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Inclusion
Be empathetic, accepting, and socially aware.
We all want our colleagues to feel safe, heard, and free to be their authentic selves at work. But being an inclusive colleague doesn't happen overnight—it's an evolving process that involves growing, learning, and intentional effort.
This book will teach you how to address and understand your biases, how to get better at noticing and responding to microaggressions, and why being an inclusive colleague will spark more productive and rewarding relationships with your coworkers and boss. With the latest psychological research and practical advice from leading experts, you'll learn how to make your workplace more inclusive and culturally competent—starting with yourself.
How to be human at work. The HBR Emotional Intelligence Series features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Each book in the series offers proven research showing how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, and inspiring essays on what it means to tend to our emotional well-being at work. Uplifting and practical, these books describe the social skills that are critical for ambitious professionals to master.
We all want our colleagues to feel safe, heard, and free to be their authentic selves at work. But being an inclusive colleague doesn't happen overnight—it's an evolving process that involves growing, learning, and intentional effort.
This book will teach you how to address and understand your biases, how to get better at noticing and responding to microaggressions, and why being an inclusive colleague will spark more productive and rewarding relationships with your coworkers and boss. With the latest psychological research and practical advice from leading experts, you'll learn how to make your workplace more inclusive and culturally competent—starting with yourself.
How to be human at work. The HBR Emotional Intelligence Series features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Each book in the series offers proven research showing how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, and inspiring essays on what it means to tend to our emotional well-being at work. Uplifting and practical, these books describe the social skills that are critical for ambitious professionals to master.
138 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 16, 2023
4 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 28, 2023
Inclusion leads to more effective teams - how? Some examples from the book: open-mindness and humility, directly correlated with inclusion, allows for flexibility in development, better feedback culture, better accountability of mistakes.
Lack of inclusion is also correlated to lower organisational engagement, an interaction from which businesses can learn a lot to progress, in efficiency, and in status, both with positive financial impact.
“Belonging is good for business”, and Harvard Business School knows it.
Some statements I found eyeopening, or were affirming things that always seemed right. I definitely felt like this was an educative book:
“To be an inclusive leader one must ensure that everyone agrees or strongly agrees” - cumulative “yes” does not mean an inclusive “yes”.
A good, diverse recruitment strategy cannot completely contra-balance exclusion dynamics, and make new hires successful.
“Organisations need to make psychological safety a strategic priority” to become more adaptable to unforeseen changes in the economic environment, through the increased flexibility and resilience of their employees.
“Candour is expected, as well as protected, to prevent, or detect, and address legal and ethical issues that could derail or shut down the business” - I would also add “strategical issues” to this.
“The stress of uncertainty reduces individual creativity and diminishes the drive to explore and challenge existing paradigms” - I think a great discussion can be had by pinning leadership candour, when it creates stress, against individual contributor candour, when both sides have ethical reasons to act un-candid.
Inclusion correlates with the spread of tribal knowledge, which promotes better results, not just technically, but also psychologically, so a better business cohesion.
Inclusion is correlated with the flexibility and motivation to “learn from the past”, which results in more effective strategies.
“Psychological safety takes long to build, and even longer to rebuild once breached” - all too classic, still meaningful.
“Bringing our own stories to the table helps us create contrast with others and better see the nuance in our own, and theirs, perspectives.”
“In the most psychologically safe places, people are not required to share, but they’re safe to share.”
Powerful experiences don’t have to be good stories.
“Tie [diversity and inclusion efforts] results to compensation” to accelerate business goals by incentivising individuals. “Take the metrics seriously” - I found this funny, what would ever drive a business to not take their metrics seriously? Lobbying and internal politics seems like good answers to that.
“After all, what matters gets measured, right?” - hopefully not for the measure of having enough metrics, or even good enough metrics.
Also, the ideas are good, but some can get a bit more of a debate, for example:
one of the problems pointed out in the book, that I found interesting was
“work is constantly assigned to top performers, not giving the opportunities for others to prove themselves” - I think this is not straightforward, not all businesses can afford a risk like that, financially, this does not necessarily mean there’s lack of inclusivity.
or, the points about inclusion happening spontaneously in moments of need - I think this needs to be discussed in opposition with instinctual behaviour of self-preservation and individual strategies for self-fulfilment.
