December 13, 2022

Practice Integration and Inclusion Not Just Acceptance

If you’ve read any of my research and blogs about business transformation, I hope that you’ve heard the clear message that business transformation is primarily about business strategy, people, business models and, secondly, about technology.

Organizations cannot expect to execute successfully on any business change or transformation without the support, buy-in, or at least understanding, of your peers, employees, partners, and customers.

Business transformation and evolution is at least 75% about people and business change that are then enabled by processes, information and technology.

However, make no mistake, business transformation is not about just listening to what people say and then letting it go.

Business transformation means that you’re truly trying to understand diverse people’s views, perspectives and ideas so that you can figure out how to integrate them into your business transformation efforts.

Business transformation without integration and inclusion of diverse people’s views, experiences, perspectives, and needs are going to struggle.

Which got me thinking about this season. This is a very interesting way they you can begin working on integration and inclusion, not just acceptance.

Acceptance

For years many organizations have struggled to figure out how to celebrate during this time of year in a way that accepted different people’s perspectives.

What often happens as a result is that organizations have holiday parties (which is an attempt to be neutral) and include some diverse ways of viewing the season. For example including a Hanukkah decoration along with Christmas symbols.

This is a step in being open and accepting other’s experiences, traditions, and beliefs during this time of year. But it’s just accepting them within your experience, it is not fully including them.

And, to many people of diverse experiences, it may feel even more disheartening.

Inclusion and Integration

Diversity and inclusion in the workplace is about giving diverse people in your organization equal opportunities to express their views, beliefs, ideas and experiences regardless of roles, backgrounds, personal context and goals.

It is about creating a positive space for everyone to share and express their views.

Integration is about inclusion plus it is about proactively integrating others’ views, perspectives, ideas and concerns into our business transformation, evolution and operation.

How do we ensure our peers, partners and customers feel that we not only recognize their perspectives but also celebrate and share in them.

I was very intrigued to recently learn about Bodhi Day. From December 1-8, Buddhist celebrate Buddha’s enlightenment with readings, meditations and (my favorite) leaf and tree shape cookies.

Hanukkah this year is celebrated sundown of December 18 ending at sundown on Monday, December 26.

And the Christmas season officially begins at the beginning of advent and lasts till December.

And of course, there is Kwanzaa celebrating African culture and traditions from December 26-January 1.

And then, there may be many people in your business ecosystem who don’t celebrate anything during this time of year, or some who just like the lights, decorations and presents.

No Time Like the Present to Work on Inclusion and Integration

The question that we should ask ourselves as business transformation leaders is, what can we do to include and integrate others’ experiences and views of this time of year.

And then learn from this experience and apply it to the entire year, and specifically to our business transformation and change management efforts.

The first and foremost thing we could do as business leaders is to give people flexibility in their time off.

I know many Jewish and Muslim friends who would much prefer being able to take off for high holidays and Ramadan rather than the end of December.

Especially with many organizations supporting remote or hybrid-remote work, encourage your employees to take their holidays when they want to, and work through other days.

Try proactively reaching out to diverse people in our organizations to share their traditions so that everyone can get a better understanding of their experiences.

Celebrate all the holidays around the year as an opportunity to educate and unify your teams. Some people may be very willing, and some may not.

But giving them an opportunity to express and how their perspective integrated into the business culture will help to express that their views are important and valued.

Bottom Line

Inclusion and integration of the ideas and perspectives of diverse people is critical to ensuring business transformation is supported and encouraged.

I realize that as a business transformation leader you may not get inclusion and integration right all the time. And there is not a silver bullet.

Each situation is different and an opportunity to improve. But it is important to try and keep trying.

With each meeting, event, project or interaction it is important to ask yourself the following questions.

Are we doing something to make people feel excluded?
Are we pushing the views and perspectives of the majority on the minority?
Are we creating an environment where everyone’s voice is valued and respected.

This will help to evolve our work and culture to become more inclusive and integrated.

Practice Integration and Inclusion Not Just Acceptance