‘Power of Diversity’ course which was hosted by ‘Women In Business’ and facilitated by Sandra Lee.  It was refreshing to openly share experiences around diversity and inclusion with like-minded individuals from different industries, most of whom were starting out in a new position or new initiative and all with different roles in their organisations.

Most of us had the same hang-ups and concerns so at no point was it intimidating and any information shared was very much at your own discretion.

Lesson-to-self #1: Don’t dismiss a learning opportunity just because you misjudged its intention.
 
A key focus of the course was on promoting a more diverse and inclusive culture.  Diversity isn’t always obvious.  My misconception was that diversity was about race, religion and gender, but it involves so many other elements.

Primary drivers which probably come to most of our minds include age, sex, race and gender; secondary drivers include working style, appearance, parental/ family status, language/ accent; organisational drivers are things such as a person’s management status, work experience, union affiliation or role in a company; and cultural drivers include things like a person’s traditions/ observances, whether their preference is a flexible or structured working style, whether they like to work as an individual or as a team, their conflict resolution preferences and their body language.  The extent of diverse traits and characteristics surprised everyone attending the course.

Lesson-to-self #2: If well led, diverse teams out-perform and out-innovate homogenous teams.
 
The difference between diversity and inclusion was discussed.  A good take-away was that “Diversity is being invited to the party while inclusion is being asked to dance”.  You can try to include a diverse blend of participants, but it is up to each individual to take part.

Lesson-to-self #3: Inclusion is a choice. Contribute!
 
Towards the end of the course, we also learnt that so many variations of unconscious bias exist.  Again, more than I had appreciated.  Affinity bias is where we gravitate to others who are similar to us in appearance, beliefs and background; performance bias is where people in majority groups are judged by their expected potential; confirmation bias is when a person seeks out evidence to confirm an initial perception while ignoring information to the contrary; and double-discrimination exists too… which is an unfortunate duplication of many biases in a compounded fashion.

Lesson-to-self #4: Challenge your own biases, be aware of your blind-spots and be an ally.  From my own experience, women definitely need to support other women more!
 
The course wasn’t too intensive, with four 2-hour modules once a fortnight.  The homework was fairly light but always informative and inspiring.  If you haven’t considered the Women In Business training sessions, they are worth a try.
 
* If you are interested in joining the conversation and  changing the narrative around Diversity and Inclusion whilst learning more about yourself in the process, then sign up to the Power of Diversity Programme as part of the Centre of Learning at Women In Business - the programme is open to all genders!