The WORTH Model: 5 Steps To Drive Inclusivity
Before we achieve complete diversity in our environments, businesses, and organizations, they must first be inclusive. Hopefully, all organizations and businesses have commitments to diversity and inclusion although I strongly believe it is not solely the responsibility of senior leaders to drive this culture and the initiatives to support these commitments. Every single individual that is a part of the organization needs to be engaged and supportive because diversity cannot be forced and inclusivity needs to come from a willingness to be open and make changes. We’ve created a guide with tangible actions on how you can promote, drive and demand inclusivity in your organization.
W – Willingness to Learn
O – Observe & Reflect
R – Risk Vulnerability
T – Take Action
H – Help & Support
A willingness to learn is the first step to a more inclusive environment. It’s very important to try to learn about and better understand those that you work with and whose backgrounds may be different from your own, ex: gender, sexual orientation, religion, culture, generation, race, physical abilities, or social class. Building trust is imperative to successfully take all the steps below. A few actions you can take here are to begin to understand what some of the differences are that are shared in your teams, both visible and non-visible? Get to know everyone on your team as an individual, ask questions, you could play a game in your department to get to know each other or have weekly questions that everyone could share their answers to. This will help to build trust within your teams and lay a foundation to have more difficult conversations in the future and for teams to be more vulnerable with each other.
Observing & reflecting on what the team and organization is doing well, and what it may not be doing as well with diversity and inclusion will help guide you when you need to act below. Discuss collectively among the team what you are doing well to take advantage of everyone’s differences. Some other questions you can ask yourself are what other things could we be doing to leverage the diversity of our team members? What are some of the assumptions you may be making about the potential and/or capabilities of individuals on the team? What can we do to challenge those assumptions and make sure we don’t interfere with each team members’ ability to grow, do their best work, and feel included? This is important to expand your mindset and start thinking about what lies behind the labels and that limits our capacity to connect and grow with those around us.
Risking vulnerability, I am a big fan of Brené Brown, which is why I used her as inspiration for this part. She has said, “Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not weakness; it’s our greatest measure of courage.” When we use vulnerability to drive inclusivity and ensure everyone has a seat at the table, I do believe we all win. The conversations you will have with individuals on your team, with your leaders and with friends or family will not always be easy and we must be vulnerable and have the courage to make changes. Stretch outside your comfort zone, discuss differences with your team, encourage others to be courageous and share their true selves with you so you may share more of your true self with others.
Taking action - this is where the good stuff comes in! After opening up, observing, reflecting and expanding your mindset, it’s time to take action! Whether as an individual, a team or an entire organization it’s time to take specific actions on what you can do to ensure everyone feels uniquely valued, respected, and supported. A sense of belonging will drive diversity and inclusion, and you as an individual can take actions to promote and drive this. Maybe your action item is sitting with someone new in the lunchroom, maybe it’s asking one person in your department about their family and sharing something about yours. Maybe it’s starting a weekly question game to get to know the members of your team better. When you put action plans in place, change happens.
Help & Support. If you are having a hard time engaging your team or coming up with actions, know there are many resources available! Speak with your leaders or your Human Resources department if you have one. A few resources I used that are available through Vancouver Public Library are listed at the bottom of this article.
I will finish by saying that we all have a role to play to ensure our peers feel included and diversity is a top priority. One line I read, written by Soo Bong Peer in “The Essential Diversity Mindset” really stuck with me; “Every human being carries with them an energy that can either lift those around them or tear others down”, which one do you want to be?
Resources:
Did That Just Happen?! Beyond Diversity --Creating Sustainable and Inclusive Organizations, by Lauren Wadsworth and Stephanie Pinder-Amaker
Success Through Diversity: Why the Most Inclusive Companies Will Win, by Carol Fulp
The Essential Diversity Mindset: How to Cultivate a More Inclusive Culture and Environment, by Soo Bong Peer
Korn Ferry Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Leadership Training