The Inclusion Dividend: Why Investing in Diversity and Inclusion Pays Off

by Mark Kaplan, Mason Donovan, Ana Duarte McCarthy (Foreword)

In today’s increasingly diverse, global, interconnected business world, diversity and inclusion (D&I) is no longer just “the right thing to do,” it is a core leadership competency and central to the success of business. Working effectively across differences such as gender, culture, generational, race, and sexual orientation not only leads to a more productive, innovative corporate culture, but also to a better engagement with customers and clients. The Inclusion Dividend provides a framework to tap the bottom line impact that results from an inclusive culture. Most leaders have the intent to be inclusive, however translating that intent into a truly inclusive outcome with employees, customers, and other stakeholders requires a focused change effort. The authors explain that challenge and provide straightforward advice on how to achieve the kind of meritocracy that will result in a tangible dividend and move companies ahead of their competition.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Management, Economics, Social Justice

261 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 7, 2013

Reviews

[Lena]

Read this for work (Women in Leadership group) book club.

I’m not the audience for this book because 1. I already understand the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and 2. I’m not in a leadership role in which I can implement policies to reflect that.

This is a great book for people who DO have the power to implement such policies, though.

[mrs rhys · Rating 2 out of 5]

While definitely providing interesting and valid concepts, I found this (like most other books) a bit repetitive and plain, and more aimed towards senior leaders than anyone interested in the diversity and inclusion field.

Notes to self:

C1: DIVERSITY? INCLUSION? WHAT DO WE MEAN?
Takeaways
-Diversity is a measure of difference.
-Inclusion is the extent to which diverse groups have a seat at the table and are able to bring their best contributions.
-Diversity and inclusion can exist independently of each other, however this is increasingly hard to do.
-Meritocracy is a system in which rewards and opportunities are based on an individual’s performance and demonstrated ability.
-Meritocracy requires both inclusion to work and diversity for fuel.
-There are challenges to meritocracy, diversity, and inclusion that are inherent to corporate structures and processes.
-The vast majority of barriers to meritocracy are unintentional and/or unconscious.
-There are 6 major dimensions of difference in today’s corporate focus: gender, sexual orientation, culture/ethnicity, race, age, and ableness. There are many more emerging topics.
-Inclusion today is focused on the business case—on how an inclusive environment yields better results for the company.
-There are 3 levels of system to be addressed to create an inclusive culture in an organisation: individual, group, and organisation.
-An effectively implemented D&I strategy will return dividends in many different forms.
-There are many challenges to creating inclusion, particularly in 2 common business types - family-owned businesses and large corporations.


C2: THE BUSINESS CASE FOR INCLUSION
-The key external factors include company brand, market positioning, and customer engagement.
-The key internal factors include employee acquisition, employee retention, productivity, and innovation.
-3 key areas for inclusion: Talent management, Talent acquisition, Marketplace engagement. These stem from 2 vantage points - internal dynamics and external relationships.
-Internally, the focus is on attracting, retaining, and developing staff (i.e. talent acquisition, talent development, employee engagement, workplace climate).
-To fully explore the business case for inclusion, we need to talk about the challenges and opportunities within the marketplace: Consumer brand, products and services, client engagement.
-RADIX Model developed by Dagoba Group to leverage their internal inclusion efforts and external revenue-producing clients. 5 phases: Reach, acquire, develop, inspire, eXit.

Takeaways
-The business case should prove a decrease in expenses or an increase in revenue.
-Business cases that prove increases in revenue gain greater attention and budget.
-Innovation is directly linked to a diverse, inclusive environment.
-Mirroring is a tactic, not a strategy.
-How we treat our colleagues internally is reflected in our relationships externally. Greater diversity of decision makers, due to changing demographics, requires higher personal awareness and better developed skills to engage and build relationships across difference. A company reluctant to change internally will find it difficult to compete in a global environment.
-Clients are demanding that their partners reflect their own commitment to inclusion.


C3: UNDERSTANDING KEY D&I CONCEPTS
Takeaways
-Inclusion should be part of our daily decisions.
-A sustainable inclusion effort must include change at 4 distinct levels: individual, group/team, organisation, and marketplace.
-One level of system influences and reinforces the others.
-Good intent is not good enough when the impact does not match.
-Subtle messages or little behaviours accumulate to have a large impact.
-Having biases is human. Managing the impact of our biases is leadership.
-Small changes in our processes can dramatically shift results.
-Every team has insider and outsider groups.
-Most are not born with an innate sense for how to manage inclusively. It is a skill set that requires continual development, much like any other leadership skill set.


