Diversity Intelligence: How to Create a Culture of Inclusion for your Business

DIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE

HOW TO CREATE A CULTURE OF INCLUSION FOR YOUR BUSINESS

HEIDI R. ANDERSEN

This edition first published 2021

© 2021 Heidi R. Andersen

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To Jens, my life companion and guardian angel.

FOREWORD

I am a white, heterosexual, cisgender male. My diversity footprint is not just small, it is virtually non-existent. I could hardly be more privileged. Even if I tried not to be, a patriarchal and racist system would reward me anyway, simply for being who and what I am.

Acknowledging and understanding my privilege, dealing with its consequences, and deconstructing its negative effects on different social groups has been a big challenge for me. Yet, that is nothing compared to the challenges of the non-privileged or marginalized who must face and deal with systemic discrimination every day.

The debate around white male privilege and my own challenge to grapple with it are key to understanding and changing the paradigms of exclusive systems and organizations. Only by understanding such systems and their underlying hierarchies can we gradually overcome toxic normativity and lift the burden we force on people who are different from our norms.

One of the pivotal moments in patriarchal societies, for instance, is when men become aware of their privilege. Once we are able to acknowledge that we have had a veritable head start simply by identifying as male or white, we slowly begin to grasp and examine the consequences of our privilege. We need to understand how our own socialization within patriarchy has affected our behavior and how that behavior in turn has consequences for us – and the people around us.

The tough thing about privilege is that being privileged does not necessarily feel so great. Privilege is the absence of inconvenience, an impediment, or challenge. When you have it, you don't really notice it, but when it's absent, it affects everything you do.¹

What psychologist and former NBA player John Aemichi says is the very reason privilege, and especially the unawareness of it, stands in the way of truly creating inclusive systems: systems in which each and every one of us can unfold their full potential without having to deny certain aspects of their personality or character. Such systems, however, do not yet exist.

Instead, we foster normative societies and organizations in which only certain social groups feel like they belong while others are left out. And even worse: The cognitive load of constantly having to adapt to circumstances that do not meet one's own needs is one of the major obstacles for belonging. It drains a lot of energy from people from the out-group. The playing field is not level, so one group always has to work harder than the other.

Many privileged people, however, do not feel the need to create more inclusive systems. That does not necessarily make them bad people. They just do not realize that the core of privilege is that a problem isn't perceived as a problem because it isn't your problem. Many people do not understand the role they play in the harmful practice of marginalization and discrimination. Instead, they believe that they are about to lose something: For someone who is accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.

The absence of privilege, on the other hand, leads to systemic imbalances regarding access for people who are not part of the privileged in-group. Therefore, we need to understand people's access to our systems. What does the world look like for someone who is non-white, trans, homosexual, poor, disabled, illiterate, introvert and/or else? How does our world feel for others, for people who are different from us?

People who are different from us is a quite accurate definition of the concept of diversity, which goes way beyond the binary and narrow debate of male vs. female. We are so much more than just men and women, black or white, disabled or able-bodied. We are complex human beings, living together in complex social systems. Thus, a debate about how we want to live and work together without understanding the concept of intersectionality is impossible.

Kimberlé Crenshaw, Distinguished Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law, who introduced and developed the concept of intersectionality, describes its impact as follows: It's basically a lens, a prism, for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other. We tend to talk about race inequality as separate from inequality based on gender, class, sexuality, or immigrant status. What's often missing is how some people are subject to all of these, and the experience is not just the sum of its parts.²

Before we can embark on a journey towards inclusion, we need to acknowledge the systemic experiences of different social groups as well as the interdependency of their social features. We need to understand how intersectional setups define whether a human being has access to our systems – or not. And the key to understanding that difference in access is empathy.

Diversity is a fact; inclusion is the path; belonging is the goal. For many people, this is already a paradigm shift. They still believe in some kind of diversity endgame. That explains why so many organizations are currently jumping on the bandwagon by bragging about their diversity initiatives. But what they are actually doing has little to do with a fundamental change of systemic frameworks. Instead, they are feeding their own culture gaps.