It might look like inclusion, but intentions matter, as they always should.
or, the points about one values-system idea, manifested in a series of micro-aggressions (like specific statements or questions), can be extremely damaging - I think this is also not straightforward, the word “aggression” implies ill intent, which is not always the case, as a recipient of an uncomfortable comment, I can also have empathy and flexibility to understand the context of development of the person making the comment. An example I can think of is: they come from a country with less black people, so their view is different from the average view from a country that is more diverse, they might make comments that seem off, but that does not imply malice, potentially just lack of understanding - being calm and trying to correct a perspective that feels uncomfortable, through healthy debate feels like a better path than calling this “micro-aggression”. Same can be applied to individual personal experiences, like personal trauma that changes one’s value system. In this scenario, inclusion can be what happens on the other side of the person making the argument, the recipient of the comment can show willingness to grow in understanding. I do not think this topic is as clear and neat as the book is presenting it. In most situations where metrics are gathered, it will the the responsibility of leadership to better classify workplace micro-aggression.
But yes, changing “blacklist” and “whitelist”, for example, to be “allowlist” and “banlist” can be a meaningful change, that helps a lot of the employee/community workforce, and can be done without fuss from the non-affected groups (which is something I noticed in one of my previous workplaces, where a lot of people found themselves complaining that it’s going to be inconvenient to adapt to the new terminology when leadership proposed it, and the work was not prioritised above other things, almost at all).
But, let’s be honest, “your English is really good, where did you learn it”, is often just a compliment and we don’t need to be sensitive about being immigrants :)) so what if I was not born in Britain, does that actually imply something bad to myself about myself? We should also process the micro-aggression signals that we are feeling with introspection, to double-check if it can actually be classified as aggression. I don’t look British, or have the accent, so what? It can be obvious that I’m not British, and it’s ok.
On the other hand, “that’s so gay” can’t really slip often as non-aggressive in nature. And micro-aggression, if not addressed, can become part of a company’s culture in time (example, I became your friend and it’s ok for me to keep pointing out the fact that you’re gay, often, just like this, “that’s so gay” - I’ve personally seen this a lot between past colleagues, in teams that strive themselves to be highly diverse and inclusive - I like to call these toxic allowances).
Overall, I liked the book.
It is also good to note that the version I read was a post-Covid version, a period in which present-day business and individual contributor societies went through something completely new, and a lot of new lessons could be learned or old lessons enforced. I see this as a form of vetting the ideas.
This HBR (Harvard Business Review) book series is interesting, this is not the first one I read. The books are not actually a homogenous one-piece work, they are a set of articles written by influential people or field experts, arranged together in an order that makes the book actually feel as one work. Often, this type of approach can feel scattered, but, in this series, the overall editing was quite good.
Fun fact for myself: the chapter where “treating others as you’d like to be treated” is presented as “one of the first introductions we had into ethics”, being incredibly important, was written by a Romanian (judging by the name). I always used it as a guide when I was young and I feel that this belief allowed me to morally grow into who I am today. Considering that I am also Romanian, this being brought up, like this, made me consider that there can be a cultural moral stamp that can form inside a community, that is distinguishable enough, and can contribute to identity - recognising this in how we, in Romania, at least some, grew up (the history, the economy, the politics), gave me a feeling of serendipity.
Lack of inclusion is also correlated to lower organisational engagement, an interaction from which businesses can learn a lot to progress, in efficiency, and in status, both with positive financial impact.
“Belonging is good for business”, and Harvard Business School knows it.
Some statements I found eyeopening, or were affirming things that always seemed right. I definitely felt like this was an educative book:
“To be an inclusive leader one must ensure that everyone agrees or strongly agrees” - cumulative “yes” does not mean an inclusive “yes”.
A good, diverse recruitment strategy cannot completely contra-balance exclusion dynamics, and make new hires successful.
“Organisations need to make psychological safety a strategic priority” to become more adaptable to unforeseen changes in the economic environment, through the increased flexibility and resilience of their employees.
“Candour is expected, as well as protected, to prevent, or detect, and address legal and ethical issues that could derail or shut down the business” - I would also add “strategical issues” to this.
“The stress of uncertainty reduces individual creativity and diminishes the drive to explore and challenge existing paradigms” - I think a great discussion can be had by pinning leadership candour, when it creates stress, against individual contributor candour, when both sides have ethical reasons to act un-candid.
Inclusion correlates with the spread of tribal knowledge, which promotes better results, not just technically, but also psychologically, so a better business cohesion.
Inclusion is correlated with the flexibility and motivation to “learn from the past”, which results in more effective strategies.
“Psychological safety takes long to build, and even longer to rebuild once breached” - all too classic, still meaningful.
“Bringing our own stories to the table helps us create contrast with others and better see the nuance in our own, and theirs, perspectives.”
“In the most psychologically safe places, people are not required to share, but they’re safe to share.”
Powerful experiences don’t have to be good stories.
