Tips to Drive Innovation at Work

Well, welcome back. A study from Harvard Business Review found that companies with diverse staffs achieve a 20% increase in innovation revenue.

That's a big increase. Our next guest says, however, diversity without inclusion has the potential to lead to discord and dysfunction. Sounds obvious, right? Joining us now is leadership expert Beth Ridley, and she's going to help us drive innovation at work.

Good to see you. Hi. Good morning.

Good morning. So I love this. Okay, first, before we go back to the discord part, because I think it sounds obvious, but there's so much to it that let's talk about how diversity leads to innovation.

I mean, it makes a lot of sense, right? So if you've got different perspectives, different life experiences, everyone's sort of like, bringing that to the table. You can look at a challenge, an opportunity, a strategy from broad and diverse perspectives and lenses. So it just leads to more thoughtful decision making, and that leads to better outcomes.

So many more ideas.

Yeah, so many more ideas.

Love it.

And I think, you know, we all have our own versions. We understand what diversity is, but we think of race, ethnicity, gender, age. Are there other things?

I think those are really important things. Right? They're visible things. We tend to focus on them because they are visible. But truthfully, it's life experience. It's the way you think. It's how you grew up. Now, of course, race, age, gender influences that, but that doesn't mean that you're always going to have diverse perspectives unless you really think about, again, life experience, maybe educational background.

So.

So you could have people that look very different on the outside, but maybe you all went to the same school. You're not really bringing in a diverse lens. So I think you want to look at the things beneath the surface.

Have you ever seen the Steve Martin movie the Jerk?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

You'd look at him, but you wouldn't know his background.

Right, right. Yeah, exactly.

I don't think they'd make that movie today, though.

Yeah, no, they wouldn't. But so interesting. And I love that. And so that's the diversity piece. Let's get to the inclusion piece and how they sort of fit together. Because we hear those words together sometimes, we don't think about them and why.

They'Re really, truly a puzzle P. Yeah, exactly. You see, you need both, right? Diversity is good. We talked about that. But the truth is, even if you're diverse, if you don't feel that sense of belonging or inclusion or that you matter or anything like that, you're not going to speak up. And so it's really all about those diverse perspectives are only helpful if they actually come out onto the table, into the meeting, into discussion. And, you know, if you're not sort of feeling confident being who you are, that trickles down into just how you show up at work. You know, you're not going to be that person that maybe says something outside of the box or takes a risk or with a question or an idea. You're going to sort of like stay in your zone and maybe say what you think you should say in order to not get fired, as opposed to taking that risk and stepping outside of your comfort zone. So you need that inclusion piece for people to feel safe and secure in order to speak up.

So true.

And how do you help foster that? I mean, I assume it must come from the top down, because if you're looking at the staff, there might be women or people of color or, you know, someone that's transgender that wants to contribute but feels like they're undervalued or they're intimidated to speak up in a group meeting. How do you help that inclusion?

So I think there's like three behaviors that everyone can focus on that do exactly that. So the first is just to be self aware and recognize no one person knows everything. I like to say no one person has a monopoly on the truth. So it's sort of just that self awareness of like, okay, I'm better served if I bring in diverse perspectives because I just don't know it. All right, so that's number one, just acknowledging that. Number two then is to be curious and to ask. Right. Sometimes you have to bring people into the conversation, tell me what you think. Right. And then the third is to actually listen. And I find.

I love how you say that one.

Listen. I find the more you ask, the more you're going to hear things you don't agree with. You don't like. Maybe go against your own thought process or values. That's when you have to seek to understand. You don't have to agree, but you have to understand and find. What can you take that's going to help to make the decision better? That leads to more innovation.

Can you give us an example of asking questions and being curious? Because I think especially with how divisive the world has gotten, people are sometimes more afraid now to ask questions. When I think it's better to ask questions, I agree. And so I think people have gotten so uncomfortable and nervous that now they don't even want to bridge that gap. They just want to pretend that they're inclusive and that's not true inclusivity.

It's not. And I don't know how you bridge differences without dialogue, so you got to start somewhere. So I like to use. I have three foolproof phrases to help ask questions.

I knew you would.

That is more comfortable. And. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the first one is I just say, I'm curious to know. And that's the honest to God truth, right? Yep. I'm curious to know. I'm not judging. It's one thing to say, you know, like, where are you from? Like, where are you from? I'm just curious to know. Like, where are you from? Right. It sort of softens it up a little bit. And I think anytime you approach someone with genuine curiosity and compassion, people can tell, even if the words don't come out perfectly, they know the difference.

Yeah, there's a feeling.

There's a feeling. Yeah. So I like to say I'm curious to know. Then I always say, well, tell me more. That's the listening piece. I love that you give the other person the opportunity to say exactly what's on their mind and then say thank you. And that's it. Yeah. You sort of can't go wrong with those three phrases.

I love it. And you know what? At the end of the day, you can do your part. And if somebody doesn't receive it, you know, well, sometimes that's the way it is sometimes.

And, you know, it usually doesn't have anything to do with you. I might have been having a bad day, but I always like to say, focus on what can go right with that kind of conversation as opposed to what can go wrong? Nine times out of ten, it goes right.

What are some resources maybe for people in offices that might be watching or knowing people where that attention to inclusivity and diversity maybe isn't happening and they feel that they're not being respected? There's resistance to people respecting their pronouns. Let's say something like that. How should someone handle that without feeling like a black sheep in the office?

Well, speaking up. I like to say speaking up in support of belonging for everyone is really important. Right. And that's really how you change the culture. If you don't say anything, behavior continues. And, you know, that's sort of like how you get a culture that isn't optimal because no one is actually speaking up. That's a little bit harder. I can come back on your next show.

There we go.

Exactly. Like leaving them on the edge of their chair. I know, but I have easy tips for that as well. But I think you know, you do have to muster up the courage to speak up. And most times, people do appreciate letting them know when they've said something that maybe wasn't cool or made you feel a certain way. Because most people do want to put their best foot forward, but they just don't know.

And most people have good intentions. I really do believe that.

I agree.

Otherwise, you start resenting the office. You pick up the fishbowl and say, who's coming with me?

Who's coming with me?

Yeah, exactly. And that's exactly what happens.

You have your moving moment. Thank you so much, Beth. Here you go. To rewatch this segment or to send it to one of your friends or your coworkers, visit our website, themorningblend. Com.