Building a case for Diversity and Inclusion

Building a case for Diversity and Inclusion

"Fellow males, get onboard. The closer that America comes to fully employing the talents of all its citizens, the greater its output of goods and services will be," Buffett wrote. 

He goes on, “Too many women continue to impose limitations on themselves, talking themselves out of achieving their potential,"

In India women representation in the workplace is abysmal, let alone in Leadership roles. While there are cases of a few companies who have bucked the trend, the gender balance has improved but no on leadership roles.

A lot can be done. Research is available on the challenges women face. There are some clear What and How’s that can be put in place.  

Seems to me that the conditions to promote this agenda is best served when:

1.     When there is authentic commitment and sponsorship by the top management.

2.     Effective sensitization of the middle managers that women talent adds to diversity, creativity and makes a compelling Business Case and more importantly it is the right thing to do.

3.     The organization needs to promote work enablement policies which are employee friendly available to both men and women. Examples are Work Flexibility in working hours, Working from Home, etc. Maternity and Support Services should be well engineered to help ‘vulnerable’ women doing key phases in their career.

4.     Especial attention on Mentoring and Coaching to High Potential Women

5.     Creating awareness of differences that men and women have to how they respond to workplace issues (eg: Flat versus Hierarchical structure, Process Versus Goal Focused, Linear versus Multi tasking, Relationship versus Competition), etc.  For more read Dr. Pat Heim

6.     Ted Talks has some wonderful videos from Sheryl Sandberg that is worth sharing within the organization.

Truth is, that the What and the How is the easy problem to solve. The Hard Problem is to ensure commitment and first from the Leadership team.  How best to do this?

In my experience the best method is an Immersive experience. Quite recently at an off site  workshop bringing out the essential differences Women and Men bring from their primary systems to their secondary systems helps bring up exploration and awareness of how each of us are wired differently and how we have responded to social mirrors, that have essentially created for us our paradigms. Reviewing how women talk to each other, and how men talk to men, and how the differences show up in interactions when men and women engage either one on one or in a group.

This followed a few skits enacted by participants that showed men and women at work, and with creative license, highlighting the differences and cross wires that take place. 

Then followed a flash file that shared facts – Did You Know? This covered Gender representation at the workplace, etc and Global trends. The clip ended with, Now you Know, What are we going to Do about it?

Through the dialogue that ensured, participants raised questions, explored the context, the assumptions and issues. A one word adjective sought from each one as to how they felt about this confirmed heightened commitment and a call for action. 

That’s it. I ask you readers, to bring attention to Purpose. ‘Why’ is the key area to focus on. When the why is clear, the what and How appears by themselves.

Further videos/ reads:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ1dZzwaKr4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPZ6pFJ1D-c
www.youtube.com/watch?v=18uDutylDa4
http://chartsbin.com/view/4319

Women and Men are equal but they are wired differently.Women want to build relationships by sharing personal information; men want to establish the relationship between each other by trading views, opinions and anecdotes (and so concealing personal information). While women strive for ‘dead even’ rule between themselves, men strive for a place in the pecking order in the hierarchy. Women enhance their world by communication and collaboration; men through competition. Men tend to enjoy working sequentially, while women are at home multi-tasking. Men tend to systematise most things in an analytical manner, women wish to empathise mostly in the situation. While men wish to find their 'place' in a situation, women tend to wish for a Utopia: to establish the greater good for all. Men should other team members on functionality and need ( with little regard to interpersonal), women on the other hand tend to choose basis the relationship they have with the others.  

Even the way brands target women is different to men. Brand communication to women ted to inspire, encourage and support women as they try and create Utopia. On the other hand brand communication directed towards men play up the achievement impulse. The messages tend to support communication around enhancing ability to compete framed through user imagery or product advantage