Diversity and Inclusion – Introduction
“Diversity and inclusion exists when members of an organization act in a manner that recognizes and respects individual similarities and differences such that employees feel they and their work are valued and meaningfully contribute to the mission of the organization.”
StrategyDriven Contributors
Remaining relevant in today’s hyper-competitive business environment requires the full engagement of an organization’s workforce and the retention of highly talented employees. To accomplish this, leaders must capture the passion and commitment of subordinates by providing them with work that has a meaningful impactful on others and is quantifiablely measurable and rewarded; all while connecting with them on a personal level. Similarly, individuals need to connect with their peers in a way that makes them feel their contributions meaningfully add to the team and the organization’s overall success. Simply put, individuals seek to be valuable to and valued by their organizations; limited only by their abilities and desires. Without this sense of value and connectedness, a job becomes nothing more than the means to a paycheck, productivity declines toward that which is required to maintain employment, and attrition rises as employees seek more fulfilling work; all at great cost to the organization.
Increasing workforce diversification challenges all members of an organization attempting to satisfy the individual value proposition. Differences in age, race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation to name but only a few, influence what makes individuals feel valued. Studies have shown the degree to which an individual feels valued by his/her superiors and peers in large part defines his/her work engagement and the subsequent value offered to the organization. Thus, the challenge is a circular one best solved by fostering an organizational culture that respects and embraces diversity and inclusion.
Focus of the Diversity and Inclusion Topic
While there exists a natural association between diversity and inclusion and organizational accountability, this topic will focus on the principles, best practices, and warning flags associated with establishing and maintaining a workplace environment that respects and values individual differences in order to earn full employee engagement and commitment to the achievement of the organization’s goals. The following articles, podcasts, documents, and resources cover those topics critical to enhancing workplace diversity and inclusion.
For additional information on creating a positive, motivating workplace environment, visit the StrategyDriven Employee Engagement Center of Excellence.
Articles
- What is Diversity and Inclusion? by StrategyDriven Contributors
- What Does Your Environment Communicate? by StrategyDriven Contributors
- ad hominem: Personal, Not Issue Attacks by StrategyDriven Contributors
- Return On Investment, part 1: Employee Turnover Reduction by StrategyDriven Contributors
- Return On Investment, part 2: Employee Distraction Reduction by StrategyDriven Contributors
- Rocking the Workplace: How the Millennial Generation is Shaking Up the Way You Do Business by Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman
- Management vs. Leadership Mindset: What Millennial Employees Need to Know As They Enter Leadership Roles by Lisa Orrell
StrategyDriven Podcasts
StrategyDriven Podcast – Special Edition
- An Interview with Michael Gurian, author of Leadership and the Sexes examines the equal but different intelligence of men and women.
- An Interview with Tammy Erickson, author of What’s Next, Gen X? examines generational relationships within the workplace and the actions Gen Xers should take to ready and position themselves to be the next group of corporate and civic leaders.
- An Interview with Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman, authors of The M-Factor, part 1 of 2 examines how to successfully integrate Millennials into the workforce from the perspectives of the Traditionalists, Boomers, and Gen Xers already there and the incoming Millennials themselves.
- An Interview with Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman, authors of The M-Factor, part 2 of 2 examines how to successfully integrate Millennials into the workforce from the perspectives of the Traditionalists, Boomers, and Gen Xers already there and the incoming Millennials themselves.
Documents
Tools and Templates
Resources
Books
- First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
- One Foot Out the Door by Judith Bardwick
Training Courses
Sign up for our Email NewsletterDiversity and Inclusion – What is Diversity and Inclusion?
“Diversity and inclusion exists when members of an organization act in a manner that recognizes and respects individual similarities and differences such that employees feel they and their work are valued and meaningfully contribute to the mission of the organization.”
StrategyDriven Contributors
Diversity and Inclusion – What Does Your Environment Communicate?
We have often asserted that organizations, like people, act in a manner consistent with its shared values. Subsequently, those ideals in which an organization’s members truly believe manifest themselves in every aspect of the organization’s physical and social environments. These environments are categorically represented as an organization’s:
Read more
Decision-Making Warning Flag 1c – ad hominem: Personal, Not Issue Attacks
“An ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem (Latin: “argument to the man”, “argument against the man”) consists of replying to an argument or factual claim by attacking or appealing to a characteristic or belief of the person making the argument or claim, rather than by addressing the substance of the argument or producing evidence against the claim. The process of proving or disproving the claim is thereby subverted, and the argumentum ad hominem works to change the subject.
It is most commonly used to refer specifically to the ad hominem abusive, or argumentum ad personam, which consists of criticizing or attacking the person who proposed the argument (personal attack) in an attempt to discredit the argument. It is also used when an opponent is unable to find fault with an argument, yet for various reasons, the opponent disagrees with it.”
Ad Hominem
Wikipedia
The ‘Old Boys Club’
Product defects plague a company’s profitability; warrantee repairs, returns, and lost sales robbing the organization of its already slim profit margins. Executives assembled an engineering team to assess product designs and material quality in hopes of identifying a root cause to the defective product issue. A junior member of the assessment team, a young, recently hired assembly line supervisor, identifies the lack of routine calibration of critical cutting tools as a contributor to the poor fit of key product components. The tenured company engineers on the team discount the supervisor’s observation because he’s too young and too new to know what’s really important. These senior engineers have just made an ad hominem argument to advance their position.
Diversity and Inclusion – Return on Investment, part 1: Employee Turnover Reduction
The cost of employee turnover is staggering and yet goes largely unrecognized. There is no financial statement line item, no general ledger entry, and no budget explicitly set aside for this expense that can cost an evenly modestly sized company well over a million dollars each year. And a significant portion of voluntary attrition is directly related to the abusive work environment many employees indicate exists within the marketplace today. Thus, improvements in workplace civility can directly improve the organization’s bottom line.
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