Future-Proofing: is your business ready for a future that includes everyone?

By Mo Kanjilal, Co-Creator of Watch This Sp_ce

If you want to create a future-proof business, then including different types of people, perspectives and ideas in everything you do is critical. Without that, you will lack the different perspectives you need to innovate. Here’s the thing though, it’s easy to say that’s what you will do.  It’s a bigger task to actually create an inclusive company that looks outwards and engages with everyone. 

The Business Case

Research shows that teams that include a diverse range of people output around 19% more innovation. Diverse teams make decisions quicker with around half the number of meetings. And you know what? Innovation + Quick Decision-making = success. And that success means higher profits, better productivity and happier and more engaged employees. 

Yet despite this evidence showing that diverse teams perform better, the majority of companies are still dominated by homogenous teams of people from dominant groups. In fact, recent research shows the gender pay gap has widened and that more people from ethnic minorities have lost their jobs during the pandemic. And that’s just two aspects of the different types of people in society. 

When we talk to organisations about the business case for diversity and inclusion, there’s always lots of nods and looks of interest. Yet real change in the wider world is so slow. To make radical and transformative changes takes work, engagement and tenacity. Maybe that’s why progress is taking a while.

People

Transforming the people involved in your business means reaching out to very different types of people. This is where we see so many organisations talking about diversity and inclusion, but not really doing much about it. It’s easier to follow the same patterns of recruitment and to hire people you know. It’s easier to network with people who are similar to you. A more complex task is to radically reimagine the whole process. 

To create new and inclusive recruitment processes means change. Obvious right? So why is it that this is not what happens in reality? Well, it’s because it’s easier to fall back into the same patterns. People are busy, and it’s easier to carry on as you are. But if you want to create a world where people are included, and you want to reap all the benefits of diversity, then things have to change. 

● Take a critical look at how you recruit and what needs to change

● Consider how you communicate about recruitment

● And think radically about new relationships you need to create and different networks you need to find

The journey of change is ongoing. You need to look at what happens during the recruitment process. Involve different types of people. And be prepared to challenge yourself and your team on your decisions. 

It doesn’t stop at recruitment, either. When you have recruited different types of people, how are you going to ensure they feel they can belong? You will need to think about how you make people feel welcome and how you enable them to contribute their best. And then how you make decisions about progressing people’s careers. 

Processes

And that brings us onto working processes. If you do not radically think about how you work, then different people who join will not be able to contribute as fully as you want. They will not feel they can disagree and bring new ideas. 

So that means considering how you ask people for their thoughts. Consider using online collaboration tools like Miro or Google Jamboard. And definitely have a good think about whether meetings are the best place for creative ideas. Whether it’s online or face-to-face meetings, they can be environments where people may struggle to tell a group if they have a different idea. And those forums are often the places where certain types of people are happy to hold all of the ‘air time’ and dominate the conversations, but are they definitely the ones who have the best ideas? You might be missing out on some incredibly valuable perspectives. 

For those fantastic business benefits of diverse, inclusive teams, there is work to do. People are not going to be happy and perform at their best if they join environments where they do not feel welcome. To create a culture where everyone feels they can belong, you need to shake things up.

That’s also what will attract the talent of the future. Younger people are attracted to businesses who actually include different people. Not the ones who just talk about it.

Only by making space for all these different voices can you create a business that will survive and thrive in the future.

If this is all sounding daunting and like a lot of work (which it is!), email 

hello@watchthisspace.uk and we can talk you through our Inclusion Framework. 

www.watchthisspace.co.uk