C4: FRAMING A SUSTAINABLE INCLUSION INITIATIVE
Real and sustainable inclusion requires leverage in areas such as:
-A clear organisational rationale and strategy
-A concrete connection to the company’s business
-Reward systems that incent new behaviours
-Developed leaders and staff who can “live” the change on a day-to-day basis
-“Sustainable” is meant to convey change that is both lasting and resilient, something that goes beyond the “flavour of the month.”

Level of Systems Framework
Individual
-Uniqueness, personality, individuality
-What is the awareness of and skills of our managers and staff?
-Are our leaders effective role models of inclusive behaviours?
-4 major limits to focusing primarily on the individual and interpersonal levels:
1. New awareness and behaviour are not supported by others
2. A trainee’s direct supervisor doesn’t understand or support the intent of the training program
3. Organisational reward systems do not support new behaviours
4. Talent-related processes do not support change

Group/Team
-Patterns of experience, “In”/“Out” groups
-What group level patterns exist in the organisation?
-Which group memberships are most important in our business?
-How do insider-outsider dynamics impact team performance?
-The work at the group level is threefold and will complement the insights and skills emerging at the individual level:
1. To identify the group memberships that have an impact on the experiences of people in your organisation.
2. To uncover patterns related to those group memberships that are problematic, reducing engagement and productivity.
3. To confront the insider–outsider dynamics that are creating or maintaining those patterns.

Organisation
-Formal and informal behavioural norms, images of leadership, culture, policies and practices, systems and processes
-What are the norms, written and unwritten?
-How are we ensuring that our people processes are objective?
-What is our internal brand?
-Typical corporate policies/practices that may limit inclusion include recruitment process, company networking and events, dress and appearance, family-related policies

Marketplace
-Image, client engagement, business growth through relationship building
-Are we engaging our clients inclusively?
-What is our external brand?
-Are we leveraging inclusion to grow our business?
-4 main areas of focus:
1. The organisation’s brand in the marketplace.
2. The extent to which an organisation’s staff reflects its customer base.
3. The ability to leverage D&I to create product and service breakthroughs.
4. The skill of customer-facing staff in engaging customers in an inclusive manner (often overlooked).

Takeaways
-There are 4 levels of systems that influence an inclusive environment: Individual, group, organisation, and marketplace.
-The most difficult, yet most powerful, system to change is the one at the organisational level.
-The most critical day-to-day dynamics of inclusion occur at the group level, as employees interact with one another individually and on teams.
-Individual-level and leadership development alone does not create sustainable change. Such development must be combined with a strategic approach that incorporates all levels of systems.
-Policies, practices, and implicit and explicit norms can have a significant impact on acquiring, retaining, and leveraging a diverse and inclusive workforce. It is important to get beyond the intent of these policies and to examine their impact through a D&I lens.


C5: UNCONSCIOUS AND UNINTENTIONAL BIAS
Systemic Bias
-Bias, conscious or unconscious, that gets institutionalised through policies, practices, and culture.
-Occurs when:
1. The biases of very powerful individuals get magnified.
2. A bias becomes part of a process or system, usually unintentionally.
3. A bias based in the historical culture of an organisation continues to have an impact.

Reducing Unconscious Bias
-Cycle of Bias: Inequitable impact > Experience influenced categorisation and association > Pre-formed expectations and assumptions > Guides our behaviour towards others.

Takeaways
-Unconscious bias is ever present, unavoidable, and human.
-Bias affects performance.
-3 types of bias influence our behaviour: priming, affinity, and confirmation bias/stereotyping.
-Our biases impact an organisation’s ability to fully leverage diversity.
-Biases can become embedded in processes and be systemic.
-Unconscious bias can be mitigated with conscious development.


C6: INSIDER-OUTSIDER DYNAMICS
Key Elements That Define Insider and Outsider Group Membership
-Level of awareness.
-Different pattern of experience.
-Willingness to engage - for outsiders, the reluctance is mostly based on 2 things. One is internal: there is a reluctance to acknowledge and focus on barriers outsiders feel they have little control over. The other factor is external, and is at play especially when the conversation is with a member of the insider group.
-Setting norms vs. adapting to norms.
-Implications of insider-outsider dynamics.
-Cycle of Status Quo (insider-outsider dynamics remain unchanged): Outsiders have more info and less power on inclusion challenges > Insiders have less info and more power > Outsiders perceive risk in sharing info > Insiders uninformed perspective is supported; Little energy for change.

