Beth Ridley (speaker) defines diversity as the mix of visible and hidden identities, backgrounds, and experiences; inclusion is the active practice that moves a group beyond tolerance and respect toward appreciation; and belonging is the outcome when inclusive behaviors allow people to realize their potential. Ridley uses a cake metaphor (ingredients = diversity; recipe = inclusive behaviors) and previews three inclusive behaviors to be detailed in later lessons, while encouraging listeners to reflect on what a more inclusive workplace would look like.
Chapters
Before we jump into the behaviors that foster belonging, let's better understand diversity and inclusion. These are the pillars of belonging, so understanding them is crucial. Diversity encompasses identities, backgrounds and life experiences that shape who we are, how we see the world and navigate in it. It's important to appreciate that everyone is diverse when we consider not just visible differences, but also hidden identities, backgrounds and life experiences that make each of us unique. It's also important to appreciate that we're all more than just the rapper that we come in. In other words, more than our visible differences such as age, race and gender. For instance, as an African American woman, my gender and race are hugely important to me, but also I think the least interesting things about me when I think about all of my unique personal and professional experiences that are a huge part of my life. So if diversity is the mix, inclusion is getting the mix to work well together, where people feel respected and appreciated for who they truly are. Sometimes people mistake being polite and professional as being inclusive when they're really just being tolerant of differences. Tolerance is the willingness to put up with differences we may not agree with or like. Tolerance is not bad. But as inclusive leaders and professionals who truly want to embody inclusivity, we strive to have people feel more than just tolerated in our presence. The next step up from tolerance is respect. Respect is about treating everyone with dignity, regardless of personal feelings and understanding that respect is a two way street. But true inclusion goes beyond respect to appreciation. Appreciation means we embrace all forms of diversity as an asset. As such, we're willing to step outside of our own comfort z and be flexible or equitable in our approaches so that others can feel a sense of belonging in order to realize their full potential. That means recognizing different people need different things to succeed. Allowing people the option to join meetings in person or virtually is one way. We've all gotten accustomed to adopting a more flexible, equitable approach to our work. When I advise clients on how to apply a more flexible and equitable lens to their policies and practices, the first reaction I often get is, yeah, okay, we can't change the way we do things to be different for everyone. And that is a valid point. Organizations don't have unlimited resources to respond to everyone's unique needs, and it is unrealistic to think you can ever make everyone happy. But in my experience, there is often more opportunity to make small changes from from an equity lens to set more people up for success than we assume. Too often we don't even ask the question to consider how we can improve beyond a one size fits all approach. So pulling this all together Diversity is the mix of differences inherent in everyone and all around us. And behaviors rooted in true inclusion help us get the mix to work well together. So so we move from a culture of tolerance to one of appreciation that leads to that sense of belonging. Think of belonging as a delicious cake that we all want. Diversity is represented by all of the different ingredients that contribute to the cake. The eggs, butter, milk. All different that uniquely add something special to the cake. In order to blend the ingredients together to create something delicious, we need instructions or a recipe to follow. The three inclusive behaviors that we'll explore in the lessons ahead. Serve as our recipe to bake that perfect belonging cake. To start, think about your belonging cake, your vision for a more inclusive workplace. What opportunities do you see to strengthen a sense of belonging for yourself and others and what does better look like.