“Tie [diversity and inclusion efforts] results to compensation” to accelerate business goals by incentivising individuals. “Take the metrics seriously” - I found this funny, what would ever drive a business to not take their metrics seriously? Lobbying and internal politics seems like good answers to that.
“After all, what matters gets measured, right?” - hopefully not for the measure of having enough metrics, or even good enough metrics.
Also, the ideas are good, but some can get a bit more of a debate, for example:
one of the problems pointed out in the book, that I found interesting was
“work is constantly assigned to top performers, not giving the opportunities for others to prove themselves” - I think this is not straightforward, not all businesses can afford a risk like that, financially, this does not necessarily mean there’s lack of inclusivity.
or, the points about inclusion happening spontaneously in moments of need - I think this needs to be discussed in opposition with instinctual behaviour of self-preservation and individual strategies for self-fulfilment.
It might look like inclusion, but intentions matter, as they always should.
or, the points about one values-system idea, manifested in a series of micro-aggressions (like specific statements or questions), can be extremely damaging - I think this is also not straightforward, the word “aggression” implies ill intent, which is not always the case, as a recipient of an uncomfortable comment, I can also have empathy and flexibility to understand the context of development of the person making the comment. An example I can think of is: they come from a country with less black people, so their view is different from the average view from a country that is more diverse, they might make comments that seem off, but that does not imply malice, potentially just lack of understanding - being calm and trying to correct a perspective that feels uncomfortable, through healthy debate feels like a better path than calling this “micro-aggression”. Same can be applied to individual personal experiences, like personal trauma that changes one’s value system. In this scenario, inclusion can be what happens on the other side of the person making the argument, the recipient of the comment can show willingness to grow in understanding. I do not think this topic is as clear and neat as the book is presenting it. In most situations where metrics are gathered, it will the the responsibility of leadership to better classify workplace micro-aggression.
But yes, changing “blacklist” and “whitelist”, for example, to be “allowlist” and “banlist” can be a meaningful change, that helps a lot of the employee/community workforce, and can be done without fuss from the non-affected groups (which is something I noticed in one of my previous workplaces, where a lot of people found themselves complaining that it’s going to be inconvenient to adapt to the new terminology when leadership proposed it, and the work was not prioritised above other things, almost at all).
But, let’s be honest, “your English is really good, where did you learn it”, is often just a compliment and we don’t need to be sensitive about being immigrants :)) so what if I was not born in Britain, does that actually imply something bad to myself about myself? We should also process the micro-aggression signals that we are feeling with introspection, to double-check if it can actually be classified as aggression. I don’t look British, or have the accent, so what? It can be obvious that I’m not British, and it’s ok.
On the other hand, “that’s so gay” can’t really slip often as non-aggressive in nature. And micro-aggression, if not addressed, can become part of a company’s culture in time (example, I became your friend and it’s ok for me to keep pointing out the fact that you’re gay, often, just like this, “that’s so gay” - I’ve personally seen this a lot between past colleagues, in teams that strive themselves to be highly diverse and inclusive - I like to call these toxic allowances).
Overall, I liked the book.
It is also good to note that the version I read was a post-Covid version, a period in which present-day business and individual contributor societies went through something completely new, and a lot of new lessons could be learned or old lessons enforced. I see this as a form of vetting the ideas.
This HBR (Harvard Business Review) book series is interesting, this is not the first one I read. The books are not actually a homogenous one-piece work, they are a set of articles written by influential people or field experts, arranged together in an order that makes the book actually feel as one work. Often, this type of approach can feel scattered, but, in this series, the overall editing was quite good.
Fun fact for myself: the chapter where “treating others as you’d like to be treated” is presented as “one of the first introductions we had into ethics”, being incredibly important, was written by a Romanian (judging by the name). I always used it as a guide when I was young and I feel that this belief allowed me to morally grow into who I am today. Considering that I am also Romanian, this being brought up, like this, made me consider that there can be a cultural moral stamp that can form inside a community, that is distinguishable enough, and can contribute to identity - recognising this in how we, in Romania, at least some, grew up (the history, the economy, the politics), gave me a feeling of serendipity.
May 31, 2023
Listened to the audiobook. “It’s not about treating others how you want to be treated, it’s about treating others how they want to be treated” was very insightful and an interesting take on being active in inclusion. Thought it could be a little repetitive and focused on how DEI helps the business but hey, it’s HBR.
September 16, 2023
Some of the essays were really good. Some were mediocre. The essay on belonging or inclusion and the psychological importance it has for people really resonated with me.
February 13, 2025
General tips and stories about inclusion in the workplace…you know…how life was moving before 2025.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews