A Different Approach to Inclusion

When very little happens in spite of efforts for twenty years, try a different way to tackle the challenge.

Background: Why diversity and equality is the normal thing in my mind

I was brought up without knowing that there was an imbalance between the genders. My mom was a teacher who cooked dinner every night and ironed my dad’s shirts. My dad was a banker who woke us up every morning. He made and shared a wholesome breakfast with my sister and me in the kitchen, and he made a tray for my mom, every day. He cleaned the house on Saturdays, while my sister and I helped. At school everything was co-ed and Sweden in the 80’s was all about everyone being equal. Imagine my surprise when I realized that it was different in the workplace! During my university years I swallowed all the books I could find on organizational behavior and psychology to balance out the mandatory finance and marketing. I joined women’s groups and wrote about “Whether mentorship programs in (large Swedish) organizations could help women to break through the glass-ceiling”. I was angry about the inequality I had “discovered”. 20 years ago I was ready fight for inclusion and equality, but realized that getting some work experience first might help with my credibility. I shifted gears and traveled to Silicon Valley to start my career in sales. After my first job, I was part of starting up, running and selling two software companies. During the two decades I spent in the technology space I was reminded daily of the lack of diversity across industries.

Company commitment and the right tools

All of us can choose to take an active approach to improving the company culture to make work a great place to be. Talking and writing about it is good. Supporting each other, networking, some mentorship programs, and inclusion initiatives in the workplace are better as well as necessary. However, I believe that we have to complement these efforts to accelerate getting to our goal of making work a place where everyone can thrive. My efforts will be on getting more women and minorities to stay and love their workplace. We need to leap off the plateau where we are sitting and find a different way to attack the problem. If we can avoid quotation by having companies commit to inclusion, diversity, and equality, and provide them with the tools to do so, then we are on the right track.

Turn the responsibility pyramid on it’s head

Today the corporate diversity policy and the heavy lifting by HR is making some difference, but I believe that in order for us to see the change we so desperately need, we have to move responsibility from HR to the individual contributor and team leaders. While we politely listen to (and think to ourselves; “how does this concern me?”) HR preaching about diversity and perhaps even attend a training or seminar on the topic, we need to understand that it does concern us and that HR cannot do the job without us! The culture of the company pours from the top down and is validated by the people in the organization. When we figure out how to get the roots of the organization motivated to participate in the inclusion efforts and make a difference, we’ll make progress.

Introducing Epiquette — The Diversity Platform, to improve the workplace for women and minorities

The platform will address inclusion efforts and improve diversity in organizations. It will move the responsibility of change from HR and staff functions to the individual employees and line managers. It is everyone’s business that the company does well and outperforms itself as well as its competitors. There is only so much we can do to show improved results due to increased sales or reduced operating cost. The future is in sustainability — economical and environmental, but also in cultural and social sustainability. Epiquette will provide a much needed platform for inclusion efforts to improve diversity, which leads to better decision making, customer relations, and improved business results.

The Epiquette concept is currently being validated. If you are heading up D&I efforts in your company and you are interested in participating with feedback, please contact me at eva.helen@epiquette.com.