Organizations can be privileged, too. It's the privilege of interpretation many companies claim for themselves. They interpret their own approaches towards being fair and inclusive far too optimistically. One might call that practice pinkwashing, adding to what organizational change theorists call the culture gap: the gap between the culture as intended (CAI) and the culture as practiced (CAP). This gap between talking and doing can become very dangerous for an organization. Once the gap becomes too big, companies can implode.

Many companies still believe in the tale of the pipeline. They think that just by adding women or PoC to their pipeline, the whole system will change. But representation does not automatically lead to participation. Quite the opposite is the case, actually. If all we do is add people from the diversity drawing board, we are throwing these people under the bus. Organizational cultures often work like an immune system: They attack every outsider who does not belong.

Inclusion is hard work, especially because diversity itself can be very demanding, exhausting even. Not only do we have to overcome our biased assessment of people and circumstances, we also need to find intrinsic motivation while doing so. Extrinsic metrics alone, however, are not enough to change the practice of unconsciously installing and upholding exclusive, in-group oriented monocultures.

At some point, we need to believe in what we are doing. Apart from financial or political aspects, we need to embrace the idea that it is the right thing to do to create systems based on equal opportunities. Our KPIs should not be awards or manifestos or quantitative metrics from the pipeline only – but a feeling of belonging for those who have not yet had equal access.

Our approach to understanding these facts and putting the necessary steps in motion must be an empathic one, not just a rational one. We need to educate ourselves and learn about our conceptual biases, such as intersectionality and privilege. DEB (diversity, equity, belonging) is nothing less than empathy training. It can be very challenging. It also needs a humble perspective by those who are already part of the in-group. But the result is worth every effort.

The key to change is a process of reflection for men, because men are holding positions of power. And with power, there comes responsibility. We need to become aware of our privilege, especially if we do not feel or experience it. If we feel accused, neglected, or blamed by all those attempts to heal a sexist, misogynist, exclusive, classist monocultural system, then we still have a lot of work to do.

We are key players in that process. We need to become allies in changing the system. We need to live up to our responsibilities and play a role as agents of change. We need to identify how, when, and where our behavior harms people who are different from us. Then, and only then, can we enable our organizations and our systems to become truly inclusive.

Robert Franken is a German consultant, speaker, and activist. He advises organizations and top executives on the subjects of transformation, DIB, and organizational change. Now an expert for organizational culture, Franken used to be the CEO of various tech and community startups. He is on the advisory board of PANDA, a German network for female executives. In 2016, he founded the platform Male Feminists Europe. He is one of six honorary catalysts for HeForShe Germany.

Notes

1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbPJfxRYmCg.

2https://time.com/5786710/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality/.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

So many people have knowingly and unknowingly inspired me to write this book:

All the passionate people in businesses around the world who believe in transforming their companies and unleashing the potential of diversity and who trusted in us and reached out to embark on the journey together.

My colleagues Kasper Jelsbech Knudsen and Salman S. Ahmad, who are experts in this field and know how to apply their knowledge and wisdom to create actual improvements.

My soul sister Helle Katholm Knutsen, an ever inexhaustible source of inspiration, of uncontrollable mind journeys and transformative conversations, some of which are scattered in this book.

Jens Rottbøll for encouraging me to take the time, we both knew I did not have, and for patiently believing and investing in this project.

My grandsons Birk, Frej and Eik for unconsciously energising me when I most needed it.

Georgia Kirke and Katherine Lewis from Write Business Results who skillfully stood by my side through the writing process.

INTRODUCTION

I would like to start by telling you why I am writing this book. Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) is an area that I am incredibly passionate about. Through this book, I want to help more companies enhance their ability to stay in the market by implementing D&I initiatives that work. I want to improve wellbeing and psychological safety in workplaces and I want companies to become more innovative by attracting and retaining talent, no matter what that talent looks like, and to benefit financially from it.

Most of all, I want this book to help many more companies harness the many benefits of diversity and inclusion. As we at the Living Institute have discovered, the best way to do this is by developing what we call diversity intelligence. In this book, I will share why diversity intelligence can foster an inclusive culture in your organisation, one that attracts, motivates, engages and retains the most talented people you can possibly find. You will learn all the key steps to take (and those to avoid) and I will also share how to get others on board to create the necessary mindset shift, but first, let me take you back to the time when I first realised how diversity affected me.

