Diversity without Inclusion

It’s popular to say, “diversity is good for business,” but I would say that that’s not entirely true. Why? Because diversity on its own is only half the story. It’s like Butch without Sundance or Will without Grace. Or a burger without fries (salad without olive oil for you veggies). It just doesn’t fulfill the promise.

Experience shows that diversity requires inclusion in order for diversity to be good for business. If an organization doesn’t create and foster an inclusive workplace, diversity is not going to deliver the promise that it holds.

Diversity is slowly but surely becoming a reality in the workplace but I’d say that inclusion is lagging far behind. This is why it’s so important now to become aware of and track ways that your workplace is actually exclusionary.

Part of the story is whether you have the policies and procedures to handle the issues that come up, and beyond that, it’s important to ask, do your people feel included? What does that mean?  

Read an interesting article about this in the Harvard Business Review here.