How does one become aware of something that is unconscious or implicit? The starting point for self-awareness, when it comes to being an inclusive leader, requires a leap of faith. We all need to accept that our decisions, regardless of our conscious beliefs, may be influenced by unconscious bias or insider-outsider dynamics. If you are a human being, you are going to carry unconscious biases and be affected by insider-outsider dynamics. Jameson and Mai embody this challenge. Jameson has been around awhile, is well intentioned, and believes himself to be “blind” to a person’s visible differences. In fact, he likely would be offended by the notion that there is anything but a level playing field at his company, VeStrong. Leaders sometimes see an admission that their organization is not a true meritocracy as a negative judgment against themselves, drawing doubt about their achievements. On the contrary, a true meritocracy is a pursuit and not an actual destination. Admitting you do not have a true meritocracy simply allows the organization to continue the pursuit.
Jameson does not see himself as a member of any sort of demographic group, particularly when it comes to gender, race, age, or most other important aspects of difference. Mai, on the other hand, has a clear sense of herself as a member of her ethnic and gender group. As hard as it is for Jameson to “see” his own ethnic group as a differentiator, it is just as hard for Mai to not understand herself as both an individual and a Vietnamese woman. Self-awareness is most challenging when we are trying to understand our insider groups. It would be difficult for Jameson to accept the likelihood, or even the possibility, that some kind of non-inclusive behavior was at play at VeStrong.
A real-life example of this internal challenge could be seen in orchestras that, though they expressed the good intent to hire the best musicians, were mostly hiring men. In 1970, the top five U.S. orchestras were made up of more than 95 percent men. Blind auditions were instituted so the judges could not determine the gender of the musician, which increased the likelihood of women being called back for a second audition by 50 percent. The Voice, a popular TV show, pivots on this bias, as judges are not allowed to see the performer until they have decided to choose him or her, so race, ethnicity, and other dimensions of difference are not apparent during the selection process. Just because you want the best does not mean you are choosing the best.
We firmly believe, though, that engaging from our insider group memberships needs to be the starting point for increasing self-awareness. When we first began doing diversity work, this was certainly not an accepted starting point. Many participants in traditional diversity workshops had a perception that the training course was designed to prove to them that they were bad people. This method didn’t create productive conversations, as most of us perceive ourselves as good people, and the vast majority are well intentioned. The other starting point for many (often for outsiders) was that the training didn’t apply to them—that they were already behaving in an inclusive way simply because they were members of an outsider group. Part of the problem is that we often don’t see that we have multiple insider and outsider groups. Jameson is a white man, while Mai is a woman of color. On both race and gender, their starting points for self-awareness are very different. However, perhaps on sexual orientation they are both in the insider heterosexual group, and, thus, their starting point for self-awareness is similar for that aspect. On the issue of age, Jameson may be experiencing himself as transitioning from the insider group to the outsider group, and his self-awareness likely will begin to shift. Mai might be unaware (as she is likely in the insider group on generational difference) of the impact of her age. The challenge of self-awareness does not lie with Jameson alone.
Libby sits in an interesting position. As a white woman in her forties who was raised fully in a Eurocentric American culture, she can relate to Mai as a woman, but when it comes to age, race, and culture, she is likely to be as unaware of difference as Jameson is with regard to gender. You can see that there are substantial challenges to increasing self-awareness. Libby sits in the middle, structurally. She is a middle manager, and, thus, is much closer to the action and much closer to the most diverse part of the organization. In the majority of organizations, the transition from high diversity to a less-diverse profile is the inflection point from middle to senior management. Jameson looks at middle management as the source of the problem on many issues. Mai does the same, as her day-to-day experiences and interactions are largely shaped by middle management. Libby carries much of the blame in either direction.
So each of our characters enters the pilot workshop with different starting points. What binds them, though, is the business case for inclusion. They have a shared interest in the success of the business. This interest is the starting point for our pilot workshop; it is the compelling reason they are in the room and the clear goal they all share. There is a generic business case to be made: Being inclusive is a good thing, as it engages more people, provides more perspectives, and helps the business identify opportunities more quickly and fully. However, each of our three characters needs to make a personal connection to the business case; the business case needs to be real for each one. Each has to identify his or her own unique inclusion dividend.
Excerpted with permission from “SET for Inclusion: An Underlying Methodology for Achieving Your Inclusion Dividend” by Mason Donovan and Mark Kaplan (Bibliomotion, 2015). For more information, visit https://bibliomotion.com/books/set-for-inclusion
Mason Donovan and Mark Kaplan are principals for The Dagoba Group, an integrated global diversity and inclusion consulting practice. They are co-authors of “The Inclusion Dividend” (Bibliomotion, 2013) and “SET for Inclusion” (Bibliomotion, 2015). For more information, visit http://thedagobagroup.com/ and https://bibliomotion.com/books/the-inclusion-dividend.