Takeaways
-We are all members of insider and outsider groups.
-Outsiders have greater information.
-Insiders have greater power.
-Outsiders typically have to adapt to insider norms.
-Insiders may have good intentions, but they are innately unaware of outsider issues.
-There are communication challenges to inclusion for both insider and outsider groups.
-Non-communication enforces negative insider–outsider dynamics.
-Sustainable inclusion can only be achieved with greater awareness of group dynamics and skills development.


C7: DIMENSIONS OF DIFFERENCE
-The dimensions of difference that are top of mind for most organisations, as of the writing of this book, include ableness, culture and ethnicity, gender, generational difference (age), race, sexual orientation.
-Other aspects of diversity emerging into corporate focus include religion, socioeconomic class, veteran status, education.

Different Types of Difference
-The dimensions of diversity highlighted above are not uniform. They vary along the following continuum: Visible–invisible, born with–learned or acquired, permanent–changeable.

Key Dimensions of Difference
-Focusing on each of the 6 key dimensions of difference, ask:
1. Why is this dimension important in an organisational context?
2. What are the key insider–outsider dynamics that create organisational challenges and opportunities?
3. How can we create inclusion on the specific aspect of difference?

Leveraging Difference with Affinity Networks
-Affinity Group Phases:
1. Start-up: Activist energy, early victories
2. Integration: Advocacy, emerging business links, external connections
3. Renewal: Innovation incubator, important business resource, holistic engagement

Takeaways
-Differences can be visible or invisible.
-We all have unique perspectives and shared group memberships.
-Some dimensions of difference are permanent (e.g., race) while others can change over time (e.g., age).
-Focusing on the opportunity versus the challenge of difference provides a greater business impact.


C8: CRITICAL LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES
What Leaders Must Do
-4 areas of competency that must be mastered in order to create sustainable inclusion:
1. Individual Awareness and Self-Management
-Challenge your own conventional wisdom
-Audit yourself, your relationships, and your critical moments
-Build relationships with people who are different
2: Embrace the Paradox of Individuality and Group Identity
-Notice patterns by group identity
-Consider group identity when planning staff development
-Develop relationships with all of your staff
3. Envision and Frame Positive Change
-Create a compelling business case
-Speak to the impact of inclusion
-Create a positive vision of inclusion
4. Foster True Meritocracy
-Acknowledge that you don’t have a meritocracy
-Take a critical look at your culture
-Examine your talent acquisition and talent management systems

Takeaways
-Inclusion is a core and central leadership competency.
-Inclusive, or lack thereof, behaviours impacts all other leadership competencies.
-Clear connection to the business case will increase inclusive competency adoption.
-Meritocracy is a continual pursuit with no end point.
-Like any leadership skill set, inclusion requires practice and constant development.


C9: CHANGE STRATEGIES FOR CREATING INCLUSION
-Inclusion Initiative Phases: Research and needs assessment > Strategy creation > Implementation and integration > Measurement and recalibration

Gathering Internal Company Data
-Employee engagement surveys
-HR data
-Focus groups and interviews
-Best practices for internal assessment and data gathering

External Marketplace and Customer Data
-Customer and client demographics
-Best practices for tapping customer and marketplace data - Gathering marketplace data can sometimes feel a little overwhelming to those not trained in market research.

Tools to Engage and Involve the Whole Organisation
Awareness and skills training and development
Best Practices for Inclusion Awareness and Skills Development:
-Fits the culture
-Done with positive intent, both challenging and supportive
-Includes clear concepts and messages

Best Practices for Affinity Groups
-From the start, the affinity groups should be chartered
-Involve business leaders
-Affinity groups should be immediately linked to the business in some tangible way
-Open affinity groups to all staff

Tools to Create Systemic Process Change
Best Practices for Implementing a Meritocracy Review
-Involve business leaders and HR executives
-Use multiple sources of data
-Do not seek to lay blame
-Use affinity groups as a resource

Methods: The Infrastructure for Change
-Diversity council - strategy development, change management, communication. We have unfortunately seen too many diversity councils fail to accomplish their original goal of engaging leadership and staff to create a more inclusive culture.
-Diversity and inclusion department
-HR D&I Integration Task Force
-Inclusion Marketing Function

