Fostering Belonging

Inclusive and diverse cultures are essential for workplace psychological health and safety.

Inclusive workplaces benefit through increased productivity, creativity and innovation, which are exactly the elements we need in this constantly evolving world.

Beyond creating competitive and commercial advantage, developing workplace psychological health and safety is mandated by legislation.

Intersectionality

In 1989, notable scholar and civil rights advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term ‘intersectionality’.24 Crenshaw argued that identity is multi-faceted, and that those various facets interact to create a different experience than if they existed independently.
As a woman, I’ll experience certain levels of bias and discrimination in any given environment. As a woman with chronic health issues or disability, I may also experience additional barriers and discrimination. If I was a woman of colour… If I was a woman of colour with a disability… If I was a trans woman… You get the picture.

It’s important that we understand this because, too often, we try to compartmentalise diversity – we’ll address LGBTQIA+, women at work, neurodiversity individually, in isolation. We need to think about what’s similar about our needs, what barriers we’re each facing, and about ways to overcome those barriers.

Overcoming Barriers

Perhaps we can start by asking some relevant questions.

• What are the barriers?
• Who maintains those barriers?
• Whose interests are being served by exclusion?
• Whose voices are being heard, and whose aren’t?
• Who’s in the room when decisions are being made?
• Who’s not in the room? And why?

James Charlton, a disability advocate, said: ‘Nothing about us, without us.’ Inclusion cannot be done to people. It needs to be done with people.

What can we do?

• Listen Loudly – Seek out stories of people with lived experience that is very different to your own—but do what you can to educate yourself before you expect someone else to educate you.
• Unconscious Bias – Be willing to examine yourself. Be willing to actually stop and do some self-reflection.
• Get Comfortable with Difference – Are you awkward and uncomfortable with difference? Or do you accept it and remain curious about different experiences and perspectives?
• Consider your Privilege – Privilege is about power. Inclusion isn’t a passive act—it is about letting go of power you’ve traditionally held and, in some cases, sharing power to create equity.

This is an excerpt from The Ecosystem of Work by Tasha Broomhall. For a more comprehensive overview, you can purchase it here.