Cake, liquorice and an unfortunate Danish company

I have been living and working in a diverse setting my whole life. Even as a child, I realised that a person's cultural background has a big impact on norms, values and behaviours.

My mother is a Danish Lutheran and my father is a Catholic from Southern Germany, so I grew up with a dual cultural background. There was a big difference between my grandparents' home in Denmark and my grandparents' home in Germany.

Very quickly, I realised that I had to change my behaviour to earn their affection. I adapted my behaviour in Southern Germany to get as much cake as possible and I adapted my behaviour in Denmark to get as much liquorice as possible.

Basically, there were two versions of me, and by understanding and navigating the different cultural norms between my grandparents, I profited from them as a child.

What I noticed as I grew up and joined the workforce was that many large global companies were struggling with managing and bridging cultural differences within the workplace. My experience at one global company particularly stands out in my memory. My new job was at this company's headquarters. I left my previous job in an organisation characterised by a high degree of diversity, and my family and I left the capital where we lived and moved to the other end of the country. Immediately, we noticed people's reactions to us big-city people. We were the odd ones out. Having been used to the multi-cultural and diverse environment in the city, arriving at a company whose staff and culture I would characterise as homogenous was a struggle for me and, in particular, my children. However, we were not the only ones who struggled to fit in.

At that time, the company had relocated an Italian executive from one of its subsidiaries to the headquarters due to his remarkable results in Italy. Back then, he was one of the only non-Danes at the headquarters. However, I immediately saw the resistance he met simply because he was so culturally different. His outgoing way of approaching people was in stark contrast to the culture in the community, both within and outside of the company. I noticed this so clearly because I too felt this resistance. Needless to say, within a short while he left to work for another global company, and so did I. The lack of inclusion at this Danish company, primarily due to a culture of sameness or homogeneity, meant that it became difficult to retain talented staff who did not fit the mould. The company was missing out.

What I realised through this experience is that once you have worked in a highly culturally diverse and inclusive setting, you cannot go back.

It's nothing personal – it's systemic

One of the challenges with bringing the conversation surrounding diversity and inclusivity to the fore is that it can lead to a blame game. Many men, in particular, can feel as though they are being blamed, even though they have not consciously contributed to the current situation.

On many occasions, I have heard middle-aged white men say, I'm not part of the diversity ambition. I am the one whose fault it is and now I have to lose everything. This could not be further from the truth. In fact, in my experience, many men in this position want to change and make a difference; however, they do not want to be blamed in the process. Blame is not part of the diversity intelligence conversation. My aim is to support these men and encourage them to be actively involved in cultural transformations, because it is when you can mobilise these men that you start to see real progress. Attracting and retaining the best people is only one piece of the puzzle; it is by no means the only reason why organisations should care about inclusion. Another important aspect is sustainable governance, which is underpinned by diversity intelligence.

Enhancing diversity intelligence is sustainable governance

In business, when you talk about sustainability it always comes down to three areas: environmental, social and governance (ESG). Diversity intelligence is an essential element of sustainable governance.

More and more companies are being measured on how they are performing in relation to ESG and sustainability, which is why inclusion of diversity is becoming an increasingly pressing issue for many businesses.

Overview of the book

In the first part of this book, we take a closer look at what diversity intelligence is and how it can be applied within organisations. Chapter 2 takes a deep dive into the business case for diversity intelligence, highlighting the strong financial incentives for choosing the right initiatives that will create a culture of inclusion. We close this part of the book by examining why more progress has not already been made in this area.

Once we understand that background for diversity intelligence, we can look at how to move forward and create more inclusive businesses. Parts 2 and 3 are full of practical advice for creating the necessary cultural transformation where diversity intelligence goes far beyond the surface of an organisation.

I share best practice examples that have been gathered through the work of the Living Institute and our 17 years of experience helping companies in the field of inclusion and diversity.

Among the topics I cover are the roles and responsibilities that allow diversity intelligence to succeed, including why synchronising top management is such an essential part of the process. I share a simple tool to ensure