Takeaways
-D&I needs a short- and a long-term strategy.
-The foundation of a D&I initiative is a research and needs analysis.
-D&I strategy connected to a clear business case is most successful at employee engagement.
-Simply scheduling a calendar of events is not a strategy.
-Like any strategy, D&I needs metrics and periodic review.
-There are many tools to reach D&I goals.
-All tools, such as employee resource groups, need to be aligned with a business case.
-Providing all employees with a visualisation of the compelling overall strategy will help with adoption and achievement of the plan.
-Investing in D&I is just that, an investment, and should be expected to deliver tangible dividends.
-Dedicated D&I staff, such as a chief diversity officer (CDO), will help ensure that proper attention is given to achieving established goals.

[Mark Isaak · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors do a good job of explaining the importance of diversity and inclusion for a business's overall success, and then they explain how to go about implementing it. A few vignettes of fictional but typical business situations illustrate the concepts being discussed. The book is kept short enough to be quite readable, but at the expense of not going into detail. There is plenty of general guidance for setting up a sustainable diversity and inclusion program, with emphasis on what is most important and what to avoid, but no nitty details; nor does the book address government or volunteer organizations. Probably the book's greatest weakness is that it does not include a bibliography, and the only reference to outside sources is to the authors' own consulting business.

[Jason Watkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must read for those moving into leadership roles at any level. I wish I came across it sooner! I took loads of notes, but honestly it works as a practical off the shelve how to guide for surfacing unconscious bias, countering insider-outsider group dynamics, strengthening engagement, and ultimately fostering an inclusive climate. If you lead a team or group of any size, you need this book somewhere close by. It carries a balanced apolitical perspective and will help leaders set the foundational tone for diversity and inclusion rationale in their organization as well. Great book!

[Mark M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Kaplans book, which eventually turned out to be a philosophical disaster, while being 4 weeks after ordering this book, it was sent to the wrong email.
If the book is sent the wrong email again, all follow ups will be deleted, since this is an e-book, I expected it to be sent to my email, but sadly, it was sent to the wrong one.
Mr. Kaplan, please get ahold of the correct email instead of being 4 weeks into my semester of school and forcing me to have to use a different book for my thesis.
Despite getting a copy of the book from a friend, after being neglected from Mr. Kaplan. The book was decent, hence my 3 star review.

[sumo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting and actionable book. One of the things I liked best was it’s retrain that you should always assume your organization is not truly a meritocracy nor is it yet fully inclusive… and that if you’re in management you are by default in the in crowd, so it’s hard to see the gaps. As the only female in a leadership position in the Delta, that’s good to hear. In the squadron, we also just changed out the “inspirational quotes” on the wall, which were previously a series of 6 from exclusively older white men. We still have a good one from Pres Reagan, but there is also an opportunity now for others to see themselves on the wall… baby steps I guess.

[Liz Stiverson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fine introduction to core D&I ideas; great for anyone trying to make or understand the business case for the first time, but won't go beyond the surface for anyone already familiar with the basics.

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic perspective! Listened to it, and then ordered a hard copy for the shelf.

[Abby Epplett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This quick read gives a very basic overview on diversity and inclusion, great for anyone somehow still unfamiliar with the concepts.

[Rasa Kviese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great introduction to anyone who is just starting their DI exploration journey. Loved the real life examples, reflective exercises and little discussion points at the end of each chapter.

[Andres · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it was very good approach. Not really giving only importance to the diversity per se, but to the benefits it brings by detonating it with an inclusion strategy. Still want to see examples to measure inclusions first derivative and second derivative metrics to be able to connect inclusion actions to company dividends. The day we have that clarity there will be much less resistance and less unintentional and intentional bias.

[Christel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book which would make a great textbook for a formal business class or could be used in-house for organization specific needs.

The authors were very thorough with theories balanced by business facts and current research and good open-ended practice examples. Few people if honest won't recognize how they and/or their organization suffer from limiting biases and practices.

This could have been a very dry book, but it's very readable, easy to follow and all points are given a human face.

Obesity and extreme underweight were areas not addressed as such unless I slept through some section. That may have been an unconscious bias of the authors? They discussed how height in a man translates to higher wages. The opposite is true for extreme body types IF they can get hired. Maybe your superstar is one of those, and you are overlooking them?

I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads. Thank you for the opportunity to review this.

[Mills College Library]

658.3008 K174 2013

[Yvonne Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book - chapters 9 & 10 were really good though!