Intent, Impact, and Inclusion
Inclusion. The intent is to include everyone in the conversation. The intent is to make sure all are a part of the process. The intent is to guarantee all individuals have practices to benefit everyone. Our intentions are clear, if the definition of everyone and all are the same.
Unfortunately, these definitions can differ by person and context. The impact being many people and voices are left out; particularly people of the global majority (formerly BIPOC or POC) and those who are gender diverse. At CTP, we focus on addressing the impact on these communities. So, let’s dig into the ways people may think about and even pursue inclusion for everyone.
Inclusion is an authentic sense of belonging and value giving everyone the freedom necessary to participate, lead, and act with agency.
An “authentic sense” is supported or even opposed by the behaviors of others. Why? Because inclusion is a practice. It is a dynamic and ongoing practice that demands conscious, deliberate actions. It means consistently examining and adjusting our actions to ensure they promote access for more than a select few, while referring to everyone. The focus on impact over intention acknowledges that even well-meaning actions can have unintended consequences.
- How do you hold a mirror up to language?
- What does commitment to continuous learning and effective strategy look like?
Actively seeking feedback, observing the effects of policies and practices, and being willing to make changes that address harm for successful inclusion.
This is not a plea to stop using the word “everyone”. Instead it is a reminder about how often our systems fail us and ways to always be shifting it in the direction of inclusion. It’s not changing the words, it’s changing the environment in which it exists.
Our systems must match our sentiment.
Everyone is Them Too
Often we attribute responsibility to ‘they’. We assert ‘they’ could benefit from this information and we forward the email hoping they will read it. Everyone includes them too. Is that how they will best receive and implement the message? In working on inclusion, people can lose sight of the individuals within our communities. This causes us to reduce unique voices to a singular. It makes those we wish to include faceless entities, perpetuating exclusion rather than increasing belonging and value. This is much easier said than done and often calls for multiple solutions for one opportunity. In marketing there is a strategy of creating audiences based on similarities and unique qualities. Marketers even go so far as to create a story about the audience and name them. This strategy has practical use in inclusion work. We must personalize and name those we wish to impact.
The power for change lies in our ability to uplift marginalized voices, solve with equity in mind, and hold ourselves accountable to impact.
Here are some spaces that we can try this at work:
Hiring – Design a hiring process that eliminates names from the review process or boldly seeks marginalized social identities for positions that would increase effectiveness. Implement fair chance hiring practices to give individuals with criminal records a fair shot at employment. Advocate for policies that support undocumented workers and ensure their protection within your organization. True inclusion means making room for everyone, even those who society often deems unworthy.
Training and Learning – When announcing that “everyone” is encouraged to participate in professional development workshops. Think through the time the workshops are, are they truly available to everyone or simply offered during what is considered general work hours? There are likely people who work alternative schedules. Be intentional about making workshops an option for them. If the workshops are scheduled in conflict with cultural or religious observances, employees from certain backgrounds might be excluded. Please check. Additionally, if the content does not reflect diverse perspectives or address the specific challenges faced by marginalized groups, the workshops may not be truly inclusive and likely won’t even meet your learning needs.
Hybrid Work – As offices move to require both remote and in person work make sure there is space for the entire staff to thrive. Create standards for home environment support, office access, and hybrid schedules. Make sure these standards take into account multi generational households that live in small spaces, communication styles, sensory-friendly environments, check in cadence, and virtual collaboration tickets.
Big Picture – Conduct an audit of your organizational policies and practices. Identify who is being left out and how. What is the objective of the policies and practices and are they written and implemented in a way that makes space identities that are often not considered in the white supremacy framework we often operate within. Develop targeted initiatives to include these marginalized groups, whether they are people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals, or others who are often overlooked.
If everyone truly means every. single. individual in the workplace, inclusion is crucial for fostering a diverse and innovative environment. It enhances productivity, creativity, and employee satisfaction. When people are included, the organization benefits from a broader range of ideas and solutions, attracting and retaining top talent. Including everyone is necessary to make that happen. At the same time if some are being excluded, be clear that it is known, why it is happening, and how it is being addressed.
A Note and A Nod
In talking about inclusion we want to make special note of intersectionality and create space to acknowledge your learning and work.
There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives. – Audre Lorde
Kimberlee Crenshaw coined the term intersectionality in 1989. Since then we have grown to understand it well. There are many marginalized identities and when one person identifies with multiple their experience is further marginalized at the intersection. Too often, our approach to inclusion is one-dimensional, failing to recognize the complexity of intersectional identities. Doing this leaves the most vulnerable to fall through the cracks of our inclusion strategies.
Learning about the experience of intersectional identities allows us to best understand how to approach so much of our inclusion work. If you make space for a Black person who is gender nonconforming, disabled, and queer the chances of everyone experiencing inclusion is much higher because you centered multiple marginalized identities. Especially because race is part of the intersection.
In the United States Black skin is the foundation to discriminatory, inequitable, and oppressive laws, policies and social norms.
Educate yourself about the experiences of people who are typically excluded from “everyone.” Volunteer with organizations that support marginalized communities. Challenge your own biases and encourage those around you to do the same. That is how we align our intention and impact concerning inclusion.
To build community requires vigilant awareness of the work we must continually do to undermine all the socialization that leads us to behave in ways that perpetuate domination. -bell hooks
bell hooks reminds us that in the spaces we are most comfortable there is often room for question. When you invite everyone to a dinner party, whose presence would you question? When you open a training program to all does anyone require special permission to participate? Have you ever heard the chatter after a gathering and it not only seems everyone attended but sounds like something you would have enjoyed if you were invited? There is great space for clarification.
This unlearning and relearning is not to be done on our own. All these questions are not rhetorical. We get better by sharing and listening to one another.
Follow us on LI or IG and comment how you are pushing against your socialization, how you define everyone, and where you are finding inclusive spaces.
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